Tag: Fusar-Poli

Reading of the Week: Lived Experience of Postpartum Depression & Psychosis – the New World Psych Paper; Also, Involuntary Treatment and Family Stress

May 15, 2025 /

From the Editor

“You are normal and then the next thing, you know, you’re crazy.”

So comments a woman about her postpartum depression. Typically, we describe this illness with a list of symptoms. But how do patients experience it? In a new World Psychiatry paper, Dr. Paolo Fusar-Poli (of King’s College London) and his co-authors attempt to answer this question with a “bottom-up” approach, looking at both postpartum depression and psychosis. “To the best of our knowledge, this is the first bottom-up review of the lived experience of postpartum depression and psychosis. Experts by experience co-designed, co-conducted and co-wrote the study, leveraging an established methodological template developed by our group to investigate the lived experience of psychosis [and] depression…” We look at the paper and its implications.

Should people with substance problems be forced into treatment? Across North America, some are proposing this idea, including governments in British Columbia and Alberta. In a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper, Benedikt Fischer (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors look at the issue and the evidence. “Involuntary treatment for severe SUD is a complex and contentious concept that requires careful in-depth consideration before its adoption.”

In the third selection, a paper written anonymously for The BMJ, the author describes the challenges for families of those with severe mental disorders. He notes his deep frustration with visits to the ward, often leaving him in tears. “Perhaps family support needs to become part of the culture on mental health wards, and we should recognise the need for help in communicating.”

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

May 16, 2024 /

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: Depression & Lived Experience – the new World Psych Paper; Also, the Life of Dr. John Talbott and Chairs & Patient Satisfaction

December 21, 2023 /

From the Editor

“For me, it feels like gravity just starts working on my body harder than it works everywhere else in the world.”

So comments a person with depression about his experience. Typically, we describe depression with a list of symptoms from the DSM-5. But how do patients understand their illness? In a new World Psychiatry paper, Dr. Paolo Fusar-Poli (of King’s College London) and his co-authors attempt to answer that question with a “bottom-up” approach. “To our best knowledge, no [depression] studies have adopted a bottom-up approach (from the lived experience to theory), whereby a global network of experts by experience and academics are mutually engaged in co-writing a joint narrative.” We look at the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, from The New York Times, reporter Trip Gabriel writes an obituary for Dr. John A. Talbott, an American psychiatrist who had championed deinstitutionalization, only to later regret the move away from hospital care. Dr. Talbott once wrote: “The disaster occurred because our mental health delivery system is not a system but a non-system.”

At this time of year, The BMJ runs its light-hearted Christmas issue, featuring much British humour. In the third selection, Ruchita Iyer (of the University of Texas Southwestern) and her co-authors describe a deception trial that increased patient satisfaction without increasing physician time. The “nudge” intervention involved: “Chair placement, defined as positioning the chair within 3 feet (0.9 m) of the bedside and facing the bed.” 

There will be no Readings for the next two weeks. We will return with force (though no British humour) on 11 January 2024.

All the best in the holiday season.

DG

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