Tag: CANMAT

Reading of the Week: the CANMAT Depression Update – Seven Takeaways & Commentary; Also, Patient Preferences for Televideo Backgrounds

From the Editor

Much has changed in the past eight years. In 2016, singer Olivia Rodrigo was starting high school. Quarterback Tom Brady seemed ageless. And none of us were talking about pandemics. 2016 was also the year when the last Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) depression guidelines were released. Well, it’s 2024 and the update has just been published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

How has depression management changed over these past eight years, and how should you adjust your clinical practice? In the first selection, we look at seven takeaways and a commentary.

Melancholia (from the Wellcome Library)

In this week’s other selection, Dr. Nathan Houchens (of the University of Michigan) and his co-authors consider telemedicine video backgrounds in a new research letter from JAMA Network Open. They asked patients to rate different backgrounds and in various medical circumstances; they report on survey results of more than 1 200 patients. “In this study, two-thirds of participants preferred a traditional health care setting background for video visits with any physician type, with physician office displaying diplomas rated highest.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Adolescent Experience with Illness – the World Psych Paper; Also, the CANMAT Depression Update and a Letter to the Editor

From the Editor

I’m separated from everyone else.

These are the words of a young patient with depression. We often use diagnoses and lists of symptoms to understand patients. But how do patients themselves understand their illness? In the first selection, Dr. Paolo Fusar-Poli (of King’s College London) and his co-authors attempt to answer that question with a “bottom-up” approach. In a new World Psychiatry paper, they describe the experiences of adolescents with mental disorders. “The study was co-designed, co-conducted and co-written by junior experts by experience – representing different genders, ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and continents – and academics, refining an earlier method developed by our group to investigate the lived experience of psychosis and depression.” We examine the paper and its implications.

Childhood depression by Marc-Anthony Macon

Much has changed over the past eight years – who was talking about pandemics in 2016? Last week, the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) released its first major depression update in eight years. So how has depression management changed? In the second selection, Dr. Raymond Lam (of the University of British Columbia), the co-first author, discusses the update in a Quick Takes podcast interview. “They really are the most widely used guidelines in the world.” 

And in the third selection, in a letter to the editor, Nick Kerman (of the University of Toronto) writes about the recent homelessness paper from JAMA Psychiatry, summarized in a Reading earlier this month. He notes the striking finding: 26% meet the criteria for antisocial personality disorder. “Could it really be 1 in 4 or is there something else that could explain the finding?”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Cannabis for Mood Disorders – the New CJP Paper; Also, Dr. Insel on Mental Health (QT) and Transgender Adolescents & Suicidality (CMAJ)

From the Editor

He smokes before bed to help with sleep; she finds that the edibles take an edge off from her lows.

Our patients routinely tell us about the benefits of cannabis for mood disorders. But is there any evidence in the literature? In the first selection from The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Smadar V. Tourjman (of the Université de Montréal) and her co-authors consider that question with a systematic review, drawing on data from 56 studies, focused on bipolar and major depressive disorders, for a CANMAT task force report. They conclude: “cannabis use is associated with worsened course and functioning of bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In this week’s second selection, we look at new Quick Takes podcast interview with Dr. Thomas Insel (of the Steinberg Institute). Dr. Insel, a psychiatrist and former director of NIMH, speaks about the progress in neuroscience but the need for mental health reform. “We must think about more than just the classic medical model borrowed from infectious disease: simple bug, simple drug.”

Finally, in the third selection, Mila Kingsbury (of the University of Ottawa) and her co-authors consider the risk of suicidality among trangender and sexual minority adolescents; they draw from a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey. “Gender and sexual minority adolescents, particularly those who identify as transgender and gender-nonconforming, appear to be at greater risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempt than their cisgender and heterosexual peers.”

There will be no Reading next week.

DG

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Reading of the Week: The New CANMAT Guidelines for Depression

From the Editor

What’s new in depression treatment?

The new guidelines

This week, we look at the new CANMAT guidelines. Published in September in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, the papers – six in all – speak to the latest in depression management.

What should you think about the new antidepressants? What alternatives are there to CBT? What to do when everything else fails? Spoiler alert: this week’s Reading answers all these questions and more.

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