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
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Reading of the Week: Lithium
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/14/opinion/sunday/should-we-all-take-a-bit-of-lithium.html?_r=1
(Because of browser and firewall issues, this link may not work. The article follows.)
Should We All Take a Bit of Lithium? So asks Dr. Fels in this provocative and clever New York Times essay.
This we know: Lithium is an incredible mood stabilizer for people with Bipolar Affective Disorder. Lithium has anti-suicidal properties; Lithium slows cell apoptosis (programmed cell death) in the brain; Lithium works as an antidepressant. As Dr. Fels notes: “its efficacy in mood disorders and suicide prevention has been documented as well as or better than virtually any other psychotropic medication.”
So… should we all be taking it? Continue reading
Reading of the Week: Homes for the Homeless
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.
Reading of the Week: World Suicide Prevention Day (and Hope)
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.
Reading of the Week: Cancer and Depression
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.
Reading of the Week: Psychiatry and Technology
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
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