Tag: social media

Reading of the Week: Less Social Media, Better Mental Health? The New NBER Paper; Also, Harm & School-based Interventions, and Jones on Her Psychosis

September 25, 2025 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

11.

This month, Reading of the Week celebrates its 11^th birthday. Thanks for continuing to read.

Does quitting social media enhance emotional wellbeing? In the first selection, Hunt Allcott (of Stanford University) and his co-authors attempt to answer this question in a paper for NBER. In a randomized trial, they assigned more than 35 000 social media users to either a social media-free group or one where people continued to use Facebook and Instagram. “Our estimates suggest that deactivating Facebook or Instagram before the 2020 election improved people’s emotional state…” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, Carolina Guzman Holst (of Oxford University) and her co-authors look at school-based mental health interventions and potential harms in a new Child and Adolescent Mental Health paper. In their scoping review, they drew on 120 studies involving CBT and mindfulness. “Overall, our study suggests that a minority (8.93%) of these interventions finds at least one negative outcome and that, to date, no adverse events linked to the intervention itself have been reported.”

And in the third selection, Alexandra Jones writes about her postpartum psychosis in a paper for The Lancet Psychiatry. After a quick labour and delivery, she notes changes with her mental health. She tries to seek care – but only becomes more ill. Eventually, she is hospitalized. “Postpartum psychosis is a psychiatric emergency, and women with postpartum psychosis deserve greater compassion and support underpinned by increased education, research and resources.”

Reading of the Week: ADHD – with Papers from JAMA Psych, PLOS One & Psych Services

April 3, 2025 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

He had struggled for years with mood and ADHD. While we discussed different medication options, my patient was very focused on psychedelics; he explained that his friends had found microdosing to be helpful, especially for their attentional problems.

Psychedelics have entered the mainstream: research is active; patients seem increasingly interested; and, yes, investors offer up billions in the rush to find potential treatments (and profit). But is there evidence for psychedelics for those with ADHD? Dr. Lorenz Mueller (of the University of Basel) and his colleagues attempt to answer that question with a new paper, just published in JAMA Psychiatry. They describe the first double-blind, placebo-controlled phase 2A randomized clinical trial. 52 participants received repeated doses of LSD (twice weekly) or placebo over six weeks. “In this randomized clinical trial, repeated low-dose LSD administration was safe in an outpatient setting, but it was not more efficacious than placebo in reducing ADHD symptoms.” We consider the paper and its implications.

The molecular structure of LSD – pretty but useful for ADHD?

In the second selection, Vasileia Karasavva (of the University of British Columbia) and her co-authors look at ADHD and social media in a new paper for PLOS One. In a two-part study, they analyzed 100 popular videos on ADHD, finding many views but uneven quality. While they note the “democratizing” of mental health information, they warn: “TikTok’s anecdotal content could lead some viewers to misattribute normal behaviors or those better explained by other conditions to be signs of ADHD…”

In the third selection, Dr. Zilin Cui (of Boston University) writes about ADHD – as a provider and also as a patient. In a personal Psychiatric Services paper, the physician discloses long-standing problems and a diagnosis. She also writes about cultural considerations. “Instead of continuing to dwell on what I cannot do, I now have different tools and strategies to chart my path forward. Now, I can finally tell myself that I am enough.”

Reading of the Week: Social Media – with Papers from Digital Health & BJP, and Dr. Vivek Murthy on Warning Labels

February 6, 2025 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

“I know all about antidepressants,” the young patient told me in the ED. “I’ve seen TikTok videos.” Social media isn’t just a source of great cat videos, many individuals – especially younger patients – turn to it for health information.

But how reliable is the mental-health information? In a new Digital Health paper, Roxanne Turuba (of the University of British Columbia) and her co-authors report on a summative content analysis of the 1 000 most popular mental health TikTok videos. They found that many featured personal stories and confessionals; less than 4% referenced scientific evidence; about a third offering advice was misleading. “Healthcare practitioners and researchers may consider increasing their presence on the platform to promote the dissemination of evidence-based information to a wider and more youth-targeted population.” We examine the paper and its implications.

