Gut Feelings: A Commentary on Recent Findings Involving Biomarkers and Their Relationship to Mental Illness

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By Mark I. Levy, MD, DLFAPA fpamed Forensic Psychiatrist Not everyone with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) responds to antidepressant medication. Researchers are increasingly asking “Why?” and coming up with novel understandings. The most common antidepressants prescribed these days are close to a dozen different SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, e.g., the Prozac family of drugs). […]

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Mental Disorders and Other Limited Conditions – Tackling the Challenges of Handling Mental/Nervous Claims and Establishing Objective Proof of Subjective, “Non-Visible” Disorders

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Forensic Psychiatrist, Mark I Levy, MD and Forensic Neuropsychologist, Ronald H. Roberts, PhD have presented to the American Conference Institute program on “Disability Litigation” on September 15, 2016 in Boston, MA. Click here to download pdf sides from the presentation.

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Mental Illness in the Cockpit

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by Mark Levy MD Medical Director fpamed The New York Times lead article on Sunday April 19, 2015 was headlined “Germanwings Crash Exposes History of Denial of Risk of Pilot Suicide” Germanwings Crash Expose…t Suicide – NYTimes What is most shocking among the revelations contained in this article is that there have been rare but […]

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Relying on Self-reported Emotional Impairment by Pilots is Inadequate Risk Assessment

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Charles Saldanha, MD Forensic Psychiatrist Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF That the co-pilot at the controls of the Germanwings airliner did not fully disclose his mental health condition is tragic, but not surprising. The current reliance on self-report of mental health diagnoses and treatment is likely to generate many false negatives. People with mental health […]

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Co-pilot in Germanwings Crash Alleged to Have Hidden Mental Illness from Employer

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Mark I Levy MD Forensic Psychiatrist Medical Director Forensic Psychiatric Associates, LP Asst. Clinical Professor, Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine According to a March 28, 2015 article in the New York Times, the co-pilot who locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately crashed a German Wings aircraft flying from Spain to Germany, killing […]

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Despite Federal Law, Some Insurance Exchange Plans Offer Unequal Coveragge for Mental Healt

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According to an article in Medical Press dated March 3, 2015, One-quarter of the health plans being sold on health insurance exchanges set up through the Affordable Care Act offer benefits that appear to violate a federal law requiring equal benefits for general medical and mental health care, according to new research led by the […]

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California Report Slams Kaiser Permanente for Long Delays for Mental Health Care

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from the American Psychiatric Association headlines February 25, 2015 Leading The News California Report Slams Kaiser Permanente For Long Delays For Mental Health Care Treatment. The Los Angeles Times (2/25, Pfeifer, Terhune) reports that in a report released Feb. 24, the California Department of Managed Health Care “slammed HMO giant Kaiser Permanente for causing mental […]

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The New Science of Mind

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The 2000 Nobel Laureate in Physiology & Medicine, Eric Kandell, MD, responded in an Op Ed piece in the New York Times to columnist David Brooks’ ignorantly referring to modern day psychiatry as a “semi-science.”  Although the practice of medicine is, and has always been since Hippocrates’ time, a mixture of art and science, the […]

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