Tag: Beck

Reading of the Week: The Best of 2021

January 6, 2022 /

From the Editor

Welcome 2022.

It’s a Reading of the Week tradition that we begin the New Year by reviewing the best of the past year; so, this week, we look back at 2021.

2020 to 2021

As with past annual reviews, I’ve organized papers into different categories – though there is one common thread: all the papers are clinically relevant and practical. And, yes, there is a person of the year. Spoiler alert: he was fond of bow ties and thinking outside the box.

And an observation about 2021: the quality of scholarship was very high. I’ve picked ten papers – but it would have been possible to pick scores more. Psychiatry continues to grow more sophisticated with each passing year.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Dr. Ari Zaretsky on the Life & Legacy of Dr. Aaron Beck

November 11, 2021 /

From the Editor  

The fourth child of Russian Jewish immigrants. A Yale medicine graduate. A snappy dresser who loved bow ties.  

Dr. Aaron Beck, who died last week at the age of 100, was also a psychiatrist who significantly changed the way we treat patients and learn to treat them. Today, millions have broken the shackles of mood and anxiety problems by using cognitive behavioural therapy; residents of psychiatry learn about the Beck’s Cognitive Triad as a core part of their training.  

aaron_beck_2016Dr. Aaron Beck 

I asked Dr. Ari Zaretsky, the Psychiatrist-in-Chief and Vice President Education of the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, to write about him – his work and legacy. In his essay, Dr. Zaretsky notes: “His life story is that of a former psychoanalyst who rejected the dogmatism of mainstream Freudian psychoanalysis during the 1950s and 1960s and in doing so permanently changed the paradigm and transformed psychotherapy.” 

For those who wish to read more about Dr. Beck, I’ve included links, including to The New York Times obituary.  

DG   Continue reading

Reading of the Week: “Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy the Gold Standard for Psychotherapy?” JAMA on Psychotherapy

October 12, 2017 /

From the Editor

Is CBT overrated? The authors of a new JAMA paper raise this question in a cutting Viewpoint.

In this two-part Reading of the Week series, we look at two papers, both published in JAMA. These Viewpoint pieces make interesting, provocative arguments.

Last week, we looked at conversational agents.

This week, we ask: is CBT really the gold standard for psychotherapy?

University of Giessen’s Falk Leichsenring and Medical School Berlin’s Christiane Steinert consider CBT and the research that has been done in the area. “CBT is usually considered the gold standard for the psychotherapeutic treatment of many or even most mental disorders.” But should it be? Leichsenring and Steinert argue no.

beck_aaron_t-_112798Aaron Beck: Great bowtie, but is his CBT really so great?

In this Reading, we review their paper, and consider their argument.

DG

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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.”

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