Thursday, Oct. 19
10:45 – 11:45 (1 hr)
Meeting Room: Pavilion Ballroom D (3rd floor – North Tower)
David Gratzer*, MD, FRCPC

CanMEDS Roles:

1. Scholar
2. Communicator
3. Medical Expert

At the end of this session, participants will be able to: 1) Better understand and appreciate the evolving psychiatric literature by considering 10 papers; 2) Understand the strengths and weakness of these papers; and 3) Appreciate how the latest literature can inform their clinical decisions.

Can mindfulness be used to treat anxiety disorders? Is there evidence for psilocybin for treatment-refractory depression? What does the literature say about virtual care for mental illness? And what should you say to your patients when they ask one of these questions? It’s challenging to keep up with the latest papers with so many journals and, of course, our other obligations.

In this invited annual workshop, Dr. David Gratzer, a psychiatrist from the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, reviews the top journal articles of the past year. Dr. Gratzer is well versed in the latest in the literature; he writes a summary in his popular and award-winning Reading of the Week program (www.davidgratzer.com). In this workshop, he runs through important papers from big journals and not-so-big journals.
The workshop will be interactive, allowing audience members to offer their own suggestions and criticisms, and there is no prereading required. Dr. Gratzer will summarize the papers, consider their limitations and strengths, and offer his comments about clinical considerations.
The papers will include the Goodwin paper on psilocybin and several Canadian choices.

References:

1. Hoge EA, Bui E, Mete M, et al. Mindfulness-based stress reduction vs. escitalopram for the treatment of adults with anxiety disorders: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry 2023;80(1):13–21.
2. Goodwin GM, Aaronson ST, Alvarez O, et al. Single-dose psilocybin for a treatment-resistant episode of major depression. N Engl J Med 2022;387(18):1637–1648.