Psychology Today Blog

Dr. Gordon is the medical director of Millennium Neuroregenerative Centers and the author of two books, Traumatic Brain Injury, A Clinical Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment (2016), and The Clinical Application of Interventional Endocrinology (2007). I was so impressed with the results of Dr. Gordon’s treatment of Andrew Marr for his war-related brain injury, documented in Marr’s book Tales from the Blast Factory, that I wanted to learn more about an effective treatment approach I knew nothing about.  Gordon had achieved what the most skilled psychotherapy could not. In doctoral [...]

An excellent review of diagnostic issues related to mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) and post-concussion syndrome (PCS) can be found in McCrea (2008). He clearly breaks down the various diagnostic systems that are currently used for head injuries. The American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) developed one of the most accepted diagnostic criteria for mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). The criterion states that a person must have experienced a traumatically induced disruption of brain function manifested by at least one of the following: 1. Any [...]

I continue to receive testimonials from the patients of Mark L. Gordon, MD about the astounding results he is achieving through Hormone Replacement Therapy treating traumatic brain injuries.  Over thirty testimonials were obtained from patients writing comments to my blog posts reporting on Dr. Gordon’s work as a neuroendocrinologist evaluating hormonal dysfunction for patients who have suffered traumatic brain injuries.  From the testimonials, Dr. Gordon has helped restore the lives of many veterans and others who have sustained disabling TBIs with symptoms of PTSD. Read more at Psychology Today.

A reader of one of my recent blog posts posted a comment that is the stimulus for this writing.  He commented that there is an unrecognized problem: being misdiagnosed by mental health professionals.  The gentleman, a retired Navy Chief Petty Officer, directed me to videos by a retired PhD Army nurse, Colonel Diane Corcoran. Corcoran talks about near death experiences (NDEs) and the transformative lessons learned from them.  She studies NDEs and offers legitimate criticism that mental health professionals are mostly ignorant of this body of work. Auto Accidents [...]

Recently I had the pleasure of having a long telephone conversation with Dr. Michael Lewis, the author of When Brains Collide: What Every Athlete and Parent Should Know About Concussions and Head Injuries.  Dr. Lewis is a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and Tulane University School of Medicine, and completed post-graduate training at Walter Reed and Johns Hopkins.  Lewis is a retired Army Colonel who is now providing treatment and education through his nonprofit Brain Health Education and Research Institute, and Brain CARE. While in the military, Lewis worked [...]

There is relatively little empirical research into the flashback phenomenon.  Nevertheless, flashbacks are a common distressing symptom people experience in the aftermath of surviving a traumatic event.  Traumatic events emotionally overwhelmed the survivor and involve danger of loss of life or limb or witnessing others being harmed.  Indeed, flashbacks, nightmares and sleep disturbance might be considered the trifecta of post-traumatic stress disorder. David J. Morris in his compelling book The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder describes flashbacks as “memories gone wild.”  There is an involuntary aspect to the memory recall which typically [...]

Since the time of Galen, one of the greatest physicians of first-century Rome, the endocrine system—which produces and sends hormones through your body and organs—has been acknowledged as vital to the functioning of your body.  But only recently has the role of endocrine glands and hormonal imbalances been highlighted as central in the neurobehavioral and neurocognitive dysfunction following head injuries Endocrinologist Mark L. Gordon and former Special Forces Green Beret Andrew Marr are turning the attention of the public and health care professionals to the devastating effects of injury to the [...]

Most mental health professionals receive no training in the role inflammation and hormonal imbalance plays in disturbed emotion, behavior, and cognition.  This is partly due to the continued split between mind and body that was crystallized in the 17th century by the French philosopher René Descartes. Descartes, Deep Philosophy, and the Ancient Mystery Schools Descartes talked about some really good things that have served us well.  In his book Rules for the Direction of the Mind, he proclaimed the power of logic and clarity of thought.  In his book Discourse on the Method, [...]

In my last blog post, I wrote about advances in our understanding of how neurosteroids, those hormones that are produced in the brain by glial cells, are impacted by traumatic injuries. The importance of looking at hormone balances post-brain injury is highlighted in the experience of Andrew Marr’s recovery from traumatic brain injury and the benefit he derived from hormone replacement therapy. Marr’s experience is described in an important book Tales from the Blast Factory. A Brain Injured Special Forces Green Beret’s Journey Back from [...]

