Tag: suicide prevention

Reading of the Week: Twitter & Suicide – the New ANZJP Paper; Also, Crystal Meth Use (Quick Takes) and Patients and Physicians’ Names (JAMA Net Open)

From the Editor

More and more, people use social media to debate current events, share personal experiences, and maybe enjoy a cat video or two. But if people are disclosing much, are they discussing suicidal thoughts? Could certain social media posts encourage people to get help?

In the first selection, Dr. Thomas Niederkrotenthaler (of the Medical University of Vienna) and his co-authors attempt to answer these questions with a new paper just published in the Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. Drawing on more than 7.15 million tweets (from Twitter) and employing a machine learning approach, they divide content into several categories, then review volumes of calls to a suicide hotline and completed suicides. “This is the first large-scale study to suggest that daily volume of specific suicide-prevention-related social media content on Twitter corresponds to higher daily levels of help-seeking behaviour and lower daily number of suicide deaths.” We mull the paper and its implications.

Social media: more than cat videos?

In this week’s second selection, we consider a new Quick Takes podcast interview with Dr. David Castle (of the University of Toronto). Dr. Castle discusses crystal methamphetamine, a drug used more and more in Canada. Drawing on his Australian experience and noting the rise in use here, he comments: “it’s highly prevalent, highly available, highly pure and highly destructive.”

Finally, in the third selection, Dr. Jamison A. Harvey (of the Mayo Clinic) and her co-authors take a look at communication between patients and their physicians. Drawing on nearly 30,000 email messages, they consider the way patients address their physicians in a new JAMA Network Open research letter. “This is the first study to objectively identify patterns of addressing physicians through electronic messaging and may reveal potential bias. We found that women physicians… and primary care physicians were addressed by their first name more frequently.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Tweets for a Good Cause, But Suicide Prevention? Also, Racism in Mental Health (QT), and Rap & Awareness (JAMA Peds)

From the Editor

It’s an incredible campaign. With each passing year, Bell Let’s Talk Day gains more recognition, with many, including the Prime Minister, tweeting for a good cause.

But does the campaign affect suicide? In the first selection, we look at new paper from The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. David Côté (of the University of Toronto) and his co-authors study the tweet contents of Bell Let’s Talk Day and suicide completions. “There was no associated change in suicide counts.” We mull the big campaign and the big paper.

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In the second selection, we look at a new podcast that explores race and racism in mental health. In this Quick Takes episode, I’m joined by Drs. Amy Gajaria and Saadia Sediqzadah (both of the University of Toronto). “Racism exists and it exists in the lives of our patients.” The podcast covers some big topics – but it is also practical, with solid clinical advice.

And in the third selection, Alex Kresovich (of the University of North Carolina) and his co-authors wonder about the cultural discussion of mental health. To that end, they review popular rap songs in a JAMA Pediatrics paper. “The findings of this qualitative study suggest that mental health discourse has been increasing during the past 2 decades within the most popular rap music in the US.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Trends in Suicide Mortality in Canada (CJP); also, Suicide Prevention (Quick Takes) and Lawrence on Her Depression (Guardian)

From the Editor

Suicide is often discussed, but what do we know about the overall rate of completions? We hear that there are more suicides in the United States over the past few years – but was does the Canadian data say?

In the first selection, we consider a new paper by Mélanie Varin (of Indigenous Services Canada) and her co-authors. Drawing on a Canadian database, they consider suicide mortality. The good news: the suicide rate in Canada decreased by 24.0% between 1981 and 2017. But, in recent years, there hasn’t been a further decline.So – is the glass half full or half empty?

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In the second selection, we look further at suicide, considering a new podcast discussing suicide and suicide prevention. I talk with Dr. Juveria Zaheer (of the University of Toronto) about COVID-19, the literature, and, yes, her suggestions for clinical interviews. “If you have a room of one hundred people, one hundred people in that room have been affected by suicide.”

Dr. Rebecca Lawrence is a UK psychiatrist and we can assume that she has done many suicide risk assessments. In a Guardian essay – our third selection – she tells her story: as a person who struggled with mental illness, then made the decision to become a psychiatrist. “If my story helps anyone unsure of their capacity to take on the job, or worried about the ‘dark secret’ of their own psychological troubles, then I think it’s worth telling.”

