Tag: podcast

Reading of the Week: Postsecondary Students & Mental Illness (CJP), a New Podcast (CAMH), and Bipolar & Social Media (NYT)

October 3, 2019 /

From the Editor

Social media. An uncertain job market. Increasing academic demands.

Is life for our postsecondary students harder than ever? And are we seeing a surge in mental health disorders as a result?

In the first selection, we consider a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper on postsecondary education and mental illness. While many have opinions on this topic, the University of Toronto’s Kathryn Wiens and her co-authors seek to add data to the discussion. Drawing on the Canadian Community Health Survey, they find: “The results do not imply the emergence of a mental health crisis among postsecondary students.”

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In the second selection, we look at a new podcast considering technology and education. I interview some accomplished educators, including the University of Toronto’s David Goldbloom. “This is about challenging our own norms, values and expectations as clinicians.”

And in the final selection, we consider a New York Times essay on bipolar and social media. “Facebook snitched our big family secret: Roland, the literary prodigy, the tenderhearted musician, the Ivy League grad, was bipolar.”

DG

 

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Reading of the Week: Can British Reforms Prevent Mental Illness? What Should Every Physician Know About Burnout? Also, Cardiac Surgery (and Us)

June 27, 2019 /

From the Editor

Governments in Canada and across the west have committed themselves to spending more on mental health care. But how should we spend this new money? Should we focus on people earlier in the illness experience? Should we fund evidence-based treatments like CBT? Should education campaigns aimed at reducing stigma be the priority?

UK Prime Minister Theresa May recently announced new mental health reforms. She explained: “It’s time to rethink how we tackle this issue, which is why I believe the next great revolution in mental health should be in prevention.” In this week’s first selection, we look at Prime Minister May’s announcement, and we ask: should Canadian policymakers look to 10 Downing Street for mental health ideas?

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Also, this week, we consider an interview with Dr. Treena Wilkie, CAMH’s Deputy Physician-in-Chief for Medical Affairs and Practice, who talks about physician burnout. Dr. Wilkie closes with a few words of advice for our colleagues: “There’s help available.”

And, in our third selection, The New York Times investigates deaths in an American hospital. The article isn’t about psychiatry (it’s about health care). But could it be about the problems in your hospital?

This will be the last Reading of the academic year. To my young colleagues who have just graduated: I hope you enjoy your careers in psychiatry as much as I have.

There will be no Reading next week. Should you fall off the distribution list of these Readings, please don’t hesitate to pop me an email.

DG

 

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Reading of the Week: Smoking, Cognitive Performance, & Mental Illness: Quitting Matters – the New AJP Study

December 20, 2018 /

From the Editor

I don’t quite know when the shift occurred, but somewhere between the zeal of residency and the busyness of life as an attending physician, I stopped documenting nicotine use disorder. Indeed, working with severely ill patients, it was a given that they did smoke, and thus hardly worth mentioning. (Studies suggest that smoking is thrice as prevalent among those with schizophrenia compared to the general population.)

For many of our patients, tobacco use is a deadly problem – a major reason why people with severe, persistent mental illness have a life expectancy much shorter than ours.

This week, we consider a new paper from The American Journal of Psychiatry. The University of Academisch Medisch Centrum Universiteit van Amsterdam’s Dr. Jentien M. Vermeulen and her co-authors consider smoking in those with psychosis, their families and a control group, studying the impact on smoking on cognition – and also the impact of smoking cessation on cognition. Though work has been done in this area, the Vermenulen et al. paper is strong: they consider two comparison groups and follow people for six years. Spoiler alert: smoking cessation improved cognition in people with psychosis.

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In this Reading, we consider the paper, as well as the editorial by the University of Miami’s Philip D. Harvey, who raises some good points about what is – and isn’t – in the data.

We close the Reading with a couple of housekeeping items, including my new podcast (which may be of interest to Ontario doctors).

DG

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Reading of the Week: Cannabis Legalization – Clinical Implications & Major Papers

October 18, 2018 /

From the Editor

It’s legal.

After decades of debate, Canada has legalized recreational marijuana, joining an exclusive club of nations with just one other member: Uruguay.

In the coming weeks, many details will be sorted out – some small (the regulation of edibles), some not so small (driving and use). But starting this week, we clinicians work in a different world.

What are the clinical implications of legalization? Will we see more use? How will people present to our EDs and clinics? What should we ask on a history? And how do we treat cannabinoid hyperemesis syndrome? (Spoiler alert: ginger stat.)

In the first selection, I highlight comments by CAMH’s Dr. Jonathan Bertram made in an interview with me. We discuss what every clinician should know about legalization.

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And then with an eye on the journals, I pick a few essential articles on cannabis, drawing from The New England Journal, JAMA, and other major publications, considering topics from the adverse effects of marijuana to the implications for pain management.

DG

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