Editorial & Medical Review Policy

Effective Date: June 6, 2026

Last Updated: June 6, 2026

1. Why this policy exists

shrinkMD is a clinical telepsychiatry practice, and the educational content on this website sits next to real medical care. That proximity raises the standard: a reader deciding whether to seek treatment deserves the same rigor as a patient in a visit. This policy describes how content on shrinkMD.com is created, reviewed, sourced, maintained, and corrected, so you can judge for yourself whether to trust it.

2. Who writes our content

Content on shrinkMD.com is developed under the direction of our founder and medical director, Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA, a board certified psychiatrist with dual board certification in psychiatry and in sports and performance psychiatry and more than fifteen years in practice. Clinical pages reflect how care is actually delivered at shrinkMD, not abstract summaries written at a distance from practice.

Writing and editorial support tools, including drafting software, may be used in producing content. Tools do not decide what is clinically true. Every clinical statement published on this website is reviewed and approved by the medical director before publication, and accountability for accuracy rests with him, not with any tool.

3. Medical review

Every page containing clinical information, including condition pages, treatment and service pages, the Reset guides, and location pages with clinical content, is reviewed by Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA before publication. Each reviewed page displays a "Medically reviewed by" attribution with the date of the most recent review, and the same information is embedded in the page's structured data.

Review covers diagnostic accuracy, alignment with current evidence and practice guidelines, appropriate scope (what telepsychiatry can and cannot responsibly treat), safety information including crisis routing, and the absence of overstatement. A page that promises outcomes, minimizes risks, or describes treatment we would not actually provide does not pass review.

4. Evidence standards

Clinical content is grounded in sources we would rely on in practice, including:

• Current editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)
• Practice guidelines of the American Psychiatric Association and other relevant professional bodies
• Publications and patient resources from the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), SAMHSA, and MedlinePlus
• FDA prescribing information for medication-related content
• Peer-reviewed literature, weighted by study quality

Condition pages include a Sources section linking to authoritative references. Where evidence is mixed or evolving, our content says so rather than manufacturing certainty. Where a claim is our clinical judgment rather than settled evidence, we frame it that way.

5. What our content is, and is not

The content on this website is general education. It is not medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment, and reading it does not create a clinician-patient relationship. Those boundaries are described in full in our Medical Disclaimer. Education can help you decide whether and where to seek care; only an evaluation by a licensed clinician can tell you what is true for you.

We write for adults. We do not publish content designed to alarm, to exploit symptoms for attention, or to convert fear into bookings. If a page ever reads that way to you, we want to know.

6. Review and update cadence

Clinical pages are reviewed at least annually, and sooner when any of the following occurs: a relevant guideline changes, a medication-related safety communication is issued, our service model changes, or an error is reported. The "Last reviewed" date on each page reflects the most recent completed review, not cosmetic edits.

7. Corrections

If you believe anything on this website is inaccurate, outdated, or misleading, email [email protected] with the page address and the concern. Please do not include personal health information. Reports are reviewed under the medical director's authority. Confirmed errors are corrected promptly; material corrections, meaning those that could have changed a reader's understanding or decision, are noted on the affected page.

8. Advertising, affiliations, and conflicts of interest

This website does not run advertising, does not publish sponsored content, does not participate in affiliate programs, and earns no commissions from anything it links to. Our revenue comes from one source: providing psychiatric care at published flat fees.

Disclosure of related interests: shrinkMD's founder also founded and medically reviews the Shrink Network, a group of independent, ad-free educational publications (including AnxietyResource.org, DepressionResource.org, AnxietyResearch.org, and PsychiatryRx.org), the shrinQ self-guided program, and the Unstuck app, and is the author of forthcoming books published by shrinkMD Publishing. When this website links to those properties, it is linking to commonly owned projects, and we say so rather than presenting them as independent endorsements. None of those properties provides clinical care, and none pays for placement here.

9. Imagery

Photographs of clinicians are real photographs of the people they depict. Illustrative lifestyle imagery used on location and condition pages may be created with digital tools; it is used to convey place and tone, never to depict actual patients, fabricate clinical scenarios, or imply endorsements. We do not use stock or generated imagery to represent real staff.

10. Contact

Questions about this policy may be directed to [email protected] or 1-877-747-4656. For everything else on how we operate, see our Medical Disclaimer, Terms and Conditions, and Website Privacy Policy.