Category: Reading of the Week

Reading of the Week: I Can’t Sleep – Insomnia, Part I of II

June 9, 2016 /

From the Editor

It’s one of the most common patient complaints: I can’t sleep.

What many of our patients aspire to…

Insomnia affects 6 to 10% of the population. It’s a common problem – and often chronic. But are we mishandling insomnia?

In a two-part, two-week series, we look at the latest in insomnia research.

This week. Fewer Pills, More Therapy. The new Clinical Practice Guideline.

Next week. Insomnia, Is There an App for That? The GoodNight Study.

This week, we look at the new American College of Physicians Clinical Practice Guideline on insomnia that suggests that CBT-Insomnia should be the first-line treatment.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Cost and Mental Illness

June 2, 2016 /

From the Editor

When we think about mental illness, we often think about loss – loss of friendships, loss of opportunities, and, in some cases, loss of life.

From a societal perspective, mental illness is often accompanied by another loss: economic.

Here are two papers that consider the long economic shadow cast by mental illness.

In the first, the authors consider mental illness and high-use consumers of health care. Specifically, the paper asks a simple if important question: looking at people who heavily use the health-care system, what percentage have mental health and addiction problems? The second paper, which draws on US data, calculates the cost of treating mental health disorders compared to other disorders.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Guest Contribution – Dr. David Goldbloom on Lithium and Self Harm

May 26, 2016 /

From a Contributing Editor, Colleague and Friend of the Editor

Sixty-seven years ago, Australian psychiatrist John Cade published his case series on manic patients treated with lithium – truly the dawn of the modern era in psychopharmacology. Two decades passed before lithium came to Canada, and almost three before it came to the United States. In the treatment of mania, it was the first significant drug alternative to the only other enduring treatment from that time – electroconvulsive therapy.

Dr. John Cade (and Lithium)

Today, however, lithium suffers from under-promotion (there is no money to be made on it by the pharmaceutical industry) and under-exposure in the training of residents despite the evidence of its benefit that continues to emerge.

Here is a new paper that looks at suicide and self-harm during maintenance treatment of people with bipolar disorder treated with lithium, valproate or the increasingly popular second-generation antipsychotic drugs. And here is an old paper that reminds us what a difference lithium had already made in the economics of mental illness by 1980.

– David Goldbloom, OC, MD, FRCP(C) Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Battling The Black Dog

May 12, 2016 /

From the Editor

This week, hundreds of thousands of Canadians will not go to work because of mental health problems, depression being the most common.

But despite the long shadow cast by depression on our society, it’s difficult not to feel that we fall short in terms of our active management. Many people struggle with their symptoms; even when they can beat the “black dog” – to use Winston Churchill’s term – they are at high risk for relapse.

Can we do better with the black dog?

Here are two papers that look at bettering outcomes.

In the first, the authors ask if mindfulness can prevent the relapse of depression. The second paper considers the use of statins to improve the effects of antidepressants.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: The New Maunder-Hunter Book

May 5, 2016 /

From the Editor

Patrick is not participating in physiotherapy, and is thus not eligible for discharge. To the staff on the orthopedics ward at the hospital where I work, that’s a Big Problem.

On Tuesday afternoons, I finish at the Birchmount campus of The Scarborough Hospital and drive to the General, where I see patients on medical and surgical floors. And on a recent Tuesday, I met Patrick.

For the record, Patrick has more than one Big Problem. Patrick smokes and he drinks too much. Patrick has diabetes and lung changes. Patrick is obese. And it’s the combination of all of the above that led to the fall that left him with the fractured hip and the surgery. If Patrick is doing badly – this is his second hospitalization in fifteen months – it’s not for lack of health-care effort. Since his last discharge, he has seen an endocrinologist, his family doctor, and a respirologist. Patrick has home care. Patrick is, in other words, a heavy user of the health-care system. And if we are serious about restraining health costs in light of an aging population, we need to find better ways of dealing with people like Patrick.

This week’s Reading: an excerpt from the new Maunder-Hunter book. In it, the authors forward the following idea: people like Patrick can be better helped if we think about attachment theory.

As you will recall, attachment theory is based on experiments with children exposed to strangers. To summarize (and possibly oversimplify) some very clever experiments: after seeing the stranger, if the child seeks out the parent, and is soothed, it’s considered healthy, or secure attachment, as opposed to insecure attachments, like avoidant attachment and resistant attachment (where the child is less interested in the parent or is difficult to soothe).

This is a terrific and important book – and of interest to all clinicians.

It’s thoughtful and relevant. Do you see patients? You should get this book.

DG

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Mental Health — Is There an App For That? & More

April 28, 2016 /

From the Editor

Sigmund Freud, Aaron Beck, Steve Jobs?

Do apps have the potential to reshape mental health?

It’s a hot topic and Nature – the prestigious British journal – explores the potential and pitfalls of mental health apps.

In this week’s Reading, we consider “Pocket Psychiatry.”

Also: journalist John Stossel discusses his lung cancer – and health-care delivery.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Thinking Globally and Acting Locally – Scaling Up Depression and Anxiety Treatment

April 21, 2016 /

From the Editor

Tim Evans doesn’t mince his words: “The situation with mental health today is like HIV-AIDS two decades ago.”

Tim Evans is a senior director at the World Bank Group. He made these comments after the release of a major new study suggesting that depression and anxiety are undertreated – and costing the world’s economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

But this paper has good news: an investment in mental health services will offer a return (counting health benefits) in the range of 3.3 to 5.7.

This week’s Reading: this new paper from The Lancet Psychiatry, and the reaction to it. Note that coverage has included The Guardian and The New York Times (Evans comments are from The New York Times).

I also follow up on last week’s popular Reading on the Goldbloom-Bryden book.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: How Successful Are We at Treating Canadians with Depression? And More

March 10, 2016 /

From the Editor

How successful are we at treating Canadians with depression? How could Canada’s health care system serve these patients better?

This is the ‘all Canadian’ issue of the Reading of the Week.

Readings don’t necessarily follow a theme – but we do this week. The two papers are written by Canadian authors; they tackle Canadian topics; they were published in a Canadian journal, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

The first paper considers depression in Canada, looking at prevalence and treatment over a decade. The second paper champions more effective care for Canadians. Both are readable and relevant.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Doctor-Assisted Suicide: The Dutch Experience

February 25, 2016 /

From the Editor

Is the practice of psychiatry about to change?

We often think of change in terms of treatment developments – new drugs and therapies. But mental health services are delivered in a larger societal context, and our work is shaped by laws and court rulings. With that in mind, Carter v. Canada has the potential to reshape our work. As you know, last year, the Supreme Court of Canada struck down the provision of the Criminal Code prohibiting doctor-assisted suicide. Later today, a special joint parliamentary committee will issue its report, guiding the drafting of legislation that will legalize doctor-assisted suicide.

How will this future legislation affect those with mental illness? What will it mean for people like us who do clinical work? Obviously, it’s not possible to comment on legislation that hasn’t been drafted yet. But it is possible to look to other countries and consider their experience. In this week’s Reading, Kim et al. consider physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia in the Netherlands. In their study of a country across the ocean, there are lessons for our patients here.

DG Continue reading