For decades many within and without of psychiatry have successfully propagated the notion that depression is caused by not enough of the neurochemical serotonin in the brain. This myth has survived, to a greater or lesser degree, despite there being a considerable lack of evidence to the contrary. It seems…

For 20 years I have seen resistance to the development and uptake of repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) treatment in the Australian psychiatric community but truly felt we past this with the development of overwhelming evidence of its efficacy, especially when this was endorsed by the independent Australian Government Medicare…

So apparently the University of Melbourne Vice Chancellor believes that Australia’s so-called “lockdown mindset” could be doing more harm than good, especially to young people. …

The Prime Minister gathered all his expert advisors around him. He had just been told that finally a vaccine was available for the terrible disease that afflicted the country. But there were not enough doses for everyone: what was he to do? “Vaccinate the doctors first, we have to treat…

Mental Health consequences of lockdown are absolutely no reason to limit COVID related restrictions. I have been wanting to write something for a few weeks in response to what I keep seeing as spurious arguments against the escalation of COVID restrictions in Victoria, and around the world, which use “mental…

The development of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) as a therapy for patients with a depression, has been one of the most important fundamental advances in psychiatric therapeutics since the 1960’s. This is not just hyperbole. Almost all of the drugs we use in psychiatry today are derivative of approaches developed…

It is really hard to underestimate the hype that has surrounded the development of ketamine as a potential antidepressant drug. In the first seconds of a Google search I found statements like “Get your life back” and “Reset your brain, reset your life”. Perhaps we should not be that surprised…

Over recent years there has been a laudable and impressive effort to reduce the stigma associated with mental health conditions such as depression, and to engage more people with these conditions in treatment, especially here in Australia. However, this has not been accompanied by a clear reduction in the consequences…

The escalating publication of redundant, unnecessary and misleading meta-analyses is a growing blight which requires containment. As a journal editor and reviewer I am repeatedly receiving, and now frequently recommending rejection for, meta-analyses of studies in the brain stimulation field. For a long time these were studies of transcranial magnetic…