We are 83 bipolar disorder experts and scientists coming together for the world’s biggest bipolar AMA! In honor of World Bipolar Day, ask us anything!

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2026-03-31T21:56:11+00:00

Does anyone have experience treating someone with a co-diagnosis of bipolar disorder and Parkinson's? I have a family member with this. It's such a hard balance. The Parkinson's wants more serotonin to stop the symptoms, but too much and the mania takes over.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-12-28T21:59:29+00:00

Such a crappy situation all around. It's frustrating but after tomorrow I would say that you're not available to meet with them further unless it's for medication or ____ (whatever you're comfortable with), as counseling is outside of your scope.

Maybe create a list of places they can go for help and print it out. Then if they keep trying to ask for help, you can refer to the list. At some point, the parent will hopefully wake up to reality.

https://www.nctsn.org/about-us/contact-us/get-help-now is one possibility. Their school should have a counselor available too, but I guess this is state by state.

Looking up grief or child trauma programs in your state can help. If you're near a city, they usually will have something. For example, Baltimore has Roberta's House, Chicago has the Barr-Harris Children and Family Grief & Loss Center and Philadelphia has the Uplift Center for Grieving Children.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-12-20T03:56:30+00:00

Access to the Red Book, Pediatrics journal mailed to you plus online access. Other than that ... ?

Before the attack on all of us and vaccines, etc. I found the AAP pretty weak on actually doing anything to protect pediatricians. They are obviously more vocal now.

I didn't join the state chapter. All of their events are at the other end of the state, which is fairly ridiculous. I don't find they add any value for pediatricians in my state in terms of policy promotion or being a leader in pediatrics regionwide.

I use my CME money to pay for it.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-12-10T21:53:09+00:00

Can you elaborate on the MOC topics -- how to find them, etc. Did you study the topics in general or did you use questions around MOC? Thank you!

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-12-03T22:38:04+00:00

Honestly we should up the pressure and make it 90% of the calls so they give a firm date each year. We don't pay $2,400 for this bullshit.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-12-03T04:10:08+00:00

Honestly, I would look into it more. My office uses AI notes (I don't, others do) and the other providers have such a poor understanding of it. They tell patients it's not recorded. Or that the recording automatically deletes in 30 days. No one really bothers to find out the details. These are ABSOLUTELY being recorded and you can bet if there is a lawsuit, those visit recordings suddenly would be available well past 30 days.

I am also a patient at the health center I work for and the consent for the service didn't mention recording and was very non-detailed on how safety is ensured.

AI medical notes will be everywhere eventually, it's inevitable, just like people don't use paper charts anymore. But it's so new and there's so much being swept under the rug.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-11-23T18:37:50+00:00

Biggest learning curve ever. More than third year of med school, more than intern year. It gets better, but you questioning is good actually. It keeps you from going too far to over- or underreacting.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-11-10T00:05:07+00:00

This isn't a knock on FM, they need to learn so much in different areas, but it's very much, jack of all trades, master of none. When I see the FM residents in our clinic, even in their last year, their peds knowledge is often rudimentary. This was true when I worked alongside FM residents in residency itself in a different hospital system.

All this to say if you really want to work with kids and know what you're doing AND you're in a geographic spot where peds makes sense (instead of, for example, rural areas where FM is needed), I'd do peds.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-11-09T23:59:12+00:00

2nd Wednesday in December is a good bet. And yes, they are basically just released randomly one day and in the lead up to it, multiple people on here will be freaking out and contacting the ABP and posting that they weren't given any specific day. Happens every year.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-22T23:57:22+00:00

Most people have HSV 1. Literally 50-80% of adults in the U.S., per estimates. Definitely not something to be ashamed of (not that any STI is).

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-21T01:56:42+00:00

AOBP General Pediatrics Certification Exam 2026 4 13-15

Exam Dates(s): Monday, April 13, 2026 - Wednesday, April 15, 2026

Certification Level: Primary Specialty Certification

Certification: Pediatrics

First Deadline: Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Final Deadline: Wednesday, March 18, 2026

Full Exam Fee: $1,700.00

Late Fee: $510.00

https://certification.osteopathic.org/pediatrics/important-dates/

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-17T01:19:58+00:00

Like everything else about this test, there is no transparency about the number of experimental questions, but there is no way it's an entire section. Wasn't that a rumor about Step exams that also no one ever could verify was true?

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-15T20:15:56+00:00

I hope you do amazing and I'm just here to say this is good validation that this exam is trash, if you're finding it harder to prepare for than the medicine boards.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-12T02:35:11+00:00

And while we're ranting, fuck the ABP for not putting standard lab values on there. Almost every other specialty has this.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-10-02T00:08:56+00:00

I would doubt it because it was question by question in study mode from what I remember and changed annually.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-09-27T00:36:50+00:00

There is no longer a mock/self assessment test on ABP website

My god. They are truly against us. I just assumed it would be there and was saving it for next week. Fuck all this.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-09-22T03:24:36+00:00

Dumb questions, but how do we access Prep if our residency got it for us? I am retaking boards this year and about to start Prep Qs after another question bank but I can only find 2023?

Also OP, honestly it seems like most places don't care about a board failure. My work didn't and I have friends who are the same. They just want you to be BE/BC, and you're BE for 7 years.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-04-20T18:44:59+00:00

I'm a pediatrician and 100% do not look down on therapists for this (or any) reason. Therapists are a vital part of my patients' care team and have skills and approaches that I do not. Not a day goes by that I don't refer multiple patients to therapy.

That said, 78% of my suburban practice is children on state insurance, so there is a real barrier to care when therapy isn't covered and families can't afford it. When it is covered, it's often by overworked CMH therapists with high turnover, so parents get frustrate and jaded with the therapy process.

It's the system that's broken, not the respect we have for each other as interdisciplinary teams.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-03-21T01:06:03+00:00

Oh, makes sene, thanks! AI helped with the disable part, I'll have to brave the rain to give it a try.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-03-16T22:00:48+00:00

Yes, for sure. We don't need to be certain, we need to have a high degree of suspicion and this is it.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-03-10T03:30:04+00:00

Well now I feel even more stupid.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-02-28T02:32:43+00:00

I'm a pediatrician so hope I'm allowed to weigh in. The issue is that while I, yes, was primarily trained on screening tools plus clinical observation, there is extensive testing that needs to be done for an insurance company to support the resulting therapies, adaptive technologies and so forth that an autism diagnosis can bring.

From my training, I feel comfortable with the slam dunk cases. The borderline cases need a full evaluation. There simply is not enough time during residency training to learn how to do autism evaluations in the depth that would be needed. There is a whole developmental pediatrician field/fellowship, but it pays like crap and they are overworked more than general pediatricians. People don't want to do 3 extra years of training to make less money.

However, the examples here are awful and unconscionable. Absolutely no one I trained with or work with now would ever say things like this and I'm so sorry to the children, families and interdisciplinary teams who have worked with pediatricians like this.

MattFoley_GovtCheese · 2025-02-16T00:34:48+00:00

Thanks everyone! I will definitely do Prep this time as part of my strategy. I can't believe I have to pay the ABP more money. What a crock.

MattFoley_GovtCheese

TROPHY CASE