Tag: Zhou

Reading of the Week: The Best of 2022

From the Editor

Welcome 2023.

It’s our tradition that we begin the New Year by reviewing the best of the past year; so, this week, we look back at 2022.

But a bit of a break from tradition: this year, we haven’t organized the papers by different categories, instead choosing eight great papers. Some have been published in big journals; others, not so big. They cover a variety of topics, from prevention to cutting-edge treatments. The one common thread: all are clinically relevant. And, yes, there is a Person of the Year. Spoiler alert: he had a big career and likes to mention Groucho Marx.

An observation about this past year: the quality of scholarship was very high. We’ve picked good papers – but could have picked scores of others. It’s a comment we’ve made in past years, and a good reason for optimism as our field grows more sophisticated and relevant.

DG

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Reading of the Week: Tailoring CBT for Black Women – the New JAMA Psych Paper; Also, Meds & Transgender Individuals

From the Editor

The story is too familiar: Black women are more likely to have insomnia, and yet less likely to receive the needed care. What can be done? That question speaks to the larger issue of equity.

In the first selection from JAMA Psychiatry, Eric S. Zhou (of Harvard University) and his co-authors offer a culturally tailored form of CBT-insomnia for Black women. They designed an elegant, three-armed RCT, working with several people, including – yes – a Black woman with insomnia. They find: “Participants were more likely to complete the full intervention if they received the tailored program, with intervention completion associated with greater insomnia improvement.” We consider the paper and its implications.

CBT-I aims to help everyone sleep like lambs

In the second selection, we look at a new paper by Dr. Jack L. Turban (of Stanford University) and his co-authors. In JAMA Psychiatry, they write: “Transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people unfortunately experience high rates of psychiatric morbidity, and their psychopharmacologic needs can be unique when compared with those of cisgender people.” They offer practical suggestions.

DG

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Reading of the Week: COVID & Mental Health Access in China (AJP); also, Transformational Care (EBMH) and Psych Wards (New Yorker)

From the Editor

What’s the latest in the literature on COVID and mental health? This week, we focus again on the pandemic with three selections.

In the first, we consider a paper on mental health services at a Chinese hospital during the pandemic. In this American Journal of Psychiatry study, Dr. Junying Zhou (of Sichuan University) and co-authors report on a survey of existing and new outpatients, finding major problems with access. Among the findings: one in five found that their mental health had deteriorated due to a lack of access to care. The authors advocate further study to “ameliorate the negative impact of viral outbreaks in the general public, especially among those vulnerable patients with mental problems.”

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Will COVID change health care once the virus has burned out? In the second selection, we consider a new EBMH editorial by Dr. Katharine Smith (of Oxford University) and her co-authors. They write: “In order to reappraise effectively our new ways of working, both in the immediate management of issues during the pandemic and also during the longer-term aftermath, we need fast-track implementation of evidence-based medicine techniques in mental health to supply the best evidence to clinicians on specific questions in real time.”

Finally, in the third selection, we look at an essay from The New Yorker. Reporter Masha Gessen argues that psychiatric wards are particularly vulnerable during the pandemic. Gessen speaks to several doctors who offer a similar if haunting story: “how a lack of testing, P.P.E., and seclusion protocols were making a difficult task – maintaining the safety of a highly vulnerable population and their care workers during a pandemic – virtually impossible.”

DG

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