The Menstrual Cycle

Oh, Let’s Make Fun!

Ovulation: egg release.

Luteal phase: stays level at 14 days usually. Secretory phase.

Menses: bloodshed.

Follicular phase: can fluctuate from 14-21 days. Proliferative phase.

Ferric Mnemonics

Ferric 3+ –> thrice

Ferrous 2+ –> 2 of us

Congenital Malformations

There are 3 trimesters in pregnancy.

There’s a 3% birth defect rate.

BOOM! That’s memory.

Parenting Styles

There are 4 theoretical parenting styles: authoritative, authoritarian, permissive and uninvolved.

Authoritative: the dream. Warm and boundaried.

Authoritarian: overly controlling. Too much discipline.

Permissive: too enabling. Laissez-faire.

Uninvolved: neglectful. Too much freedom.

2 of the above have similar-sounding names. Just as people confuse psychology with psychiatry and optometry with ophthalmology, there must be a way to demystify this likeness. There is!

Here’s how you remember which one is good and which one is bad.

Authoritative: positive.

Authoritarian: barbarian.

Bibliography

Sanvictores T, Mendez MD. Types of Parenting Styles and Effects On Children. [Updated 2022 Sep 18]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2023 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK568743/#

Alcoholic Organs

Prime medications for alcohol use management in the longer term are disulfiram, acamprosate and naltrexone.

Acamprosate

Cleared by the kidneys, so exercise caution in renal impairment

Naltrexone

Check and monitor liver function

Learnings From The Inpatient Pharmacy

Long-acting depots wear off towards the end, so they might need to be given more frequently.

Administering a medication with food means something like 10 minutes on either side of actual meal ingestion.

Podcast 057: The Therapeutic Index Of Dating

Let’s explore the romantic undertones of lithium!

Podcast

Neurology Versus Psychiatry

Neurology finds where the lesion is but then can’t do anything about it.

Psychiatry has no idea where the lesion is but gives medications and ECT to fix the problem.

There’s A Fancier Name For Fake Niceness

A particular breed of falsified collegiality is siding with the foe of a foe. This has a convenient name: pseudo-altruism.

Pseudo-altruism is a pattern of behavior used by people who have a problem in coping satisfactorily with repressed rage. Observed in both individual and group psychotherapy, it allows the discharge of unacceptable impulses through professed concern about others. This model involves the interaction of at least three people. One individual, A, unable to acknowledge his rage toward a second person, B, comes to the assistance of a third party, C, whom he is convinced has been injured by B. A attacks B or encourages C to do so. In this way A, who experiences difficulty in discharging aggression directly, finds an acceptable means of doing so. He convinces himself that his aggression is warranted by B’s behavior and that he acted solely out of concern for C’s welfare. The pseudo-altruistic pattern thus includes denial, rationalization, and at times projective identification.
Edelson SR. Pseudo-altruism. Psychiatr Q. 1981 Summer;53(2):106-9. doi: 10.1007/BF01064894. PMID: 7330125.

References

Edelson SR. Pseudo-altruism. Psychiatr Q. 1981 Summer;53(2):106-9. doi: 10.1007/BF01064894. PMID: 7330125.

Podcast 056: Set Less Goals

A rant about escaping the hamster wheel of goal-setting. Rely more on your internal scripts.