Why do psychiatrists sell out to help criminals?

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MacGyver

MacGyver

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http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/30/nyregion/30fake.html?ref=nyregion

The expert who conducted Mr. Braunstein’s PET scans, Monte S. Buchsbaum, a professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine, has worked with other high-profile defendants, including Vincent Gigante, the Mafia leader. Mr. Gigante was known for wandering Greenwich Village in a bathrobe and slippers, and prosecutors accused him of faking mental illness to avoid prosecution. Dr. Buchsbaum testified in 1997 that brain images showed Mr. Gigante suffered from dementia.

In 2003, Mr. Gigante pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice, admitting he tried to outsmart the legal system by pretending he was mentally ill. Dr. Buchsbaum said in an interview last week that he stands by his diagnosis of Mr. Gigante, who died in 2005, and that he considered the guilty plea to be a legal maneuver.
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Look I know that psychs are underpaid. I know its a tough job that can be unrewarding.

But you guys have absolutely NO BUSINESS making up BS theories so you can get paid a fat retainer by defense lawyers.

I wonder how much Monte Buchsbaum got paid for whoring himself out to these lawyers. Apparently they pay pretty good, because Monte has done this sort of thing before.

Here he is again whoring himself out as an "expert" witness for defense lawyers: http://www.almexperts.com/ExpertWitness/experts_and_consultants/expert/5247912.html

Monte Buchsbaum should have his license revoked and his affiliations with all psychiatric organizations terminated. Its time to start treating these punks with BS junk science theories as the garbage they are.

Here's an in depth article about how con-men like Buschbaum fabricated evidence so they could get a fat pay day from teh lawyers. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1272/is_2706_132/ai_114740974/pg_1

I submit to you that right now I could walk into Buschbaum's office or any other psychiatrist for that matter and in a span of 2 hours have them absolutely convinced that I'm insane.

There's a lot of good science going on in psychiatry, but you guys have absolutely NO BUSINESS in a courtroom.
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MacGyver said:
There's a lot of good science going on in psychiatry, but you guys have absolutely NO BUSINESS in a courtroom.
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Anyone with a particular expertise has business in a courtroom - hence "expert witness." The prosecution has the opportunity to bring in their own expert to offer a differing opinion. So expert psychiatrists unethically ***** themselves out to either side in legal cases? Sure. But, so do expert pathologists, surgeons, internists, etc.
 
Doc Samson said:
Anyone with a particular expertise has business in a courtroom - hence "expert witness." The prosecution has the opportunity to bring in their own expert to offer a differing opinion. So expert psychiatrists unethically ***** themselves out to either side in legal cases? Sure. But, so do expert pathologists, surgeons, internists, etc.
Click to expand...

Sure, but there's a difference between med mal and lying on the stand to get some scumbag murderer to beat the charges.
 
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Yeah, get this loser out of here. I'm all for a debate, but that was NOT the context of the first post.

What a horse's ass.
 
Why do psychiatrists sell out to help criminals?

That's an unfair loaded question, kind of like:

When did you stop beating your wife?
 
I do wonder what the OP thinks of psychiatrists on the prosecution side who sometimes help put people away (those that deserve it)?

And as someone else pointed out, why gang up on psychiatrists? Don't you see thousands of professionals being asked to court as expert witness in this country? They are all getting paid and everyone of them, hired for the defense, can be seen as trying to get someone "off" for money.

Is the fact that psychiatrists often get paid handsomely bother you? I want to see you work for milkshakes if that's your view.
 
Don't give us psychiatrists so much credit.

We're human beings like anyone else. We're no better no worse.

We do the same good and bad things as anyone else.

I'm kinda suprised what kinda of "ninja" like powers others in the health field think we have.

e.g. consult: reason: "we think the patient is lying, please determine"

Yeah like I'm going to be able to tell if he's lying or not?
 
