Patient Zero

Psychiatry

The Humanistic and Scientific Trajectories of Modern Psychiatry

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on August 15, 2026

Modern psychiatry is adopting a biopsychosocial model that blends a humanistic approach with a systems-based model that promises better explanations for mental disorders.

Title: A statue outside on w:Stephen Avenue, ouside w:The Bay, in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Author: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thivierr

Empathy

Pitfalls in Communicating With One Another

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on April 15, 2026

Most of us think we’re good communicators. Are we really?

Education

A Different Way to Rein in Health Care Costs

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on February 19, 2026

A Personal Perspective: What is one of the most fundamental causes of the excessive cost of health care?

An anatomical illustration from the 1908 edition of Sobotta's Anatomy

Psychiatry

The Compelling History of a Disease Basis for Mental Illness

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on February 3, 2026

Why does psychiatry focus on nonexistent disease explanations for mental disorders?

• Maggie Black: A representation from the middle ages of the outdated medical practice of bloodletting

Psychiatry

Theory Determines What Psychiatry and Medicine Think and Do

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on December 21, 2025

Who cares, it’s just a theory? Everyone has a theory.

Renelibrary: San Antonio Drug Company in San Antonio, Texas

Psychiatry

What Could Finally End the U.S. Mental Health Crisis

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on September 24, 2025

Why it might be time to get angry about the mental health crisis.

Psychopharmacology

Why Lay Management of Medication Withdrawal Is Dangerous

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on August 25, 2025

Only qualified clinicians should manage psychoactive drug withdrawal. This is why.

Thomas Angus: Functional magnetic resonance imaging at the Imperial Centre for Psychedelic Research

Psychiatry

Progress Towards Better Treatment of Mental Disorders

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on July 30, 2025

Would you replace DSM/ICD diagnoses?

Psychiatry

Hope for Transforming U.S. Mental Health Care

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on June 7, 2025

Quit complaining about the profit-driven medical industrial complex and medicine's near dismissal of mental illness. Here’s how we can improve mental health care in the U.S.

Sander van der Wel from Netherlands: Bury your head in the sand

Education

Has Medicine Lost Its Mind? – Updated Seven Years Later

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on March 7, 2025

Medicine has lost its mind. I'll show you here how to reclaim it.

Diliff: A panorama of a research room taken at the New York Public Library

Health

Why Medicine Ignores the Public’s Mental Health Needs

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on December 15, 2024

The mental health crisis illustrates the need for public oversight of medicine.

Psychiatry

Medically Assisted Death in Patients With a Mental Illness

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on September 22, 2024

A biopsychosocial perspective suggests similar criteria for all medically assisted death.

Artificial Intelligence

How Artificial Intelligence Could Enhance Healthcare

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on June 29, 2024

A new book, co-written by ChatGPT, argues that new leadership is needed to reap the benefits of AI in healthcare.

Wellcome Collection gallery: A diseased brain. Coloured stipple etching by W. Say after F. R. Say for Richard Bright, 1829.

Psychiatry

Is Psychiatry Waking Up to the Truth About Mental Illness?

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on April 13, 2024

If you’re depressed, is there a disease causing it?

Resilience

How to Identify an Individual Patient’s Resilience

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on February 8, 2024

Do you know why medicine and others are so far behind in addressing patients’ social problems?

Psychiatry

Patients Are More Complex Than We Realize

Robert C. Smith MD, MACP on November 4, 2023

Want some help in addressing complex patients, those refractory patients that so trouble us? This book is no panacea, but it provides valuable guidance.