Psychiatry in Techno Colors: A Psychiatrist's Memoir of Lessons Learned about Diagnosis and Treatment of Anxiety and Depression

Overview

This book is a collection of essays, but they are not written in the academic style that one might expect. They are unified by simple language, a practical clinical approach, and by the author's sharing of many clinical pearls. Some of the essays are very personal and describe the challenges faced by the author in his education and professional development, going from residency to academia to private practice.
Primary care doctors will find the book helpful, especially the ...
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Psychiatry in Techno Colors: A Psychiatrist's Memoir of Lessons Learned about Diagnosis and Treatment of Anxiety and Depression

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Overview

This book is a collection of essays, but they are not written in the academic style that one might expect. They are unified by simple language, a practical clinical approach, and by the author's sharing of many clinical pearls. Some of the essays are very personal and describe the challenges faced by the author in his education and professional development, going from residency to academia to private practice.
Primary care doctors will find the book helpful, especially the chapters dealing with panic disorders. In fact, his mother suffered from panic disorder and his descriptions of growing up and watching his mother's difficulties are touching. His humanistic approach to mental illness is manifest throughout the book.
He explains how his interest in painting and mixing colors helped him to develop his approach to sometimes treating psychiatric illness by using a combination of drugs. He refers to red and blue as his defining colors. Blue is associated with calming an anxious patient, red in adding fire and motivation to depressed patients. Purple was the blended color used to find a harmonious middle ground. On page 64 he actually shows the "color chart" of various psychotropics that he devised and which may be helpful to clinicians who understand his approach.
He mentions various drugs used in treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) and his personal experiences using them. He also describes neurotransmitter pathways; and how low serotonin levels can bring on compulsive activity, panic attacks, depression, and lowered sense of well being. The benefits of selective serotonin uptake inhibitors (SSRI) in helping to alleviate these symptoms are also mentioned.
Throughout the book his personalized approach is highlighted; for example he says that for a person with irritable bowel syndrome, with depression, using a drug that has constipation as a side effect may cure both their depression and their IBS.
The chapter on panic and anxiety has much practical information. Also discussed are evidence-based medicine and how they can be misleading. He finished with a detailed summary outlining how to treat depression that primary care doctors will find helpful.
Neil Liebowitz, MD, tells clinical pearls about the evolution of modern psychiatric treatment. These personal stories illustrate some of the dilemmas and possible solutions for key psychiatric problems. From growing up on Long Island to residency training at Yale, to an academic career at the University of Connecticut, lessons were learned about how best to understand psychiatric problems and strategies to treat them.
“Dr Neil Liebowitz has written a courageous book – a main course for the unsatisfactory meal that constitutes our evidence base. He has taken upon himself to tell it like it is…

"I have never seen a book like this one. I felt a little voyeuristic as I peered into Dr Liebowitz’s inner thoughts... If you are like me (I recommend this book for the experienced practitioner as well as the knowledge-seeking patient) you will identify with much of what he has to say... … you will feel less alone in your office when a non-responding depressed patient looks you in the eyes and presses you to find a remedy for his or her incredible suffering. You will also feel more effective in the ability to carry out your work.” William Glazer, MD
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Editorial Reviews

J Jack
Dr. Liebowitz writes with the insight of many years of clinical practice, and gives the reader a unique glimpse into the world of psychiatry and mental health. The many clinical and personal vignettes present valuable lessons for patients, families and practitioners in fun and entertaining ways. From the Freudian psychiatrist who unsettled a young Dr. Liebowitz at a college interview by bringing up sex as any Freudian would do to a paranoid schizophrenic patient at the Yale Psychiatric emergency
P Douglas
Dr. Liebowitz has written an easy to read collection of essays that provides a fascinating and informative view into the world of psychiatry over the past thirty years or so. It is written in an informal style and gives a personal account of "lessons learned" instead of the usual presentation of clinical data. The focus is on the treatment of depression and anxiety with medication. This is probably what most people think of today, but thirty years ago the field was dominated by Freudian analysts
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781456316433
  • Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
  • Publication date: 1/5/2011
  • Pages: 226
  • Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 9.00 (h) x 0.48 (d)

Meet the Author

Dr. Liebowitz trained during psychiatry’s transformative years graduating Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Virginia in 1978, Stony Brook University Medical School in 1982, psychiatry clerkship at Columbia University Psychiatric Institute in 1981, and psychiatric residency at Yale University in 1986. He is currently an assistant clinical professor at the University of Connecticut. He opened the Connecticut Anxiety and Depression treatment center in 1994.
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Sort by: Showing all of 2 Customer Reviews
  • Posted August 23, 2011

    Important Book with loads of Instinct and Insight

    This book is very important and here's why: you may have heard of "white-coat fever." If you haven't, it is the nervous reaction a patient gets when meeting with his physician, who is all dressed up in his starched-white coat. If the patient's Blood Pressure was normal before seeing his doctor, he can be sure that it will be elevated during an examination, because the doctor is dressed in white. It's not so much the color. It's what the color represents. Really just an irrational fear, it is a real reaction that happens often. And a good doctor will take the patient's BP a couple more times during an exam to make sure that it is really lower than the initial read.

    Although mental health workers usually dress in street-clothes, this phenomenom still exists in a big way whenever a patient with mental illness meets with his/her psychiatrist. "Psychiatry in Techno Colors" does a lot to erase "white-coat fever," not because Dr. Liebowitz dresses down, but because he dares to do even more: he lives in the same world his patients live in. This is made clear in his book. Plus he wrote it to be understood by all, not by just his peers. What's more, there's a cache of information about psychiatry--both past and present--in this book that everyone, not just the psychiatric community, should be aware of.

    All too often a psychiatrist stays mum about treatment plans and therapies. And sometimes that's warranted in order to avoid shaping the patient with ideas that are not owned by him. But take it from me--a paranoid man with schizophrenia (no lie)--the mystery that can surround the process of treatment is almost as unnerving to the patient as the mental disease itself. This book invites everyone--even the patient--to enter the Ivory Tower of Psychiatry. The Tower's secrets are finally becoming public knowledge.

    Topics Liebowitz discusses begin with his experiences--first as a boy interested in the field, then as a student learning the field and then as a professional learning the field. Clearly, his lessons will continue on, as well they should. He describes Freud as THE man who dared to humanize mental illness even if his theories might not necessarily ring true nowadays. Analysts--still considered the field's top advisors--are described as those who mostly follow Freud, supposing patients have an endless amount of time and inexaustible funds. And modern day medications are discussed in detail. It has been the break-through discoveries of these newer (but sometimes also combinations of the older) medications that have finally allowed psychiatrists to treat mental illness with the word "cure" in mind. Liebowitz employs an artist's pallette as a metaphor to help him paint the patient's true, healthy psyche with medications in multiple dimensions. This is really cutting edge treatment!

    The way I see it, Dr. Liebowitz has manufactured with this book a springboard for those who are mentally ill. I assume that for him the optimum attitude is one where ALL the LINES of COMMUNICATION are OPEN, as they should be everywhere.

    So, with this work the dream of happy endings is now in sight for both patients and the greater community. "Psychiatry in Techno Colors" is, therefore, for the patient, the psychiatrist and the world. No more "white-coat fever." Five stars for this MUST READ!

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  • Anonymous

    Posted March 23, 2011

    No text was provided for this review.

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