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 …
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 …
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 …
The head injury Pathway published in May is damagingly incomplete. Read why here.