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.

As doctors, we often shy away from discussing our health, especially our mental health — even with our own physicians. That’s unfortunate as doctors have a higher suicide rate than the general population, yet fears of vulnerability, judgment, and stigma keep many of us silent. In this episode of Quick Takes, Dr. Gratzer sat down with Dr. Joss Reimer, president of the Canadian Medical Association, who openly shares her own experiences with depression, as a doctor and as a patient.

In this episode, you will learn:

• About the importance of reaching out and getting help for mental health—whether it's a diagnosed illness or normal stress.
• What it’s like to have your mental health be front-page news.
• How Dr. Reimer would like to change the health care system.
• And what may be the best ice cream shop in the Canada.

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 it comes to medical education, much has changed over the years—including its name. What was once known as Continuing Medical Education (CME) is now referred to as Continuing Professional Development (CPD). But the changes go far beyond a rebranding. After all, the sheer volume of journal articles available today is staggering. How can you keep up? How can technology help? In this episode Dr. Gratzer sat down with Dr. Sanjeev Sockalingam, CAMH’s VP Education and CMO, to explore the evolving world of CPD.

In this episode you will learn about:

• the impact of the pandemic on CPD
• the globalization of CPD
• the role of AI may play in content creation and evaluation
• and why hybrid conferences are likely here to stay.

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.

What do you look for in a mentor? What qualities should you consider? And, more importantly, what exactly is a mentor?
To help answer these questions and discuss the role mentors play in the careers of physicians Dr. David Gratzer is joined by Dr. Suzanne Koven, a Harvard-affiliated physician and Writer-in-Residence at Massachusetts General, whose article, "What Is a Mentor?" was recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

In this episode you will learn:

• the distinction between coaching and mentoring
• the types of mentor relationships
• the importance of genuine empathy and firm ego boundaries in mentors
• how to find a good mentor.

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.

Welcome to another episode of Quick Takes Essentials, our summer series.

This essential episode first aired in 2023 and is on the perpetually hot-topic of burnout.

Could the old concept of a doctor’s lounge be a new way of helping to address burnout?

With 182 studies yielding 142 different definitions of burnout, is burnout, in fact, depression?

Here I speak with Dr. Srijan Sen (of the University of Michigan) about how burnout has become a loose term that means different things to different people.

Please enjoy.

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.

Welcome to another episode of Quick Takes Essentials, our summer series.

On this episode, released this past February, I sat down with Dr. Vicky Stergiopoulos (of the University of Toronto) and former Physician-in-Chief of CAMH to discuss why, across North America, there are more people who are chronically homeless than ever before. Dr. Stergiopoulos is an internationally recognized expert on chronic homelessness and offers great insight on this topic.

What psychiatric problems does this population have?
And, importantly, how can we help them?

Please enjoy.

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.