scholarly journals Ketamine-Assisted and Culturally Attuned Trauma Informed Psychotherapy as Adjunct to Traditional Indigenous Healing: Effecting Cultural Collaboration in Canadian Mental Health Care

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Sherry-Anne Muscat ◽  
Geralyn Dorothy Wright ◽  
Kristy Bergeron ◽  
Kevin W. Morin ◽  
Courtenay Richards Crouch ◽  
...  

Ketamine therapy with culturally attuned trauma-informed psychotherapy in a collaborative cross-cultural partnership may provide a critical step in the operationalization and optimization of treatment effectiveness in diverse populations and may provide a foundation for an improved quality of life for Indigenous people. Decolonizing Indigenous health and wellbeing is long overdue, requiring an equal partnership between government and Indigenous communities, built upon an aboriginal culture holistic foundation of balance of mind, body, social and spiritual realms, and within the context of historical and lived experiences of colonialism. Culturally attuned trauma-informed psychotherapy paired with ketamine—a fast-acting antidepressant that typically takes effect within 4 hours, even in cases of acute suicidality—may be uniquely qualified to integrate into an Indigenous based health system, since ketamine’s therapeutic effects engage multiple neuropsychological, physiological, biological, and behavioral systems damaged by intergenerational complex developmental trauma. Ketamine holds the potential to serve as a core treatment modality around which culturally engaged treatment approaches might be organized since its brief alteration of normal waking consciousness is already a familiar and intrinsic element of healing culture in many Indigenous societies. There is great need and desire in Indigenous communities for respectful and sacred partnership in fostering more effective mental health outcomes and improved quality of life.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Drew Altschul ◽  
Chloe Fawns-Ritchie ◽  
Alex Kwong ◽  
Louise Hartley ◽  
Clifford Nangle ◽  
...  

AbstractFace masks or coverings are effective at reducing airborne infection rates, yet pandemic mitigation measures, including wearing face coverings, have been suggested to contribute to reductions in quality of life and poorer mental health. Longitudinal analyses of more than 11,000 participants across the UK found no association between lower adherence to face covering guidelines and poorer mental health. The opposite appears to be true. Even after controlling for behavioral, social, and psychological confounds, including measures of pre-pandemic mental health, individuals who wore face coverings “most of the time” or “always” had better mental health and wellbeing than those who did not. These results suggest that wearing face coverings more often will not negatively impact mental health.


2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-275 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. W. C. Poon ◽  
C. Harvey ◽  
A. Mackinnon ◽  
L. Joubert

Aims.Few studies have examined the experiences of carers of people with psychosis using a representative sample. Aiming to obtain generalisable results concerning carers in the context of increased emphasis on involving carers in Australian mental health service delivery and policy frameworks, this study recruited carers within the second Australian national survey of psychotic disorders (Survey of High Impact Psychosis, SHIP). Given that most SHIP participants had long-term illness and extended relationships with carers, the health and wellbeing of carers as a group were expected to be relatively stable. However, since it is unknown whether carers’ health and wellbeing would change, our main aim was to explore change and stability in carers’ health and wellbeing and the relationship between any changes experienced by individual carers and corresponding SHIP participants’ functioning over time.Methods.Ninety-eight caregivers of SHIP participants were recruited at baseline and completed validated instruments assessing their health and wellbeing. Seventy-eight carers were re-interviewed at 1-year follow-up. Clinical factors were extracted from the SHIP database. Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test and t-test were used to analyse changes in variables over time. Cross-lagged analyses were conducted to identify possible causative relationships in changes in SHIP participant and carer variables.Results.A substantial percentage of carers experienced social isolation (28.6%), psychological distress (37.7%) and poorer quality of life than population norms. There were no statistically significant changes between baseline and follow-up scores for almost all carers’ health and wellbeing variables, other than a poorer perception of their quality of life in relation to their physical health after 1 year. Cross-lagged analyses suggested that poorer functioning of people with psychosis influenced carers’ social isolation, grief and psychological distress.Conclusions.Findings show that carers’ perception of their health and wellbeing did not improve within current mental health service delivery frameworks over time. Carer's persistently poor health and wellbeing suggests a pressing need to enhance services that improve carers’ health and wellbeing especially their physical health and the functioning of people with psychosis whom they support.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Zaninotto ◽  
Eleonora Iob ◽  
Panayotes Demakakos ◽  
Andrew Steptoe

Objective To evaluate changes in mental health and wellbeing before and during the initial and later phases of the COVID-19 pandemic and investigate whether patterns varied with age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Design Prospective cohort study. Participants English Longitudinal Study of Ageing cohort of 5146 community dwelling adults aged 52 years and older (53% women, average age 66.74 years, standard deviation 10.62) who provided data before the pandemic (2018-19) and at two occasions in 2020 (June-July and November-December). Main outcome measure Depression, poor quality of life, loneliness and anxiety. Results: The prevalence of clinically significant depressive symptoms increased from 12.5% pre-pandemic to 22.6% in June-July 2020, with a further rise to 28.5% in November-December. This was accompanied by increased loneliness and deterioration in quality of life. The prevalence of anxiety rose from 9.4% to 10.9% between June-July and November-December 2022. Women and non-partnered people experienced worse changes in mental health and wellbeing. Participants with less wealth had lowest levels of mental health before and during the pandemic. Higher socioeconomic groups had better mental health overall, but responded to the pandemic with more negative changes. Patterns of changes were similar across age groups, the only exception was for depression which showed a smaller increase in the 75+ age group than in the youngest age group (50-59 years). Conclusions These data showed that mental health and wellbeing continued to worsen as lockdown continued, and that socioeconomic inequalities persisted. Women and non-partnered people experienced greater deterioration in all mental health outcomes. The immediate provision of diagnosis of mental health problems and targeted psychological interventions should target and support sociodemographic groups of older people at higher risk of psychological distress.


PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (33) ◽  
Author(s):  
Itai Danovitch

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bethanee Lemesurier ◽  
Jordan Tabb ◽  
Mary Pritchard ◽  
Theodore McDonald

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (02) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Novak ◽  
K Klaus ◽  
R Seidl ◽  
H Werneck ◽  
M Schubert ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 222-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joshua L. Golubovsky ◽  
Arbaz Momin ◽  
Nicolas R. Thompson ◽  
Michael P. Steinmetz

OBJECTIVEBertolotti syndrome is a rare spinal condition that causes low-back pain due to a lumbosacral transitional vertebra (LSTV), which is a pseudoarticulation between the fifth lumbar transverse process and the sacral ala. Bertolotti syndrome patients are rarely studied, particularly with regard to their quality of life. This study aimed to examine the quality of life and prior treatments in patients with Bertolotti syndrome at first presentation to the authors’ center in comparison with those with lumbosacral radiculopathy.METHODSThis study was a retrospective cohort analysis of patients with Bertolotti syndrome and lumbosacral radiculopathy due to disc herniation seen at the authors’ institution’s spine center from 2005 through 2018. Diagnoses were confirmed with provider notes and imaging. Variables collected included demographics, diagnostic history, prior treatment, patient-reported quality of life metrics, and whether or not they underwent surgery at the authors’ institution. Propensity score matching by age and sex was used to match lumbosacral radiculopathy patients to Bertolotti syndrome patients. Group comparisons were made using t-tests, Fisher’s exact test, Mann-Whitney U-tests, Cox proportional hazards models, and linear regression models where variables found to be different at the univariate level were included as covariates.RESULTSThe final cohort included 22 patients with Bertolotti syndrome who had patient-reported outcomes data available and 46 propensity score–matched patients who had confirmed radiculopathy due to disc herniation. The authors found that Bertolotti syndrome patients had significantly more prior epidural steroid injections (ESIs) and a longer time from symptom onset to their first visit. Univariate analysis showed that Bertolotti syndrome patients had significantly worse Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System (PROMIS) mental health T-scores. Adjustment for prior ESIs and time from symptom onset revealed that Bertolotti syndrome patients also had significantly worse PROMIS physical health T-scores. Time to surgery and other quality of life metrics did not differ between groups.CONCLUSIONSPatients with Bertolotti syndrome undergo significantly longer workup and more ESIs and have worse physical and mental health scores than age- and sex-matched patients with lumbosacral radiculopathy. However, both groups of patients had mild depression and clinically meaningful reduction in their quality of life according to all instruments. This study shows that Bertolotti syndrome patients have a condition that affects them potentially more significantly than those with lumbosacral radiculopathy, and increased attention should be paid to these patients to improve their workup, diagnosis, and treatment.


2020 ◽  
Vol 103 (11) ◽  
pp. 1185-1193

Background: The systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients oftentimes suffer from both physical and psychosocial challenges that may lead to low health-related quality of life (HRQoL). However, limited research has been done in this area. Objective: To examined mental health status and HRQoL among SLE patients in Thailand. Materials and Methods: The present study was a cross-sectional study conducted at the rheumatology clinic of four major hospitals in Thailand. The paper-based questionnaire consisted of demographic, health history such as depression, anxiety, stress Scale (DASS-21), and the Rosenberg self-esteem scale (RSE), and the disease-specific Lupus Quality of Life scale (LupusQoL). Depending on the variable’s level of measurement such as categorical or continuous, Spearman’s Rho or Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficients were used to explore the relationships among the variables. Hierarchical multiple regression was used to identify the predictors of LupusQoL. Results: Among the 387 participants, many might have experienced depression, anxiety, and stress (30%, 51%, and 29%, respectively). Self-esteem among the participants was good (31.8 out of 40). All eight domains of LupusQoL were affected with intimate relationship domain being impacted the most. The overall LupusQoL was significantly associated with the number of prescribed medications (r=–0.23), depression (r=–0.70), anxiety (r=–0.58), stress (r=–0.67), and self-esteem (r=0.59), p<0.001. Significant predictors of the overall LupusQoL were mental health status (depression, anxiety, and stress) and self-esteem, F (3, 81)=43.10, p<0.001, adjusted R²=0.60. Conclusion: SLE patients should be holistically assessed in both physical and psychological aspects. In addition to proper medical treatments, healthcare providers should use a multidisciplinary team approach to resolve the patients’ psychosocial issues, which in turn, may increase the patients’ quality of life. Self-care education may be necessary to help the patients manage the condition and decrease the number of medications. Keywords: Mental health, Quality of life, SLE, Thailand


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