Social media: more than cat videos?

In the second selection, Harriet Battle (of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) and her co-authors consider attitudes toward mental health providers in social media. In a new British Journal of Psychiatry study, they analyzed more than 300 000 tweets spanning over a 16-year period, finding: “positive perceptions of mental health and mental health professionals increased over time. However, ‘psychiatrist’ had a consistently higher proportion of negative perceptions.”

And in the third selection, Dr. Vivek H. Murthy (the former US Surgeon General) writes about social media and adolescents in a New York Times essay. He notes the potential harms of social media for youth. He advocates changes, including warning labels. “We have the expertise, resources and tools to make social media safe for our kids. Now is the time to summon the will to act.”

Reading of the Week: Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD – the New JAMA Psychiatry Paper; Also, #MedEd & Knowledge Translation

September 14, 2023 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

How to help those with PTSD? Prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) are supported by good evidence but both are resource intense and often have high drop-out rates, partly because of the requirement that patients complete homework. Is there an alternative?

In the first selection, we look at a new study considering written exposure therapy (WET), an emerging therapy where patients write about traumatic events – but the therapy doesn’t demand so much from the system (in terms of resources) or patients (in terms of homework assignments). Denise Sloan (of Boston University) and her colleagues conducted a noninferiority trial, comparing this therapy with prolonged exposure therapy for US veterans with PTSD, involving 178 participants from three centres. “We found WET was noninferior to PE, a treatment that includes more treatment sessions, longer sessions, and between-session assignments.” We consider the study, an Editorial responding to it, and mull the clinical implications.

In the last selection, John W. Ayers (of the University of California San Diego, La Jolla) and his co-authors consider social media and medical education in JAMA. They argue that #MedEd is a dynamic platform with the potential to democratize medical education – but also warn of the problems of misinformation. “The potential for #MedEd to improve medical education and the health sciences is considerable, while the risks of dismissing #MedEd is potentially greater.”

Reading of the Week: PTSD & Healthcare Workers – the New Lancet Psych Paper; Also, Social Media and Youth (Aust Psych) and BMJ’s Xmas Call to Action

December 22, 2022 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

We talk about the virus’ effects on our patients, both in terms of physical and mental health. But what has it done to us?

Health-care workers have been on the front lines of this pandemic and have experienced the psychological toll. While past studies have considered mental disorders of health-care workers, their methodology hasn’t been strong, often relying on online surveys. In the first selection, Hannah Scott (of King’s College London) and her co-authors look at mental disorders and the pandemic in a new Lancet Psychiatry paper. Importantly, they did a two-phase, cross-sectional study comprising of diagnostic interviews. They write: “The prevalence estimates of common mental disorders and PTSD in health-care workers were considerably lower when assessed using diagnostic interviews compared with screening tools.” Still, they found that about one in five met threshold for a mental disorder and “thus might benefit from clinical intervention.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, Beatrice Webb (of Flinders University) and her co-authors look at social media and young people. In a Point of View paper for Australasian Psychiatry, they note problems with mental health including the rise in psychological distress – something tied to social media. They also observe some benefits to Instagram and other online platforms. The paper is practical and offers advice, including: “We encourage clinicians to explore social media use in the assessment of young people, due to potential impacts on depression, anxiety and self-harm.”

At this time of year, The BMJ runs its Christmas issue, meant to be light-hearted and with liberal use of British humour. In the third selection, Ryan Essex (of the University of Greenwich) considers calls to action in the medical literature. In an Editorial, he opines: “The call to action has several obvious advantages over actually acting. Making that call allows you to salve your conscience, to ‘do something’ without the hard work of actually doing something.”

There will be no Readings for the next two weeks. We will return with force (but a lack of British humour) on 12 January 2023 when we will review the best papers of the year. A quick word of thanks for your continuing interest.

