Month: July 2020

Reading of the Week: ECT & Equity (CJP); also, COVID and Mental Health Surveys (Policy Options) and Farrell on Witnessing the Pandemic (Nation)

July 23, 2020 /

From the Editor

Who has better access to care?

This week, we have three selections. The first is a paper about inpatient ECT – an important topic. And the study – just published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry – has interesting findings, including that ECT is not particularly commonly performed (for just 1 out of 10 inpatients with depression). But this new paper by Dr. Tyler S. Kaster (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors also touches on the larger issue of equity. We consider it – and the questions the study raises.

ect-maching

The second selection is an essay from Policy Options. Drs. Scott Patten (of the University of Calgary) and Stan Kutcher (of Dalhousie University) bemoan the state of mental health data during the pandemic. “There has been a disturbing acceptance of trivial and often misrepresented information, delivered from sub-optimal surveys and problematic interpretation of results.”

Finally, we consider an essay by Dr. Colleen M. Farrell (of Cornell University). She discusses COVID-19 – she is working in the ICU of a major New York City hospital during the pandemic – but also ties to the larger issues of public health, advocacy, and the role of medicine. “As I tend to my patients in the Covid ICU, I struggle to process reality. The attending physicians who are my teachers have few answers; this disease is new to all of us.”

Please note that there will be no Reading next week.

DG

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Physician Suicide – the New JAMA Psychiatry Paper and Editorial

July 16, 2020 /

From the Editor

“‘I Couldn’t Do Anything’: The Virus and an E.R. Doctor’s Suicide.”

So headlines a long article on the life and death of a New York doctor who had excelled at medicine – Dr. Lorna Breen oversaw an ER department, and was studying in a dual degree master’s program at Cornell University – but died during the COVID-19 pandemic. The front-page story ran last weekend in The New York Times.

Physician suicide. It’s a weighty topic, one that typically wasn’t discussed much in the past, in part because of the reluctance of physicians to acknowledge their own problems. But how often does it occur and is there a gender gap?

This week, we consider a new paper by Dr. Dante Duarte (of Harvard Medical School) and his co-authors. While previous papers have been published in this area, Duarte et al. are ambitious: they do a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies published over the last four decades. In the JAMA Psychiatry paper, they find: “suicide standardized morality ratios were high in female physicians and low in male physicians after 1980…”
stethoscope-1

The paper runs with an editorial by Drs. Katherine J. Gold (of the University of Michigan) and Thomas L. Schwenk (of the University of Nevada). Putting the paper in a larger context, they write: “Suicide prevention is a moral responsibility of the entire medical profession.”

And a quick word of welcome to PGY1 residents who are joining us this week as part of our continued partnership with 12 Canadian residency programs from coast to coast to coast.

DG

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Rurality and Suicide (CJP); Also, COVID and Digital Practice (Quick Takes) and Haughton & Bromberg on Policing (Tor Star)

July 9, 2020 /

From the Editor

At times, it seems that we understand little about suicide.

That statement is vast, sweeping – and painfully true for us clinicians who aspire to do better with very blunt instruments. This week, we have three selections; the first is a systematic review and meta-analysis focused on suicide. In a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper, Rebecca Barry (of the University of Toronto) and her co-authors consider the potential link between suicide and rurality. Spoiler alert: they find a connection, at least for men. What are the implications for practice and policy?

tumblr_obmh0iptwu1ti68p6o1_1280

In the second selection, we consider a new podcast discussing our digital future. I talk with Dr. Jay Shore (of the University of Colorado), who chairs the APA’s Telepsychiatry Committee. We discuss the virtualization of mental health services, and contemplate a future of hybrid care. And, yes, he has tips on how to avoid “Zoom fatigue.”

In the third selection, activists Asante Haughton and Rachel Bromberg discuss alternatives to police responding to mental health crises, seeing a dedicated team tasked with “on-the-spot risk assessments, de-escalation, and safety planning for clients in crisis” and more. “By taking on these important tasks, this team will enable Toronto policing resources to be more effectively directed toward solving crimes, rather than providing social services.”

DG

Continue reading