Tag: Boyce

Reading of the Week: MST vs ECT – the new JAMA Psych Study; Also, Dr. Niall Boyce on Frasier and the Latest in the News

From the Editor

Electroconvulsive therapy, or ECT, is a highly effective treatment for depression. But patients often complain about side effects, including cognitive problems.

Could magnetic seizure therapy, or MST, provide the benefits of ECT without these issues? In a new paper for JAMA Psychiatry, Zhi-De Deng (of Duke University) and co-authors attempt to answer that question. In a study where 73 patients with depression were given ECT or MST, they found similar results. “This randomized clinical trial found that the efficacy of MST was indistinguishable from that of ultrabrief pulse [right unilateral] ECT, the safest form of ECT currently available.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, Dr. Niall Boyce (of the Wellcome Trust) mulls the return of Frasier Crane, the “pompous but kind-hearted American psychiatrist.” In a Lancet perspective, he writes about the original TV comedy and the new revival of Frasier – and also notes the change in perception of psychiatry over the years. His assessment of the show: “Is the new Frasier worth watching? On the early evidence, I would say yes.”

And, finally, we explore the latest in the news with consideration of recent articles from The Globe and Mail and other publications. Among the topics: the (over) prescription of antidepressants, safe supply, and hairdressers and psychotherapy in Togo.

DG


Continue reading

Reading of the Week: VR for Phobias? The New JAMA Psychiatry Paper. Also: Lancet Psychiatry on the Potential & Pitfalls of Digital Health

From the Editor

At the end of medical school, I spent some time working with an attending psychiatrist who was keen on behavioural interventions. He asked me to see a patient with acrophobia, a fear of heights, and told me to take the patient for an elevator ride for a “real-world experience.” For the record, the patient declined. (Having had no background in behavioural interventions, I’m not sure who was more anxious about that possible elevator ride, the patient or me.)

For people with phobias, exposure can be helpful. And so, therapists have taken their patients on plane trips and to visit tall buildings, and encouraged them to sign up for public speaking classes. As technology advances, we can ask: could virtual reality, or VR, work?

In the first selection, we consider a new paper from JAMA Psychiatry. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam’s Tara Donker and her co-authors use VR for acrophobia. They choose a very basic intervention – an app and cardboard google glasses. They find: “A low-cost fully self-guided app-based virtual reality cognitive behavioral therapy with rudimentary virtual reality goggles can produce large acrophobia symptom reductions.”

googlecardboard-580x358

The future of psychiatry? Maybe – and certainly recyclable

In the second selection, we look at a new editorial from The Lancet Psychiatry. While the authors are keen on digital psychiatry – the sort of work that Donker and her team do – they also warn about potential problems.

DG

Continue reading