by Michael Heitt | Sep 27, 2019 | Uncategorized
Regardless of your political leanings, I think most people will agree that discussions about politics have become increasingly more difficult over the past few years. In my practice, I have heard countless stories of friendships that have ended or family members stop...
by Michael Heitt | Apr 9, 2019 | human behavior, workplace violence
On its “All Things Considered” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR reported that healthcare workers have been frequent targets of violence against them from patients and their families. OSHA statistics note that incidents of serious workplace violence are four times...
by Michael Heitt | Jan 27, 2019 | Disruptive Professionals, Patient safety
A team of social psychologists studied the effect that bedside manner has on patient outcomes. Not surprisingly, patients not only prefer to have a nice doctor who spends a couple extra minutes with them, talks to them as people rather than CPT or RVU numbers, etc.,...
by Michael Heitt | Jan 1, 2019 | Disruptive Professionals, Patient safety
I recently came across this interesting article about physician burnout. It was a nice review of the relevant literature. The authors addressed the obvious issues such as job dissatisfaction, turnover and related financial and career-related issues. They also did a...
by Michael Heitt | Aug 9, 2018 | anxiety, depression, exercise, health
A study was published in Lancet Psychiatry yesterday that added to the evidence that exercise is good for one’s mental health. In this study, participants rated their mood nearly 1.5 days per month less if they exercised compared to similar people who...
by Michael Heitt | Jun 7, 2018 | depression, exercise, medication, self care
In a blog post from a few years ago about the dose-effect of exercise, I passed along the findings that nearly an hour of rigorous exercise, at least three times per week, can be as effective as antidepressant medication. A newly published study notes that resistance...
by Michael Heitt | May 8, 2018 | depression, genetics, medication
An interesting study was recently presented at the ApA conference: there is now limited testing available to determine which SSRI or SNRI antidepressant medication is more likely to work for you based upon your genetics. The study was funded by the testing company,...
by Michael Heitt | Mar 7, 2018 | Coaching, Disruptive Professionals, disruptive students, human behavior, Human Resources, Patient safety, policies and procedures, workplace violence, zero tolerance
A colleague from the University of Maryland/VAMC, Preeti John, MD, and I just published an article in the Journal of Hospital Medicine about disruptive physician behavior. Check it out: Disruptive Physician Behavior: The Importance of Recognition and Intervention and...
by Michael Heitt | Aug 16, 2017 | anxiety, depression, medication
The CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics just put out a report about the increasing use of antidepressants. As a psychologist (as opposed to a psychiatrist), I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, there have been many studies that have...
by Michael Heitt | Dec 19, 2016 | depression, medication, placebo
A recently published meta-analysis of over 3000 studies suggested that switching antidepressants after the first drug doesn’t produce the desired results is not better than staying the course and/or exploring options other than trying a different drug. This is...
