A number of recent studies have examined the impact of bullying during childhood and adolescence on the development of mental health issues later in life. Read More
Psychiatry
Quality of life in schizophrenia: the QUALIFY trial
October 14, 2015QUALIFY study
Commentary from Dr. Ofer Agid
Considerable advances have been made in recent decades in the management of schizophrenia. A majority of first-episode patients achieve remission of psychotic symptoms within the first year of treatment (Lieberman et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1993;50:369-376), and early recurrence rates are low (Zipursky et al. Schizophr Res 2014;152:408-414). Read More
Beyond remission: redefining the goal of schizophrenia management
August 4, 2015REVIEWER: Marc-André Roy, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, Université Laval, Québec City, Canada
Remission vs. functional recovery
Continuum of treatment goals
An important goal of schizophrenia management is to reduce the frequency, severity and duration of psychotic episodes (Hasan et al. World J Biol Psychiatry 2012;13: 318-378; Lehman et al. APA, NGC-3572, 2008). Indeed, it has been shown that about 70-80% of first-episode patients do achieve a remission of psychotic symptoms within the first year of treatment (Lieberman et al. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1993;50:369-376). Among patients receiving maintenance antipsychotic therapy, a systematic review estimated that the one-year recurrence rate was only 3%, compared to a 90% risk of relapse at two years in those who discontinued medication (Zipursky et al. Schizophr Res 2014;152:408-414). Read More
Suicide: the Toronto experience
May 13, 2015Over 200 people a year commit suicide in Toronto, Canada, and a coroner’s chart review has analysed the data to determine if there are common features (Sinyor et al. Can J Psychiatry 2014;59:26-33). The sample included 2,886 cases from 1998-2010 in which the coroner ruled that the death was due to suicide. Five clusters were identified based on individual and suicide-specific factors. Read More
From Framingham to Facebook: the contagion of controversy
April 1, 2015Facebook has recently come under fire for conducting an experiment described as “massive-scale” emotional contagion in the social network. While the idea that Facebook views friends as guinea pigs may be unnerving to some, the controversy has centred on the fact that neither Facebook nor researchers from Cornell University obtained informed consent from the study subjects.
The study results were published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences despite a lack of institutional review board (IRB) approval (Kramer et al. PNAS USA 2014;111:8788-8790; free full text at www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full.pdf). Read More