Yesterday’s Herald contained a sad story about a young man who had been seen by the local mental health team, diagnosed him as potentially psychotic and prescribed an anti-psychotic. His counsellor later told him to stop taking the anti-psychotic and continue with counseling. He subsequently committed suicide. A young man committed suicide after his counsellor [...]

Parliament really does follow its own little set of rules, doesn’t it? Where else could one broadcast that your boss can’t do his job and insist that he be fired and then be allowed to take sick leave? I have had patients come to me asking for a week or two of stress leave, but [...]

I wanted to title this post “much ado about nothing” but it’s just too hackneyed. But that is exactly what I think of the Russell Norman Protest Saga. I’ve seen a lot of outrage over Norman’s treatment with, hilariously, a great deal of nationalistic fervour from the left. Even some of my right wing compatriots [...]

Some newspaper articles cause me to wonder what is NOT being said. The Herald today runs the headline: Denied help for sexual abuse, dead days later A review of new rules for sexual abuse counseling has come too late to save a South Auckland mother who died four days after her claim for ACC-funded counselling [...]

Just so we understand each other, I consider the entire Charles-Chauvel/Noisy-Kids-in-airplane episode to be slightly less newsworthy than “cat stuck in tree”. My interest in the affair can be accurately gauged by comparing the entire mass of the earth to the full stop at the end of this sentence. The only relevant result is that [...]

Not much time for blogging tonight but I could resist a quick comment on the low-hanging fruit offered by ScrubOne in this comment. The Yahoo “news” item reads: I feed my son marijuana While most parents are focussed on warning their children about the dangers of drugs, mum-of-three Mieko Hester-Perez is happily dishing up marijuana [...]

If ever there was a good example of why health journalists should seek to gain a proper understanding of the material they are writing about it is this: Study finds vitamins boost mental health People with mental illness made “remarkable” improvements by taking a daily dose of nutritional supplements rather than conventional medicines, a trial [...]

After all the scare stories about the dangers of cell phones the Herald carries an article today that is a delicious irony. Mobile phones may improve memory – study The headline is, of course, the usual media hyperbole. The study they are “interpreting” is one on mice that have been genetically engineered to develop a [...]

As we approach the New Year and my 1000th blog post (which will be sometime in January), allow me a moment of introspection. A number of fellow bloggers have left the blogosphere or drastically reduced their presence. Some have moved to new homes. Some have disappeared without even a farewell (Monkey, where are you?). Some [...]

Spam Journalism: The spurious use of sensational headlines to add spice to an otherwise pointless article. Well, half the headline is ok… DHBs, union clash over plan to axe 20 doctors Plans to cut 20 resident doctor positions at Auckland hospitals will increase the pressure on remaining staff and threatens standards of patient care, a [...]