Evidence Base
Doug Stanhope on Dr. Drew, Addiction, Rehab, and AA
Evidence Base
What happened to the practice of medicine?
Historically, the pr
actice of medicine was highly regarded and demonstrated a precious connection between physician and patient. One of mutual admiration, trust, and care. In recent years, those attitudes have changed significantly. The main social network for doctors in the US, SERMO, recently included an extended debate about how patients feel about their physician. The opinion was that patients possess a mistaken thought about their physician’s economic interests. Patients understand that medicine can be a business, however they don’t know where the cash goes, and this has harmed many physician-patient relationships.
In my own youth, a family doctor that lived just down the street made house calls. I am reasonably certain his practice functioned mainly in cash and his patients knew what they were spending money on. There were no practice managers or midlevel “physician extenders” to boost revenue. I doubt that he was in medicine for the money. He was…
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Believe in Yourself!
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Gay Doctor coerced by Physician Health Program (PHP) into mandated 12-step treatment and monitoring for sex addiction: The slippery slope begins
A legitimate interest in the private behavior of a doctor should be limited to behaviors that have a legitimate impact on that doctor’s capacity to work. Though it is pretended that these programs are being maintained for the benefit of doctors and the public it is apparent that they only serve to injure both.
The Federation of State Physician Health Programs (FSPHP) is following the same pattern they have with the “impaired” and “disruptive” physician constructs to discriminate and control with ignorance, bigotry, intolerance and stupidity.
The targeting of gay, lesbian or transgender doctors for what they do in their private lives is predictable. One doctor told me that the state PHP told him that if he did not cooperate in addition to losing his medical license the state medical board would make his sexual history part of the public record.
The civil and human rights violations remain hidden. The crimes remain hidden. So too will this. More sheep for the slaughter.
It is an inevitable part of this well oiled slope of coercion, control, obedience and abuse.
The import of this can not be overestimated.
State Physician Health Programs -coercion, control and abuse.
This anecdote concerning a gay doctor’s revelation he liked his non monogamous lifestyle leading to a forced acceptance of a “sex addiction” diagnosis, mandatory inpatient treatment and indoctrination into 12-step recovery was just posted on the physician social network SERMO. If the pattern looks familiar it is.
Physician Health Programs (PHPs) are non-profit NGOs that exist in every state ostensibly to help impaired doctors and protect the public from harm. PHPs have no regulation or oversight and have essentially removed all accountability. Under the ruse of protecting a doctors anonymity and providing confidentiality they have built barriers of opacity. Most doctors are unaware how they work unless they become involved with them and they are not on the radar of the public at large–they need to be.
Organized under the Federation of State Physician Health Programs, (FSPHP), state medical boards have abdicated their…
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“No matter what people tell you,words and ideas can change the world.”-Robin Williams.
“I stand upon my desk to remind myself that we must constantly look at things in a different way.”
-John Keating (Robin Williams)
Dead Poets Society
What we need! 
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Wanted!–a Few Statisticians, Biostatisticians and Epidemiologists who want to make a difference in Medicine, Society and our Future
The Displacement of the idea that facts and evidence matter, by the idea that everything boils down to subjective interests and perspectives is — second only to American political campaigns — the most prominent and pernicious manifestation of anti-intellectualism in our time. — Larry Laudan, Science and Relativism (1990)
“That everyone shall exert himself in that state of life in which he is placed, to practice true humanity towards his fellow men, on that depends the future of mankind.” – Albert Schweitzer
“By and by never comes” –St Augustine
“By and by never comes” –St Augustine
I am looking for a few honest and credible statisticians, biostatisticians or epidemiologists who want to make a difference in the spirit of service and helping others. I can’t pay you but you would be combating injustice, corruption and dishonesty. You would be doing your part in helping the Medical Profession, honest and decent doctors, our country and perhaps our future.
