About Dr. Refai
Shariq Refai, MD, MBA, is a board-certified psychiatrist and the medical editor of PsychiatryRx. He has worked in psychiatry for more than fifteen years, with a particular focus on anxiety, overthinking, panic, and the day-to-day reality of living with these conditions.
He is the founder of shrinkMD, an independent multistate telepsychiatry practice, and the creator of the Unstuck app, a self-guided mental wellness tool. He is also the author of three books on anxiety and overthinking, and he runs shrinkMD Publishing, the imprint that publishes those books and this site.
Training and credentials
Dr. Refai holds dual board certification in psychiatry and in sports and performance psychiatry. He earned his medical degree at St. George's University School of Medicine, and completed residency training at the University of Hawaii and at John Peter Smith Hospital. He holds an MBA from Duke University, along with certificates in Electroconvulsive Therapy and in Obesity Medicine from Columbia University.
Before medical school, while studying at the University of North Florida, he worked nights as a psychiatric technician. He has said that this period shaped much of how he thinks about mental health and access to care, and the lesson he took from it: that mental illness does not discriminate by income, profession, or background.
His work and focus
Dr. Refai's clinical and writing work centers on anxiety, overthinking, panic, and emotional awareness, and on making psychiatric care clearer and less stigmatized. He built shrinkMD after concluding that many digital psychiatry models were not delivering the continuity, follow-up, and clinical responsibility he would want for his own family. Across his clinical work, his books, and his public writing, the aim is the same: to translate psychiatric concepts into plain, accurate language that respects the reader.
Books by Dr. Refai
Dr. Refai is the author of three books, published by shrinkMD Publishing:
- Your Mind Is Full of Sh*t: A Psychiatrist's Guide to Outsmarting Overthinking, Anxiety, and the Lies in Your Head. ISBN 979-8-950653-00-1.
- Your Mind Is Full of Sh*t: The Workbook. A companion guide for noticing your own patterns.
- The Havoc in Your Head: A Psychiatrist's Reset for Anxiety, Overthinking, Panic, and the Thoughts That Won't Let Go.
The books are written for a general audience and draw on the same clinical perspective that informs his review of this site. PsychiatryRx features them because they are the medical editor's own work, a relationship described in full on our disclosure page.
His role at PsychiatryRx
Dr. Refai is the medical editor of PsychiatryRx. He reviews each guide, comparison, and class page for clinical accuracy before it is published, and the date of that review appears on every page. He sets the clinical line for the site: what claims are made, what nuance is kept, and what is cut as oversimplified. He is also the medical editor of the related publications AnxietyResource.org, DepressionResource.org, and AnxietyResearch.org.
His role here is editorial. The pages are written for general public education, and his review is what makes them clinically vetted rather than simply well written. As our medical disclaimer explains, that review is a check on general educational accuracy. It is not medical advice to any individual reader.
Professional profiles
Dr. Refai's professional identity can be verified through his public researcher and reference profiles: ORCID 0009-0009-1090-4373 and Wikidata entity Q139822307.