Even before Covid, mental health issues were on the rise accompanied by significant increases in spending and in use of medications. Despite this, the problems continued to increase. The advent of lockdowns in response to Covid has made the situation worse, in...
In the early 1970’s my parents built a house in what was then the outskirts of Perth. The district had a startup footy (AFL) team. Many weeks we struggled to get a full team on the park and sometimes “borrowed” players from the opposition if they had spare. We did not...
There is a fantastic quote by Mark Twain which says “To a man with a hammer, everything looks like a nail”. To the medical profession, every problem can look like a medical one having a medical solution. Issues may require medical involvement without being medical...
Recently my daughter was going to a music festival with a group of friends. Like her father she likes music and tried playing it – without great success. On the cusp of her third decade she is a sensible young adult. However, millennials are not known for...
It was in April 2013 when I made the link between my son’s suicide attempt at five years of age and his use of the widely prescribed asthma and allergy medication Singulair (active ingredient Montelukast). The Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) had...
It is amazing how often the obvious comes as a revelation to the academics that inhabit the world of research and public health. A new study out of Massachusetts’s general hospital shows that children who do not get enough sleep have more cognitive (thinking) and...
