Tag: depression

Reading of the Week: Thinking Globally and Acting Locally – Scaling Up Depression and Anxiety Treatment

April 21, 2016 /

From the Editor

Tim Evans doesn’t mince his words: “The situation with mental health today is like HIV-AIDS two decades ago.”

Tim Evans is a senior director at the World Bank Group. He made these comments after the release of a major new study suggesting that depression and anxiety are undertreated – and costing the world’s economy hundreds of billions of dollars a year.

But this paper has good news: an investment in mental health services will offer a return (counting health benefits) in the range of 3.3 to 5.7.

This week’s Reading: this new paper from The Lancet Psychiatry, and the reaction to it. Note that coverage has included The Guardian and The New York Times (Evans comments are from The New York Times).

I also follow up on last week’s popular Reading on the Goldbloom-Bryden book.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: How Successful Are We at Treating Canadians with Depression? And More

March 10, 2016 /

From the Editor

How successful are we at treating Canadians with depression? How could Canada’s health care system serve these patients better?

This is the ‘all Canadian’ issue of the Reading of the Week.

Readings don’t necessarily follow a theme – but we do this week. The two papers are written by Canadian authors; they tackle Canadian topics; they were published in a Canadian journal, The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

The first paper considers depression in Canada, looking at prevalence and treatment over a decade. The second paper champions more effective care for Canadians. Both are readable and relevant.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: To Screen or Not to Screen – Pregnancy & Depression Screening

February 4, 2016 /

From the Editor

“Panel Calls for Depression Screenings During and After Pregnancy”

A government health-care panel making a revision to a past recommendation seems pretty ‘inside baseball’ – and hardly the stuff of international headlines. Last week, though, the decision of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force to now recommend the screening of pregnant and post-partum women for depression was reported from New York to New Delhi.

For the record, The New York Times story (whose headline appears above) ran on the front page.

Why the change and what are the implications?

To screen or not to screen…

This week’s Reading looks at the big decision and we consider: is it a big bust?

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: The Best of 2015 — Books, Papers, and Hope

December 24, 2015 /

From the Editor

This will be the last Reading of the Week for 2015. (The Readings will resume in a fortnight.)

A bit of housekeeping: the Reading of the Week is a labour of love. There is no industry support for this project – or, in fact, any funding. Still, it’s hardly my project. Many readers (particularly residents) suggested papers and made comments over this past year. I’m also deeply grateful for the support of several colleagues; Drs. David Goldbloom and Mark Fefergrad deserve particular mention. And my father and wife have been great editorial supports.

It’s a Reading of the Week tradition to close the year by highlighting the best of the past 12 months.

Looking over the Readings of this year, I’m struck by the diversity of the publications that I could draw selections from. Sure, the Readings of 2015 included papers from The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA Psychiatry. But they also included moving personal essays that were published in newspapers; The Economist (yes, The Economist) covered mental illness and the burden of disease well and thoughtfully; the best articles on global psychiatry appeared in The New York Times.

It wasn’t that long ago that we hoped that discussion of mental illness would move out of the shadows. Today, slowly but surely, it is. And so, 2015 closes after 48 Readings and on this hopeful note.

DG Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Physician, Heal Thyself: Residents and Depression, and More

December 17, 2015 /

From the Editor

This week – like last week – we pick a few interesting readings to consider.

This week’s selections: a chef and his addiction, a major new JAMA paper on resident physicians and depressive symptoms, and a big paper from BMJ comparing CBT and meds for depression.

Next week: the best of the year (the annual tradition). Suggestions are welcome for the best papers of 2015.

DG

Selection 1

“Three years after his mysterious disappearance, former Langdon Hall chef breaks his silence”

Mark Schatzker, The Globe and Mail, 1 December 2015

On the night of Dec. 28, 2012, Jonathan Gushue, one of Canada’s most decorated chefs, disappeared. He finished a dinner service at Langdon Hall that included pickerel in crème fraîche with black radish and black-pepper honey, got into his car and never arrived home.

No one, including Gushue’s wife, his sous chefs and his friends, knew what had happened to the 41-year-old father of three who, just two years earlier, had put Langdon Hall, in Cambridge, Ont., on the prestigious San Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants list. As the chef’s disappearance made headlines from coast to coast, mysterious details began leaking out – his phone was found at an upscale Toronto hotel – but nothing more.

