Author: admin

Playing through pain has always been seen as an admirable quality among athletes. My old role model, Don Schollander, said swimming through pain was a basic requirement and those who could tolerate agony would become champions. I was state champion in Texas as a kid, and All State in High School, before swimming in college...

I was reminded this Father’s Day of a story my Dad, a practicing physician for over fifty years, told us about meeting his great uncle just before starting medical school at Tulane in 1943. That Dr. Malone was a country doctor in rural Alabama, the only one for over a hundred miles, serving a poor,...

A new study explores body image disorders in men, which appear to be on the rise. Body dysmorphic syndrome is fairly universal in adolescent girls and is largely based on a sense of being defective, along with fears of being rejected by women and not attractive to men. Psychotherapy is helpful as is getting involved...

A recent study now confirms suicide is the leading cause of death in the US for people under 50. It is the second leading cause for 16 to 25 year olds, trailing “accidents”. We are concerned about the elderly electing suicide over natural death, but this is statistically low. The folks who live to be...

A new study confirms that the birth weight and head circumferance measures of babies born to mothers on antidepressants is the same as those on no medications. This study is a part of the ongoing debate of the safety of these medications for pregnant or nursing mothers. No study yet answers the long term effect...

Since the Newtown shootings, public debate over gun control and second amendment supporters have raged non stop. Those of us in mental health care have hoped this event, and the others like it, could raise awareness of the one preventable cause of the recent mass shootings: the lack of mental health care funding and weak...

Last month I had two Basal Cell cancers removed from my face. One was deep in my cheek and I required a two hour general anesthesia to remove it and reconstruct a skin flap that would not look like a pirate. The surgery went well, but I had my normal bad reaction to anesthesia and...

One and three people over sixty five have symptoms of dementia. One half over eighty have the diagnosable illness. Early symptoms include forgetting names, events and common things, like placement of car keys and other household items. This would not be at times when tired or stressed, however, these situations make it worse. It progresses...

Testosterone replacement therapies have been available to men for many decades, but until recently, only offered to men will significantly low levels, usually bellow 100. This is an endocrine medical condition requiring medical treatment. Steroid abuse has at the same time been rampant, allowing athletes to increase bulk and speed. Now, testosterone is being marketed...

A recent study just released shows that one in five high school age boys in the U.S. have been diagnosed ADHD ( or just ADD ) and are being treated with psychostimulant medications. This is a dramatic increase over the last decade and easily a twenty fold increase in the last thirty years. Why this...