Tag: mortality

Reading of the Week: Do ADHD Meds Reduce Mortality? The New JAMA Psych Study; Also, Dr. Rebecca Lawrence on Her Husband & His Support

April 4, 2024 /

From the Editor

For my patient, ADHD medications transformed his life, helping him focus at school and at work – and even drive better. Many have had similar experiences. Do ADHD medications also reduce mortality? We know that those with ADHD have higher mortality rates and thus it’s reasonable to ask about the possible benefits of methylphenidate and sister drugs.

Lin Li (of the Karolinska Institutet) and her co-authors try to answer that question in a new JAMA Psychiatry paper. Drawing on Swedish databases, they analyzed data from almost 150 000 people with ADHD and looked at two-year mortality, including for those who die by unintentional injuries, suicide, or poisonings, by doing a target trial emulsion – simulating a randomized trial. “Among individuals diagnosed with ADHD, medication initiation was associated with significantly lower all-cause mortality, particularly for death due to unnatural causes.” We consider the paper, the editorial that accompanies it, and the clinical implications.

ADHD meds: life saver?

And in the other selection, Dr. Rebecca Lawrence writes about support in a blog for Doctor and Patient. She is personal – besides working as psychiatrist, Dr. Lawrence has been treated for depression, including with ECT. She notes the incredible help her husband has given her over the years. “I look at myself in the mirror and am appalled, but he still smiles at me.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Alcohol Use, ED Visits & Mortality – the New CMAJ Paper; Also, Dr. Lawrence on Diagnoses and Her Diagnosis (Guardian)

January 21, 2021 /

From the Editor:

“He’s here again.”

The staff would roll their eyes. Harold was back. Many of us had encountered him – a person with alcohol use disorder who frequently came to the emergency department of the hospital where I did my internship year. He would usually get a sandwich and a lecture. But what are the outcomes for people like him? And what could be done?

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In the first selection, we consider a new CMAJ paper. Dr. Jennifer Hulme (of the University of Toronto) and her co-authors study outcomes for those presenting to Ontario EDs for alcohol-related reasons. The major finding: “The all-cause 1-year mortality rate was 5.4% overall.” We review the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, we look at a new essay by Dr. Rebecca Lawrence from The Guardian. The UK psychiatrist, who has written about her experiences as a mental health patient, notes the challenges of psychiatric diagnoses. “There are many words in the field of mental illness that have been discarded and are now viewed as stigmatising and inappropriate – words such as ‘cretin’, or ‘lunatic’, or ‘mental’. It’s interesting to consider whether our current crop of acceptable words will end up in that category, and it’s salutary to know that many probably will.”

DG

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