Author Archives: John C. Raiss

This editorial is a follow-up to Redberg’s 2017 editorial: Statins for Primary Prevention: The debate is intense, but the data are weak. It examines the updated USPSTF recommendations on the use of statins for primary prevention. The authors note that … Continue reading →

Listening to Dr. Fauci’s portion of the Covid 19 response team briefing on March 5, 2021 on MS-NBC gives the wonderful experience of being taught by a world-class scientist. He suggested some homework, reading an article by John P Moore, … Continue reading →

Bret Scher, MD of Dietdoctor.com recently interviewed Casey Means, MD, a Stanford-educated physician (both BA and MD). Dietdoctor podcast # 59 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=336fjAmY8JQ Dr. Means was doing an ENT surgical residency at Oregon Health Sciences Center when she realized that most … Continue reading →

In Stanley Kubrick’s classic war movie Full Metal Jacket, there is a scene in a conference room one day after the Tet offensive began in 1968 (the Tet offensive demonstrated that the Vietnam war was unwinnable, and that the enemy … Continue reading →

  A writer asked me to respond to some questions about marijuana. Here’s what I wrote 1. Is there any evidence that cannabis has mental health benefits? There is one high-quality paper (multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled; American Journal of … Continue reading →

I just read a potentially practice changing  article in Bipolar Disorders: Adjunctive probiotic microorganisms to prevent rehospitalization in patients with acute mania: A randomized controlled trial, by Dickerson et al. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/bdi.12652   Sixty-six patients hospitalized for mania were randomized to … Continue reading →

Joseph Goldberg has written an important article for clinicians who treat patients with mood disorders. Goldberg JF. Should we reserve big gun antimanic drugs for only big gun manias? Bipolar Disord. 2018; 20:7–8. https://doi.org/10.1111/bdi.12597 He suggests, writing primarily about olanzapine, … Continue reading →

Occasionally insurance companies make doctors fill out forms for  medications  not on their formularies, and on the form will be  a statement that asks the doctor to check a box if a ‘standard review timeline’ of 72 hours might seriously … Continue reading →

How lithium helps prevent suicide: a patient’s experience   Lithium is one of the most effective anti-suicide medications psychiatrists have to treat patients with mood disorders. http://www.bmj.com/content/346/bmj.f3646   How it works is unknown. [i]   Recently, a patient of mine … Continue reading →

Psychopharmacology Made Simple: What’s it like when an SSRI[1] works? What benefit can one expect from a medication? While it’s easy enough to find information online about side effects and diagnostic indications (approved uses), it’s much more difficult to learn … Continue reading →