freelance science journalist and author
From The Saturday Paper, 18 January 2025: Psychiatrist Prachi Brahmbhatt likens the current state of public mental healthcare in New South Wales to battlefield medicine. “When the clinical leader is so pushed that they don’t have time to stop and think about the decisions that they’re making… while you’re trying to do seven things at … Continue reading The crisis in the NSW mental health system
Nature, 24 August 2022: When Torbjörn Bäckström was a medical student in the 1970s, he didn’t understand why a woman who seemed to be in good mental health was being held at a psychiatric facility. Then, Bäckström and his colleagues learnt that once a month, the woman would be admitted because she had been violent … Continue reading The hormonal keys to depression
From The Griffith Review, 3 May 2021: ‘IT’S MY HORMONES, doc. It’s my hormones, and no one’s listened to that.’ It was the late 1980s, in what was once Royal Park Psychiatric Hospital in inner-city Melbourne. A brash young registrar doing her training in psychiatry had arrived at her first hospital placement, full of ideas … Continue reading The chemical question
From BBC Future, 25 October 2016: “What’s on your mind?” This is how Facebook greets its 1.7 billion active users every day. It’s also a question that countless psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors have asked their clients at the start of a session; a question we instinctively ask of a friend or family member looking troubled. … Continue reading Your Facebook status can reveal hidden signals about you
Bianca Nogrady 