I was awarded my medical degree by the University of Chile in 1968, my PhD was awarded by the university of London in 1976 based on the topic “An epidemiological and genetic study of idiopathic growth hormone deficiency”. I obtained my membership of the faculty of Public Health (MFPH) in 1985 and the fellowship of the faculty (FFPH) in 1990. I specialised in Public Health. I have worked in a broad range of topics: evaluating nutritional status of children, obesity, food allergy, asthma in the UK and coronary heart disease risk factors in Latino-America and the evaluation of new technology. I entered the field of military mental health in 1999. My main contributions in military mental health have been on the appropriateness of pre and post-deployment screening for mental disorders in the forces, the mental health consequences of overstretch in the forces, aetiology and prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), functional impairment related to PTSD and alcohol misuse, and methodological issues related to bias such as “healthy warrior effect” in surveys.  

 

Research Interests

• Public Health  
• Military Health 
• Mental Disorders