Tag: Sun

Reading of the Week: Mental Health Tsunami? The New BMJ Study on COVID; Also, Burnout & Professionalism (JAMA Health) and Buprenorphine (CMAJ)

From the Editor

How has COVID-19 impacted mental health? What to make of the forecasts of a mental health tsunami?

In a new BMJ paper, Ying Sun (of the Jewish General Hospital) and her co-authors do a systematic review and meta-analysis to try to answer these questions. Drawing on 137 studies, they consider mental and the pandemic. They find: “Most symptom change estimates for general mental health, anxiety symptoms, and depression symptoms were close to zero and not statistically significant, and significant changes were of minimal to small magnitudes…” We look at the paper and its clinical implications.

In the second selection, Dr. Dhruv Khullar (of Cornell University) writes about burnout and professionalism for JAMA Health Forum. He argues that burnout is common and costly, and points a way forward, in part by reducing clerical tasks. “A better path is one that strenuously removes the obstacles to physician and patient well-being and that actively promotes the deep work of doctoring.”

In the third selection, Dr. Ari B. Cuperfain (of the University of Toronto) and his colleagues consider extended-release buprenorphine, a subcutaneous monthly depot injection used to treat opioid use disorder in a short CMAJ paper. They make several observations about titration, effectiveness, and safety.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Ethics & Medical Assistance in Dying – the new Simpson Paper. Also, Exercise for the Cognitive Symptoms of Depression?

From the Editor

It may soon be the law… but is it ethical?

In 2016, Parliament passed Bill C-14, legalizing doctor-assisted suicide. The legislation represents a major change in many ways: from public policy to the practice of medicine. And, in the coming years, it’s quite possible that the scope of this legislation will be expanded, and could include those with mental illness.

In this week’s Reading, Dr. Wayne (Sandy) Simpson of CAMH weighs in on the ethics of medical assistance in dying (MAiD) and mental illness in this provocative “perspective” paper just published by The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. He considers the nature of mental illness before concluding: “[A]cting as a partner in helping people recover as well as acting as an agent in a patient’s death is an impossible burden that is not ethically justifiable or legally necessary.”

ethics-cert

Also, this week, we consider another recent paper by The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry that considers the impact of exercise on cognition in patients with depression.

DG

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