Tag: Farrell

Reading of the Week: ECT & Equity (CJP); also, COVID and Mental Health Surveys (Policy Options) and Farrell on Witnessing the Pandemic (Nation)

From the Editor

Who has better access to care?

This week, we have three selections. The first is a paper about inpatient ECT – an important topic. And the study – just published in The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry – has interesting findings, including that ECT is not particularly commonly performed (for just 1 out of 10 inpatients with depression). But this new paper by Dr. Tyler S. Kaster (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors also touches on the larger issue of equity. We consider it – and the questions the study raises.

ect-maching

The second selection is an essay from Policy Options. Drs. Scott Patten (of the University of Calgary) and Stan Kutcher (of Dalhousie University) bemoan the state of mental health data during the pandemic. “There has been a disturbing acceptance of trivial and often misrepresented information, delivered from sub-optimal surveys and problematic interpretation of results.”

Finally, we consider an essay by Dr. Colleen M. Farrell (of Cornell University). She discusses COVID-19 – she is working in the ICU of a major New York City hospital during the pandemic – but also ties to the larger issues of public health, advocacy, and the role of medicine. “As I tend to my patients in the Covid ICU, I struggle to process reality. The attending physicians who are my teachers have few answers; this disease is new to all of us.”

Please note that there will be no Reading next week.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Dr. Farrell on Her Medical School Days & Her Depression

From the Editor

It’s been 19 years since I finished medical school. Though almost two decades have passed, medical schools are very similar today – the anatomy lessons, the white coat ceremony, the Hippocratic Oath.

But things appeared different then. No one seemed to have struggled with depression or anxiety. Except, of course, that people did – they struggled quietly, and with shame.

This week’s selection is short and moving, and was just published in JAMA. Dr. Colleen Farrell, a resident of internal medicine at NYU, writes about her depression during her med school days – and the lessons she has learned.

premednav_sinai_white_coat-jpg__750x325_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscaleA white coat ceremony: 1 in 5 adults has a mental health problem – even here

This week, we consider Dr. Farrell’s essay.

DG

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