Health and Psychology

Apart from the topics of sex, religion, politics, or money, nothing generates more controversy than food.  At this time of year lots of people have food "issues."  I visited in-laws for the annual Christmas party, with the vegan, vegetarian, gluten free, raw, non-dairy, plant only, fruit only, nut free, chocolate heavy, alcohol free, alcohol included, the e-cig and "I can't eat anything post bariatric surgery" group of relatives gathered.  The difference between the success of ...

Asthma is a common medical condition in whichthe airways become inflammed.  This is caused by a variety of triggering stimuli that result in partially or completely reversible constriction of the bronchi and smaller airways.  Asthma depends on both genetic and environmental factors.  Genetic factors include genes responsible for parts of the immune system (T-helper cells and cytokines and the ADAM33 gene).  Environmental components include dust mites, cockroaches, pet dand...

There are moments in history were you realize that something important is taking place. A woman being knocked unconscious and dragged out of an elevator. A football player beating his 4 year old with a switch. And now with the backdrop of 15 women indicating they had been drugged and raped by Bill Cosby in the 1980’s, and the abduction, rape and murder of Hannah Graham, the Rolling Stone article on rape on college campuses Rolling Stone article,

"Can you test me?"  I get this question often.  It comes in a variety of forms.  "Can you test me for _____?"  and "Can you test my child for _____?"

The short answer is yes probably.  The longer answer is "Then what?"  And it's the answer to that question that tells me what to do.

I literally have hundreds of tests, measurements, screening items, and questionnaires.  Literally.  I bought new file cabinets to hold them all and w...

DSM 5 the Psychiatric Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is out and updates are available online.  The problem is that it's moving away from research based epidemiological discussions about diagnoses and moving more into checklist based diagnoses, based on rating scales and observations of "people who know the individual, or the individual themselves."  

So what's the problem?

Here are case examples from just the last couple of ...

So I was on a social networking site for mental health professionals and a colleague mentioned he just got iPads for testing and wondered what was available.  So here goes.

Let me start with simple things that don't require an iPad and can work on an iPhone.  They may be on Google or Android as well but I don't have those.

1.  PAR Toolkit.  This includes the Normal Curve, a Conversion Chart, an Age Calculator, a Stop Watch, a Compliancy Calculator, ...

Ebola is one of several viruses that cause fever and spread infection from exposure to bodily fluids.  The problem is that the disease causes the bodily fluids to leak out from the body in the forms of hemorrhagic bleeding, vomitting, and diarrhea.  There are 4 classes of hemorrhagic fevers all are zoonotic-meaning the initial vector is an animal host.  Ebola, Marburg, Lassa, and Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fevers are four viruses that can be transmitted between people.  All...

All reports written by a psychologist are NOT psychological evaluations.  The vast majority of evaluations are brief, question specific evaluations that are extremely limited in scope.  Many of these reports state in the opening paragaph that they are not to be misunderstood as a psychological evaluation.  These kinds of reports include things like evaluations for employment or appeals of psychological evluations done for employment, specific test result reports, single issue r...

All reports written by a psychologist are NOT psychological evaluations.  The vast majority of evaluations are brief, question specific evaluations that are extremely limited in scope.  Many of these reports state in the opening paragaph that they are not to be misunderstood as a psychological evaluation.  These kinds of reports include things like evaluations for employment or appeals of psychological evluations done for employment, specific test result reports, single issue r...

Ebola, the flu, enterovirus, these are infectious illness tht are inn the news recently and are causing some people to become alarmed.  

Ebola is a rare hemorragic virus (it causes bleeding) that is spreading out of control in parts of Africa.  A person who travelled from Liberia, Africa to Dallas, Texas is now a confirmed case and several people are being monitored for signs of infection.  The disease is spread by direct contact with contaminated body fluids....