Tag: Harris

Reading of the Week: IPT for Depression in Pregnancy – the New JAMA Psych Paper; Also, Treating Opioid Use (JAMA) and Substance Ed for Docs (Wash Post)

June 22, 2023 /

From the Editor

Prenatal depression affects two: the mother and her fetus. But how to effectively address depressive symptoms?

In the first selection, from JAMA Psychiatry, Benjamin L. Hankin (of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) and his co-authors consider a focused psychotherapy for that population. In a RCT involving 234 participants, they find that IPT was helpful. “Brief IPT significantly reduced prenatal depression symptoms and MDD compared with EUC [enhanced usual care] among pregnant individuals from diverse racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic backgrounds recruited from primary OB/GYN clinics.” We look at the paper and its clinical implications.

In the second selection, Caroline King (of the Oregon Health & Science University) and her co-authors consider buprenorphine for opioid use disorder with a focus on adolescent residential treatment. In a JAMA research letter, they report the findings which included every identified facility in the United States. “In contrast to the standard of care, only 1 in 4 US facilities offered buprenorphine and 1 in 8 offered buprenorphine for ongoing treatment.”

And, in the third selection, former AMA president Dr. Patrice A. Harris (of Columbia University) and her co-authors argue that physicians should know more about addiction treatment. In a Washington Post essay, they argue for more robust training. “Opioid use disorder is treatable, and medicines are readily available. But doctors cannot learn to help patients by taking a weekend course alone.”

DG


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Reading of the Week: Perceived Helpfulness of Depression Treatment – the New JAMA Psych Paper; Also, Friedman on Boredom & the Pandemic (NYT)

September 3, 2020 /

From the Editor

How helpful do people find treatment for depression?

This question is broad but new work (drawing on WHO surveys) ambitiously attempts to answer it across different countries, including some that are low income.

In the first selection, we consider a paper from JAMA Psychiatry. Meredith G. Harris (of The University of Queensland) and her co-authors report on WHO data. The good news? Many people do find treatment for depression helpful. The bad news? Many providers are needed for people to believe that they had received helpful treatment.

4anvfzqDepression treatment: helpful, like a lift from a friend?

In the second selection, we look at a new essay by Dr. Richard A. Friedman (of Weill Cornell Medical College). Writing in The New York Times, he discusses the pandemic and the possibility of “a mental health epidemic of depression and anxiety.” Dr. Friedman argues that we are seeing mass boredom, not a rise in disorders like depression. While he can’t fully rule out that the pandemic will bring about an increase in mental health problems, he writes: “let’s not medicalize everyday stress.”

DG
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