• Informed Consent &
  Malpractice
• Employment Litigation
  ADA - Disability - Sexual Misconduct
  Discrimination - Worker's Compensation
• Emotional &
  Physical Damages
  Conscious Pain & Suffering
  Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
  Neuropsychiatry and Brain Imaging
• Standards for Experts
• Product Liability
  Medical Devices & Pharmaceuticals
  Toxic Tort
• Criminal Justice &
  Public Safety
  Diminished Capacity - Drug Addiction
  Competency to Confess
  Death Penalty Mitigation
  Workplace Safety
• Family & Custody Issues
• Testamentary &
  Contractual Capacity
• Professional &
  Organizational Ethics
  Patient Care - Managed Care - Privacy
• Psychoanalysis &
  Cultural Perspectives

What's New?

Most Recent Additions

• Articles: A series from Miller-McCune.com on the controversy surrounding the latest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in which Dr. Bursztajn's work with Lisa Cosgrove is cited:
  • Part I: Infallibility and Psychiatry’s Bible (May 25)
  • Part II: Who Benefits? DSM Conflict of Interests (June 3)
  • Part III: Are You Normal or Finally Diagnosed? (June 8, 2010)
• Article: Undue Pharmaceutical Influence on Psychiatric Practice: Steps That Can Reduce the Ethical Risk. Dr. Bursztajn and Lisa Cosgrove's latest article in the Psychiatric Times regarding increasing concerns arising about the ways in which corporate sponsorship of clinical trials and continuing medical education activities may bias the information that is published and disseminated about the benefits and risks of medications.
• Book: Teaching Ethics in Organ Transplantation and Tissue Donation: Cases and Movies. Dr. Bursztajn contributed a case study in this new book on the the ethics organ transplantation. Being a global and transnational endeavor, organ transplantation raises universal ethical concerns and, yet, has to be adapted to culturally mediated beliefs. In this book, 30 case studies colleeted from all over the world illustrate the range of global and local, ethical, social, and cultural problems assoeiated with this new form of treatment. Together with a list of relevant movies, the colleetion provides a unique resource for ethics education in medicine, health care, philosophy, and religious studies.
• Ongoing Commentary: Proposed Draft Revisions to DSM Disorders and Criteria. The American Psychiatric Association has created a website with proposed changes to the upcoming revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V).
• Professor A Stone Freedberg, a distinguished clinician and Harvard Medical School Professor Emeritus continued to help Dr. Bursztajn teach medical students patient care until his passing in 2009 at the age of 101. More information about Dr. Freedberg's full life can be found in his moving obituary in the Boston Globe.
• Article: Lessons from a WWII ghetto resonate with doctors today. The Boston Globe features a story on Dr. Bursztajn's teaching activities at Harvard medical School relative to learning from his parent's experiences with doctors during the Shoah. This article was inspired by a recent Surgical Grand Rounds, "Health Care in the Lodz Ghetto: Care, Compliance, Conscience and Resistance" that Dr. Bursztajn presented at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center on July 8, 2009. More recently, the story has been picked up by the Los Angeles Times.
• Article: Conflicts of interest bedevil psychiatric drug research. Dr. Bursztajn is mentioned along with his colleague and frequent co-author in USA Today.
• Video: Psychology Behind Unthinkable Crimes. Dr. Bursztajn comments in a Fox News story on unthinkable crimes between loved ones and family members.
• Article: Developing Unbiased Diagnostic and Treatment Guidelines in Psychiatry. A letter to the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine on the continuing crisis in psychiatric conflicts of interest in relation to the upcoming revision of the DSM.
• Article: Conflicts of Interest and Disclosure in the American Psychiatric Association's Clinical Practice Guidelines.
• Article: Firms tied to some MDs who set policy. Dr. Bursztajn along with his colleagues Lisa Cosgrove and Sheldon Krimsky is mentioned in a Boston Globe article examining his latest paper on the writers of psychiatric clinical guidelines and their financial ties with pharmaceutical companies, published in the journal of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics.
• Dr. Bursztajn is quoted in a March 18, 2009 Boston Globe article "Grandson's erratic behavior detailed" on the recent killing of Eleanor Clark by her grandson, James Clark.
• Presentation: Unmasking the Sophisticated Malingerer and Misattributer in Workers' Compensation Claims at the SEAK 29th Annual National Workers Compensation and Occupational Medicine Conference, July 20-23, 2009.
• Article: Managing Risks When Practicing in Three-Party Care Settings. Psychiatric Times February 3, 2009.
• Article: Towards Credible Conflict of Interest Policies in Clinical Psychiatry. Dr. Bursztajn's article with Lisa Cosgrove with a response from the chair and vice chair of the the DSM-V Task Force on the need for transparency of potential conflicts of interest for the conduct of psychiatric teaching, research, and clinical care and in the drafting of the next revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
• Case: State of New York vs Nixzaliz Santiago. (2008) Retained by prosecution for examination of defendant. Articles on the verdict in the New York Times
• Case: deVries, et al. vs Secaucus Fire Department, et al. A landmark civil rights verdict in a case alleging a town's politicians' failure to protect a gay couple who were harassed and eventually driven out of their home next to a fire station in Secaucus. Dr. Bursztajn served as the plaintiffs' attorneys' retained testifying expert regarding causation, the nature and extent of the emotional injuries and standards for reliability and validity for an forensic psychiatric Independent Medical Examination.
• Dr. Bursztajn's Letter to the Editor of Together regarding Dr. Salomea Kape's article "Searching for Daniel," in the September 2007 (PDF) edition.
• Book: Psychiatric Ethics and the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities in Institutions and the Community. This book, co-written by Dr. Bursztajn with Michael Perlin, Kris Gledhill and Eva Szeli contains case studies contributed by several of his mentees who nominated him for the Barger Award below, was published on February 25, 2008 and is available for download at the UNESCO and the International Center for Health Law and Ethics at the University of Haifa websites. Physical copies of the book may be purchased by contacting the editor Amnon Carmi. All purchased copies will benefit the work of the International Center for Health Law and Ethics at the University of Haifa and will help them to continue their work in this vital area.
• In recognition of his many years serving as a Principal Mentor for students at Harvard Medical School, Dr. Bursztajn was recently awarded the A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award.
• Dr. Bursztajn testified in three phases of the State of IL v. Aubrey Tucker trial: a hearing to suppress Tucker's confession that the defense alleged was coerced, in the guilt/innocence phase regarding Tucker's ability to form specific intent, and in the sentencing phase where the jury found that sufficient mitigating factors were present to preclude a death-penalty verdict.
• Dr. Bursztajn testified in the Lyman Murder Trial in Sioux City, Iowa. Articles and video from local television stations are available here.

