Learn more by reading the World Health Organization (WHO)'s latest report "Preventing Suicide - A Global Imperative", which covers the epidemiology of suicide and suicide attempts, risk and protective factors, as well as ideas and strategies for more effective suicide prevention efforts
Suicide is a global issue ... Every 40 seconds someone in the world dies by suicide.
Learn more by reading the World Health Organization (WHO)'s latest report "Preventing Suicide - A Global Imperative", which covers the epidemiology of suicide and suicide attempts, risk and protective factors, as well as ideas and strategies for more effective suicide prevention efforts
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Today is World Suicide Prevention Day (10th September)! While suicide rates around the world vary, here are a few statistics on suicide in Canada from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health: - Every day, 11 Canadians die by suicide and 200 attempt to end their life. - Suicide is the second leading cause of death among Canadian youth. - Some groups are especially at risk: those who have experienced trauma, indigenous people and the LGBT population. To learn more about suicide and some prevention tips, as well as to follow along with all today's discussions check out #WSPD14 on Twitter! You can also light a candle near a window today at 8pm to show your support for suicide prevention, and to remember a lost loved one and the survivors of suicide. Did you know that today (September 9) is International Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder Awareness Day? Spend a few minutes today learning more about FASD and how it can be prevented. A number of great articles and resources on the topic from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health can be found at the links below. You can also follow all the conversations and discussions on Twitter by checking out #FASDAwarenessDay!
Put your knowledge and skills to the test with the case of a 34 year old man, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia a year earlier, and is involuntarily admitted to a psychiatric hospital after assaulting both a family member and a police officer. He presents with auditory hallucinations, aggressive and threatening behaviour, and informs his healthcare team that he is a Christian Scientist and so his religion precludes him from taking any medications. The patient continues to refuse antipsychotic meds and believes his illness can be cured with prayer. Can you come up with a treatment plan? "Psychotic and needing prayer" by Alexander de Nesnera (Current Psychiatry) Do you enjoy history or learning about the history and research behind medicine and medical treatments? If so, check out the article "A Brief History of Psychedelic Psychiatry"! The article provides some fascinating background into the use of substances like LSD to treat mental health conditions such as alcoholism, schizophrenia, and even autism beginning in the 1950s. It also documents some of the controversy surrounding psychedelic therapies that arose in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when these substances began to be viewed more as drugs of abuse. "Two forms of #LSD therapy became popular. One, called psychedelic therapy, was based on Osmond and Hoffer’s work, and involved a single large dose of LSD alongside psychotherapy. Osmond and Hoffer believed that hallucinogens are beneficial therapeutically because of their ability to make patients view their condition from a fresh perspective. The other, called psycholytic therapy, was based on Sandison’s regime of several smaller doses, increasing in size, as a adjunct to psychoanalysis. Sandison’s clinical observations led him to believe that LSD can aid psychotherapy by inducing dream-like hallucinations that reflected the patient’s unconscious mind and enabling them to relive long-lost memories." Pranay Sinha, a first year internal medicine resident at Yale-New Haven Hospital comments further on the growing topic of physician suicide in his scarily truthful and profound article "Why Do Doctors Commit Suicide?" for The New York Times. In his article, Sinha focuses our attention on new residents by first bringing attention to the recent tragic deaths of two new physicians, both in their second month of residency. He accurately describes how the transition out of med school and into practice is associated with immense stress, pressure and demands, and is a time when many are at their most vulnerable. That combined with a lack of mental health and wellness supports in residency programs and a culture which teaches residents and students to repress their emotions, fears and doubts rather than voicing them can lead to a troublesome and sometimes deadly combination. A must read for all med students and residents! "While acute stress, social isolation, pre-existing mental illness and substance abuse may be obvious factors to consider, we must also ask if there are aspects of medical culture that might push troubled residents beyond their reserves of emotional resilience. There is a strange machismo that pervades medicine. Doctors, especially fledgling doctors like me, feel pressure to project intellectual, emotional and physical prowess beyond what we truly possess... We masquerade as strong and untroubled professionals even in our darkest and most self-doubting moments. How, then, are we supposed to identify colleagues in trouble — or admit that we may need help ourselves?" Put your knowledge and skills to the test with the case of a 19 year old man who presents with anxiety, agitation, isolation, social withdrawal, and paranoia. He is determined by the healthcare team to be experiencing his first psychotic break, is given the diagnosis of psychosis - not otherwise specified, and is treated first with risperidone and then haloperidol. A year later, the patient presents again to hospital with the same symptoms (as above), as well as a recent history of alcohol abuse. Several medications are tried, but his symptoms persist and he remains unable to resume his normal activities. Eventually, he is prescribed clozapine, an atypical antipsychotic approved for use in treatment-resistant schizophrenia. This new medication helps to relieve his psychotic symptoms, but his heart rate is persistently elevated. Can you determine the cause of this patient's tachycardia or come up with a management plan? "A young man with psychosis whose heart is racing" by Kim Brownell, Dana Sinopoli, Karlyn Huddy, and Amy Taylor (Current Psychiatry) "Phobias come in countless forms. Some are commonplace. Aviophobia: fear of flying. Acrophobia: fear of heights. Arachnophobia: fear of spiders. Others elicit less attention. Peladophobia: fear of bald people. Geniophobia: fear of chins. Some, one imagines, are pretty much universal. Pentheraphobia: fear of your mother-in-law. An estimated 19.2 million American adults have a specific phobia, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. No one knows for sure how they originate, but the thinking is that both genes and environment play a role. They tend to run in families, though not necessarily the same phobia. Familiar phobias like fear of heights seem related to an evolutionary survival response." In the The New York Times article below, readers are introduced to Attis Clopton, a 33 year old professional drummer and Brooklyn, New York resident who suffers from a specific phobia, however it's not a phobia like fear of spiders or heights or enclosed spaces that many commonly think of. Rather, Clopton suffers from aquaphobia, also known as the fear of water. Clopton's aquaphobia, which seemed to stem from a few traumatic experiences in his childhood, is so severe it took him many years to be able to put his face under the shower head, and though he enjoys going to the beach with his friends, simply putting his feet in the water elicits an anxiety and panic response rather than enjoyment. To read more about aquaphobia and how Clopton learned to overcome his phobia, check out the following link: "A New Yorker Faces His Phobia, One Stroke at a Time" by N. R. Kleinfeld (NY Times) |
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Supporting and enhancing students' and health professionals' knowledge and understanding of mental health and psychiatry
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