Even LGBTQ+-identified youth and adults in the San Francisco Bay Area bubble experience stress associated with being a sexual or gender minority. Please read about Dr. Paul Elizondo’s experience serving LGBTQ+-identified youth and adults in his psychiatric practices in outpatient, residential treatment program, and incarcerated settings.
James A. Armontrout, MD, John Torous, MD, Marsha Cohen, JD, Dale E. McNiel, PhD, and Renée Binder, MD — The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law — In recent years, the availability of software that is targeted toward the general public and designed to assist in the diagnosis and treatment of […]
A passenger vehicle is rear-ended by a commercial vehicle traveling at 30 mph on a state road. The driver of the passenger vehicle is seat belted. The airbags deployed, and the vehicle suffered moderate rear end damage. Ambulance personnel note that the driver exited the vehicle without assistance, is awake, standing by the roadside and talking […]
By Forensic Psychiatrist Mark I Levy, MD, DLFAPA Mild Traumatic Brain Injury (“mTBI” or “concussion”) is a frequent claim in civil litigation where the plaintiff has sustained a head injury. The best evaluation of these claims is performed by a 3-part team of forensic neurologist, neuropsychologist and psychiatrist. The neurologist addresses and structural damage to […]
Many attorneys, when working on a case in which the mental health status of one of the parties is a significant issue, consider relying solely on a treating psychiatrist to serve as an independent expert psychiatric witness. Engaging the treating psychiatrist may seem efficient, cost-effective, and simply seeking expertise from the professional who knows the individual […]
This is a slide show presentation and subsequent webinar presented to NARTC by David Kan, M.D., D.F.A.S.A.M., a Diplomate Am. Bd. Psychiatry & Neurology in Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine, Associate Clinical Professor Psychiatry, UCSF School of Medicine, an original member of Forensic Psychiatric Associates, LP and current President of the California Society of Addiction Medicine. Click […]
1. Authentic PTSD can, and usually does, produce severe disability of a person’s psychological functioning: It is important to remember that “impairment of psychosocial functioning” is a sine qua non for every psychiatric diagnosis listed in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5 ). Thus, although genuine PTSD is usually severely disabling, in the absence of marked […]
fpamed Forensic Psychiatrist and President of the California Society for Addiction Medicine, David Y. Kan, MD DFASAM, was quoted in this recent article published in California Healthline By Pauline Bartolone July 12, 2017 Dr. Mark Satterfield sees a patient in recovery from heroin addiction at the Plumas County public health offices. Local officials say Satterfield […]
The Opioid Crisis Continues to Grow by David Kan MD DFASAM (Distinguished Fellow of the American Society of Addiction Medicine) forensic psychiatrist, fpamed The opioid crisis continues to grow. Recent data from the Centers for Disease Control show that overdose death rates have risen in every ethnic group. The most recent CDC data show that […]
On January 25, 2017, Forensic Psychiatrist and Substance Abuse Expert, David Kan, MD,DFASAM, the current President-Elect of the California Society of Addiction Medicine, gave a national, interactive webinar to members of the National Association of Railroad Trial Counsel (NARTC) on the subject of Substance Use Disorders, focusing particularly on opioid abuse and its place in […]
Years ago, the distinguished and esteemed George Washington University forensic psychiatrist Robert I Simon MD, who sadly died earlier this year, wrote a wonderful monograph entitled “Two’s Company, Three’s a Crowd,” outlining the scientific and ethical problems posed by the presence of a third party during a forensic psychiatric examination. In 2003, a California Appellate […]
These are the slides accompanying a presentation on “PTSD” given by forensic psychiatrist Mark I Levy MD, DLFAPA to the Association of American Railroads Claims Meeting in Nashville, Tennessee on October 12, 2016. Click here to view
Psychiatric News Alert The Voice of the American Psychiatric Association and the Psychiatric Community Dementia Prevalence in United States Falls Between 2000 to 2012, Report Finds Between 2000 and 2012, the proportion of U.S. adults 65 and older with dementia decreased significantly, from 11.6% to 8.8%, reported a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine. […]
Charles Saldanha, MD has been appointed Interim Chair of Psychiatry for Alameda Health System. In this role, he will be the physician leader for an integrated public health care system that includes psychiatric emergency, inpatient psychiatry, partial hospitalization, substance use services, ambulatory and inpatient consultation and liaison psychiatry, and mental health services in a skilled […]
Forensic Psychiatrist Mark I. Levy MD was interviewed on July 20, 2016 for the following television news story: By KTVU Reporter Tom Vacar There are reports that the man who killed three Baton Rouge law enforcement officers told friends he was suffering from PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder. So, I spoke with two of the […]
—Mark I Levy, MD An article featured on 6-29-16 in the online medical journal MedPage Today reports recent neurological studies on post-mortem examinations of the brains of soldiers who survived blast trauma in combat. The study highlights “Specific astroglial scar pattern seen in postmortem exams” of these soldiers that appear to be unique to blast […]
by Mark Levy MD I recently read an interesting Blogpost by psychologist-attorney Christina Marinakis, J.D., Psy.D. who is the Director of Jury Research, at the website Litigation Insights. The post was entitled “How Should Scientific Research be Presented to Judges and Juries?” The author reviews that “In 1923, the federal courts adopted a general acceptance […]
Recently, a legal blog that I follow, A2L Consulting, posted two very interesting commentaries on the Millennial generation describing ways in which their attitudes, values and behavior differ from the behavior and attitudes of Baby Boomers and the GenX cohort and how those differences may influence Millennial behavior within the context of legal processes. Both […]
According to Psychiatric News Alert, The Voice of the American Psychiatric Association and the Psychiatric Community, an expert on women’s health has reported that the Benefits of Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Outweigh Risks. According to the alert, As conflicting studies about the risk of birth defects in offspring of women who use antidepressants during pregnancy […]
The American Psychiatric Association has issued the following Psychiatric News Alert of a falling incidence of dementia based upon new data from the legendary Framingham Heart Study that started in Boston almost a half century ago. Framingham Study Suggests Dementia Rates May Be Falling Many experts predict that as people live longer, the prevalence of […]
The 2/13/16 New York Times article “When the Hospital Fires the Bullet” tells the truly incredible story of a Houston college student who had never been in trouble and was admitted to a local inpatient psychiatric facility for symptoms of the manic phase of his bipolar disorder. In an effort to subdue this student’s classically […]
An interesting editorial in the October 2015 issue of JAMA Psychiatry entitled “Low Resting Heart Rate as an Unequivocal Risk Factor for Both the Perpetration of and Exposure to Violence” is a remarkable announcement of a biomarker for predicting which child or adolescent is most likely to behave violently and/or become a victim of violence. […]
An February 8, 2016 article in the Canadian Medical Association Journal entitled “Risk of Suicide After Concussion” suggests that there is an increase of suicidal behavior post concussion, especially on weekend. Most of the attempted and completed suicides visited a physician shortly before attempting to take their own life. The “take-away” from this article is […]
A long and thoughtful article in the Psychiatric Times from November 23, 2015 discusses the problems of college student suicide and provides “advice for community providers.” This is obviously a clinical as well as a forensic psychiatric issue. We are providing a link to the original article here for the interest of our blog readers. […]