• Dr. Bursztajn's recently published article in the September 2007 issue of Psychiatric Annals, DSM misuse pitfalls evident in clinical training and courtroom testimony.

• Dr. Bursztajn's recent articles published in the Psychiatric Times Bonus Issue on Clinical Psychiatry and the Law. On Skepticism and Tolerance in Psychiatry and Forensic Psychiatry and Reducing the Risk of Addiction to Prescribed Medications.

• Dr. Bursztajn's recent article with Milo Fox Pulde, Darlyn Pirakitikulr and Michael Perlin published in Medical Malpractice Law & Strategy November 2006. Kumho for Clinicians in the Courtroom - Inconsistency in the Trial Courts.

• Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin issue from Autumn 2006 titled "Sparks of Inspiration" includes the article "Prescriptions for Hope". Lessons from the Holocaust in how doctors can heal through hope, an adaptation of Dr. Bursztajn's original article "Reflections on My Father's Experience with Doctors During the Shoah (1939-1945)."

• Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin issue from Spring 2005 titled "History's Medical Mysteries" includes the article "Dead Men Talking, " a synopsis of Dr. Bursztajn's contributions to three Atlantic Productions documentaries for the Discovery Channel.

• Dr. Bursztajn’s contributions as a forensic neuropsychiatrist to highly acclaimed British-based educational films "Who Killed Julius Caesar?," "Who Killed Alexander the Great?," "Columbus: Secrets from the Grave."

• Dr. Bursztajn's recent article with Darlyn Pirakitikulr published in The Journal of Clinical Ethics (Winter 2006) The Grand Inquisitor’s Choice: Comment on the CEJA Report on Withholding Information from Patients.

• Dr. Bursztajn as a reviewer for the American Psychiatric Association in Are You There Alone? The Unspeakable Crime of Andrea Yates

• Our website commended by Medicine on the Net.
• Psychwatch: An award for our web site

Educator

Dr. Bursztajn's long standing special interests is psychiatric and forensic psychiatric diagnostic interviewing. This includes the differentiation of suffering in the post-traumatic spectrum from misattribution, unrelated major mental illness, exaggeration and malingering.

Dr. Bursztajn's most recent presentations are:

• 2006 World Psychiatric Association
• American Psychiatric Association 2006 Annual Meeting
• American Bar Association Mental Health & Disability Commission Semiannual Meeting

Also among Dr. Bursztajn's areas of expertise are public health education and violence prevention.was one of the few analysts who, from the outset was able to validly identify the activities of the Washington DC area snipers as being characteristic of copycat terrorists. See CNN Interview

Leading forensic investigators describing Dr. Bursztajn's selection to provide forensic psychiatric expertise for the two hour television documentary The Assassination of King Tut , Discovery Channel, Fall 2002.

Medical Choices, Medical Chances: How Patients, Families, and Physicians Can Cope With Uncertainty

This classic book has been reviewed favorably in leading medical journals ranging from the New England Journal of Medicine and the Journal of the American Medical Association to the Journal of the American Psychiatric Association.

Dr. Bursztajn has an active patient care practice and consults to physicians, institutions, judges, and plaintiff and defense counsel nationally.