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My “most important achievement to date” is that I’m capable of even the simplest forms of basic cognition. I can remember, perceive, speak, feel, think, solve, and—sometimes—pay attention.

The health insurance reform bill Congress passed and President Obama signed has a number of small, psychiatric-targeted provisions, but their significance probably pales beside the first-time insuring of somewhere above 30 million Americans—some of whom will visit psychiatrists for the first time in their lives.

I just added a new RSS feed from Pharmedout.org.  This is an organization that helps physicians and other health care providers sort through the well funded marketing messages put out by the pharmaceutical industry.  I have been a believer in independent decision making for a long time (well before I went to medical school) and the issue of industry-funded CME (Continuing Medical Education) is one that I feel threatens the credibility of psychiatry and medicine as a whole.  Medications have made a huge impact on the health and wellness of people world-wide.  Medications also have side-effects, potential for adverse outcomes, and financial costs.  Physicians are at their best when they weigh the benefits of a medication against the costs, with the goal of relieving suffering or improving function.  This balance is thrown off when their decision making process is impacted by pharmaceutical industry marketing messages.  This is why I have always been committed to running a “Pharma-free” practice and why I do not accept gifts, CME or money from any pharmaceutical company, medical device manufacturer or their intermediaries.  I believe in the utility of medications prescribed with thought and deliberation and free of conflict of interest.

Some of the posts from Pharmedout.org are mind-boggling but I think people reading this blog can handle it.

Best,

Ernest Madhavan, MD

I can almost hear Albert Ellis saying “Amen” to the data I am about to share. To explain his reaction, I have to talk about war.

The White Ribbon is an instant classic of European cinema. Filmed in black and white and set in a rural village in northern Germany circa 1912, it may remind you of early Bergman, Buñuel, and other great European filmmakers of the black-and-white era, but it is an homage to none of them.