Many of the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder and Traumatic Brain Injury overlap. I believe the original developers of the diagnosis of PTSD were not well informed about TBI, and that many patients diagnosed with PTSD may, in fact, be exhibiting symptoms of traumatic brain injury. Many of the symptoms of PTSD are neurobehavioral or neurocognitive. The role of the endocrine system needs to be considered when making a diagnosis, particularly in what we refer to as “treatment resistant” cases, i.e., people whose conditions are not improving with traditional psychotherapy, medications, or other [...]

I recently gave a presentation at the Michigan Brain Injury Fall Conference on understanding chronic pain from the mind-body perspective. With the rise of public awareness of the opioid epidemic in the United States—which is now the number one cause of accidental death, with over seventy thousand deaths from accidental overdoses of prescription drugs last year—discussion about the mind-body perspective on pain has become a more attractive public discussion. The role of psychology in the treatment of pain became center stage with psychologist Ronald Melzack’s [...]

While I have specialized in the psychological care of people who have been deeply traumatized by overwhelming life experiences, it has been difficult to grasp an operational definition of exactly what the trauma means. The problem is often focusing on the event, what we refer to as the traumatic stressor. We are often asked why the same kind of event stressor debilitates one person, and leaves the other seemingly unharmed, or even in some cases stronger psychologically. The issue is we must look within the [...]

In my work with patients recovering from auto accident trauma, a frequent problem patients report is sleep disturbance due to racing thoughts that play over and over in their minds. In psychiatry this is referred to as ruminating thoughts which can be symptomatic of depression and anxiety states.  This is particularly common in post-traumatic stress disorder where intrusive thoughts related to a traumatic event tend to haunt the mind while attempting to enter the sleep state.  Frequently, this involves the perfect storm of the fear of entering the dream state due to likelihood of having trauma related nightmares, worries related [...]

In ancient Greek and earlier Egyptian Mythology there lives a beautiful sacred bird capable of rebirth and who in that sense is indomitable.  The one of a kind Arabian Phoenix or Firebird would live for a thousand years, and as it approached the end of life would fly to the coast of Phoenicia and build a nest of beautiful twigs and aromatic spices such as myrrh.  It would then face East and sing a song so beautiful that even Apollo, the sun god, had to [...]

For many years during the brief drive to my office in downtown Mt. Clemens, I would daily pass an elementary school near the train tracks on Cass Avenue.  The school sits within eyeshot of the old train station where Thomas Edison once learned to operate the telegraph.  The legend goes that Edison one day saved the station master’s child from being run over by a train, and in appreciation he taught the young Edison how to work the telegraph. Each day as I passed the [...]

Now that you have survived a horrible car crash that has turned your life upside down, you may find yourself thinking frequently about how you could have died or suffered even more serious injuries. The fact of the matter is you were a victim and now you are a survivor. You would think the road ahead is just a matter of getting the help you need to recover and heal. Unfortunately, for many people, the crash may only be the beginning of victimization experiences. The study of the [...]

From the highly evidenced-based field of psychodynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy, we have known for decades that the holidays in America are traditionally a time ripe for off-the-chart stressors and wide-spread emotional regression. For those already challenged with health problems, or conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries or chronic pain, the additional stress of the holidays can quickly become overwhelming. Many of these conditions involve heightened stress vulnerability, meaning that a weakened capacity to cope with stress is already in place. What [...]

A powerful adjunct to post-trauma psychotherapy is body-oriented therapies and methods. Yoga, massage therapy, and Pilates are powerful tools that should be considered and included in the comprehensive treatment plan. In my work with auto accident trauma survivors I daily see the value of combining massage therapy and methods such as Pilates with the verbal working through of trauma in psychotherapy. I believe auto insurance carriers would earn big returns on their investments by paying for personal trainers to work with survivors in regular Pilates sessions which somatically supports the [...]

Gerard Butler, as King Leonidas, famed Spartan King in the movie 300, was able to hold off a Persian army of 150,000 soldiers, but he was recently dethroned from his motorcycle when a lady allegedly made an illegal U-turn in front of him on the streets of LA. According to Butler, he crashed into the car and went flying through the air, somersaulted and landed. In interviews, Butler talked about how the accident made him aware of how fragile life is because the accident could have [...]

I just returned from the fall conference of the Brain Injury Association of Michigan which was truly an amazing conference. I made many wonderful connections and learned a lot of new things about brain injuries and our health care delivery system from some of Michigan’s top neurologists, psychologists and case managers, and most of all, from the people who have sustained brain injuries. I gave a lecture on individual and group psychotherapy for auto accident survivors with posttraumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injuries which about 155 people attended. Sleep deprived and somewhat dehydrated, I was disappointed with my [...]