Art and the quest for beauty can leave you sleepless. A patient recently came to me with an unusual complaint – art collecting induced insomnia. He could not stop thinking about modern and contemporary prints, what he possessed and more possessively what he further wished to have. A universe of potential desire awaited him each night. […]
Can Addiction Start in the ER?
Addiction and Pain Pain rots the soul. Opioids can effectively treat pain – and then rot the soul and body. The treatment of pain remains a difficult dilemna for the whole country. A new study in the New England Journal of Medicine highlights the opiod mess in a a new way, demonstrating how one prescription […]
The Great National Opioid Withdrawal
Sometimes linked misunderstandings possess awful power. Such has been the occasion of our growing public opioid mess. Opioid overdoses kill tens of thousands yearly, but will undoubtedly lead to far more fatalities. A misunderstanding of how opioids – the many synthetic and “natural” products of opium and morphine – work, has now been joined with a misunderstanding […]
How Can People Quit Smoking?
People know smoking kills. Smokers know they need to stop. Many can’t. Lots of clinicians feel smoking is the hardest addiction to end. So is using e-cigarettes a helpful way to get people to quit? Recent results appear to say yes. Yet American public authorities, like the CDC, deeply dislike e-cigarettes. They worry that e-cigarettes […]
The Coming Boom in Mental Health
What Kind of Future? What are the future needs of mental health in this country? Many mental health workers worry daily about their jobs. Will they be replaced by smart cognitive behavioral programs delivered over the net? Will insurance companies pay for what’s coming? Below are a series of factors that will potentially produce a booming […]