Thirteen days later, Gushue was found and reported safe. Several months later, he left Langdon Hall, then vanished from public life.

Jonathan Gushue

Gushue had it all – a young family and a soaring career. He also had alcoholism. Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Let There Be Light

December 3, 2015 /

Major depressive disorder (MDD) affects at least 5% of the population, with a lifetime prevalence estimated at 14%. It is the second-ranked cause of disability worldwide and is associated with impairment in quality of life, increased risk of mortality, and societal burden. Treatments for MDD include psychotherapies and antidepressants, but remission rates remain low despite adequate treatment and more therapeutic options are needed.

Light therapy, an effective treatment for seasonal affective disorder (SAD), may also be appropriate for MDD. Bright light is a safe, well-tolerated, nonpharmacological treatment that can be used alone or combined with medications. Light can correct disturbed circadian rhythms, which have been implicated in the pathophysiology of MDD. Previous metaanalyses of light therapy for nonseasonal MDD, however, have yielded only equivocal and conflicting evidence for efficacy. Two more recent systematic reviews both concluded that the quality and methods of the identified studies were too heterogeneous to conduct a meta-analysis. They each found insufficient evidence for efficacy of bright light monotherapy, although 1 review found low-quality evidence for bright light as adjuvant treatment to antidepressants.

In summary, these systematic reviews indicate that the evidence for benefits of bright light therapy for nonseasonal MDD is inconclusive and well-designed studies are required to resolve this issue.

So begins a new paper on depression. I like these opening paragraphs and, in particular, the first paragraph (and its bluntness). For the clinicians among us, the final phrase is hauntingly true: “more therapeutic options are needed.”

This week’s Reading: “Efficacy of Bright Light Treatment, Fluoxetine, and the Combination in Patients With Nonseasonal Major Depressive Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Dr. Raymond W. Lam et al., which was just published online (ahead of print) in JAMA Psychiatry.

image001

This is a big paper in a big journal with big clinical implications. It’s also very Canadian – every co-author lives north of the 49th parallel; the first author hails from Vancouver.

We know that light therapy works for those with a seasonal pattern to their depression. But could we use the light therapy for other people suffering from depression? The authors attempt to answer this question. Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Can We Prevent Depression For Those At Risk?

November 26, 2015 /

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and commonly begins in adolescence. Prevention is one viable strategy for reducing the population burden of depression because most depressed adolescents do not receive specialty mental health treatment and because untreated depression is associated with enduring deleterious effects on interpersonal relationships, educational attainment, and occupational status.

Single-site studies have demonstrated the efficacy of an adaptation of the Coping with Depression for Adolescents intervention in preventing the onset of depression relative to usual care in adolescents with subsyndromal depressive symptoms and in those with a parental history of depression. These results were replicated in our 4-site randomized clinical trial of 316 high-risk adolescents randomly assigned to either an adaptation of the Coping with Depression for Adolescents (cognitive-behavioral prevention [CBP]) plus usual care or usual care alone, which found a lower incidence of depressive episodes at 9 and 33 months after enrollment in those who received CBP.

So begins a new paper that seeks a lofty goal: using a psychological intervention to prevent depression before it starts.

This week’s Reading: “Effect of a Cognitive-Behavioral Prevention Program on Depression 6 Years After Implementation Among At-Risk Adolescents: A Randomized Clinical Trial” by Dr. David A. Brent et al., which was published in the November JAMA Psychiatry.

In this paper, Brent et al. attempt something we often dream about in psychiatry – but are so rarely able to achieve: prevention. That alone would make this paper worth considering. But there’s more: the study features an incredible follow up period (a full six years) and a consideration of the parent, not just the at-risk adolescent. Pulling it together: this is a big paper in a big journal with a big result.

