Health and Psychology

Health Psychologists, Neuropsychologists, Neurologists, and Oncologists are the fields that have rather routine discussions about how patients want to live and be treated as they approach the end of their lives.  There is some basic information that needs to be covered either with the patient or with their family.

• Advanced Directives
• Active Treatment or Palliative Care
  
• Decision making if the patient is incompacitated-Durable Power of Attorney f...

For the second time this year (and it's March!) and more than the 10th time in the past year, I've sat across from someone telling me that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a chronic disease and there are no effective treatments.  Occasionally thse are uninformed therapists, but sadly some of these people are patients.

What a shame.  First, it's not true.  There are three evidence based treatments for PTSD.

• Cognitive Processing Therapy
• Eye M...

What's the difference between testing in neuropsychology and psychology?

I met a psychologist who does psychological testing that includes some neuropsychological instruments.  I've also met neuropsychologists who are primarily using psychological tests as neuropsychological instruments.  So here's the difference.  A neuropsychologist can relate brain functioning to testing. 

A standard psychological test is the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS).  ...

Being in love can minimize the impact of pain.  When people are in this passionate, all-consuming phase of love, there are significant alterations in their mood that are impacting their experience of pain,” said Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, chief of the Division of Pain Management, associate professor of anesthesia and senior author of the study on pain and love from stanford University Medical Center, published online Oct. 13 in PLoS ONE. “We’re beginning to tease apart some...

Neuropsychological assessment involves an evaluation of the cortex of the brain through psychological and neuropsychologial tests and measures to gain an understanding of how a person is functioning in a variety of areas.  These areas include evaluation of:

• Executive functioning, including planning and organization
  
• Language and speech functioning
• Visual functioning
• Sensory awareness
  
• Motor functioning
• Concept formati...

I love my iPad.  I use the medical applications in my work frequently and other professionals often ask what I've recently downloaded.  So here are my most frequently used medical applications:

1.  MedPage

2. NEJM

3. Medical News

4. HD brain

5. ICD 9 Consult

6. Universal DrSpeaker

7. TinnitusTrainer

8. 3D Brain

9. NeuroSuite

10. EMSG (Medical Spanish)

11. HDSystemEndocrine

12. WebMD

13. Ep...

I'm starting to think that I should start every single clinical health psychology evaluation with a detailed examination of what someone eats and drinks and just save myself some time.

I usually ask people why they came to see me and review their current medical condition, treatments, issues with their treatment, family history, and past experience with psychology and health psychology or any therapy and any experience with alternative care and then by session 2 or 3 ...

Most people will have some form of pain in their lives.  There are a couple of types of pain.

Acute Pain

Acute pain begins suddenly and is usually sharp in quality. It serves as a warning of disease or a threat to the body.  It usually diappears when the cause of the pain has been treated or resolved.  Acute pain may be caused by many events or circumstances, including:

• Surgery
• Broken bones
• Dental work

Psychologists learn what to do in therapy as part of an educational process that includes doctoral level of study, internship, residency or post-doctoral fellowship, and passing of a licensure examination.  The Americal Psychological Association has an Ethics Code which serves to provide practitioners both an aspirational element for practice as well as enforceable rules to set the minimal standards under which practice is to take place.

Standards of care exist iin othe...

I had the opportunity to email a colleague about what I do, do consultation with a colleague about my practice and talk to a couple of attornies about my work.  Although the field of health psychology is now more than 40 years old, many psychologists and most of the general population doesn't know anything about the field.

Psychologists back in the 1960's and 1970's occasionally were able to work in hospitals with physicians providing psychological care to people underg...