Category Mental health

Fighting the stigma: mental health and medical students

March 9, 2015 · by · in Mental health

‘Having a mental illness and being a doctor is OK.’ That was the final conclusion of one of the students I interviewed for this Student BMJ article on mental health and medical school, who had been through the mill of break-down and depression and worried silently for months that she would be thrown out of […]

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What are we scared of?

January 30, 2015 · by · in History of medicine, Mental health · 2 Comments

By and large, those of us in the west live in the least dangerous conditions in human history. Most of us have the basics: food, shelter, safety. We’re unlikely to be killed by wild animals (even other humans) and fatal infectious disease is rare. Life expectancy is long and few of us die in childbirth. […]

From antidepressant prescription to tight glucose control: seven clinical controversies that keep on going

January 6, 2015 · by · in Cardiovascular disease, Evidence-based medicine, Health news, Mental health

Some clinical stories become perennials – issues that never seem to get completely resolved and pop up year after year. What’s the betting we can see the end of any of these seven controversies in 2015? 1: Are antidepressants over-prescribed? To some, depression is under-diagnosed and under-treated. Others think we’re medicalising ordinary sadness. 2: Bariatric surgery for […]

Exercise and depression: unpicking the evidence

September 19, 2013 · by · in Health news, Mental health · 1 Comment

The belief that exercise is a simple, non-pharmacological treatment for depression is so attractive, that it’s been received pretty much uncritically. When a study last year seemed to question the use of exercise as an ‘add-on’ treatment for depression, there was a mini-outcry, with many people (including people who’ve had depression) loudly proclaiming how much […]

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