Celebrities use them; politicians discuss them; our patients ask about them. Are semaglutide and sister drugs game changers for those with mental health problems who struggle with obesity? To explore the opportunities and challenges of these new medications, on this episode of Quick Takes, I speak with Dr. Mahavir Agarwal (the medical head of CAMH’s Metabolic Clinic), Lisa Schaffer (executive director of Obesity Canada), and Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam (the scientific director of Obesity Canada and, of course, CAMH’s CMO).

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• That 8 out of 10 patients taking antipsychotic medications will experience clinically significant weight gain
• How treating obesity in these patients can also improve other chronic conditions to which they are more vulnerable
• That some side effects of GLP-1 medications may limit access to treatments like electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
• And about the emerging research using GLP-1s for alcohol and nicotine dependence

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Quick Takes is a production of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. You can find links to the relevant content mentioned in the show and accessible transcripts of all the episodes we produce online at CAMH.ca.

Follow CAMH Education on X (formerly known as Twitter) @camhEdu

Follow and subscribe to Reading of the Week where, every week, Dr. David Gratzer reviews research papers from the world of psychiatry.

When we hear “innovations in mental healthcare,” we tend to think about apps or wearables. In today’s episode of Quick Takes – part of our series on innovation – I speak with Daisy Singla, a senior scientist at CAMH and our first womenmind™ scientist. Singla talks about her recent study that expanded access to psychotherapy for perinatal women, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety by drawing a page from work done in low-income countries. The key concept: training up laypeople to deliver therapy.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

• How effective therapy delivered by non-specialists was for pregnant and postpartum participants
• The surprising impact the study had on trauma symptoms
• The role task-sharing and telemedicine played in the study
• And how a model used in Goa can scale up to help improve maternal mental healthcare in North America

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Quick Takes is a production of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. You can find links to the relevant content mentioned in the show and accessible transcripts of all the episodes we produce online at CAMH.ca.

Follow CAMH Education on X (formerly known as Twitter) @camhEdu

Follow and subscribe to Reading of the Week where, every week, Dr. David Gratzer reviews research papers from the world of psychiatry.

Mindfulness, acupuncture, yoga. These were all once considered alternative treatments – favoured by some patients but lacking in evidence. Times have changed. Mindfulness, for instance, is a psychotherapy mentioned in the depression guidelines. What about yoga?

In today’s Quick Takes episode, I speak with Dr. Vanika Chawla, a psychiatrist, a registered yoga teacher, and an assistant professor at Stanford University, about her experience incorporating yoga into her practice.

Here’s what you’ll learn in this episode:

• Common misconceptions about yoga
• The three key components of yoga-based interventions
• The optimal duration, and frequency of yoga interventions for different diagnoses
• Recent research findings on yoga’s effectiveness

THANKS FOR LISTENING!

Quick Takes is a production of the Center for Addiction and Mental Health. You can find links to the relevant content mentioned in the show and accessible transcripts of all the episodes we produce online at CAMH.ca.

Follow CAMH Education on X (formerly known as Twitter) @camhEdu

Follow and subscribe to Reading of the Week where, every week, Dr. David Gratzer reviews research papers from the world of psychiatry.