It is only a few public policy steps and minor changes in state regulatory statutes before what is described in the ASAM White Paper on Drug Testing comes to fruition. Before we know it…
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Physician Suicide, Organizational Justice and the “Cry of pain” Model: Hopelessness, Helplessness and Defeat
According to Talbott, “impaired doctors must first acknowledge their addiction and overcome their ‘terminal uniqueness’ before they can deal with a drug or alcohol problem.” “Terminal uniqueness “ is a phrase Talbott uses to describe doctors’ tendency to think they can heal themselves. “M-Deity” refers to doctors “being trained to think they’re God,” an unfounded generalization considering the vast diversity of individuals that make up our profession. This attitude, according to some critics, stems from the personal histories of the treatment staff, including Talbott, who are recovering alcoholics and addicts themselves. One such critic was Assistant Surgeon General under C. Everett Koop John C. Duffy who said that Ridgeview suffered from a “boot-camp mentality” toward physicians under their care and “assume every physician suffering from substance abuse is the same lying, stealing, cheating, manipulating individual they were when they had the illness. Certainly some physicians are manipulative, but it’s naïve to label all physicians with these problems.”
They can be a terror to your mind and show you how to hold your tongue
They got mystery written all over their forehead
They kill babies in the crib and say only the good die young
They don’t believe in mercy
Judgement on them is something that you’ll never see
They can exalt you up or bring you down main route
Turn you into anything that they want you to be–Bob Dylan, Foot of Pride
Although no reliable statistics yet exist, anecdotal reports suggest a marked rise in physician suicide in recent years. From the reports I am receiving it is a lot more than the oft cited “medical school class” of 400 per year.
This necessitates an evaluation of predisposing risk factors such as substance abuse and depression, but also requires a critical examination of what external forces may be involved in the descent from suicidal ideation to suicidal…
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How should scientists respond to science denialism?? John Cook explains @ConversationEDUen
Inoculating against science denial
John Cook, The University of Queensland
Science denial has real, societal consequences. Denial of the link between HIV and AIDS led to more than 330,000 premature deaths in South Africa. Denial of the link between smoking and cancer has caused millions of premature deaths. Thanks to vaccination denial, preventable diseases are making a comeback.
Denial is not something we can ignore or, well, deny. So what does scientific research say is the most effective response? Common wisdom says that communicating more science should be the solution. But a growing body of evidence indicates that this approach can actually backfire, reinforcing people’s prior beliefs.
When you present evidence that threatens a person’s worldview, it can actually strengthen their beliefs. This is called the “worldview backfire effect”. One of the first scientific experiments that observed this effect dates back to 1975.
A psychologist from the…
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The Medical Profession under Dictatorship–Revisiting Dr. Leo Alexander’s prescient warnings from 1949
“Let it be considered, too, that the present inquiry is not concerning a matter of right, if I may say so, but concerning a matter of fact.”–Adam Smith
“Most men endure the sacrifice of the intellect more easily than the sacrifice of their daydreams. They cannot bear that their utopias should run aground on the unalterable necessities of human existence” -Ludwig von Mises
The guiding philosophic principle is Hegelian or “rational utility” and “corresponding doctrine and planning”, Alexander said “replaced moral, ethical and religious values” and Nazi propaganda was highly effective in perverting public opinion and public conscience…
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Backdraft: How Firefighter Arson was Reduced by Admitting, Defining and having Zero-Tolerance for the Problem–A Lesson for the Medical Profession
Some researchers believe that firefighter arsonists undergo a mental process referred to as RPM: the arsonist Rationalizes the crime, Projects blame, and Minimizes the consequences.
The impact of firefighter arson can be severe. People die or are seriously injured, including fellow firefighters. Homes are destroyed. An arsonist from within the fire department can disgrace the whole department, and his actions diminish public trust. Several states that have experienced the crime of firefighter arson have developed new legislation that directly impacts the prosecution of firefighters accused of arson.
The most crucial step was admitting that the problem exists. The second was defining the problem. The third was having zero tolerance for those engaged in the problem. States that have taken this approach have found a marked reduction in firefighter arson.
Disrupted Physician 