Posts made by Dr GO

@ROWUK said in Mental health among professional musicians:
...The former probably would not take part in any "studies" and the latters response would depend if they had a reasonable paying job outside of music or not.

Yes and this is why isolated reports must be read with caution and questioning their reliability and internal bias. The systematic review I posted above is a larger study including many which brings us closer to the truth from the isolated studies I found based on small groups in a single location.

A final reflection: One day a situation developed within a medical residency training program I directed. I had a secretary state that she wanted to transfer from my office as she was uncomfortable working for an individual (me) that demanded such a high performance level out of her.

My chairman (my boss) became highly angered when that secretary contacted her that same day saying she wanted to resign her position. It only took 30 minutes for my chairman to come barreling into my office. Watching her approach my building and following her steps to my office actually reminded me of the scene in the Wizard of Oz when a ticked off wicked witch of the west was riding her bicycle in an angered mood.

Before she started yelling at me I first said: Dr. S, let me first say that I consider myself above anything else to be a musician first, and a physician second. As a musician, I prefer playing in a small jazz ensemble which is the way I run my program and my office. Why? Because I have more chance to interplay one on one with those in the ensemble, to solo off their lead and for them to solo off my lead. When a person in that ensemble finds they can no longer perform with the ensemble, they have the flexibility to leave. And you know, when I am playing in a jazz ensemble and the tension comes out of the horn, and the crowed hears that tension, it ends with applause and appreciation by the audience. not scolding or consternation as is more typical of a medical environment.

Now when I play in your ensemble, a large medical division, I see myself playing rather in orchestra with you as the director. In an orchestra, I regard my role as rather becoming your instrument, and as such I perform as you direct me to perform, and as a result of your excellent leadership as an orchestra director your department performs with excellence. I then stated let's respect that in a high function ensemble, small group versus a large orchestra, there are dynamic differences that are required to lead to the most successful performance possible. All I ask of you is you respect the differences between my small group ensemble and your orchestra.

My chairman immediately calmed down, stated "I see your point" got up and left my office without saying anything more. The next day I hired a new secretary that performed exceptionally well with my program and my chairman was even more happy with my new ensembles performance.

Yet another personal reflection of music impacting my own mental health. When I come home from a particularly stressful day at the office, I have the comfort of knowing I will be practicing my trumpet that evening, and taking the stress out on my horn. I find on the more stressful days that my performance is actually enhanced.

From a personal (non-evidence based) perspective, as a primary care physician that practices in a challenging environment with a paucity of mental health professionals I have a high volume of patients in my medical practice that I am the primary medical provider that manages their mental health. I would even venture to say, that about a third of my practice involves managing mental health diagnoses. So of my entire panel of patients I would say I manage the mental health in about 300 patients. Of all those patients, I know of only one musician that I manage with the diagnosis of bipolar disorder. So from my perspective, musicians are in a clear minority of the patients that I manage for mental heath diagnoses.

I believe the video is more reflective of stress in maintaining a viable career than it is in evaluating a mental health perspective.

When I searched the medical literature, there were articles all over the place regarding prevalence of mental health illness in musicians vs non-musicians. Of interest I found one article that showed professional musicians with no difference in mental health illness categories over other professions; however, amateur musicians had a more improved mental health spectrum over professional musicians and other professionals.

However the BEST article I could find was a systematic review that showed the following results:

In other words there is no difference in prevalence in musicians over other non-musician professionals:

Certainly not one of my choreographs but entertaining non the less:
https://www.facebook.com/watch?v=885113839922640

In another creative fugue I created an arrangement (and it really works well) where the ensemble starts playing "Triste", and then for the second verse (while the ensemble plays the same Bossa progressions) I play the lead melody for "I'll Be Home for Christmas".

Relating to Christmas themes... I will be playing with a jazz ensemble this evening and thought of a creative way to start our December series off. So even though our lead singer doesn't know it yet, will have her recite 'Twas the Night Before Christmas" while I play a muted Miles Davis rendition of "'Round Midnight" behind her to provide more of a time context to the original poem.

@administrator said in Future survival of this forum:

I'm 34 and I doubt I will ever truly "retire." I think that is a common attitude among my generation.

So, with my new perspective as I noted above, have I become a part of your generation?

@tjcombo said in Future survival of this forum:

Of late, life has been getting in the way of browsing this and other social media (both good and not so good distractions). At 67y.o. I’m contemplating retirement from a rewarding job that I love, to do other things, musical and other, that I love a little more.

I contemplated retiring at 65. Did so, and within 2 months started a new career. I am now 68 and no where near planning on retiring.

Thought I mentioned it before but cannot find my original post. My contribution to the comparison of TH and TB is I cannot find a better discussion than on TB as to medical aspects relating to the health of trumpet players in specific or musicians in general. I am not a member of TH (as I do not find it as user friendly). I do scan it frequently and do not find appropriate detailed discussion as to health issues on the TH site. This is why I started a Medical Discussion section to TB. I believe this is a unique quality of this site, and am glad it is used by our members.

I know we have several physicians and medically trained individuals on this site, that is more evident than I can find on TH. So we do have the expertise and individual credentialed to provide helpful content to this component of TB and have been grateful to our members that have used the aspect of this forum to getting qualified medical advice.

@trumpetb said in Future survival of this forum:

Can some kind soul advise me where to go (politely please lol)

I personally approached the administrator through our message format with my interest to donate and he instructed me as to the name for the donation and the address for which to send the check.

@administrator Then I'll keep planning on sending donations.

Sometimes just finding the right leadpipe/mouthpiece match up makes the difference. I remember during a lesson with Claudo Roditi that he gave me a trumpet to try, saying he just got it for $75 at a street sale. I played it, handed it back and said, "Claudio, it sounds like a $75 trumpet." He then handed me back the horn with a mouthpiece he found for it, and I played it and boy did that horn sing.

He then gave me a session on sound waves exiting the mouthpiece and its impact on sound wave frequency hitting the leadpipe at it's peak amplitude. He then took me to Jarome Callet's studio where Jarome hand lathed a new mouthpiece for my Olds Recording. While I was happy with my original sound, man did the hand lathed enhancement really open up the sound of that horn.

So yes, it appears you found the mouthpiece that hits the sweet spot of your horn.

@jolter said in Future survival of this forum:

@dr-go said in Future survival of this forum:

What is interesting to me is we have more and more new users but very little input from them.

Do we? Color me surprised, as I'm seeing no new posts most days, or even weeks. Is there a way to see the user count?

In the sites tab, under users. It looks like this:

From this count it appears 10 new users in the past month but no comments made that I can see.

@dale-proctor said in Future survival of this forum:

I check this forum daily, but rarely see anything that interests me enough to reply. Most of my posts seem to interest very few people, and receive very few responses. Maybe it’s just me…lol

Dale I always love your posts and try to reply whenever I can, but you say it so well, sometimes I just cannot add to the quality you deliver.

What is interesting to me is we have more and more new users but very little input from them. They chose to become users for a reason and it would be interesting (as well as hopefully initiating more discussion) as to why the have chosen to be users. What more are new users looking for, such that we more active posters can also contribute more focused discussions to their needs.

Barliman, I will send some more private questions within the next day regarding what I would recommend based on additional information I will send.

In the US we would have given iv thrombolitics especially within a 4 hour window of presenting symptoms rather than steroids. Hopefully your arm symptoms, vertigo and speech has recovered.

Again, watch for messages regarding additional questions I will ask involving lab values and the current and future therapy plans your physicians currently have.