Doctoring the Truth

Send us Fan Mail A mother can be terrified, begging for help, and still be sent home. A mother can look organised on a video visit and still be collapsing behind the scenes. This week we close our postpartum psychosis series with two cases that force the hardest questions in maternal mental health, forensic psychiatry, and criminal responsibility. Trigger warning: child deaths, suicide, severe mental illness, psychosis, and a brief mention of cannibalism. If this series helped you think diff...

Send us Fan Mail A calm voice, religious music in the background, and a confession that makes no emotional sense unless you understand psychosis. We trace the Dena Schlosser case in Plano, Texas, where postpartum psychiatric illness, religious language, and the criminal legal system collide, forcing a brutal question: when does a stated “belief” read like motive, and when is it evidence that reality testing has collapsed? If you want medically grounded true crime, subscribe, share this with a...

Send us Fan Mail A mother who just gave birth can look “fine” in a short conversation and still be slipping into a psychiatric emergency by nightfall. That gap between what others see and what she is actually experiencing is where postpartum psychosis becomes so dangerous, and where shame and silence can turn a treatable crisis into a catastrophe. We walk through what postpartum psychosis really is: an acute childbirth-triggered illness often linked to the bipolar spectrum, with early signs ...

Send us Fan Mail A clinic door can feel like safety, especially when you’re scared, short on money, and out of options. But what happens when the “respectable” name on the sign is just a costume, and the system meant to protect patients stops looking closely? We tell the story of Dr. Kermit Gosnell and the Women’s Medical Society in West Philadelphia, using the confirmed criminal case and the court record to stay grounded in what was proven and what was alleged. We talk through the condition...

Send us Fan Mail A patient walks into a hospital for help with opioid withdrawal, accepts a medication offered by a doctor, and later learns that dose was part of an experiment. That single shift, from treatment to research, is where trust can break for good. This story forces a bigger conversation about clinical research ethics, vulnerable populations, interpreters, and the power dynamics inside detox units. We explore how the sponsor-investigator role concentrates responsibility, how...