Patricia, a 53-year-old librarian in Cleveland, walked her younger son to the dorm at Ohio State on a humid August Saturday, hugged him in the parking lot, and drove the two and a half hours home in a silence that felt physical. By Tuesday, she had cleaned both children’s bedrooms, washed their old sheets, and … Read more
Rosa was 28, a graduate student in Philadelphia who had been hospitalised for a manic episode with psychotic features and started on haloperidol with rapid dose escalation over four days. By the fifth day she had a temperature of 40.1°C, lead-pipe rigidity in all four extremities, blood pressure swinging between 180/110 and 90/60, and a … Read more
The Decision Most Families Make Without Information When a clinician recommends that a patient step up beyond outpatient mental health care to a higher level of treatment, the conversation usually narrows quickly to two options: a partial hospitalisation program at a local clinical setting, or a residential treatment program at a facility where the patient lives during … Read more
The Decision Most Families Make Without Information When a clinician recommends that a patient step up beyond outpatient mental health care to a higher level of treatment, the conversation usually narrows quickly to two options: a partial hospitalisation program at a local clinical setting, or a residential treatment program at a facility where the patient lives during … Read more
Diane from Portland was eating frozen pizza four nights a week and drinking diet soda with breakfast when her psychiatrist asked, almost in passing, what she ate on a typical day. Forty minutes later they had walked through her grocery list, her takeout history, her snack drawer at work, and her coffee shop muffin habit. … Read more
Diane from Portland was eating frozen pizza four nights a week and drinking diet soda with breakfast when her psychiatrist asked, almost in passing, what she ate on a typical day. Forty minutes later they had walked through her grocery list, her takeout history, her snack drawer at work, and her coffee shop muffin habit. … Read more
Daniel was 34, a software engineer in Austin, Texas, and had been on sertraline for eighteen months for generalised anxiety. On a Tuesday afternoon his orthopaedic surgeon called in tramadol after a knee scope. By Wednesday morning Daniel’s wife found him pacing the kitchen, sweating through his t-shirt, telling her the floor was vibrating. His … Read more
Daniel was 34, a software engineer in Austin, Texas, and had been on sertraline for eighteen months for generalised anxiety. On a Tuesday afternoon his orthopaedic surgeon called in tramadol after a knee scope. By Wednesday morning Daniel’s wife found him pacing the kitchen, sweating through his t-shirt, telling her the floor was vibrating. His … Read more
Marcus was forty-two, an emergency physician in Atlanta, holding his three-year-old daughter on the floor of her bedroom while she screamed because he had cut her toast wrong. He had been awake since four for a hospital shift. His chest was tight. He could feel the old, familiar voice rising, the one that sounded exactly … Read more
Marcus was forty-two, an emergency physician in Atlanta, holding his three-year-old daughter on the floor of her bedroom while she screamed because he had cut her toast wrong. He had been awake since four for a hospital shift. His chest was tight. He could feel the old, familiar voice rising, the one that sounded exactly … Read more