Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie
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The case is presented of a young and violent chronic schizophrenic patient whose symptoms respond to antipsychotic medication but who was recorded, at a time when he was deemed competent, as expressing a wish that he should not be given antipsychotic treatment. Under the present usage of the Ontario Mental Health Act, substitute consent givers are bound by such a "prior competent wish" and this patient must now be considered one of a growing group of "legally untreatable" psychotic patients.
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Practice Guideline Guideline
Unilateral termination of treatment by a psychiatrist. Guidelines of the Canadian Psychiatric Association.
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Biography Historical Article
The wing of madness: the illness of Vincent van Gogh.
This paper briefly describes some aspects of Vincent van Gogh's life and attitudes. It discusses absinthe and several psychodynamic factors that may have contributed to his psychotic episodes at Arles, when he cut off his ear. It discusses Vincent's descriptions of his illness, especially at Saint Rémy de Provence and concludes that he probably suffered from partial complex seizures (temporal lobe epilepsy) with manic depressive mood swings aggravated by absinthe, brandy, nicotine and turpentine.
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This paper focuses on a series of adolescent suicides which occurred in a small rural community in Western Canada between December 1989 and June 1990. Risk factors for adolescent suicide and recent epidemiological data on cluster suicide are reviewed and discussed. The circumstances of the five adolescent suicides are then discussed, and the question of whether or not this was a cluster suicide is considered. This article supports the view that suicide is an abnormal response to stress or loss and emphasizes the role of genetic psychophysiological predisposition.
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For 25 years, the Hamilton-Wentworth region has had a well integrated network of psychiatric services. The initial impetus for its establishment came from the founders of the Department of Psychiatry at McMaster University in 1967. They envisaged a regional network of services that integrated the resources of a community-focused university department with those of local community agencies and other mental health care professionals. Over the years, the evolution of the network has been shaped by changes in the size and composition of the faculty, the emergence of additional clinical services and community programs, new directions in the field of psychiatry and changing economic forces and social values.