Dr. Payton

It is difficult to assess the risk of suicide and suicide attempts in children and adolescents although it is possible to identify risk factors. One risk factor that seems to be important involves how a parent talks to their child or adolescent. If statements are mostly negative that are directed to the child or adolescent,…

A woman who comes to me mentioned that every month she has intense emotions and irritability during the 5-7 days before the onset of her period representing symptoms of a premenstrual sydrome [PMS].  This person also has post traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and I wondered if there is a connection between her PMS symptoms and…

Almost all research involves larger numbers of people and this allows the results to be discussed as the probability that the changes in symptoms was related to the treatment. This does not tell any individual if the treatment will work for them except that it can be said that there is a probability [% liklihood]…

From a tweet by Cory Booker [Mayor of Newark, N.J.]:” give more than is expected, love more than seems wise, serve more than appears necessary, and help more than is asked.” This was written after the damage from hurricane Sandy. His encouraging others to share and care about each other is a way to help…

In talking with a number of my younger patients who are living with their girlfriend or boyfriend, I noticed that there was a reluctance to talk to their significant other about their commitment to the relationship and about marriage. These young people seemed to be waiting for the right time to bring it up and…

When some of my patients told me that they were taking baby steps to try to change unhelpful patterns of their behavior. They were making small changes and hoping to gradually makes changes. They all told me that it was not working. I thought that there was something not right about baby steps = small…

My wife and I recently watched [again] the movie “Juno.” It portrays the life experiences of a teenage girl who becomes pregnant and decides to have the baby and give it up for adoption. The relationship of Juno to her parents, boyfriend, girlfriend and future mother of her baby, are all beautifully portrayed. After the…

Recently, a young adult patient concluded that “it’s not external.” She had this awareness after we had been trying to understand the reason for conflicts in her life. It had become clearer to her that when she was upset with others, it was really something about herself that was bothering her. At first, this idea…

When I was in college, I used to frequently change answers on tests. Almost every time I ended up changing a right answer for a wrong answer. Studies have found that abut 80% of the time we change right answers to wrong answers. I only stopped doing this after one of my professors would go…

It is easy for each of us to underestimate the amount of stress that we experience every day. I have found that many of my patients experience increased stress when they watch the news on TV. The focus of the news is often on violence and offers no hope for change. It is not possible…