Author: David Gratzer

Reading of the Week: Is ‘New’ Overrated? Antipsychotics in the Real World

June 22, 2017 /

From the Editor

Is new better?

You may be reading this on an iPhone 7, having driven to work this morning in a 2017 Hybrid Prius. So should your patients be taking a medication that became available four-and-a-half decades ago – when people drove gus-gusling eight-cylinder Oldsmobiles and smartphones didn’t even exist in science fiction novels.

This week, we look at a just-published JAMA Psychiatry paper which promises to look at the “real-world” effectiveness of antipsychotics. The authors tapped Swedish databases to consider outcomes for nearly thirty thousand people with schizophrenia.

Sweden: elaborate welfare state, beautiful historic buildings, and – yes – rich databases

Spoiler alert: new wasn’t better. That is, newer antipsychotics tended to underperform clozapine and depot medications.

We also look at similar “real-world” work drawing from a Finnish database considering treatment of depression.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Dreams of My Uncle – Husock on His “Unmentionable” Uncle & His Mental Illness

June 15, 2017 /

From the Editor

“To say that I didn’t know my great-uncle, Wolfe Levine, would understate things. I didn’t even know of such an uncle, brother of my mother’s father (a grandfather with whom I was close). In retrospect, it’s clear that my great-uncle was simply unmentionable.”

So begins Howard Husock, Vice President of the Manhattan Institute for Public Policy, in a long essay that traces the illness and institutionalization of his great uncle.

The author’s great uncle

The piece asks a simple question: “Are we treating the mentally ill better today than we did a century ago?”

It’s a beautiful essay, that touches on history, psychiatry, and a family member who was “unmentionable.”

DG Continue reading

Award of Excellence in Mental Health

June 14, 2017 /

Individuals in need of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) typically face challenges like long wait lists, a shortage of therapists, and lack of access to a therapist outside of regular business hours. Now, adult outpatient clients of Scarborough and Rouge Hospital’s Mental Health department can access treatment for anxiety and depression any time and place that is most convenient for them.

My Scarborough and Rouge Hospital team was awarded the 2017 Award of Excellence in Mental Health and Quality Improvement from the Canadian College of Health Leaders.

cchl-ccls_vertical-tagline_colour_250px

Our  team won this honour for our e-therapy work. The gala dinner was in Vancouver this Sunday.

Full details here: https://www.cchl-ccls.ca/site/awards_mentalhealth_quality

Nice.

Reading of the Week: Better Treatment, Safer Roads? The New JAMA Psychiatry Paper on ADHD & Driving

June 8, 2017 /

From the Editor

How can we reduce the number of car accidents?

We often speak about treating mental illness in terms of reducing personal suffering. Recent selections have looked at the economic cost of mental illness. But what are the implications to public health?

This week, we look at a new JAMA Psychiatry paper; this national cohort study involved more than 2.3 million people with ADHD, and considered motor vehicle crashes (as measured by emergency department visits) and whether or not they were taking medications.

Yes, he has a plaid shirt, but should he be taking his prescription meds?

Spoiler alert: The authors find “medication use for the disorder was associated with a significantly reduced risk” of vehicle accidents.

We also look at an editorial that finds “clinical pearls” in this paper.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Is Psychoanalysis Relevant? Paris vs. Ravitz

June 1, 2017 /

From the Editor

“Today, psychoanalysis has been marginalized and is struggling to survive in a hostile academic and clinical environment. This raises the question as to whether the paradigm is still relevant in psychiatric science and practice.”

This week, we consider the relevance of psychoanalysis.

Drawing from the May issue of The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, we look at two papers.

Freud and analysis: debating his relevance

In a Perspectives piece, Dr. Joel Paris argues that psychoanalysis is part our legacy – but not much more. In an Editorial, Dr. Paula Ravitz responds. She opens by writing: “My concern is that by unnecessarily pitting psychiatry against psychoanalysis, we may throw out the baby with the bathwater.”

