Clinician's Corner Blog

A PHCoE blog series written by leaders, clinicians and experts on current topics of interest for psychological health care providers in the Military Health System.

  • Three Critical Considerations When Making a Clinical Mental Health Recommendation for a Service Member November 5, 2018

    Making a clinical recommendation for an active duty service member seems like it should be pretty straightforward. You conduct a comprehensive assessment and make an informed diagnosis. If there is a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for the diagnosis, you consider the known treatments with an evidence base.

  • Adjustment Disorders: How Are They Relevant to Military Mental Health? October 29, 2018

    When you think about mental health in the military, your mind likely jumps straight to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and then maybe to depression and anxiety. But adjustment disorders?

  • A Broader Perspective of Health: Total Force Fitness and Treating Depression October 22, 2018

    In a 2010 special issue of Military Medicine, then Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Michael Mullen discussed Total Force Fitness (TFF) as a means to expand the way DoD approaches readiness. In the past, DoD focused mostly on physical readiness and medical standards for deployment, such as whether a service member could pass a physical fitness test.

  • Do Gender Stereotypes Influence Mental Health Diagnosis and Treatment in the Military? October 15, 2018

    Gender stereotypes are fixed ideas about men’s and women’s traits and capabilities and how they should comport themselves, based on their biological sex. A classic study conducted in 1970 with male and female therapists showed that stereotypically masculine traits were perceived as more socially desirable than stereotypical feminine attributes, and therapists’ view of a healthy adult correlated highly with stereotypical male traits but not female traits.

  • Sex, Gender Factors Affect Women’s Mental Health Across Their Lifespan October 9, 2018

    Throughout a woman’s life, sex and gender can affect both her likelihood of developing mental health conditions, and the course, prognosis and treatment response to those conditions. Key influences on women’s mental health include genetic and epigenetic factors, gender-linked stresses and traumas, and reproductive cycle stages. Helping female patients understand these influences can help them manage potential stressors or symptoms throughout their lives.

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The views expressed in Clinician's Corner blogs are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Psychological Health Center of Excellence or Department of Defense.