Depression in Recession

The BBC has an  Interesting Article on how the economic crisis is leading to an emotional crisis in many men in the face of trouble providing for their families.  The report on a survey that found men are twice as likely currently to report having suicidal thoughts, half as likely to discuss their trouble with friends or family, and while experience mental health problems in roughly equal numbers with women, they go untreated far more often.

This is interesting to me for several reasons.  The suffering goes on largely in silence.  Men don’t use health care in general to the extent that women do and they absolutely don’t use mental health care to the same extent.

points of interest, vol 2, #3

And we’re back.  It is time once again for my semi-regular offering of the choicest gems I found scouring the internet for all things mind, soul, and body.  Today I have virtual reality, depression, doctors, some crucial playing around, the endowment of power, medicinal goats milk, courage, one ton snakes, how one can actually buy happiness, and child brought into an alternate reality by his neighborhood dentist, to name just a very few.  So dig in and enjoy the very best of the internets-

Points of Interest, #34

Welcome again to my roundup of those things that stood out as educational, uplifting, inspiring, and downright funny in my journeying through the ethernet.  You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, or you’ll simply move on unimpressed.  Take your pick.

    This week I share the curse of a child’s imagination, the psychology of our politics, sacrifice, sorrow, and other such spiritual gifts, two medical specialties that are all in your head, alien hands, killer pandas and Raven-puffs, to name just some of the bounteous fruits I have gathered tirelessly and selflessly especially for you, the reader. 

So without further adieu, I present the absolute best I could find-

The Best Doctor Blogs

    I am continuing my review of the best blogs mind, body, and soul at least from my perspective.  Doctor blogs have been the subject of controversy with the AMA lately.  There are privacy concerns and concerns about the professionalism of ranting about colleagues or patients in such a public forum.  While these concerns may be valid, this isn’t what I generally see in the blogs, at least not the ones I end up following anyway.  Many, many blogs focus on healthcare and its shortcomings and problems with the system.  These have their place, but for me the very best blogs share the highs and the lows of medicine.  I think the blog format is ideal for sharing the unique experience and point of view that we physicians have.  I think the best blogs humanize the doctor, the patients and in so doing feed the soul.  Here are a few of my favorites-

Points of Interest #28

Welcome, one and all to my wrap up of all the best posts to be found on-line in my adventures in cyberspace.  This time we have no worries, the importance of intelligences, the fine line between creativity and madness, wet bugs and so much more, so dig in.

Points of interest #21

My own recent deficiencies notwithstanding, this has been an especially powerful and abundant week for the mind, soul and body on the Internet.  There is more to share than I had room for.  It sometimes seems I spend more time bringing everyone else’s work than I do in my own writing, but know this- I do it especially for you, the reader.  What good is wisdom and knowledge if not shared among people.  So partake and enjoy the best of the Internet-

My entire life

Few things in medicine are harder than trying to explain to a patient that you don’t understand what is going on.  As is common, I recently had an adolescent patient that had either psychosomatic stroke symptoms or actual acute resolving weakness exaggerated by anxiety.   As we very gently let him down, we explained that we could not find a physiologic reason for his weakness, now better, and that we would likely never know what caused it.  All the patient often hears in these conversations is a booming, “It’s all in your head.”  So it was under these conditions that the patient caught me off balance.  “How can you not know, you have been studying this stuff for your entire life?!” 

Avicenna, legendary Islamic physician and philosopher

Performance enhancing drugs-for doctors?

     Thanks to the Frontal Cortex, I recently stumbled across an article on the online journal n+1 that describes firsthand a new and disturbing trend in higher education, Adderall abuse.   Adderall is a mixture of long and short acting amphetamines that keep the mind revved up and the body energized for hours.  It appears overachievers at Ivy League Universities are sorely tempted by this as it improves test taking skills, focus, recall, enables all-nighters to work, etc.  The one group of students my mind immediately went to was the classic overachiever, the medical student.