Tag: Vigo

Reading of the Week: Psychiatric Care in 21 Countries – The JAMA Psych Study; Also, Industry Payments to Psychiatrists and Batterman on Relating

February 13, 2025 /

From the Editor

Our patients often struggle to access care. But what is the global experience? What percentage of patients in other countries receive care that meets basic standards?

In the first selection, Dr. Daniel V. Vigo (of the University of British Columbia) and his co-authors attempt to answer these questions in a new paper for JAMA Psychiatry. They analyzed effective treatment and its key components for nine mental disorders drawing on the World Mental Health surveys which included structured interviews. Vigo et al. cover familiar ground, but the study stands out due to its unusually robust dataset which includes almost 57 000 people in 21 countries. “The proportion of 12-month person-disorders receiving effective treatment was 6.9%.” We consider the paper and its implications.

In the second selection, Dr. John L. Havlik (of Stanford University) and his co-authors weigh in on industry payment to US psychiatrists. In this Psychiatric Services paper, they analyzed six years of data covering nearly 60 000 physicians, drawing on government databases, finding: “a small number of psychiatrists (<600 psychiatrists per year) received approximately 75% of industry’s compensation to psychiatrists each year.”

And, in the third selection, medical student Alexander I. Batterman (of Rowan University) writes about a patient encounter for Academic Psychiatry. He notes the challenges of connecting with a patient who has psychosis and is dismissive. Batterman persists – and understands. “As a former epilepsy patient who is intimately aware of what it is like to be questioned and observed by clinicians and students in the emergency department, as if I were an animal at the zoo on display, I could relate to the human experience of being judged.”

DG

Continue reading

Reading of the Week: What Now? CJP on Mental Health of Communities; also, Telepsychiatry Post-COVID (JAMA Psych), and Gold on Stigma (Time)

May 21, 2020 /

From the Editor

What now? COVID is part of our new reality. But as we move forward – as a nation that is past peak, and slowly beginning the task of reopening – how do we understand the mental health needs, challenges, and opportunities of the post-pandemic world? This week, we have three selections considering that question.

The first is a new editorial. In The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Daniel Vigo (of the University of British Columbia) and his co-authors note that “epidemics & pandemics have long been known to impact mental health: The mental problems triggered by viral outbreaks have been described as a ‘parallel epidemic.’” Understanding that subpopulations have different needs, they argue for an approach that focuses on those at greater risk. They make specific recommendations in an impressive paper that includes 52 references.

whatnow

Will our digital moment continue? In the second selection, we look at a new JAMA Psychiatry paper by Dr. Jay H. Shore (of the University of Colorado) and his co-authors, who argue that it should. They note that many clinics and hospitals have embraced telepsychiatry. He argues that, with the right approach, we could have “a golden era for technology in psychiatry in which we are able to harmonize the benefits of telepsychiatry and virtual care while maintaining the core of our treatment: that of human connectedness.”

Finally, in the third selection, Dr. Jessica Gold (of the University of Washington in St. Louis) considers stigma around mental illness. In this time of COVID, she wonders if it will fade further, providing some evidence from social media. She sees opportunity for better: “Instead of looking at the post-COVID-19 mental health future through a lens of inevitable doom, we can, and should, use this moment as the impetus for the changes that mental health care has always pushed for.”

DG

Continue reading