Physician at Epicenter of COVID-19 Crisis Lost to Suicide

Dr. Lorna Breem

Marcia Frellick
MedScape.com
Originally published 28 April 20

Grief-laden posts are coursing through social media following the suicide on Sunday of emergency department physician Lorna M. Breen, MD, who had been immersed in treating COVID-19 patients at the epicenter of the disease in New York City.

Breen, 49, was the medical director of the ED at NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital in Manhattan.

According to a New York Times report, her father, Dr Philip C. Breen, of Charlottesville, Virginia, said his daughter did not have a history of mental illness but had described wrenching scenes, including that patients "were dying before they could even be taken out of ambulances."

The report said Lorna Breen had also contracted the virus but had returned to work after recovering for about 10 days.

Her father told the Times that when he last spoke with her, she seemed "detached" and he knew something was wrong.

"The hospital sent her home again, before her family intervened to bring her to Charlottesville," the elder Breen told the newspaper.

The article indicated that Charlottesville police officers on Sunday responded to a call and Breen was taken to University of Virginia Hospital, where she died from self-inflicted injuries.

The info is here.

Has Technology Lost Society's Trust?

Mustafa Suleyman
The RSA.org
Originally published January 8, 2018

Has technology lost society's trust? Mustafa Suleyman, co-founder and Head of Applied AI at DeepMind, considers what tech companies have got wrong, how to fix it and how technology companies can change the world for the better. (7 minute video)

The role of empathy in experiencing vicarious anxiety

Shu, J., Hassell, S., Weber, J., Ochsner, K. N., & Mobbs, D. (2017).
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 146(8), 1164-1188.

Abstract

With depictions of others facing threats common in the media, the experience of vicarious anxiety may be prevalent in the general population. However, the phenomenon of vicarious anxiety—the experience of anxiety in response to observing others expressing anxiety—and the interpersonal mechanisms underlying it have not been fully investigated in prior research. In 4 studies, we investigate the role of empathy in experiencing vicarious anxiety, using film clips depicting target victims facing threats. In Studies 1 and 2, trait emotional empathy was associated with greater self-reported anxiety when observing target victims, and with perceiving greater anxiety to be experienced by the targets. Study 3 extended these findings by demonstrating that trait empathic concern—the tendency to feel concern and compassion for others—was associated with experiencing vicarious anxiety, whereas trait personal distress—the tendency to experience distress in stressful situations—was not. Study 4 manipulated state empathy to establish a causal relationship between empathy and experience of vicarious anxiety. Participants who took an empathic perspective when observing target victims, as compared to those who took an objective perspective using reappraisal-based strategies, reported experiencing greater anxiety, risk-aversion, and sleep disruption the following night. These results highlight the impact of one’s social environment on experiencing anxiety, particularly for those who are highly empathic. In addition, these findings have implications for extending basic models of anxiety to incorporate interpersonal processes, understanding the role of empathy in social learning, and potential applications for therapeutic contexts.

The article is here.

Is It Possible to Create an Anti-Love Drug?

By Maia Szalavitz
New York Magazine - Science of Us
Originally posted May 19, 2014

Here is an excerpt:

A drug that precisely targets only one specific relationship for destruction may be decades away, but drugs that interfere with specific aspects of love like sexual desire are already here. And as scientists begin to tease out the chemical chronology and specific brain systems involved in love, they are already investigating how existing medications taken in carefully timed ways could, for example, prevent the "bonding hormone" oxytocin from initiating or sustaining a relationship.

This could forever change what it means to sever romantic ties. And the ramifications go beyond “Please let me forget”–type situations à la Eternal Sunshine. Anti-love drugs could also provide an intriguing new “treatment” for those trapped in abusive relationships.

The entire article is here.

Burnout, Dissatisfaction Seem Rampant Among Medical Residents

By Kathleen Doheny

HealthDay Reporter

Latest Mental Health News

MedicineNet.com

TUESDAY, Sept. 6 (HealthDay News) -- The medical resident of today -- possibly your doctor in the future -- is exhausted, emotionally spent and likely stressed out about debt, a new study indicates.

"About 50% of our trainees are burned out," said study leader Dr. Colin P. West, an associate professor of medicine and biostatistics at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Higher levels of stress translated into lower scores on tests that gauge medical knowledge and more emotional detachment, among other fallout.

The study is published in the Sept. 7 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a themed issue devoted to doctors' training.

West and his team evaluated results of surveys and exams given to nearly 17,000 internal medicine residents, who were said to represent about 75% of all U.S. internal medicine residents in the 2008-9 academic year. The participants included 7,743 graduates of U.S. medical schools. They were asked about quality of life, work-life balance, burnout and their educational debt.

Among the findings:

• Nearly 15% said their overall quality of life was "somewhat bad" or "as bad as it can be."
• One-third said they were somewhat or very dissatisfied with work-life balance.
• Forty-six percent said they were feeling emotionally exhausted at least once a week.
• Nearly 29% said they felt detached or unable to feel emotion at least once a week.
• More than half said they had at least one symptom of burnout.

 The more educational debt the residents had incurred, the greater their emotional distress, the researchers found. Those with more than $200,000 of debt had a 59% higher chance of reporting emotional exhaustion, 72% greater likelihood of suffering burnout, and an 80% higher chance of feeling depersonalization.

Perhaps more alarming is the finding that greater stress was associated with lower test scores, and those students who were academically hurt by stress never caught up with their peers.

West said he can't explain why those more laden with debt are more stressed out. One possibility is that they may be more prone to stress to begin with.

Medical residents' stress has made news for years, and efforts are under way to improve their working conditions. However, West said, "to our knowledge, this is the first national study of residents' distress issues. And it's also the first national study to connect those issues to other important outcomes like medical knowledge."

As for solutions, he said "we have not yet identified the best ways to reduce burnout and promote well-being for residents, or for physicians in general."

He hopes that this new data, now gathered nationally, will help lead to solutions.

The findings come as no surprise to Dr. Peter Cronholm, an assistant professor of family medicine and community health and also a senior fellow at the Center for Public Health Initiatives of the University of Pennsylvania.

Cronholm, who published a study on resident burnout in 2008, said the residents of today may put more emphasis on work-life balance than previous generations.

One disturbing finding, he said, is that a stressed-out resident has less empathy over time. Already, close to one-third said they felt detached emotionally at least weekly.

However, he said, it's difficult to balance obligations to patients and get sufficient sleep and personal time. "Those two things sort of continue to compete with each other," he said.

Solutions aren't available yet, as "the problem is not yet totally understood. This is part of the conversation about health care reform," he said.