Fabian M. Saleh, MD and H. Martin Malin, PhD, MA, LMFT
In treating patients whose sexual fantasies do not trigger an immediate legal duty to report, psychiatrists must be vigilant for signs that the patient intends to act on a fantasy.
Recommendation for induced lactation in nonbiological mothers is widespread in the medical literature. To resist offering the service for nongestating lesbian mothers bespeaks potential discrimination.
Beyond consensus that pain is “an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience,” its biology remains poorly understood, and options for its treatment remain frustratingly inadequate.
Although patients’ medical gender transition can be facilitated by counseling, as a matter of medical ethics, informed consent must be obtained for treatment.
AMA J Ethics. 2016;18(11):1079-1085. doi:
10.1001/journalofethics.2016.18.11.ecas2-1611.
The FDA's decision to put a black-box warning on antidepressant labels may be misleading because it implies that antidepressants have definitely been found to increase suicidality in adolescents, when in fact there is merely a lack of clear evidence about their safety.
The ad hoc capacity granted underage patients to consent to certain medical services cannot be allowed to thwart the reason it is granted in the first place—to protect the health of minors.