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whopper said:
e.g. consult: reason: "we think the patient is lying, please determine"

Yeah like I'm going to be able to tell if he's lying or not?
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Ranks right up there with my other favorite - "rule out pseudoseizures" when there's witnessed convulsive activity, micturation, post-ictal confusion, and no EEG available. Ahh... suddenly I have the ability to measure brain waves through my "magical" mental status exam.

MBK2003
 
whopper said:
Maybe I ought to carry my Master Replicas Lightsaber prop with me while I do my consults.
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:)
Ah ha....I finally know why my supervising attending refers to me as his "young Padawan"
 
whopper said:
I'm kinda suprised what kinda of "ninja" like powers others in the health field think we have.

e.g. consult: reason: "we think the patient is lying, please determine"

Yeah like I'm going to be able to tell if he's lying or not?
Click to expand...

They do have some pretty good malingering assessments....but they aren't practical in that situation.

-t
 
The only objective measure I've seen to try to weed out malingerers other than just trying to determine the motive is the MMPI. Problem with that though is no psychiatrist ever gives one in a clinical setting.

I am though considering referring patients I think who may be malingering for disability to a psychologist to that psychologist can do an MMPI on the patient and we can discuss the results.

However since I've never seen anyone really do this in clinical practice I don't suggest people do this on their own. I'm just suggesting this as a possible idea I might do in the future. All the texts mention how the MMPI can be used to find malingering but I never see anyone do it in clinical practice.
 
whopper said:
The only objective measure I've seen to try to weed out malingerers other than just trying to determine the motive is the MMPI. Problem with that though is no psychiatrist ever gives one in a clinical setting.
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Depending on what kind of malinger you suspect, there are spec. malingering tests:

SIRS
TOMM
VIP
etc.

Assessment isn't my area, but those are the ones I remember off the top of my head.

-t
 
Bah, there's idiots in every profession.

Plenty of FM/IM/whatever else docs do the same kind of thing to allow "accident victims" to sue innocent people for millions of dollars over a fender bender they walked away from. Is that any better?

You can go digging and find equally or more unethical people who do things like this in any profession in the world. Welcome to life.
 
whopper said:
Don't give us psychiatrists so much credit.

We're human beings like anyone else. We're no better no worse.

We do the same good and bad things as anyone else.

I'm kinda suprised what kinda of "ninja" like powers others in the health field think we have.

e.g. consult: reason: "we think the patient is lying, please determine"

Yeah like I'm going to be able to tell if he's lying or not?
Click to expand...

it's the few of us that really have ninja powers and/or Wonder Woman's lasso that raise the expectations other fields have for us...
but seriously, sometimes they know the patient is faking and just want a psych opinion in the chart to cover their butts...
AND we spend more than 3 minutes with the patient, which really does help with "diagnosing" the situation...
I got consulted for a patient who was displaying "bizarre behavior"... i.e., laying on the floor at random times and locking herself in the bathroom...
which i diagnosed, upon a 5 minute interview with the patient (as opposed to the standard 3 minute Medicine one) as 1) a bad back with a soft bed, and 2)diarrhea.
 
Dramkinola said:
it's the few of us that really have ninja powers and/or Wonder Woman's lasso that raise the expectations other fields have for us...
but seriously, sometimes they know the patient is faking and just want a psych opinion in the chart to cover their butts...
AND we spend more than 3 minutes with the patient, which really does help with "diagnosing" the situation...
I got consulted for a patient who was displaying "bizarre behavior"... i.e., laying on the floor at random times and locking herself in the bathroom...
which i diagnosed, upon a 5 minute interview with the patient (as opposed to the standard 3 minute Medicine one) as 1) a bad back with a soft bed, and 2)diarrhea.
Click to expand...


Don't tell me you used the Secret Forbidden Question (which no non-psychiatrist is able to ask):


"Would you mind terribly explaining to me why you might be doing that?"

:rolleyes:
 
shhh... don't broadcast trade secrets!
:smuggrin:
 
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