by Michael Heitt | Feb 10, 2016 | benefits of therapy, medication, Psychotherapy, side effects
The American College of Physicians has released a new clinical guideline on the treatment of depression in the Annals of Internal Medicine. They suggested that psychotherapy is as effective for treating depression as antidepressants, and “given its relative...
by Michael Heitt | Jan 27, 2016 | benefits of therapy, medication, Psychotherapy
The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) now officially recommends that primary care health clinicians screen all of their patients for depression. Though this is wonderful, this is very, very long overdue. The costs associated with depression and other mental...
by Michael Heitt | Nov 19, 2015 | human behavior, relationships, sex
A really interesting paper just came out today that looked at, and challenged, the widely held belief that the more frequently you have sex the happier you are… and they discovered that this was simply not true. What the researchers did find was that most healthy...
by Michael Heitt | Nov 18, 2015 | benefits of therapy, brain, human behavior, Psychotherapy
I teach a great professional development and clinical consultation class at Loyola University Maryland. Yesterday morning my doctoral students and I had a great discussion about what makes psychotherapy work (among some other very stimulating discussions). This...
by Michael Heitt | Oct 8, 2015 | benefits of therapy, PTSD, stress, trauma
In the midst of a traumatic life event, our bodies have a knack of taking over; adrenaline pumps around the body and our natural survival instinct kicks in. But in the aftermath of such an event when the body’s defenses have come down again, we can begin to feel...
by Michael Heitt | Oct 8, 2015 | Disruptive Professionals, human behavior
The Washington Post ran an article about a Tel Aviv University study of the effects of physicians’ disruptive behavior on patient safety. As discussed in previous posts, there is a clear link between disruptive behavior among physicians (and other...
by Michael Heitt | Jul 21, 2015 | Aging, human behavior, relationships, safe sex
A recently published article in the Annals of Family Medicine, yielded data that busted inaccurate stereotypes and myths about sexuality and aging in women. Nearly six out of ten women over the age of 60 reported being sexually active. The study interviewed more than...
by Michael Heitt | Jul 6, 2015 | human behavior, socialization
Some recent research (summarized nicely in the WSJ) has shown a nice correlation between socializing and life longevity (and quality). It’s no surprise though, as we are social animals. Surely some people are more extroverted than others and some people really...
by Michael Heitt | Jun 30, 2015 | benefits of therapy, medication, Psychotherapy, side effects
I stumbled upon this brief piece in the Huffington Post about when patients should consider doing psychotherapy, trying medication, doing both at the same time or not doing anything at all. I liked this article because it was short and to the point while giving some...
by Michael Heitt | Jun 24, 2015 | benefits of therapy, Psychotherapy, Uncategorized
Over the years of doing psychotherapy with individuals and couples I have often observed a thematic trend from patient to patient. Sometimes I get a bunch of calls about relationship problems or several existing patients will bring up similar issues in the same week...
