Isaac Baldwin
@ibaldwin.bsky.social
MD. Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow. Neurodevelopment, catatonia, spirituality, philosophy and ethics in psychiatry. Opinions my own.
Though I think I’m a little late to the party, I had to share this book. Some of the best writing I’ve read in years. Come for the analysis of AI agency, stay for what it reveals about human consciousness and spirituality.
God, Human, Animal, Machine: Technology, Metaphor, and …
A meditation on what it might mean to be human in an ag…
www.goodreads.com
November 9, 2025 at 1:10 AM
Though I think I’m a little late to the party, I had to share this book. Some of the best writing I’ve read in years. Come for the analysis of AI agency, stay for what it reveals about human consciousness and spirituality.
In my practice, I ask:
- How often do you spend time with friends in-person outside of school?
- What activities do you do with other people that are just for fun?
I am often shocked by how little time kids are spending with this vital part of healthy development.
- How often do you spend time with friends in-person outside of school?
- What activities do you do with other people that are just for fun?
I am often shocked by how little time kids are spending with this vital part of healthy development.
'Kids are increasingly lonely,' child psychiatrist says: Here's how parents can help
In a recent study, Common Sense Media discovered that 26% of adolescent boys are lonely. The reasons vary.
www-cnbc-com.cdn.ampproject.org
October 31, 2025 at 7:58 PM
In my practice, I ask:
- How often do you spend time with friends in-person outside of school?
- What activities do you do with other people that are just for fun?
I am often shocked by how little time kids are spending with this vital part of healthy development.
- How often do you spend time with friends in-person outside of school?
- What activities do you do with other people that are just for fun?
I am often shocked by how little time kids are spending with this vital part of healthy development.
Here at AACAP 2025. Excited to present with some incredible colleagues on the evidence we’re building in the treatment of pediatric catatonia in ASD.
October 20, 2025 at 6:45 PM
Here at AACAP 2025. Excited to present with some incredible colleagues on the evidence we’re building in the treatment of pediatric catatonia in ASD.
Thought-provoking as always. My main question mirrors the post-script.
Is there anything we can do with nosology or language in ASD that would *guarantee* benefit for autistic people and maintain an honest recognition of the complex truths scientists know (and don’t) about the autism spectrum?
Is there anything we can do with nosology or language in ASD that would *guarantee* benefit for autistic people and maintain an honest recognition of the complex truths scientists know (and don’t) about the autism spectrum?
It is not ludicrous for mildly and severely impaired to have the same diagnosis
Classificatory solutions for social problems
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/it-is-not-...
Classificatory solutions for social problems
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/it-is-not-...
It is not ludicrous for mildly and severely impaired to have the same diagnosis
Classificatory solutions for social problems
www.psychiatrymargins.com
October 15, 2025 at 11:16 PM
Thought-provoking as always. My main question mirrors the post-script.
Is there anything we can do with nosology or language in ASD that would *guarantee* benefit for autistic people and maintain an honest recognition of the complex truths scientists know (and don’t) about the autism spectrum?
Is there anything we can do with nosology or language in ASD that would *guarantee* benefit for autistic people and maintain an honest recognition of the complex truths scientists know (and don’t) about the autism spectrum?
“Boredom proneness overlaps with inattention and impulsivity but does not capture hyperactivity, working memory deficits, or problems with planning and organization.”
Excellent article. An example of this distinction: the higher risk of car accidents is probably not due to boredom proneness alone.
Excellent article. An example of this distinction: the higher risk of car accidents is probably not due to boredom proneness alone.
ADHD, Boredom Proneness, and the Pills That Make Tedium Tolerable
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/adhd-bored...
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/adhd-bored...
ADHD, Boredom Proneness, and the Pills That Make Tedium Tolerable
Exploring the relationship between ADHD and boredom
www.psychiatrymargins.com
September 30, 2025 at 8:34 PM
“Boredom proneness overlaps with inattention and impulsivity but does not capture hyperactivity, working memory deficits, or problems with planning and organization.”
Excellent article. An example of this distinction: the higher risk of car accidents is probably not due to boredom proneness alone.
Excellent article. An example of this distinction: the higher risk of car accidents is probably not due to boredom proneness alone.
