Sally Satel

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Sally L. Satel
Born	January 9, 1956
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Cornell University; University of Chicago; Brown University

Sally L. Satel^[1] (born January 9, 1956)^[2] is an American psychiatrist based in Washington, D.C. She is a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine, the W.H. Brady Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and author.

Satel has written: P.C. M.D.: How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine (2001) and Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion (1999).

Life[]

She received a kidney on March 4, 2006, from writer Virginia Postrel, after being diagnosed in 2004 with chronic kidney failure. She wrote an article in The New York Times chronicling her experience of searching for an organ donor.^[3] Sally Satel is a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a conservative think tank. Her articles have been published in The New Republic, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and in scholarly publications like Policy Review on topics including psychiatry and addiction.

Education[]

Satel earned a bachelor's degree from Cornell University, a master's degree from the University of Chicago and an MD degree from Brown University. She completed her residency in psychiatry at Yale University between 1988 and 1993. In 1993 and 1994, she was a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow with the U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions.

Satel also served on the advisory committee of the Center for Mental Health Services of the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

Viewpoints[]

In her book P.C. M.D., Satel critiques what she sees as the burgeoning phenomenon of 'politically correct' (PC) medicine, which seeks to address what its proponents view as social oppression by reorganizing the distribution of public health resources. She argues that incorporating social justice into the mission of medicine diverts attention and resources from the effort to prevent and combat disease for everyone. Satel considers the idea of social determination of illness as "one of the most pernicious themes in PC medicine," and sees 'psychiatric survivor' information centers as promoting the work of anti-psychiatry groups. She is considered a political conservative, ^[4] a description she rejects.^[5]

In a June 2004 meeting of the National Advisory Council for the Center for Mental Health Services, Satel called for a vast increase in the amount of forced outpatient medical treatment of psychiatric patients, echoing views earlier stated in her Drug Treatment, The Case for Coercion.

Satel supports legally recognizing same-sex marriages.^[6]

Satel supports the medical prescription of opioids such as hydrocodone (Vicodin), oxycodone (OxyContin), morphine or methadone to relieve the pain of patients for whom nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and conventional opiates like codeine have proved ineffective. She acknowledges that such opioids are often abused, but believes that abusers often have a history of drug abuse and narcotics, and that they are not typically a pain patient who fell unwittingly into a drug habit.^[7] Satel's employer, AEI, has received funding from Purdue Pharma, ^[8] a company known as the maker of OxyContin, one of the drugs abused in the opioid epidemic in the United States. Satel has also met with Eric Dezenhall, the founder of a public relations company employed by Purdue; attended a discussion held by AEI that included two Purdue employees; and received $2,000 to speak to the staff of a New Orleans hospital about addiction. In numerous articles and appearances on radio and television, Satel has pushed back against restrictions on opioid prescribing, and defended Purdue Pharma and its flagship product OxyContin, but did not disclose Purdue's relationship with of AEI.^[8] Satel says she was not aware that Purdue has provided funding to AEI and that at she reached her conclusions independently.^[8]

Selected works[]

• 1999 – Drug Treatment: The Case for Coercion. American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research. [77 p.] ISBN 0-8447-7128-7.
• 2001 – P.C. M.D.: How Political Correctness is Corrupting Medicine. Perseus. ISBN 0-465-07183-X.
• 2005 – One Nation Under Therapy: How the Helping Culture is Eroding Self-Reliance (with Christina Hoff Sommers). St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-312-30443-9.
• 2006 – The Health Disparities Myth: Diagnosing the Treatment Gap. AEI Press. [92 p.] ISBN 0-8447-7192-9.
• 2013 – Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience (with Scott O. Lilienfeld). Basic Books. ISBN 978-0-465-01877-2.

See also[]

• Kendra's Law
• Laura's Law
• New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
• Outpatient commitment
• TeenScreen

References[]

External links[]

• Official website
• Appearances on C-SPAN