It’s a great and important debate.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Effective Therapy for Anxious & Depressed Youth in a Peds Clinic? The New Weersing Study

May 18, 2017 /

From the Editor

“Anxiety and depression in youth are widely prevalent, highly impairing, and woefully undertreated.”

So writes San Diego State University’s V. Robin Weersing and her co-authors in a new JAMA Psychiatry paper. In this study, they compare a pediatric clinic-based brief behavioural treatment to referral to outpatient services for depression and anxiety. It’s a novel approach – and one with significant advantages (housing treatment in a primary care setting, to name just one).

So does this work? Spoiler alert: the brief behavioural treatment (BBT) comes out on top.

Anxiety treatment in the peds office: would Norman Rockwell approve?

As an accompanying Editorial notes: “The efficacy of BBT is particularly telling given the low response rate to treatment as usual in the control condition (57% vs 28%), especially for Hispanic populations (76% vs 7%).”

Please note: there will be no Reading next week because of the APA Annual Meeting. (I hope to see you in California.)

DG

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Reading of the Week: Can We Reduce Suicide in the Emergency Department Population? Also, Drugs & Crime

May 11, 2017 /

From the Editor

He presents to the Emergency Department a few days after a suicide attempt. What can we do to help keep this man safe today – and moving forward?

Emergency Departments: noisy, busy, and an opportunity for suicide prevention?

It’s a scenario that repeats itself at EDs across the country with regularity. This week, in our first selection, we consider a new JAMA Psychiatry paper that has just been published looking at suicide prevention in the ED population. The authors claim “this study is the largest suicide intervention trial ever conducted in the United States,” and they show that, with an intervention, they can reduce suicides and suicide attempts.

And, in the other selection, we look at a short New York Times essay in which economist Austin Frakt argues that substance programs pay for themselves in crime reduction.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Economics & Mental Health – the New MHCC Paper; Also, Dr. Beck on Marijuana Legalization

May 4, 2017 /

From the Editor

Does investing in mental health make economic sense?

We often speak of mental health spending in terms of human terms – that people will have the opportunity to recover. But what about the economics of mental health?

Economics & mental health: worth considering?

This week, we look at a new report from the Mental Health Commission of Canada. In it, the authors consider the impact of mental illness on our society, and then look at options for spending with an eye on economic returns.

In the other selection, we consider marijuana and public health with a blog by Dr. Gail Beck, a psychiatrist affiliated with The Royal. As Ottawa moves towards legalization, she offers a cautionary note: “Most physicians hope that the federal government will approach the legalization of marijuana emphasizing public health concerns as the most important consideration in the drafting of legislation.”

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Technology & Mental Health – Depression and Internet-based CBT; Also, Finnish e-Therapy

April 27, 2017 /

From the Editor

VR. e-therapies.

New technology is changing the way we think about the delivery of psychiatric services. But new isn’t necessarily better. Can care really be transformed? What does the literature say?computere-therapy: more than clever pictures of computers and stethoscopes?

In a two-part Reading of the Week, we look at technology and psychiatry.

Last week, Virtual Reality.

This week, e-therapies.

This week, we consider a new paper that has just been published. Its looks at self-guided Internet-based CBT showing that for every eight people treated, one benefits (consider this in the context of minimal cost).

And, in the other selection, we look at the Finnish experience with Internet-based CBT.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Technology & Psychiatry – Can Virtual Reality Help with Pain? Or Social Anxiety?

April 20, 2017 /

From the Editor

VR. e-therapies.

New technology is changing the way we think about the delivery of psychiatric services. But new isn’t necessarily better. Can care really be transformed? What does the literature say?

U.S. President Barack Obama tries virtual reality glasses as he and German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) tour Hanover Messe Trade Fair in Hanover, Germany April 25, 2016. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

VR: more than just a presidential photo op?

In a two-part Reading of the Week series, we look at technology and psychiatry.

This week, Virtual Reality.

Next week, e-therapies.

This week, we consider a new paper that looks at virtual reality to treat pain in hospitalized patients. The authors find that people utilizing VR have less pain as compared to controls. This finding leads us to another recent paper on VR; in this second study, patients with social anxiety are treated with a VR intervention.

DG

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