Blog Archives - Beyond The Body

Beyond The Body

Poetry Friday - Shut In

10/30/2015

A young girl describes her experience with both bulimia and trichotillomania, and the pain and shame she endures from both, in this short but moving poem "Shut-In".

" ... how will she live another day?
that drag on by
when you're alone
a hut of hair
will make her home
straight from her scalp
onto the floor
a hat will hide
a little more
of all her shame ..."

For the full poem, check out: http://allpoetry.com/poem/5434981-Shut-in-by-ashesxx

Hip Hop Psych - Music Meets Mental Health Education

10/29/2015

Are you a fan of hip-hop ‎music‬? If so, consider checking out HIP HOP PSYCH, a ‪mental health‬ awareness initiative founded by a psychiatrist and neuroscientist who both love rap music. The pair has been using the genre for anti-stigma campaigns and outreach work in prisons, schools and youth hostels to educate individuals in a culturally and contextually enhanced way.

To get an idea of what they do, check out their latest essay which explores music by Eminem and Tupac to examine mental health themes including ‪psychosis‬ and social adversity here:
http://www.hiphoppsych.co.uk/…/hhp_tupac_eminem_freestyle_m…

"It might seem outlandish that rap can aid mental illness, but it’s not outrageously far-fetched. Since its early roots in the politically-deprived ganglands of the South Bronx, hip-hop culture has provided MCs, turntablists, B-boys and graffiti artists with an important source of empowerment. For three decades, it's offered an outlet for the apparently powerless to express themselves and a way of giving voice to their problems. If one truth in psychology is universally acknowledged, it’s that you can’t deal with pain without talking about it.

What’s less known, though, is that hip-hop is steeped in explicit and implicit references to mental illness. From Stan’s Borderline Personality Disorder to Tupac’s paranoia and psychosis, hip-hop lyrics are rich with insights into the symptoms of illnesses and the risk factors prevalent within peer groups, families and gangs. Last year, scientific research showed that gang membership is closely linked to an increased risk of psychiatric problems, and Hip Hop Psych looks to use J Cole and Kendrick as teaching tools to help combat them."

For more information, check out these sites:
http://www.hiphoppsych.co.uk/index.html
http://www.thestar.com/life/2015/10/26/hip-hop-psych-raising-awareness-about-mental-health-through-music.html

Practice The Art Of The Mental Status Examination

10/28/2015

The Mental Status Examination is a vital part of any psychiatric assessment or encounter with patients with possible ‪mental health‬ concerns. To brush-up on your observation skills and the components of an MSE, check out these short and helpful videos that walk you through formulating a MSE during three different patient encounters!

Peer Support For Dual Diagnoses

10/27/2015

In this powerful story and video, we learn about Antonio Lambert, a man who had a difficult upbringing and childhood, and who has since had a long history battling dual diagnoses; both ‪depression‬ and ‪‎addiction‬. Though Lambert's psychiatric history has had countless ups and downs and relapses, he has found a system that works for him; a combination of medication, faith, and most importantly companionship.

In fact, Lambert is now a peer specialist who works at a local ‪mental health‬ clinic, connecting to and providing support for those who are battling the same demons he dealt with and continues to deal with. For Lambert though, his work in peer-support is more than just a one way street as he's found it not only to be therapeutic and beneficial for the individuals he works with, but for himself as well.

"He feels he needs a peer himself, someone with a history who knows what it looks like — from the inside — to be struggling mentally, deep in trouble, and feeling dead out of options. Someone who can be an advocate, a companion, who can share his or her own story: who can simply be there, if that’s what it takes.

Mental health researchers have tested the effect of peers in a variety of settings over the past decade. When they are “specialized” — that is, their history is similar to that of their clients, the way Mr. Lambert and others teach it — peers tend to reduce the rate of psychiatric hospitalizations and, where appropriate, increase the use of programs like Alcoholics Anonymous."

Psych In The News - Week 81

10/25/2015

Catch up on all the news related to mental health and psychiatry from last week!

The World of Neurostimulation - Part 3

10/23/2015

In part three of our series on neurostimulation treatments for ‪‎mental illness‬, we look at repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a form of treatment that first came into use in the 1980s and was approved by Health Canada in 2002 for treatment-resistant depression.

