Tag: CBC

Reading of the Week: Cannabis Potency & Mental Health – the New Lancet Psych Paper; Also, Legalization & Poisonings (NEJM) and Nicholson on Her Son (CBC)

From the Editor

“In the USA and Europe, the concentration of THC has more than doubled over the past 10 years…”

So notes a new paper in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Canada legalized cannabis for recreational purposes four years ago; other countries have done the same, as have almost two dozen US states. But how has cannabis itself changed over time? What are the implications for mental health disorders? And public policy? In the first selection, quoted above, Kat Petrilli (of the University of Bath) and her co-authors do a systematic review of cannabis potency and mental health and attempt to answer these questions. Drawing on 20 studies, they find: “Overall, the evidence suggests that the use of higher potency cannabis, compared with lower potency cannabis, is associated with an increased risk of psychosis, and this risk is higher in people who use cannabis daily.” We look at the paper and weigh its clinical implications.

In the second selection, using Ontario data, Dr. Daniel T. Myran (of the University of Ottawa) and his co-authors consider the effect of edible cannabis legalization on poisonings of children. Writing for The New England Journal of Medicine, they compare jurisdictions with legal sales (Alberta, British Columbia, and Ontario) with a province that hasn’t legalized that form of cannabis (Quebec). “Our data indicate that legalization was associated with marked increases in hospitalizations for cannabis poisoning in children.”

And, in the third selection, Shirley Nicholson writes about substance and stigma with a deeply personal essay. In this piece for CBC First Person, she discusses her son’s struggles and his death from an overdose. She writes: “He didn’t plan to die at 27. He was more than his addictions. He was our son, our brother, our grandson, our nephew, our cousin and we all loved him so.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Prevention With Mindfulness for Kids? The New EBMH Study; Also, Ending Seclusion (Psych Services) & Morrison on Her Silence (CBC)

From the Editor

Our patients tell similar stories about their experiences with depression: of strained and lost relationships, of job opportunities that didn’t work out, of the pain of the illness itself.

Could all this be avoided? The attractiveness of prevention is obvious. In the first selection, Willem Kuyken (of the University of Oxford) and his co-authors describe a program focused on those 11 to 16 years of age. In this new EBMH paper, they use mindfulness training. The intervention is randomized, involving 84 schools. They conclude: “In a fully powered, rigorous, cluster randomised controlled trial we found no support for our hypothesis that school-based mindfulness training is superior in terms of mental health and well-being compared with usual provision over 1 year of follow-up in young people in secondary schools.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection from Psychiatric Services, Gregory M. Smith (of the Allentown State Hospital) and his co-authors analyze Pennsylvania’s move to eliminate seclusion and restraint events. Drawing on nine years of data, they conclude: “The findings of this study provide compelling evidence that uses of seclusion and restraints can be reduced or eliminated in both civil and forensic populations, with benefits to both the persons being served and their support staff.”

And, in the third selection, lawyer Helen Morrison considers mental illness and stigma. In this essay for CBC First Person, she notes her own journey and her fears about how people would react to her having bipolar disorder. She finds support with her faith group and others. She writes: “I want people to know that being diagnosed with a mental illness need not be earth-shattering. Faulty brain chemistry should be seen as just another chronic medical condition.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: The Advocates – Beattie on Her Illness (Lexpert), Goldbloom on Progress Made (CBC Radio)

From the Editor

Sick with depression, he decided that the burden was too great. The suicide attempt failed, but after he was admitted – when I met him on the inpatient ward – he told me that his family wouldn’t visit. He explained that they couldn’t accept that he had mental illness.

He was right.

Times have changed, but stigma continues. This week, we consider the comments of two advocates.

In the first selection, lawyer Beth G. Beattie describes her illness and her fears. She also discusses her decision to speak out. Noting how few lawyers talk about mental illness – in part, because of the fear of job loss – she has written for a law publication. “The profession is in desperate need of role models, namely, lawyers who live with mental illness and are well established in our positions and prepared to share our stories.”

A waiting crowd in front of a microphone and podium

In the second selection, the University of Toronto’s Dr. David Goldbloom, a CAMH psychiatrist, remembers the silence on the topic of mental illness not so long ago. In an interview with CBC Radio’s Metro Morning, he notes that the silence was due to “secrecy, shame, stigma.” He weighs the progress that’s been made in recent years and he mulls the work to be done, particularly to reach “all communities.”

DG

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