This week, researchers turn to an unconventional tool to combat physician guilt, offer some good news about lurasidone, and a reminder about the risks of fluoxetine.
Understanding Physician Guilt Through Film
Physicians (and physician assistants) must constantly struggle with patient losses and adverse outcomes. And for many of them, those moments can trigger intense – if often misplaced – feelings of guilt that can take a toll on their mental health, fueling feelings of burnout. In the most extreme cases, it can even contribute to suicide.
New research in The Primary Care Companion for CNS Disorders argues that understanding these emotions through an unexpected medium – television and film – can help health care professionals process and reframe those feelings.
Researchers from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School analyzed seven films and TV episodes depicting “physician guilt.” The team pulled content from “Grey’s Anatomy,” “House,” “The Good Doctor,” and “The Unknown Girl.”
They identified five common cognitive distortions that can skew how physicians assign blame in the wake of bad outcomes.
- Outcome-based reasoning.
- Hindsight bias.
- Personalization.
- Emotional reasoning, and
- Difficulty separating intention from responsibility and unforeseeable events.
In one example that the study’s authors cited, a fictional “Grey’s Anatomy” doctor blames herself for a patient’s death after a missed scan, while another compares himself to a serial killer over multiple failed surgeries. Such overgeneralizations illustrate how guilt messes with our self-perception.
By recognizing these distortions in fictional characters, real clinicians might be able to adopt cognitive-behavioral strategies to combat unhelpful beliefs and replace them with more accurate (and productive) ones.
The authors add that not all guilt is maladaptive. In the right context, it can prompt reflection and growth. But when guilt becomes chronic or undeserved, it can be a psychological albatross. Using popular media as a mirror, the authors suggest, gives health care professionals a more approachable way to confront difficult emotions, and maybe even begin to heal themselves.
IN OTHER PSYCHIATRY AND NEUROLOGY NEWS
- Original research in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry shows that lurasidone transfers into breast milk at very low levels, posing minimal risk to breastfed infants.
- A PCC case study underscores the overlooked risk of extrapyramidal symptoms, particularly drug-induced parkinsonianism, tied to fluoxetine.
- JCP also has research this week that reveals that several autoimmune diseases – and even some of their treatments – can be traced back to an increased risk of dementia.
- A report in PCC discusses the causes and most effective treatment options for somatic delusions.
- And, finally, new reporting on a potentially powerful new way to help stave off burnout among healthcare workers.