At Toronto Western Hospital, part of the University Health Network, rTMS is offered to patients suffering from refractory ‪depression‬, and is also being studied for its use in postpartum depression, ‪OCD‬, ‪bulimia‬, and is soon to be investigated for its use in the treatment of borderline personality disorder.

Though it requires more of a time commitment than other treatments, rTMS is thought to be less invasive than DBS and ECT, and more tolerable than many treatments including traditional medications, as often the only side effect patients report is some scalp discomfort/headache during the procedure.
"Unlike medications or therapy, rTMS treats these disorders by stimulating the brain’s neurons directly. It does this using pulsed magnetic fields that are as strong as the one in an MRI scanner, but focused into an area the size of a toonie. The pulses are applied non-invasively through a magnetic coil held against the scalp. By applying repeated pulses of magnetic stimulation over time, rTMS can gradually increase or decrease the activity in the region of the brain underneath the magnetic coil. In major depression, and many other kinds of psychiatric and neurological illnesses, there are parts of the brain that are abnormally underactive or overactive. Over a series of treatment sessions, rTMS can correct these abnormalities to restore normal patterns of brain activity, and thereby treat the illness."

To find out more about rTMS check out these links and videos:
http://www.rtmsclinic.ca/home

The World of Neurostimulation - Part 2

10/22/2015

As mentioned in our previous post on deep brain stimulation (‪‎DBS‬), this form of neurostimulation which is being studied at Toronto's University Health Network, is also being offered as an experimental treatment to patients with ‪‎anorexia‬ and mild forms of ‪Alzheimer‬'s and it's already showing promise for both.

You can learn more about some of the early results of DBS in patients with these ‪‎mental illnesses‬ here:
http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/health-headlines/canadian-researchers-use-electricity-to-stimulate-brains-of-alzheimer-s-patients-1.2221623
http://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/deep-brain-stimulation-offers-treatment-hope-for-severe-anorexia-patients-1.2266141

The Diversity of Mental Illness

10/21/2015

‎Mental health‬ activist Dior Vargas recently founded an initiative called "People of Colour and Mental Illness Photo Project" which aims to "eradicate the ‪stigma‬ of mental illness within communities of colour and show a diverse representation of those who live with these conditions".

Prior to starting the project, Vargas had taken notice of how the media often fail to represent ‪mental illness‬ in other ethnicities besides Caucasian, and she wanted to set the record straight, in addition to encouraging conversation about mental illness among these communities and let affected individuals know that they are not alone.

While Vargas hopes to create a book with all the photos individuals have sent in the near future, you can see some of the photos and learn more about the project here:
http://diorvargas.com/poc-mental-illness/
http://www.buzzfeed.com/fionarutherford/this-photo-series-is-eradicating-the-stigma-of-mental-illnes#.ru2RwMG4Y

Global Mental Health: Traditional Healing and Western Myths

10/20/2015

In this interesting article, director of The University of British Columbia (UBC) Global Reporting Centre, Peter Klein shares how ‪mental illness‬ is perceived and treated in countries around the globe including India, Togo, Benin, and Somalia.

While those who inhabit the Western world may question the traditional healing methods employed in these countries and consider them to be futile if not harmful treatments founded upon little evidence, Klein shows us that we are not exempt even in Europe or North America with our beliefs in myths and harmful stigmatizing views of ‪mental health‬ conditions.

"We fear what we don’t understand, and the bottom line is that we still don’t understand many of the causes, or the treatments, of psychiatric conditions. As a result, we are plagued with shame around mental illness all over the world, but stigma is just the symptom. Ignorance is the cause. Science and education are the cure."

The World of Neurostimulation - Part 1

10/16/2015

For patients with moderate-severe depression that is refractory to traditional pharmacologics and psychotherapy, many struggle with what to offer next for treatment. However, recently there has been a growing trend towards investigating and using neurostimulation modalities, such as ‪ECT‬ and ‪DBS‬ (deep brain stimulation).

While first used for treatment of Parkinson's, neuropsychiatrists and researchers at the University of Toronto and the Toronto Western Hospital are now studying the use and efficacy of DBS for patients with refractory ‪‎depression‬, ‪anorexia‬ nervosa, and ‪Alzheimer‬'s.

Find out more about DBS here:
http://news.nationalpost.com/health/brain-surgery-for-severe-depression-may-be-treatment-breakthrough-say-canadian-researchers-and-other-experts