“Ask Dr Neuman” Advice Column
And nicotinamide There are good reasons for a doctor not recommending any treatment for a patient he, or she, has not seen. Nowadays, I suppose doctors think first of legal liability. If I recommend some treatment and the patient immediately goes out and has an...
Why do people do self-destructive things? Even when those things feel bad? We all know men and women who do self-destructive things—the same things—over and over again. The list of these behaviors seems inexhaustible and extends into every aspect of life: work,...
4 things to do A common practice in the treatment of a first major depression is to keep patients who have responded to drugs on them for about a year. Then, because such patients can go a long time before a second depressive episode, they are weaned from the drugs,...
Exposure and response prevention. There is an old joke about doctors: “Doc, it hurts when I do this.” “So, don’t do that.” A version I hear frequently: “Doc, I get upset when I read about all the side-effects of these drugs.” “So, don’t read about the side-effects.”...
The connection is sometimes illusory It is a commonplace that when bad things happen, people feel bad. Feeling depressed is just one of the many emotional states that constitute a reaction to the constantly varying conditions of our lives. We are at any one time...
Different kinds of depression Speaking to patients about depression is difficult because the word depression is used in different ways. One commonly speaks of being depressed when disappointed or frustrated. It is a universal feeling, immediately understood by...
I treat very anxious patients. Many are afraid of germs. They avoid sick people, and they wash their hands innumerable times over the course of a day. Their children are not allowed to play with children who have been sick recently. They will not use public toilets....
In a previous blog I distinguished between different kinds of depression and indicated that there are certain kinds of depression that I would not want to treat with anti-depressants. Someone who has just been jilted can become very sad and depressed, but this...
There has been some controversy about whether anti-depressants are really effective. Some studies have shown that they are little better than a placebo. I think these results are explainable by the fact that anti-depressants are given sometimes when there was no...