August 10th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in True Stories, Uncategorized
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A psychiatrist friend of mine (we’ll call him “Dr. X”) treats urban patients who have substance abuse problems and often live in homeless shelters. Here are some recent conversations that had me scratching my head:
Mr. P: [recovering from crack cocaine, alchohol, and heroin abuse] Doc, I’ve been feeling really depressed lately and the therapy sessions aren’t helping.
Dr. X: I know that we’ve done all we can to manage your depression conservatively. You may want to consider trying a small dose of an anti-depressant medication. It could really help.
Mr. P: [Eyes bulging, jaw dropped] But, Dr. X, those anti-depressant medications might affect my MIND!
***
Dr. X: Ms. P, why aren’t you taking your prenatal vitamins?
Ms. P: [actively smoking crack while pregnant] I don’t trust that stuff. I think it could harm my baby.
***
Dr. X: Ms Y, I know you’ve been struggling with pain related to your broken leg. Why not let me prescribe some pain medications for you?
Ms. Y: Oh, no – I don’t want any prescription medicines. I don’t trust those.
Dr. X: Well how are you going to manage your pain, then?
Ms. Y: My sister has some pills that I take.
Dr. X: What pills?
Ms. Y: Darvocet and Vicodin.
***This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
August 9th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Medblogger Shout Outs
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What have doctors been witness to this week? Here are my top 10 choice tidbits:
Welcome to the wild world of medicine.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
August 8th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in News
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Thanks to Dr. Deb for highlighting two interesting psychology research studies which offer new insight into lie detection. The first was conducted at my undergraduate alma mater, Dalhousie University, in Nova Scotia. After analyzing 697 videos of people reacting to emotion-evoking photos, researchers concluded that study subjects who tried to modify the natural response to a cute or alarming photo still retained flickers of the real emotion in their facial expressions. These “microexpressions” were identifiable by computer analysis of facial muscles, and may support the development of a new type of lie detector – a digital, facial expression analyzer.
The second research study found that people are less accurate in recounting false stories backwards than they are at describing a reverse chronology of true events. In other words, discerning truth from error may be as simple as asking someone to tell you what happened beginning at the end and working backwards. If they have a really difficult time keeping the facts straight – they are more likely be falsifying the information.
I don’t know if either of these lie detecting approaches (analyzing microexpressions or backwards story telling) will work on sociopaths and exceptionally good liars. But for the garden-variety fibber, they may just work.This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
August 7th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Uncategorized
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My personal physician, Dr. Alan Dappen, will be interviewed tonight at the Doctor Anonymous show. The topic? A new model of medical practice – something I like to call “concierge medicine for the masses” because most people can afford it and they get first-rate treatment.
Sound too good to be true? Then ask him how he does it! The show starts at 10pm EDT tonight, August 7th. Hope to see you in the chat room…
Many thanks to Maggie Mahar who covered my recent interview with Alan here. I hope she’ll join the call!
Click here to listen to the podcast.
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
August 7th, 2008 by Dr. Val Jones in Uncategorized
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For those of you unfamiliar with “Change of Shift,” it’s a regular summary of the best of the nursing blogs. This week it’s hosted by Kim at Emergiblog (she has a terrific blog that I’ve linked to in my blogroll). Please check it out!
Grand Rounds is the weekly summary of the best of the medical blogs. This week it’s hosted by Pure Pedantry. Please check it out!
This post originally appeared on Dr. Val’s blog at RevolutionHealth.com.
