Anxiety

Anxiety ranks among my least favorite diagnoses.  In medicine, we have a long history of blaming a variety of diseases on anxiety.  Even in the recent past we attributed gastric ulcers to stress until it was proven that a bacteria that lives in the gut is responsible.  Indeed, who would have thought:  a bacteria living … Continue reading

The Stories We Tell

Stories are at the heart of who we are as people. In medicine, patients tell their doctors the story of how their symptoms started and how they have progressed. They tell the story of how they feel now. We document this story in a note from the encounter that we call the “history and physical.” … Continue reading