Dr. David Brent

So, can we take an at risk population and, with therapy, prevent them from developing a major mental illness? This is what the study authors seek to find out. As they note early in the paper: “We hypothesized that those who received CBP would have a lower hazard of depression onsets and better developmental competence during emerging adulthood.” Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Euthanasia, Psychiatry, and the Thienpont et al. paper

September 30, 2015 /

The Belgian Euthanasia Law (2002) defines euthanasia as the physician’s “act of deliberately ending a patient’s life at the latter’s request,” by administering life-ending drugs.In Europe, psychological suffering stemming from either a somatic or mental disorder is acknowledged as a valid legal basis for euthanasia only in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.In the Netherlands and Luxembourg, the term ‘assisted suicide’ is used when the life-ending drugs are taken orally, but in Belgium, the term ‘euthanasia’ is used whether the drugs are received orally or intravenously.

So begins a new paper on euthanasia in Belgium.

The topic is fascinating and it’s also highly relevant in Canada. As you will recall, Carter v. Canada – the Supreme Court ruling made earlier this year – speaks directly to the right to doctor-assisted suicide. (I’ll return to this point in a moment.)

This week’s Reading: “Euthanasia requests, procedures and outcomes for 100 Belgian patients suffering from psychiatric disorders: a retrospective, descriptive study” by Dr. Lieve Thienpont et al., which was just published online at BMJ Open.

Though much has been written about Belgium and euthanasia (a June Reading considered a New Yorker essay on the topic), little data has been analyzed. And that’s what makes the Thienpont et al. paper interesting. A quick summary: in a first-of-it-kind paper, the authors consider 100 psychiatric patients requesting euthanasia – from their diagnosis to their final outcome. It should be noted that the first author is a leading proponent of euthanasia and was actively involved in the care and decision making of these patients.

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Dr. Linda Gask’s New Book (Depression: Week 3 of 3)

September 24, 2015 /

This is a story about overcoming depression and also about coming to terms with loss. The two are closely related to each other. I know about this not just from my personal experience, but because I am a psychiatrist. I have specialised in treating those who suffer from the same problems which have afflicted me throughout my adult life. I’ve survived and come through it, and I know others can too.

So opens a new book by Dr. Linda Gask, a British psychiatrist. This Week’s Reading: an exclusive excerpt from The Other Side of Silence: A Psychiatrist’s Memoir of Depression, which was just published by Summersdale Publishers Ltd.

otherside

This Reading is the third part in a three-part series on depression.

Two weeks ago: a look at better psychopharmacological management.

Last week: consideration of better treatment in the primary care setting.

This Week: a look at the burden of illness on the patient and the psychiatrist.

(And this isn’t Mad Men Season 4. Miss a week and you aren’t lost.)

Dr. Gask has had a remarkable career. Beyond clinical work, she’s had a sparkling academic career, with a focus on mental-health policy and practice. She’s published papers and book chapters; she’s trained residents; she’s lectured all over the world. She was a Harkness Fellow at the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle, Washington. And she has also worked as a consultant for the World Health Organization and with the World Psychiatric Association.

GaskDr. Linda Gask

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: Depression and Primary Care (Depression: Week 2 of 3)

September 17, 2015 /

Depression is a common psychiatric disorder and a major contributor to mortality and morbidity worldwide. Over the past decade in Sweden, work absence because of mental ill health has risen markedly and depression is a major factor. Substantial societal costs are associated with the disorder, which affects up to 15% of the population at any one time and tends to be recurrent. There are compelling reasons to investigate alternative treatments for depression. Although effective treatments exist, most people with the disorder never seek professional help. Among those that do, only half appear to benefit. Adherence with medication is often poor and waiting times for cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) can be lengthy, resulting in more entrenched symptoms and a worse long-term prognosis. As general medical practitioners are frequently the main care providers for depression, treatment options that are non-stigmatising, have few side-effects and can readily be prescribed in community healthcare settings are needed.

So begins a new paper that considers depression treatment in Sweden. These issues sound very familiar. Reading over this list of problems – the burden of illness, the inaccessibility of care, etc. – we could replace Sweden with Canada. And that’s why this paper is so relevant to us.

This week’s Reading: “Physical exercise and internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy in the treatment of depression: randomised controlled trial” by Mats Hallgren et al., which was just published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Mats Hallgren

A quick summary: this is a smart paper seeking ways to improve the treatment of depression in the primary care setting. How to achieve better results? Hallgren et al. consider exercise and Internet-based CBT, and compare such interventions to the usual care. Continue reading