An interesting look at integrating several emerging heuristic models in psychiatry. With some discussion of what it would really take to create a paradigm shift.
New diagnosis in psychiatry: beyond heuristics | Psychological Medicine | Cambridge Core
New diagnosis in psychiatry: beyond heuristics - Volume 55
www.cambridge.org
September 18, 2025 at 11:57 AM
An interesting look at integrating several emerging heuristic models in psychiatry. With some discussion of what it would really take to create a paradigm shift.
This is excellent work. Exactly the type of research that can help us resolve the tense debates around the diagnosis, epidemiology, and nosology of catatonia. Spoiler: presentations change fast, even within 24 hours!
Fluctuation of Catatonic Signs in a Naturalistic Clinical Sample - Brian S. Barnett, Andrew Francis, 2025
Background We are unaware of investigations into whether catatonic signs fluctuate over short periods, so we quantified changes in catatonic signs over 24-hours...
journals.sagepub.com
September 6, 2025 at 4:13 PM
This is excellent work. Exactly the type of research that can help us resolve the tense debates around the diagnosis, epidemiology, and nosology of catatonia. Spoiler: presentations change fast, even within 24 hours!
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
The RFK Jr + MAHA alliance may very well ensure that the psychiatric harm movement is eventually remembered not for saving lives from medical overreach, but for wrecking public health in America. The irony of this outcome will not be lost on observers and future commentators.
August 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
The RFK Jr + MAHA alliance may very well ensure that the psychiatric harm movement is eventually remembered not for saving lives from medical overreach, but for wrecking public health in America. The irony of this outcome will not be lost on observers and future commentators.
Recent articles about the use of AI
in psychotherapy make me feel the way an older generation of psychiatrists must have felt watching the interpersonal aspects of their practice being discarded with applause from the business world and media.
in psychotherapy make me feel the way an older generation of psychiatrists must have felt watching the interpersonal aspects of their practice being discarded with applause from the business world and media.
August 29, 2025 at 2:13 PM
Recent articles about the use of AI
in psychotherapy make me feel the way an older generation of psychiatrists must have felt watching the interpersonal aspects of their practice being discarded with applause from the business world and media.
in psychotherapy make me feel the way an older generation of psychiatrists must have felt watching the interpersonal aspects of their practice being discarded with applause from the business world and media.
This post made me think of the many times I’ve heard a patient describe their past treatment with misleading metaphorical language, oftentimes inherited from a physician. It’s humbling to remember that our metaphors are carried outside our offices and may shape self understanding for a lifetime.
“the profession of psychiatry, over its long history, has impoverished its conceptual foundations by a strong brain-focused bias in how we talk, and, more importantly, think about mental disorders.” Ken Kendler
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/brain-meta...
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/brain-meta...
Brain Metaphors Beyond Brain Mythologies
A commentary on Kendler's history of metaphorical brain talk in psychiatry
www.psychiatrymargins.com
August 5, 2025 at 12:50 AM
This post made me think of the many times I’ve heard a patient describe their past treatment with misleading metaphorical language, oftentimes inherited from a physician. It’s humbling to remember that our metaphors are carried outside our offices and may shape self understanding for a lifetime.
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
Robert F. Kennedy calls autism an epidemic and treats it like a crisis. But the Trump administration has cut autism-related research by 26 percent since he took office.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Exclusive: Trump administration cut autism-related research by 26% so far in 2025
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr has vowed to address rising U.S. autism rates as a top health priority for the Trump administration .
www.reuters.com
May 16, 2025 at 9:38 PM
Robert F. Kennedy calls autism an epidemic and treats it like a crisis. But the Trump administration has cut autism-related research by 26 percent since he took office.
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
www.reuters.com/business/hea...
Thanks to @autismsciencefd.bsky.social for giving me some time to talk about how catatonia is diagnosed in autism. Some really excellent questions at the end. Enjoyed being with you all!
May 14, 2025: Diagnosis of Catatonia
YouTube video by Catatonia and Severe and Challenging Behaviors SIG
youtu.be
May 14, 2025 at 11:50 PM
Thanks to @autismsciencefd.bsky.social for giving me some time to talk about how catatonia is diagnosed in autism. Some really excellent questions at the end. Enjoyed being with you all!
