Living in a rural area doesn’t mean you will be less likely to suffer from mental health problems. It does mean you will be less likely to have easy access to diagnosis and care. Even though rural residents are in poorer health generally than those living elsewhere, they have less access to treatment, partly because...Continue reading
When it comes to gender, alcohol and drug abuse are not equal-opportunity afflictions. Men are more likely than women to use almost all types of illegal drugs, and they are more likely to end up in emergency rooms or dying as a result of overdose, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Men also have...Continue reading
Alok Konojia – “Dr. K” to his 370,000 Twitch fans – is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist who’s reaching gamers on the livestreaming platform Twitch to talk about mental health issues and lessen the stigma attached to them. His livestream, Healthy Gamer GG, discusses online harassment, depression, suicide, video game addiction and other mental health issues with...
A new research project will examine ways that healthcare providers can intervene to prevent suicide in adolescents and adults, the Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) announced. PCORI is funding the study. The project, now in its earliest stages, will randomly assign eight emergency departments and 22 primary care clinics in an Idaho health care...Continue reading
A motorcycle club whose members walk 22 miles on the 22nd of every month to raise awareness of veteran and first-responder suicide has persuaded the Rockwall, Texas, City Council to rename a bridge in that city “Heroes Bridge.” Third Watch Law Enforcement (LE) Motorcycle Club (MC) President Brian Wilburn went before the Rockwall City Council...Continue reading
Dear Healthy Men: You recently wrote about a CDC report that supposedly showed that males are more likely than females to commit suicide. Well, my 19-year-old niece recently killed herself and I just saw the new CDC report on youth suicides, which said that the suicide rate among females is growing faster than among males....Continue reading
The New Year is a time for making resolutions and focusing on self-improvement. While many of these New Year’s resolutions typically have to do with quitting smoking or weight loss, numerous well-intentioned goal-seekers just wind up feeling depressed. Broken resolutions combined with lousy weather and the end of the festive holiday season can leave many...Continue reading
Loneliness kills. According to former U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, isolation and weak social connections “are associated with a reduction in lifespan similar to that caused by smoking fifteen cigarettes a day and even greater than that associated with obesity.” Even when it’s not fatal, loneliness makes life a lot less pleasant. We’ll talk about...Continue reading
Men and boys continue to have a higher death rate in nine of the 10 leading causes of death. Why? To start with, the overall healthcare system is inherently unfriendly to males. And, in some health care situations men tell us they do not feel welcome at all. There are other systemic concerns, including insufficient...Continue reading
Dear Mr. Dad: I’ve read several of your columns that have touched on the health of men and boys, but you haven’t spent much time talking about mental health. Is male mental health different than females’? A: Very different. Within the broader men’s health crisis, which, as you mention, I’ve written a lot about, there’s one...Continue reading