Doctor’s Letter: Philip Dawdy Needs Nicotine for His Mental Condition

Jan 28 2009

Doctor’s Letter: Philip Dawdy Needs Nicotine for His Mental Condition

I was concerned to learn that Philip Dawdy who writes on the Furious Seasons blog was about to get kicked out of his appartment in Seattle. I grew up in Olympia WA and interviewed for a position in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Washington in 2000 where I noticed that outside the University Hospital there was a sign that not only could you not smoke in the hospital, you couldn’t smoke outside of the hospital, and in fact you had to move 200 yards AWAY from the hospital to smoke. I mean my wife is Italian born Italian and I am used to going to bars, restaurants, parties, etc, where everyone smokes. I think that this recent Seattle phenomenon is a sign of Eco-Fascism and as a psychiatrist I have to try and interpret what the root pathology might be. Hmmm… could it be an arrest at the oral stage of development ala Freud?

Anyhoo, rumours state that my sister Anne Bremner, local Seattle lawyer and noted legal analysis commentator on CNN and FOX as well as lawyer for Amanda Knox in the Perugia Italy case, also a smoker, is getting similar harassments from Seattle Eco-Fascists, even though she owns her own property! We are going to have to get the half-cousins from Eastern Washington to come over there with their guns!

anne

Rumours are that Anne might take on Philip’s case pro bonno! Do the Eco-fascists have a good legal basis for their actions? Only time will tell!

I felt so UPSET about this situation that I had to write a letter as a psychiatrist and physician scientist outlining my concerns, and here it is.

Jan 30, 2009

To whom it may concern,

I am writing in regard to Philip Dawdy, a resident of your apartment complex. Mr. Dawdy has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental condition. Mr. Dawdy is currently addicted to nicotine in the form of smoking cigarettes. In my medical opinion, stopping the smoking of cigarettes may disrupt his mental condition in an unacceptable way, and it is therefore medically contraindicated for him to stop smoking cigarettes. Forcing him to either stop smoking cigarettes or to move out of his apartment is not in his best medical interest.

Sincerely

J. Douglas Bremner, M.D.

Professor of Psychiatry and Radiology

Atlanta, Georgia

Take this letter and use as you will, Philip.

Good Luck.

Dr. B.
[Note: the name of my university and the letter with my university's letterhead have been redacted at the request of the Dean of my university following a complaint from an outside source. It was pointed out to me by the Dean that use of my university's name and letterhead for personal use (which this was judged to be) was a violation of university policies. Also people have taken this post to indicate that I am an advocate for smoking. I do not advocate smoking as it can cause heart disease and lung cancer. This blog is for entertainment purposes and is to be taken as medical advice. ]

Tags: Anne Bremner, mental health, Philip Dawdy, Smoking

Filed in Uncategorized | Doug Bremner

24 Comments

By Therapy Patient, January 28, 2009 @ 11:03 pm

I am a former smoker who is empathetic towards smokers who can’t quit. In the SF Bay area where I live they have started talking about banning smoking inside people’s own homes. WHAT!!??? How can that affect anyone else? How can a law or apartment complex rule like that be legal? Your letter is clever, but a person shouldn’t HAVE to be bipolar to have the right to smoke inside their own home!

The CA county where I live has this history: “In 1984, Contra Costa was the first county in the nation to pass an ordinance protecting residents from secondhand smoke.”
By admin, January 28, 2009 @ 11:24 pm

Take a look at the NYT. They HAVE banned in home smoking in one of the bay area towns, don’t remember which, idiot claimed that the smoke seeped into his appartment. I too am ex smoker and think this is OUTRAGEOUS.
By Former Smoker, January 28, 2009 @ 11:32 pm

Evidence is mounting as to the harm inflicted on non-smokers by second-hand smoke.

Even though I’m a former smoke, I sympathize with people who don’t want the air they breathe in their own home to be polluted by their neighbors’ smoke.

The fact is, apartments are shared dwellings. Smoke outside on your patio, and the smoke goes into your neighbor’s apartment. My friend has to keep her bedroom’s sole window closed in the summer, because her neighbor smokes constantly on the patio (not wanting the smoke in her own apartment).

When my husband was living in a SF high-rise apartment building, every other resident’s smoke came in through the air system.

Sorry, but smokers’ rights end at my nose– and my respiratory system.

As a physician, Dr. Bremner, you should be a little more cognizant of the medical implications.

