Health and Psychology

Many people do not understand what a health psychologist actually does.  I was talking with my neighbor yesterday who thought I was a scientist and was surprised to see my picture in the paper listed as a psychologist.  I was talking with my brother who has complications from diabetes and reminded him I can work with him on setting up a diet and exercise plan, help him with understanding his medications, make referrals so he can be treated for depression, etc.

Heal...

I spoke to some relatives about health issues yesterday.  I have a niece waiting on a diagnosis.  I didn't know she'd been waiting since September and is scheduled to wait until February for surgery to find out if the small mass is a benign cyst or tumor or a malignant tumor on her ovary.  She has a family history of cancer.  Six months is a long time to wait until you know what's wrong.

She describes herself as "paranoid" about the diagnosis.  I hel...

I have a sign up at my office at the Westwood Counseling Center.  There's a flying pig over the sign that suggests both the aspirational nature of the saying and the impossibility of living up to it.  It says that "My mission is to inspire people to be their best self and to inspire others to bring out the best in the people they come in contact with and to inspire them as well.  Nothing can stand in my way.  There is always a way.  There is always time."

All over the television are ads designed to get patients to ask their physicians about whether specific medications may be "right" for them.  This type of direct marketing is influencing patient care, and is starting to creep into hard news stories where the the info-tizing (advertizing presented as information) may be confusing to some patients.

A recent news story on women's health was promoting the use of a specific lab test to evaluate heart disease.  The infor...

I was doing supervision with a student and reviewing old chart notes his former supervisor didn't sign off on before leaving the department.  I came across a diagnosis of "hypocondriasis" and a case note indicating that "with so many medical complaints the only diagnosis of any certainty is hypocondriasis."  I sighed as I read through the information provided to the student. 

So we reviewed:  "Hypochondriac (hī-pō-kon’drē-ak): ...

My students learned something important about how difficult medical diagnosis is.  They had a neuropsychological case to write up and put into electronic health records.  I then gave them each a simple complete blood count (CBC) to add to the chart.  Since each sheet had values for normal the task for the students was to review the history and neuropsychological findings and review potential diagnoses for their client.  There were three sets of labs.  One showed anemi...

"When you hear hoofbeats think horses, not zebras", which was coined in a slightly modified form in the late 1940s by Dr. Theodore Woodward, a former professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Since horses are the most commonly encountered hoofed animal and zebras are very rare, logically you could confidently guess that the animal making the hoofbeats is probably a horse.

However zebras exist.  Every episode of "House" has one.  So ho...

A client of mine is running all over the universe telling people I saved her life.  Not exactly.  All I did was tell her to go to an emergency room.  She was having symptoms of heart problems.  So let me review those. 

Women have different symptoms of heart problems then men do.  Most people think of crushing chest pain and collapsing to the floor.  But that's not what happens with most women. 

• Hot or burning sensation in ...

One of my students was asking me how many hours a week I'm working.  I think the question stemmed from the fact that I'm seen at school between 8 and 12 hours a day four days a week and the students know it's not my primary job.  So I've been working about 90 hours a week.  The student asked if I was worried about burn out.  Nope, not at all.

Burn out comes from not only doing too much, but doing things that aren't replenishing.  I have some work that pays my mo...

This question was raised at the Health Psychology group I belong to.  The situations were a bit different but the questions remained. 

• "I referred a patient out for a dementia work up and they said he was normal." 

• "I referred a head trauma patient out for an evaluation and the test came back anxious, not head injured."

• "I referred a patient out for a medical evaluation.  They said the symptoms were all in her head, not real."...