I’ve been searching for “the point” behind the MAHA movement and RFK’s policies. All the doctors I know feel like it’s headed for disaster. So why does it have so much steam? Some recent pieces have made it clearer to me: (1/6)
May 3, 2025 at 8:10 PM
I’ve been searching for “the point” behind the MAHA movement and RFK’s policies. All the doctors I know feel like it’s headed for disaster. So why does it have so much steam? Some recent pieces have made it clearer to me: (1/6)
If psychiatrists want an effective collective response to the administration’s approach to psychiatric medications, it’s going to take clear-eyed communication like this.
My opinion piece in today’s @nytimes.com . I discuss how clinical neglect of medication-related harms has made RFK Jr’s stance on antidepressants appealing to so many and moving the public conversation in a productive direction requires us to remedy this neglect.
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/05/03/o...
Opinion | What Kennedy Gets Right, And Wrong, About Antidepressants (Gift Article)
Harm from these drugs is real. Let’s not cede the conversation to Kennedy.
www.nytimes.com
May 3, 2025 at 7:02 PM
If psychiatrists want an effective collective response to the administration’s approach to psychiatric medications, it’s going to take clear-eyed communication like this.
Many major autism advocacy organizations representing a huge variety of viewpoints (sometimes starkly opposing one another) released this joint statement.
Their points:
1. Vaccines do not cause autism
2. Autistic individuals deserve respect and support
3. Evidence-based policy is essential
Their points:
1. Vaccines do not cause autism
2. Autistic individuals deserve respect and support
3. Evidence-based policy is essential
ASAN, Autistic Women & Nonbinary Network, the Autistic People of Color Fund, Autism Society of America, Autism Speaks, The Arc, and others stand united: Autistic people deserve respect, support, and science-based policy, not dangerous disinformation. autisticadvocacy.org/2025/04/lead...
Leading Autism Organizations Release Joint Statement on Upholding Scientific Integrity and Supporting the Autism Community - Autistic Self Advocacy Network
April 17, 2025, Washington, D.C. – As national organizations dedicated to advancing the well-being of Autistic individuals, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, Autism Society of America, Autism…
autisticadvocacy.org
April 20, 2025 at 12:50 PM
Many major autism advocacy organizations representing a huge variety of viewpoints (sometimes starkly opposing one another) released this joint statement.
Their points:
1. Vaccines do not cause autism
2. Autistic individuals deserve respect and support
3. Evidence-based policy is essential
Their points:
1. Vaccines do not cause autism
2. Autistic individuals deserve respect and support
3. Evidence-based policy is essential
This is the language of eugenics. Autistic lives are inherently valuable.
WATCH | RFK Jr claims autistic children will never go on dates or pay taxes
Read the recent CDC autism report here: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
Read the recent CDC autism report here: www.independent.co.uk/news/world/a...
April 18, 2025 at 2:33 AM
This is the language of eugenics. Autistic lives are inherently valuable.
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
The Administration for Community Living, housed in HHS, is shutting down. I spoke to disability experts for @motherjones.com about questions they have for what’s next, the services ACL provides, and how this move may lead to more folks being institutionalized. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
RFK Jr. moves to close Administration for Community Living
The shutdown will mean "more people forced into institutional settings."
www.motherjones.com
March 28, 2025 at 5:47 PM
The Administration for Community Living, housed in HHS, is shutting down. I spoke to disability experts for @motherjones.com about questions they have for what’s next, the services ACL provides, and how this move may lead to more folks being institutionalized. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
One way the mainstream "over" (or "under") diagnosis discourse is misleading is the assumption there is some natural, correct number of neurodivergent people. But there is no natural number, as disability is relationally, materially, and socially produced.
March 25, 2025 at 10:01 AM
One way the mainstream "over" (or "under") diagnosis discourse is misleading is the assumption there is some natural, correct number of neurodivergent people. But there is no natural number, as disability is relationally, materially, and socially produced.
“The psychiatrist, scrolling through the criticism on their phone, can sigh, close the app, and move on with their evening, while the harmed patient sits, eyes wet, waiting for a response, feeling alone and terrified by the world’s indifference to their suffering.”