As for Mr. Furious Season, he’d do better getting on a useful medication regime instead of self-medicating with fear-mongering about pharmaceuticals. His rants just pollute the blogosphere and feed more denial to the anosgnosiacs.

As for the Bay Area town that banned smoking, that’s Belmont, which happens to be dense with apartments, especially with elderly people. It’s not right for a self-medicating smoker to poison his or her neighbors.
By Former Smoker, January 28, 2009 @ 11:42 pm

P.S. You can’t be serious….just because bars are smoky in Italy, that’s a model by which we should conduct ourselves? Hardly.

Lung cancer death rates in middle-aged Italian men (45 to 54) are currently the highest registered in developed countries, and large upward trends are currently detectable in older men.
By Barbara Harris Whitfield, January 29, 2009 @ 8:03 am

As a retired Respiratory Therapist (Thank goodness!) I would wheel my little IPPB machine around on the floors only to be greeted by my patients with a pack of cigarettes in their hand. They were waiting for their treatment to expand their breathing capacity so they could then light up. Some had lung cancer. Others had COPD. There was usually a carton sitting on their bedside table. I too was a smoker for years and am grateful to myself that I quit almost 20 years ago. And, if I can quit, anyone can quit. Every cigarette we raise to our mouth and take a drag off of — is a suicide wish that will eventually work. It’s your choice. How much are you worth? And, how much are people who won’t quit costing all of us — in second hand smoke and in health care dollars.
Sorry, Doug — no compassion from me — just supportive words so that we can all quit!!
By admin, January 29, 2009 @ 9:44 am

I am not saying that smoking is not bad for your health, I am just saying that the government shouldn’t be able to intrude so deeply in everyone’s lives. Furious Seasons: I think Philip should star in one of those Abilify TV ads. I know the guy who was the author of those papers on Abilify and who works for BMS. Maybe we could do one of those my people get with your people kind of things! (Which raises the question, who are Philip’s “People”? Or who are my “people” for that matter?)
By Stephany, January 29, 2009 @ 11:58 am

Great intervention Doug, I hope your sister can help. I would have added housing discrimination to your letter though, considering bipolar is under the ADA (American Disability Act)and therefore the landlord is violating the ADA and by evicting or changing the wording in the lease he is discriminating against anyone in that building with bipolar, schizophrenia, etc. who smokes. Just a thought!

PS- Does your sister take on cases of discrimination at the workplace? wrongful termination due to mental health discrimination?
By admin, January 29, 2009 @ 12:48 pm

She mostly does heavy duty criminal stuff like murder trials
http://www.annebremner.com/Amanda%20Knox.htm

But I am sure there is someone in her firm who handles that kind of thing.

http://www.staffordfrey.com
By Stephany, January 29, 2009 @ 2:19 pm

Thanks!
By Gina Pera, January 29, 2009 @ 2:19 pm

But Dr. B, who but the government is going to protect our rights not to have smoke pushed into our lungs?

We can’t depend on neighborly courtesy, especially with some nicotine addicts who can’t see beyond their fix.

Every other Thursday, our neighbor’s lawn crew comes spewing diesel fumes, dust, and pollen into our bedroom from those darn blowers. That should be illegal, too, IMHO. It’s the equivalent of a home invasion. And diesel particulate is nasty toxic stuff.

So, I think you miss the point. The “eco-fascists” aren’t trying to stop people smoking in their own homes. They’re trying to protect people being subjected to smoke in their own homes. Seems fair to me.
By admin, January 29, 2009 @ 3:41 pm

I know I know. This post was meant partly in jest. Philip says though that he has another place lined up.
By susan, January 29, 2009 @ 9:32 pm

Thank you Mr. Bremner for helping Philip. This is a tragedy – what someone does in the privacy of their own apartment and is not breaking any laws- Ugh! I thought the laws in Manhattan were bad, but apparently Seattle is much worse….

I do smoke because it quiets my mental illness.

I just added your site to my feeds. It’s wonderful.
By Doug Bremner, January 29, 2009 @ 9:38 pm

Thanks! I remember working as a psychiatry resident at the Yale/West Haven CT VA in 1989 when they outlawed smoking on the mental health wards. What a disaster! And all these research projects to decrease smoking in people with mental illness. That is the last thing on people’s minds! Not trying to promote smoking but my point is that if your mental anguish is partically bad smoke away without guilt. And Seattle is THE WORST for anti smoking eco fascism second perhaps only to Portland OR.
By Gina Pera, January 30, 2009 @ 2:24 am

Okay, Dr. B, so you blog in jest. Sorry, it’s getting harder and harder to distinguish irony from indignity in the blogosphere.

