Month: June 2020

Reading of the Week: Suicide Prevention in the Acute Care Setting (JAMA Psychiatry); Also, Gottlieb on Racism (Wash Post)

June 25, 2020 /

From the Editor

In the year before they suicide, more than 90% of people have had contact with some type of acute care – an ED visit, a trip to the family doctor, or an appointment at an outpatient specialty clinic. So how can we help people better? Given the contact, what can we do to reduce suicides?

This week, we have two selections; the first focuses on this question. In a new JAMA Psychiatry paper, Dr. Stephanie K. Doupnik (of the University of Pennsylvania) and her co-authors do a systematic review and meta-analysis of 14 studies that used brief suicide prevention interventions in acute care settings (think brief contact interventions like a phone call after an ED visit). They find an encouraging result: “In this meta-analysis, brief suicide prevention interventions were associated with reduced subsequent suicide attempts.” We consider the big paper, and the editorial that accompanies it.

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In the other selection, therapist Lori Gottlieb discusses race and therapy in a Washington Post essay. She examines her own biases, and the way they play out in her therapy session. “Here’s what we didn’t talk about [in school]: the racism that might take place inside the supposedly ‘safe space’ of our therapy rooms – our patients’ racism and our own.”

Please note that there will be no Reading next week. Happy Canada Day.

DG

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Reading of the Week: What do Google Searches Tell Us about Suicide & COVID? (CJP) Also, Bullock on Suicide (NEJM)

June 18, 2020 /

From the Editor

How will the pandemic impact mental health? Will we see more people with depression and PTSD? What about suicides?

In a recent JAMA Psychiatry paper, Mark A. Reger (of the University of Washington) and his co-authors argued that we may see a “perfect storm” with COVID-19, increasing the risk of suicide. A BMJ blog speculated that we could have a “pandemic after the pandemic,” as mental health problems grow even as the virus fades.

This week, we have two selections; the first focuses on suicide and the pandemic. Using an innovative approach – that is, considering Google searches for suicide and related terms, as a proxy for completions – the authors draw on American and international data. In a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper, Dr. Mark Sinyor (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors find surprisingly “that the initial stages of the pandemic were accompanied by a substantial reduction in searches related to suicide, anxiety, and hopelessness with no change in searches for depression.”

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In the second selection, Dr. Justin L. Bullock (of the University of California, San Francisco) discusses suicide in The New England Journal of Medicine. The young doctor is very personal, describing his own struggles with mental illness. “‘I’m starting to get depressed,’ I told my sister emotionlessly. She began to cry, probably flashing back to the last time I was severely depressed, attempted suicide, and ended up in the ICU. I told her I was sad that my 2-year-old niece wouldn’t remember me. ‘Do you think I would ever let her forget you?’ she responded. We both cried.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Can Light Therapy Help with Bipolar Depression? Also, the Racism of COVID (BJP) & Gottlieb on the Toilet as the New Couch (NYT)

June 11, 2020 /

From the Editor

After his manic episode, the first patient I treated with bipolar disorder was low in mood for months, able to get out of bed, but not able to work. I remember him sitting in my office talking about feeling overwhelmed. For many people with bipolar disorder, the depressive episodes are long and debilitating. And for us clinicians, these episodes are difficult to treat. (I remember feeling overwhelmed, too.)

Can light therapy help?

The first selection seeks to answer that question. Light therapy, after all, has shown its utility in depression, including for those with a seasonal pattern to their lows. But bipolar depression? In a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper, Dr. Raymond W. Lam (of UBC) and his co-authors do a systematic review and meta-analysis. They included seven papers. “This meta-analysis of RCTs found positive but nonconclusive evidence that light therapy is efficacious and well tolerated as adjunctive treatment for depressive episodes in patients with BD.”

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Is the virus racist? In the second selection, we look at a provocative paper from The British Journal of Psychiatry written by Drs. Anuj Kapilashrami and Kamaldeep Bhui (both of Queen Mary University of London). Considering how COVID-19 affects certain groups more than others, they also note that mental illness is more common among minorities, and they argue that: “societal structures and disadvantage generate and can escalate inequalities in crises.” They offer a word of caution: “What is surprising is it takes a crisis to highlight these inequalities and for us to take note, only to revert to the status quo once the crisis is over. ”

Finally, we consider an essay from The New York Times. Lori Gottlieb, a psychotherapist, discusses her practice in a world of pandemic. “Suddenly, her sobs were drowned out by a loud whooshing sound.” She wonders if the toilet is the new couch.

DG

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Reading of the Week: What Can Past Coronaviruses Teach Us? Also, Sharing Notes (Lancet Psych) & Sediqzadah on Therapy in a Digital World (Globe)

June 4, 2020 /

From the Editor

As we consider the psychiatric needs arising from COVID-19, are there lessons to be drawn from past severe coronavirus infections?

The first selection seeks to answer that question.

In The Lancet Psychiatry, Dr. Jonathan P. Rogers (of the University College London) and his co-authors do a systematic review and meta-analysis of severe coronavirus infections with a focus on psychiatric presentations. They included papers covering SARS and MERS. “This review suggests, first, that most people do not suffer from a psychiatric disorder following coronavirus infection, and second, that so far there is little to suggest that common neuropsychiatric complications beyond short-term delirium are a feature.”

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Should mental health notes be shared with patients? In the second selection, we look at paper from The Lancet Psychiatry. Charlotte R. Blease (of Harvard Medical School) and her co-authors champion the idea. “Sharing clinical notes in mental health settings will be more complex than in other clinical specialties; however, for most patients it will be feasible and, if carefully implemented, an empowering tool that could improve care.”

Finally, we consider an essay from The Globe and Mail. Dr. Saadia Sediqzadah (of the University of Toronto), who is graduating from her psychiatry residency this month, discusses her training and the expectation that patients “present to the clinic.” Now practicing in a COVID-19 world, she writes about psychotherapy and her patients. “What would Freud say? I care less about that as we now contend with a very different world than his. The question I ask now is, how will we go back?”

DG

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