Mdedge Psychcast

Guest host Eva Ritvo, MD, interviews Dorothy Otnow Lewis, MD, about her more than 40-year career in studying death row inmates as examined in the HBO documentary “Crazy, Not Insane.” Dr. Lewis is clinical professor of psychiatry at Yale University, New Haven, Conn. She has no disclosures. Dr. Ritvo is a psychiatrist in private practice in Miami Beach, Fla. She has no disclosures. Take-home points Dr. Lewis has an extensive archive of taped interviews with death row inmates that she has used to inform her work as an expert witness. While doing her child psychiatry training at the Yale Child Study Center and sitting in at the juvenile court, she began to see that some of the children had psychiatric and neurologic problems that had not been addressed. The parents of these children sometimes had psychotic or bipolar disorders. After seeing these themes, Dr. Lewis started a clinic at the court. Dr. Lewis and her team were able to study approximately 15 inmates in four states, including Texas and Florida, both o