Editorial team

Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, FAPA

Board-certified psychiatrist. Founder of shrinkMD. Editor of shrinkiatry.

Shariq Refai is a board-certified psychiatrist based in Jacksonville, Florida, and the founder of shrinkMD, an independent multistate telepsychiatry practice. He holds an MBA from Duke University, trained at St. George's University School of Medicine, and completed residency at the University of Hawaii and John Peter Smith Hospital. Before medical school, he worked nights as a psychiatric technician while studying at the University of North Florida, an experience he credits with teaching him early that mental illness doesn't sort people by income, status, or background.

Across The Shrink Network, he serves as the medical editor and reviewer, setting the clinical line for what claims are made and how. On shrinkiatry, his role is both author and reviewer: the content reflects how the profession actually works, written to a standard he'll put his name to. He's also the author of three forthcoming books that translate psychiatry into plain language, published by shrinkMD Publishing.

Why a psychiatrist signs off on every page

shrinkiatry covers a profession where small inaccuracies do real damage: a misstated rule, an overstated study, a tidy answer where the truth is messy. Having a board-certified psychiatrist write or review every page is the difference between commentary that sounds informed and commentary that is. The credential matters here because the subject is the practice of medicine itself, and the reviewer has lived the training, the documentation, the prescribing rules, and the business decisions the site describes.

What review actually checks

Review isn't a rubber stamp. It checks that claims match their sources, that nuance survived the edit, that nothing was rounded up to a cleaner answer than the evidence supports, and that opinion is labeled as opinion. It also checks tone: that the page respects the reader, avoids fearmongering, and doesn't drift into giving individualized medical advice. Where the evidence is genuinely mixed, the reviewer's job is to make sure the page says so.

Independence and disclosure

The editor has financial interests, most notably in shrinkMD, and the only honest way to handle that is to state it. His interest in shrinkMD, his books, and the Unstuck app is disclosed plainly, and the site takes no advertising, sells nothing, and accepts no affiliate or referral commissions. References to shrinkMD are made because it's the network's clinical practice, not as paid placement. You can read more about his background and writing at shariqrefai.com.

Professional identifiers: ORCID 0009-0009-1090-4373 · NPI 1467680660 · Wikidata Q139822307.

How review works

Every article on shrinkiatry is written or reviewed by Dr. Refai before it's published, and carries a last-reviewed date. Articles are sourced from primary materials, including accreditation and certification bodies, federal data, professional associations, and peer-reviewed research. We say plainly when evidence is mixed or limited. Pages are revisited when the facts change. The full process is described in how we build content and editorial standards.

Qualified clinicians and researchers can join this review process. See how to contribute to shrinkiatry as a peer reviewer or expert contributor, or browse the current contributors.

In the media

Dr. Refai's clinical perspective has been featured and quoted in national health and consumer publications, where he comments on psychiatry, depression, lifestyle, and mental health. A selection:

• Mental Health Does Not Discriminate: An Interview with Dr. Shariq Refai, Top Doctor Magazine (2024)
• 10 Research-Backed, Natural Ways to Counter Depression, The Epoch Times (2025)
• Survivors in Isolation: Abusers Separate Victims from Everyone for Power and Control, DomesticShelters.org (2025)
• Why Does Stress Make You Poop?, EatingWell (2025)