October 25th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Announcements, Opinion
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I’d like to ask your help for a moment. I’m going to write a blog post for this week’s Clinical Psychiatry News on Bipolar Disorder. I’d like to know how you see the term used, or the symptoms that are hallmarks of the illness for you. If you respond as my favorite commenter, “Anonymous,” could I ask that you define yourself…psychiatrist, psychologist, pediatrician, patient with bipolar disorder, friend of someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder….
Also, please just off the top of your head, I can read DSM or Google myself, and I’m more interested in Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
October 21st, 2011 by Dr. Val Jones in Health Tips
1 Comment »
Most people who have lost weight understand how easy it is to gain it back. In fact, I often hear patients tell me that over the course of their lifetimes they’ve “tried every popular diet out there” and yet have failed to keep the weight off permanently. If that’s your situation, you’re not alone. It’s estimated that only 20% of overweight individuals are successful at long term weight loss. But there is hope for success, and we can learn the secrets of “successful losers” from the National Weight Control Registry.
In a flash of brilliance, sociologist Rina Wing and psychologist Jim Hill decided to create a database of weight loss success cases, and simply observe how they live their lives over decades of time. They called this research study the National Weight Control Registry, and it has been enrolling study subjects since 1994. What they’ve found is that those who have been successful at losing at least 30 pounds and keeping that weight off for at least 1 year share many behaviors in common. I believe that the closer we follow in the footsteps of these successful people, the more likely we are to be fit for a lifetime. So here goes – this is what the study subjects report: Read more »
October 17th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in News
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U N I T E D N A T I O N S
THE SECRETARY-GENERAL—MESSAGE ON WORLD MENTAL HEALTH DAY: 10 October 2011
There is no health without mental health. Mental disorders are major contributors to illness and premature death, and are responsible for 13 percent of the global disease burden. With the global economic downturn – and associated austerity measures – the risks for mental ill-health are rising around the globe.
Poverty, unemployment, conflict and war all adversely affect mental health. In addition, the chronic, disabling nature of mental disorders often places a debilitating financial burden on individuals and households. Furthermore, individuals with mental health problems – and their families – endure stigma, discrimination and victimization, depriving them of their political and civil rights and constraining their ability to participate in the public life of their societies.
Resources allocated for mental health by governments and civil society are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
October 13th, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Opinion
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Oh, we’re not kiddy shrinks, so this post is not really about children. But I like the term, it implies that the person needs something more, that they have special– presumably increased– needs. It says nothing about potential. I use the term often, and sometimes with a bit of humor, to remind people that the playing field is not always level. There are people who start any given race with a handicap– a learning disability, dyslexia, major health problems, mental illnesses, horrible childhoods, addictions — and these set them on a slightly different course.
Some people overcome tremendous adversity. They function ‘as if’ they had no special needs. They have stories that would let you understand if they didn’t do very well in life, stories that would explain burying their heads in the sand, or crawling under a large rock. Sometimes these special needs people are Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
October 2nd, 2011 by Dinah Miller, M.D. in Health Policy
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Over on Shrink Rap News, Roy wrote a post about proposed Medicare cuts. He continued the conversation here on Shrink Rap.
I want to expand on the discussion in what I hope will be easy-to-understand terms. Why would anyone who is not a doctor even care what Medicare reimburses their docs? Let me tell you why you might care.
Doctors all have one of four designated categories within the Medicare system:
1) The doc participates and accepts Medicare assignment. The fee for the service is set by Medicare, the patient makes a co-pay and the doctor bills Medicare and gets the rest of the fee from Medicare.
2) The doctor is “non-participating” –which is a deceptive term, because non-participating docs are within the Medicare system. The fee for the service is set by Medicare and is typically 5% less then the fee for participating docs, but the patient pays the Medicare fee in full to the doctor, the doctor files a claim with Medicare, and Medicare reimburses the patient for a portion of the fee.
3) The doctor has formally opted-out. In this case, Read more »
*This blog post was originally published at Shrink Rap*
I’d like to ask your help for a moment. I’m going to write a blog post for this week’s Clinical Psychiatry News on Bipolar Disorder. I’d like to know how you see the term used, or the symptoms that are hallmarks of the illness for you. If you respond as my favorite commenter, “Anonymous,” could I ask that you define yourself…psychiatrist, psychologist, pediatrician, patient with bipolar disorder, friend of someone diagnosed with bipolar disorder….