DG

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Reading of the Week: Cutting-Edge Care – Esketamine for Depression (NEJM), Digital Psychiatry for Suicide Prevention (JAMA Psych), Asylums for All (AJP)

From the Editor

This time of year, many doctors take to social media to offer advice to young colleagues as they start their specialty training (#TipsForNewDocs). Generally, the tweets give solid suggestions on everything from the importance of mentorship to doing regular exercise. For those new grads beginning psychiatry training, I offer: read more, the field is evolving. Since I started my psychiatry residency 19 years ago this month, we have seen new antidepressants placed into the drug cabinets of our patients, mental-health apps populate their smart phones, and clinical guidelines enter our practices, helping us better manage their mental illness.

This week’s Reading focuses on cutting-edge care, and there is plenty to read.

In our first selection, we consider a new paper from The New England Journal of Medicine. Written by Dr. Jean Kim and four other FDA officials, the authors discuss esketamine for depression. “The drug represents an important addition to the treatment options for patients with treatment-resistant depression.”

nasal-spray-sEsketamine: from club drug to depression care

In our second selection, Dr. John Torous (of Harvard Medical School) and Rheeda Walker (of the University of Houston) consider digital psychiatry and suicide prevention, reviewing the field with cautious optimism. The paper opens with a single sentence that puts these efforts in perspective: “Because the rates of suicide attempts and deaths have recently increased to 50-year highs,new solutions are needed.”

And, in our third selection, we look at a not-so-new editorial from The American Journal of Insanity that calls for better treatment of the poor.

Enjoy.

DG

 

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Reading of the Week: Suicidal? Get a Postcard. The New JCP Paper on Suicide Prevention. Also, Ketamine & Inpatients

From the Editor

Can we do better at suicide prevention?

In recent years, several studies have tried brief contact interventions – that is, interventions aimed at maintaining a post-discharge connection – reporting success. These interventions have been relatively simple, such as handwritten postcards or phone calls for people post-attempt.

In this week’s selection, we look at a new paper from The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. Involving 23 emergency departments and crisis centres in France, the authors pulled together different interventions, coming up with an algorithm offering patients care informed by the best evidence. So some patients received calls, but others were given crisis cards.

It’s an ambitious project. Did it work? The results weren’t statistically significant.

p1110389Postcards: colourful and pretty – and life-saving?

We consider this paper, the negative result, and ask: what does this say about suicide prevention? And then, looking at the evolving literature on suicide, we briefly consider a paper written by Sunnybook’s Mark Sinyor that uses IV ketamine for suicidal thoughts.

Please note: there will be no Reading next week.

DG
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Reading of the Week: Do Suicide Barriers Work? Sinyor et al. on the Bloor Viaduct and Toronto Suicides

From the Editor

Do suicide barriers really work, or do they cost money that could have been better spent elsewhere?

This debate raged in Toronto about a decade and a half ago when some argued that a suicide barrier must be added to the Bloor Viaduct. That bridge, which connects downtown Toronto with its east end, was considered a “suicide magnet” – a place that proved popular for suicide attempts. In North America, only the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco had more suicides associated with it. Media coverage of the debate included an article in The New York Times; it ran with the dramatic headline: “A Veil of Deterrence for a Bridge With a Dark Side.”

And in 2003, the barrier went up.

So did the suicide rate go down?

This week, we look at a new paper just published by Sunnybrook’s Mark Sinyor et al. Drawing on years of data, they consider the utility of the Bloor Viaduct suicide barrier. They find that it has saved lives. The paper obviously has implications for other bridges and cities.

The Bloor Viaduct: big debate, big outcome?

The authors also looked at media reporting on suicide.

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Reading of the Week: Can We Reduce Suicide in the Emergency Department Population? Also, Drugs & Crime

From the Editor

He presents to the Emergency Department a few days after a suicide attempt. What can we do to help keep this man safe today – and moving forward?

Emergency Departments: noisy, busy, and an opportunity for suicide prevention?

It’s a scenario that repeats itself at EDs across the country with regularity. This week, in our first selection, we consider a new JAMA Psychiatry paper that has just been published looking at suicide prevention in the ED population. The authors claim “this study is the largest suicide intervention trial ever conducted in the United States,” and they show that, with an intervention, they can reduce suicides and suicide attempts.

And, in the other selection, we look at a short New York Times essay in which economist Austin Frakt argues that substance programs pay for themselves in crime reduction.

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Reading of the Week: Chains and the Mentally Ill, and More

From the Editor

How to free the mentally ill from their chains?

This week, I’ve selected three Readings. We open with a moving essay about a man who works to free the mentally ill from their chains – literally – in Africa. In an op ed, Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Michael Wilson argues that the federal budget must make suicide prevention a priority. Finally, we look at a new study considering an old problem: access to mental health services.

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