Still, I’d rather see people get the right meds and lose the urge to smoke. It might help short-term needs but it seems to make everything worse — sleep, anxiety, etc.

I’ve seen lifelong smokers drop the habit, almost without trying, once they start medication for ADHD, assuming, of course, they have ADHD. Of course, if there’s comorbid bi-polar disorder and they’re seeing a bi-polar specialist, the ADHD might never be detected (or “believed” in). Happens all the time, especially at a certain university held in high regard by some, in Palo Alto.
By Gina Pera, January 30, 2009 @ 2:25 am

P.S. Love the new look!
By Cousin in Eastern Washington, January 30, 2009 @ 10:47 am

I smoke stogies. I quit cigs 15 or so years ago. I believe that what people do in their own homes is there business. If you have a problem with my thought process consider this. If my bathroom fan didn’t work, and I opened my window to vent it out, it would bother you. If I don’t open my window it will bother you through the walls and venting system, and you would open your window. Your kitty liter box bothers me, I’m not asking for laws to ban your cat. I’m with Doug. Leave the guy alone. Let him be happy, you don’t know if he has GUNS, he could go Saigon revisited!! Bars are were people with bad habits go to have fun. If you don’t like it leave, go home and take a shower, do what makes you happy it could be the last day of your life.
By Crawford Harris, February 4, 2009 @ 6:05 pm

To qualify my little note, I have been afflicted with manic-depression for at least 55 years. Although I quit last March, I was a heavy smoker for almost 49 years.

People with mental illness feel bad. No surprise there. Smoking, as alcohol and other things, makes one feel better. It is a form of self-medication. It can kill much slower than SSRIs and their kin. Denial of a cigarette can increase stress. Stress can and does exacerbate a mental illness or even precipitate a psychotic episode.

I am not advocating smoking as a therapy, just explaining reality for many with a mental illness.

The ‘eco-fascists’ have gone off the deep end. Several years ago I saw ’statistics’ claiming some number of deaths due to second-hand smoke. It seemed exagerated, so I checked. That number was higher than the Surgeon General claimed for actual smokers.

Were the ‘eco-fascists’ accurate I would have suggested they could increase their life-expectancy by taking up the habit.
By Doug Bremner, February 4, 2009 @ 11:59 pm

Yes I agree. I quit the herb a year ago (I think, have made repeated efforts to quit over the years) but I still think nothing of sitting at a table with European psychiatry colleages after dinner at a conference and having them light up. I am sorry, but that is the way it is. And as for standing outside of University Hospital in Seattle, or within 200 yards of such, I say, Eco-fascists! Eat my … {…}!!!
By Paula Lipko, June 16, 2009 @ 3:24 pm

Smoking isn’t the best habit but there are worse. Smokers already go outside of every building rain or shine. At least if they choose to smoke in their homes they should have that right. Smoking does seem to help those who have mental conditions and it seems to also help pre menopause symptoms. Just as marijuana seems to help some medical conditions. Plenty of studies are done about the cons of smoking what about any benefits? Can cigarettes be prescribed? Everything in moderation.
By Dan, June 17, 2009 @ 9:14 pm

The Supreme Court has ruled that one can in fact take any drug- especially if one is an addict:

Early 1920s: A Dr. Linder gave a patient a narcotic and was prosecuted. The case was over-turned.

1962: Robinson v. California: The charges were ruled unconstitutional.

1968: Powell v. Texas- public drunkedness due to alcoholism. The case was dismissed.
By Trisha Klawe, August 6, 2009 @ 5:24 am

An incredibly refreshing read Doug. First, I applaud the courage it takes to speak where angels dare not be heard …; were I wearing my french berry, I would tip it to you and insist that you continue to write, to the loss of Emory I might add. klawe4
By Harry Rag, August 15, 2010 @ 1:06 pm

Anne Bremner has vigorously campaigned for the release of Amanda Knox – a sadistic sex killer. She has repeatedly misled the media and the public with a number of false claims.

She may be able to suppress the truth about what happened when she was arrested by blocking the release of the investigative reports and video.

However, she won’t be able to suppress the truth about Amanda Knox. The English translation of Judge Massei’s report can be downloaded from here:

http://www.perugiamurderfile.org/viewtopic.php?p=53735#p5373