Building Mutual Aid Communities Outside the Clinical Context: Q&A with Cooper Davis
And reflections on relationships with psychotropics gone awry
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/building-m...
And reflections on relationships with psychotropics gone awry
www.psychiatrymargins.com/p/building-m...
Building Mutual Aid Communities Outside the Clinical Context: Q&A with Cooper Davis
And reflections on relationships with psychotropics gone awry
www.psychiatrymargins.com
March 22, 2025 at 5:35 PM
“The psychiatrist, scrolling through the criticism on their phone, can sigh, close the app, and move on with their evening, while the harmed patient sits, eyes wet, waiting for a response, feeling alone and terrified by the world’s indifference to their suffering.”
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
RFK and friends would have us believe medicine (especially psychiatry) is ruining our country. He would like to return to a golden age before all this. As this article brilliantly illuminates, there is no such time. Reactionary voices have been blaming medicine for “moral decline” for centuries.
Neurodiversity and the Myth of Moral Decline
How to spot reactionary critiques of medicalisation
open.substack.com
March 4, 2025 at 8:57 PM
RFK and friends would have us believe medicine (especially psychiatry) is ruining our country. He would like to return to a golden age before all this. As this article brilliantly illuminates, there is no such time. Reactionary voices have been blaming medicine for “moral decline” for centuries.
What a piece. This manages to both review a book and paint a picture of the type of psychiatry I think is worth practicing— one that asks deep questions about agency and iatrogenic harm while remaining committed to understanding that patients’ positive experiences with medications are not illusory.
February 25, 2025 at 4:49 PM
What a piece. This manages to both review a book and paint a picture of the type of psychiatry I think is worth practicing— one that asks deep questions about agency and iatrogenic harm while remaining committed to understanding that patients’ positive experiences with medications are not illusory.
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
🧵 It’s certainly not typical to find an article about anti NMDA receptor encephalitis or #catatonia in People magazine, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this important read raising awareness of both topics.
people.com/man-29-ends-...
people.com/man-29-ends-...
29-Year-Old in ‘Catatonic State’ After Rare Disorder Causes Debilitating Night Terrors
Ben Tarver, 29, suffered debilitating night terrors, which were the first symptoms of Anti-NMDA Receptor Encephalitis, a rare autoimmune disorder that landed him in the ICU.
people.com
December 23, 2024 at 9:03 PM
🧵 It’s certainly not typical to find an article about anti NMDA receptor encephalitis or #catatonia in People magazine, but I was pleasantly surprised to find this important read raising awareness of both topics.
people.com/man-29-ends-...
people.com/man-29-ends-...
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
"More people died from homelessness than homicide in Nashville this year.”
A friend shared this photo from yesterday's memorial at Riverfront Park.
A friend shared this photo from yesterday's memorial at Riverfront Park.
December 15, 2024 at 5:05 PM
"More people died from homelessness than homicide in Nashville this year.”
A friend shared this photo from yesterday's memorial at Riverfront Park.
A friend shared this photo from yesterday's memorial at Riverfront Park.
Reposted by Isaac Baldwin
"When I identify my suffering as illness-like, I wish to lay claim to a caring interpersonal relationship, instead of one which negates my experience and my deliberations on my experience by telling me that I have misunderstood the nature of my suffering."
@zsuzsannachappell.bsky.social's paper/
@zsuzsannachappell.bsky.social's paper/
Zsuzsanna Chappell wrote a good paper on this: "In defence of the concept of mental illness". philpapers.org/rec/CHAIDO-15 She defines illness in a phenomenological way, an experience that permeates your life when you have it. This can be physical or mental.
Zsuzsanna Chappell, In Defence of the Concept of Mental Illness - PhilPapers
Many worry about the over-medicalisation of mental illness, and some even argue that we should abandon the term mental illness altogether. Yet, this is a commonly used term in popular discourse, ...
philpapers.org
December 9, 2024 at 7:21 PM
"When I identify my suffering as illness-like, I wish to lay claim to a caring interpersonal relationship, instead of one which negates my experience and my deliberations on my experience by telling me that I have misunderstood the nature of my suffering."
@zsuzsannachappell.bsky.social's paper/
@zsuzsannachappell.bsky.social's paper/