All the best in the holiday season.

Reading of the Week: TikTok is Popular & Cool But Good Mental Health Information? Also, Telemedicine and Practice (Psych Services)

March 3, 2022 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

Clever cats. Cool dancing videos. Tips on everything from calligraphy to home decorations.

A billion people are estimated to use TikTok on a monthly basis. The social media platform is incredibly popular here – and around the globe. And, as with other social media, people increasingly use it as a source of medical information.

To date, little research has been done on the credibility of that information. In a new Canadian Journal of Psychiatry paper, Dr. Anthony Yeung (of the University of British Columbia) and his co-authors focus on ADHD. They find uneven results: “In this analysis of popular TikTok videos about ADHD, there were over 2.8 million views per video and each video was shared on average 31,000 times. Approximately half of the videos analyzed (52%) were misleading…” We consider the paper and its clinical implications.

Continuing on the theme of technology and practice, in the second selection, we look at a new Psychiatric Services paper. Lori Uscher-Pines (of the RAND Corporation) and her co-authors do a qualitative analysis of why psychiatrists choose telemedicine for some patients and not others. The authors conclude: “psychiatrists did not perceive intermittent in-person visits as essential for high-quality care.”

Reading of the Week: High Tech and Low Tech Opportunities for Mental Health Care

September 30, 2021 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

Social media. Bots. VR.

When I applied to psychiatry residency programs in my last year of medical school at the University of Manitoba, none of these were mentioned when we talked about mental health care. But technology is changing our world. We are seeing a digital boom in mental health care – or is it really a digital mirage?

In the first selection, we move past the big rhetoric with a thoughtful paper by Dr. John Torous (of Harvard University) and his co-authors. In World Psychiatry, they review the literature and make insightful comments about the potential and reality of digital mental health care. “It now seems inevitable that digital technologies will change the face of mental health research and treatment.” We discuss the paper and its implications.

Woebot: Too cool to be clinical?

If the first selection considers cutting-edge technology for bettering patient care, the second is very different. Dr. Thomas E. Smith (of Columbia University) and his co-authors study “the strength of associations between scheduling aftercare appointments during routine psychiatric inpatient discharge planning and postdischarge follow-up care varied by level of patient engagement in outpatient psychiatric care before hospital admission” in a paper for Psychiatric Services. Spoiler alert: there are no chatbots mentioned. “Discharge planning activities, such as scheduling follow-up appointments, increase the likelihood of patients successfully transitioning to outpatient care, regardless of their level of engagement in care prior to psychiatric inpatient admission.”

Reading of the Week: Lithium Prescribing – Rare, Too Rare (CJP)? Also, Social Media & Medical Research (Nat Med) and Chocolate Survival Time (BMJ)

December 19, 2019 / David Gratzer

From the Editor

Lithium is effective as a medication. How often is it prescribed?

This week, there are three selections, and we open with a small paper with a big finding.

In the first selection, Dr. Scott B. Patten and Jeanne V. A. Williams (both of the University of Calgary) draw on national survey data to consider lithium prescribing in Canada. “The frequency of lithium use is surprisingly low,” they find.

Lithium: on the Periodic Table, but not in the drug cabinet

In the second selection, we look at a Nature Medicine article that contemplates social media and medical research. Writer Nicole Wetsman quotes Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency physician who is prominent on Twitter: “It’s incredible medical education.”

Finally, for the third selection, we tip our hats to the holiday season, and consider a not-so-new BMJ paper on holiday chocolates. Published as part of a past Christmas issue – the popular, annual tradition that takes a light-hearted approach to inquiry – Bedford Hospital’s Parag R. Gajendragadkar and his co-authors ask a not-so-weighty question: how long do holiday chocolates last on hospital wards?

Note that there will be no Reading next week. Happy Holidays.

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

October 3, 2019 / David Gratzer

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.”

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.”