You’ve had multiple concussions in sport. Do you have: Impaired concentration and memory loss? Lack of well-being? Depression and anxiety? Reduced energy? If so, you may fear you have early signs of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) and that it’ll be downhill all the way with this incurable condition. But maybe it’s not as bad as […]
Maybe it’s not CTE after all? Read More »
A large Danish population study which looked at more than 100,000 hospital admissions for head injury for over a decade and examined the causes of death, found this: You are four times more likely to kill yourself after you’ve suffered bruising or bleeding to the brain. You are three times more likely after concussion. You
Head Injury and Suicide Read More »
On Monday 18th December 2023, the Telegraph ran an article headed WHAT CONCUSSION CAN DO TO YOU. The author listed the symptoms – headaches or dizziness, difficulty concentrating or remembering, anxiety, low mood, fatigue and difficulty sleeping – and was absolutely silent about the worst symptom of all, which is loss of libido. Shouldn’t parents
A Glaring Omission Read More »
Patrick, 49, had a plan if his test result was negative. He would swallow his blood-thinning pills and some diazepam, then run a hot bath, get in, and slice into his femoral artery. The blood-thinners would prevent clotting. “It wouldn’t have been a cry for help. I didn’t intend to fail,” he says. Luckily the
Last May a 23-year-old Flemish girl was granted legal euthanasia on the grounds that ‘she was in a medically futile condition of mental suffering.’ Shanti De Corte died surrounded by her family including her mother, who supported her decision. She had suffered serious psychological issues in her teens, but the real trigger was the terrorist
Shanti De Cort: Was everything checked? Read More »
Yesterday I wrote to our MP, Chris Philp, as follows: May I ask what plans the government has made to meet the ever-increasing cost to the state of undiagnosed hypopituitarism patients? Now that NICE has at last undertaken to include the risk of post-traumatic hypopituitarism in its head injury guidance update in March, it seems
Whether the Princess was obliquely referring to her brother-in-law last week we shall never know, but one person endorses her comment wholeheartedly. John Willsher (not his real name) aged 51, a likeable and articulate clarinet player from south London, would argue strongly against the received wisdom that more men kill themselves than women because they
“Talking therapies don’t always work” says Kate Read More »
Professor Louis Appleby has received a Knighthood in the 2023 New Year’s Honours listed for his ‘services to medicine and mental health’. No doubt he is being congratulated widely. However, do his services to mental health really bear close examination? He leads the National Suicide Prevention Strategy for England. Such a strategy is vital to
Did Sir Louis earn it? Read More »
Head injury makes you four times more likely to die by suicide. Read more here.