Tag: Kramer

Reading of the Week: The Big NYT Article on Antidepressants & Withdrawal – Our Vioxx Moment?

April 12, 2018 /

From the Editor

“Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit.”

The New York Times. Front page. Sunday edition.

One of the most read newspapers in the world just ran a story suggesting that antidepressants may be linked to significant withdrawal symptoms. That news article is, well, news. Journalists Benedict Carey and Robert Gebeloff interview a mother of four who says, “Had I been told the risks of trying to come off this drug, I never would have started it.”

istock_000017711523xlargeAntidepressants: small pills but big problem?

This week’s Reading looks at the big article and considers its big implications.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Mental Illness and Bay St., and More

July 21, 2016 /

From the Editor

Recently, I spoke with a woman I hadn’t met before – a friend of a friend, gathered over coffee by a kitchen table. When she found out that I was a psychiatrist, she talked about her daughter’s struggle with mental illness and I thought how rarely people spoke to me about such things just a decade ago.

As people grow more comfortable talking about their experiences and their family’s experiences with mental illness and as stigma slowly fades, these conversations on Main Street, so to speak – at our kitchen tables and at our kids’ baseball games – are growing more and more common. But people in the corporate world are also growing more aware of the need for us to address mental health problems. No wonder. Consider that the single biggest reason for people to be on disability in Canada is mental illness. And so, there are conversations on Bay Street, too.

In this week’s Reading, we consider a new essay from the Harvard Business Review. In it, CEO Kelsey Meyer talks about her company’s development of a mental health policy.

Also in the Reading: journalist Scott Stossel reviews Dr. Peter Kramer new book on antidepressants – and his own experience with medications.

Please note that the Readings will be “going fishing” for the next two weeks, returning on 11 August.

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Reading of the Week: Do the Meds Work? Peter Kramer’s Essay, and More

June 30, 2016 /

From the Editor

Do the pills really work?

It’s a question that we clinicians are repeatedly asked. Antidepressants are widely prescribed, but often doubted – by our patients and by people in general.

This week, we look at an essay penned by Dr. Peter Kramer, an American psychiatrist. Dr. Kramer, you may recall, made a name for himself two decades ago by extolling the super-therapeutic powers of Prozac. Today, he has a more modest goal: explaining the role of antidepressants in the treatment of depression.

Then, looking to The New England Journal of Medicine, we consider a paper that discusses the rise and, perhaps, fall of randomized controlled trials as the “gold standard” of medical research.

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