Category: Uncategorized

I attended the funeral, albeit awkwardly. I told myself not to feel defensive. I could learn from this, but that didn’t make it right. I didn’t recover for a very long while.

http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/10/03/a_patients_suicide_a_doctors_devastation.html

(Because of browser and firewall issues, this link may not work. The article follows.)

Dr. Paul Garfinkel has had a storied career — psychiatrist, prolific researcher, administrator. There’s even a street named after him in downtown Toronto.

He can now add to the resume: published author of a moving and thoughtful memoir. Continue reading

In Canada, we need to stop thinking of depression as a Cinderella disease — as deserving as its stepsisters, but neglected nonetheless.

http://www.cmaj.ca/content/early/2014/09/29/cmaj.141128.full.pdf+html Continue reading

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/09/22/home-free

Psychiatric patients often have problems beyond their core psychiatric issues. For people with severe, persistent mental illness, homelessness may be among them.

Continue reading

http://www.cmaj.ca/site/earlyreleases/9sept14_suicide-report-indicates-shift-at-WHO.xhtml

Yesterday was World Suicide Prevention Day.

The Reading of the Week, an article from CMAJ, touches on this topic and discusses the recently released WHO report, “Preventing Suicide: A global imperative.”

The WHO report finds:

• Every year, 800,000 people suicide.
• That works out to a suicide every 40 seconds.
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death worldwide for people 15 to 29 of age.

Continue reading

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/aug/28/cancer-depression-huge-treatment-effect-new-programme

How common is depression in cancer patients? Is it treatable?

Capping off an incredible effort, a series of papers was just published by the Lancet, the Lancet Oncology and the Lancet Psychiatry — 3 of the biggest journals in medicine.

Covering 21,000 patients with depression and cancer, the papers have important findings:

1. 73% of patients with depression and cancer go untreated for their mood disorder.

2. Depression is common in patients with cancer; depending on the type of cancer, 3 to 6.5 times more common than in the general population at a point in time.

3. And in smaller trials, cancer patients respond robustly to nurse-led, multi-modality treatment — even patients with poor (cancer) prognosis.

Continue reading

http://spectrum.ieee.org/biomedical/diagnostics/smartphone-app-keeps-watch-over-schizophrenic-patients

Today, you may watch an old high-school friend’s daughter take her first steps in Brazil (where they now live), cash a cheque into your bank account, and get live updates on Scotland’s referendum — and do all of this with your smartphone without leaving your living room. Technology has transformed our lives.

Will it transform Psychiatry? Continue reading