The Ig Nobel awards always reflect the most interesting and enjoyable papers.
My favourite was the attractions paper on blind dates and cardiac synchrony, with the conclusion…
“The heart wants what the heart wants—and the skin conductance concurs.”
This was so moving. Spontaneously stopped off at the London Bridge station organ to play a couple of pieces for the Queen. This lovely security guard, Marcella, asked if I could play Lascia ch'io pianga. Turns out she trained as a singer!
Briefing Room on medical workforce.
But if you want to understand the catastrophe decimating the most senior and experienced workforce, this thread is a taster.
How an anodyne topic like pensions is forcing us out of the door
After hearing about yet another death possibly attributed to a dietary supplement (this time it was White Mulberry Leaf), here is a handy guide you can use to find out if your dietary supplements are safe!
A thread by a medical toxicologist🧵:
Mental health misinformation is rampant on social media.
In this study, over half of popular ADHD videos on TikTok were misleading—and staggeringly, there were over 2.8 million views per video and each video was shared on average 31,000 times.
By
It’s the one story my mother tells about me > 50 years later still haunted by the memory
I was born in a cottage hospital, & over days became bruised all over. Nobody knew what it was
Finally ambulance called & vit K deficiency diagnosed
Shudder to think what could have been
Let’s Talk About Vitamin K ()
After a month working in the newborn nursery, I’ve met many parents either hesitant about giving their newborn Vitamin K, and a few refusing it altogether.
So what is Vitamin K and why is it important for newborn babies?
This is so poor. Why is there not more pressure for journalists to link to their sources, or explain/question their evidence? The article claims that 37% of 12-18 year olds have been prescribed antidepressants. This is apparently from a charity survey (stem4) of 2000 people...
"37% of 12-18 year-olds claim to have been prescribed antidepressants (...), rising to 43% among 19-21 year-olds"
Tweeps: are those numbers really plausible? Is there a way to count e.g. prescriptions in the UK?
https://inews.co.uk/news/health/teenagers-antidepressants-mental-health-services-pressure-gps-1776937…
Having changeover in August, when many staff with children are on leave, is very “NHS.”
Compounded by having both CT and ST changeover in the same month. A recipe for chaos.
Why is it so hard to change things?
A perceptive piece in the @bmj_latest recently by @RCEMPolicyVP on the craziness of the mass changeover of doctors in August & how we could do it better.
Some very interesting points made. A short thread to highlight some of them…
https://bmj.com/content/378/bmj.o1907…
Day 4. Of a 6 day “holiday”. Still on hold. Here’s a suggestion - if the European breakdown service has so many calls coming in, how about hiring more people over the holiday season?
@TheAA_UK I have been on hold for over four hours worth of calls and still no answer. We are stuck in France. We need an update on our car repair so we know how and if we can get home. Please help!
Wasn't planning on this thread today but I saw that twitter is buzzing with the new Kirsch paper on antidepressants & this feels like a good opportunity to discuss how impoverished & uncritical the usual discussion of such studies on ADs is. (1/19) 🧵https://bmj.com/content/378/bmj-2021-067606…
I’ve also wondered why the TRS is largely useless. Working out where you stand with the byzantine NHS pension scheme is impossible.
It just shouldn’t be this difficult
1/ on "Total Reward Statements" (or Annual Benefit Statements)
Dear @nhs_pensions
As you know Ive been asking publically & privately if you could PLEASE make the TRS slightly less useless?
Here's why you need to change it, & quickly (please RT if you agree)
and John I. on 'obsessive criticism': https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eci.13839… A good outline of the line of attack on our recent paper and the gutter journalism that has gone for ad hominem attacks on authors
“La salud es un sentimiento subjetivo de bienestar que está influenciado por un amplio número de factores”. Súper libro de @Dr_psychiatry sobre la cultura médica occidental y la importantísima relación entre mente y cuerpo.
@Dr_psychiatry I just finished your book ‘Head First’ and feel a bit bereft! I absolutely loved reading it and am recommending it to so many people. I’m already looking forward to your next book. Please tell me there will be a next book….
I'm on a "psychology in science" vibe today.
It's astonishing how much human emotion, bias, ego, agenda, whether conscious or not, feeds in to science which is supposedly all about data.
Far more than I ever thought possible.
All in plain sight, every day.
It’s hard to fathom why the most senior doctors in the NHS are being incentivised to retire. But this thread highlights the utter chaos that pensions policies are causing.
1/ Actions have consequences. A 6.5% real term pay cut (or at least 6.7% including CEAs) is also a 6.7% pension cut to 1995 final salary pension
@TheBMA today updated their peri-retirement calculator at
https://bma.org.uk/doesntpaytostay
so clinicians can make informed choices
Pls RT
"You have a fabulously symmetrical face!"
Who better to wave us off on our pre-season tour than the President of the Greeters Guild?! 😅😂
@milocomedy | #ManCity
Difficult to put down till last page: #Headfirst by @Dr_psychiatry "When there is nothing more to be done medically; when we can no longer be a doctor, then it behooves to act as fellow human beings" Beautiful indeed
If you want to learn more about how your body and mind are so closely interconnected - maybe try this for a fascinating and informative summer read ⬇️#MedTwitter
It’s always a nervy moment reading your first book review - and it’s hard to put into words how happy reading it made me
https://theguardian.com/books/2021/jul/14/head-first-by-alastair-santhouse-review-a-medical-memoir-with-elegance-and-integrity…
!!!
My goal was to get this read before residency started ... before the first rotation ends will have to do. It's a stroke of luck that I'm on psych right now!