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Tardive Dyskinesia

TD is characterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements. Features of the disorder may include grimacing, tongue protrusion, tongue movements within the mouth. The more classic TD symptoms are lip smacking,…
Tardive Dyskinesia

Tardive Dyskinesia

TD is characterized by repetitive, involuntary, purposeless movements. Features of the disorder may include grimacing, tongue protrusion, tongue movements within the mouth. The more classic TD symptoms are lip smacking,…
Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath

Sylvia Plath 1932 – 1963 You the reader must think I have a fascination for artists who had depression or bipolar disease whose life ended in suicide. You are absolutely…
Is Elon Musk Bipolar

Is Elon Musk Bipolar

So is Elon Musk bipolar? Elon Musk’s persona has been described in the lay press recently.  He is described in many ways but one. Why not say what it is?…
Homelessness Revisted

Homelessness Revisted

Since my first article I have learned much by reading the news on many newspaper outlets. These last two weeks the SF Chronicle has run a special series on the…
Borderline Personality Disorder: Part 4

Borderline Personality Disorder: Part 4

Part 4 – Borderline Personality Disorder When I first read “Girl Interrupted” I was confused. She is in a taxi to a mental hospital. Her two week hospitalization became 18…

Personality Disorders: Type 2 and 3

Personality Disorders Type 2 and 3 Part 2 – Personality Disorders: Schizoid The Mayo Clinic has a post defining this personality disorder hence, p.d. This is an uncommon disorder and…
Psychedelics for Major Depression

Psychedelics for Major Depression

When it comes to Psychedelics for Major Depression an article caught my eye in today’s The Guardian (6/10/2019). “They broke my mental shackles: could magic mushrooms be the answer to…
Fear of Reoccurrence and Shame

Fear of Reoccurrence and Shame

I can relate to the fear of recurrence but not really the shame. My episodes of depression are much scarier to me than my hypomanias. I have had about seven…
Suicide and the Elderly

Suicide and the Elderly

In a previous article about suicide I quoted 2016 statistics. There are now statistics for 2017. These are reported annually by the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (AFSP). The overall…
Panic Attacks

Panic Attacks

Panic attacks are sudden episodes of intense fear that triggers a severe reaction much like a burst of adrenaline (epinephrine) as in a flight or fight reaction. The attacks are…

About Schizophrenia

          I have not written directly about the most serious of psychiatric diseases. Schizophrenia is the most disastrous of mental illnesses for those afflicted as well for family members. These…
Anne Sexton: Bipolar Poet and Pulitzer Prize Winner

Anne Sexton: Bipolar Poet and Pulitzer Prize Winner

Anne Sexton: Bipolar Poet and Pulitzer Prize Winner                                          I just finished Diane Weed Middlebrooks’s biography of Anne Sexton; Houghton Miflin, 1991. Although the biographer does an in depth look at…

Lyndon Baines Johnson – A Bipolar President

Lyndon Baines Johnson – A Bipolar President                              Senate Years   The below article is  based on two books The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Master of the Senate written by…
Puerto Vallarta—Hypomania

Puerto Vallarta—Hypomania

Puerto Vallarta—Hypomania and Second Major Depression At the end of my internship year at San Francisco General Hospital, in July of 1975, I flew off to Puerto Vallarta. The next…
More About Postpartum Depression

More About Postpartum Depression

When parents think of the impending birth of their baby the usual emotions are excitement, joy and anxiety. The last thing on their mind is postpartum depression. The “Baby Blues”…
Stanislaus Passes Laura’s Law

Stanislaus Passes Laura’s Law

Why do only 18 of 58 Counties in California fund AOT, yet 46 of 50 States Do?                    8/8/2017 (My portion of rebuttal to Stanislaus County board of Supervisors) SAMHSA is…
Homelessness and Mental Illness

Homelessness and Mental Illness

Homelessness and Mental Illness If you walk in San Francisco’s Union Square, or along Mission or Market Street or under the Highway 580 overpass you can see homelessness is epidemic.…
7000 Bodies Buried Under Campus

7000 Bodies Buried Under Campus

7,000 Bodies Buried Under Campus: Who Were in the Asylums of the 19th Century? In the mid-19th century “insane asylums also called lunatic asylums” housed for sure the worst of…
Does Marijuana Cause Mental Illness

Does Marijuana Cause Mental Illness

Does marijuana cause mental illness? Of course we all know that alcohol, marijuana, prescription and street drugs worsen major depression, bipolar depression and schizophrenia.  What about marijuana, in particular, CAUSING…
Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression

Postpartum Depression is a major depression occurring during or more likely within four weeks after a pregnancy. The incidence is approximately 10% of pregnancies. Postpartum depression may last up to…
Mad Dog

Mad Dog

“Mad Dog” Winston Churchill called his episodes of depression  Mad Dog. So what happens when I get what I call the Big D. I awoke one day in 1976 in…
Leonard Cohen

Leonard Cohen

The death of Cohen was one of several iconic singer/song writers in the latter half of 2016. I will be drawing on a wonderful and huge biography of Leonard written…
Holiday Depression

Holiday Depression

I attended an event hosted by the head nurse of the three dialysis units that I used for my patients during my practice. It was a “meet and greet” and…
Meeting Patch Adams

Meeting Patch Adams

When I was invited by the Physicians Organization Committee based in San Francisco to attend a lecture by Patch Adams at UCSF medical center,  I was ignorant as are many…
Electric Shock Therapy

Electric Shock Therapy

Electric Shock Therapy or Electro-Convulsant Therapy - Commonly referred to as Electric Shock Therapy, ECT or electroconvulsant therapy, contrary to belief, is still very much part of therapy in the…

Audio interview

Interview with the author of An Insider’s View of Bipolar Disease July 27, 2015 Created: Gail Woodard Gail Woodard interviews our newest author Dr. Paul Golden about his new book An…