The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
September 11, 2026
James Mirabelli, James MacKillop, David Streiner et al.
Background Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) frequently use cannabis, often for self-medication. However, cannabis use has also been linked to BPD symptom severity, suggesting heterogeneity in its effects. Individuals with BPD frequently experience psychotic-like symptoms and may demonstrate elevated psychosis vulnerability, which is associated with greater symptom severity...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
October 28, 2025
Jennifer Swainson, Elisa Brietzke, Atul Khullar et al.
2 citations
There has been a renewed interest in the use of various psychedelic agents as potential therapies for multiple psychiatric conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD), generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), to name a few. This follows the recent accumulation of evidence for ketamine pharmacotherapy and a rapid proliferation of clinics/programs...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
March 25, 2025
Noah Chisamore, Erica Kaczmarek, Zoe Doyle et al.
1 citation
Objective: To compare changes in depression, anxiety, and suicidality symptoms after a single 25 mg oral dose of psilocybin between treatment-resistant depression participants not on antidepressants at screening to participants that discontinued antidepressant medications leading up to receiving psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy (PAP). Methods: Participants (n = 27) received at least one 25 mg...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
June 27, 2023
Lindsay A. Lo, Caroline A. Maccallum, Kate Nanson et al.
Objective The drug poisoning crisis throughout North America necessitates novel harm reduction approaches. Emerging evidence suggests that cannabidiol (CBD) may have some utility as a harm reduction modality for those with problematic substance use. This rapid review aimed to synthesize available evidence on CBD as a potential harm reduction tool for people who use drugs while providing...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 17, 2022
Joshua D. Rosenblat, Muhammad Ishrat Husain, Yena Lee et al.
58 citations
Objective Serotonergic psychedelics are re-emerging as potential novel treatments for several psychiatric disorders including major depressive disorder. The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) convened a task force to review the evidence and provide a consensus recommendation for the clinical use of psychedelic treatments for major depressive disorder. Methods A systematic...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 1, 2022
Russell C. Callaghan, Marcos Sanches, Robin Murray et al.
Objective Cannabis legalization in many jurisdictions worldwide has raised concerns that such legislation might increase the burden of transient and persistent psychotic illnesses in society. Our study aimed to address this issue. Methods Drawing upon emergency department (ED) presentations aggregated across Alberta and Ontario, Canada records (April 1, 2015–December 31, 2019), we employed...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
November 11, 2020
Jennifer Swainson, Alexander McGirr, Pierre Blier et al.
109 citations
OBJECTIVE: -methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist, has demonstrated rapid antidepressant effects in patients with TRD. The Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) convened a task force to review the evidence for efficacy and safety of racemic ketamine and to provide recommendations for its use in clinical practice. METHODS: A systematic review was conducted with...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
May 1, 2019
Shera Hosseini, Mark Oremus
Objectives: This study was conducted to review the current state of evidence on the association between age of initiation of cannabis use and symptoms of psychosis, depression, or anxiety among youth under 25 years of age. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of articles published prior to March 2018 by searching OVID MEDLINE, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and the references of included studies. We...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 1, 2015
Bryony Sheaves, Juliana Onwumere, Nadine Keen et al.
74 citations
OBJECTIVE: To examine the prevalence of nightmares in people with psychosis and to describe the link between nightmares and sleep quality, psychotic, affective, and cognitive symptoms. METHODS: Forty participants with psychotic symptoms completed an assessment of nightmares, sleep quality, positive symptoms of psychosis, affect, posttraumatic stress, social functioning, and working memory....
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
February 1, 2012
Norman A. S. Farb, Adam K. Anderson, Zindel V. Segal
361 citations
Mindfulness involves nonjudgmental attention to present-moment experience. In its therapeutic forms, mindfulness interventions promote increased tolerance of negative affect and improved well-being. However, the neural mechanisms underlying mindful mood regulation are poorly understood. Mindfulness training appears to enhance focused attention, supported by the anterior cingulate cortex and the...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
February 1, 2012
Walter E B Sipe, Stuart J. Eisendrath
283 citations
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) incorporates elements of cognitive-behavioural therapy with mindfulness-based stress reduction into an 8-session group program. Initially conceived as an intervention for relapse prevention in people with recurrent depression, it has since been applied to various psychiatric conditions. Our paper aims to briefly describe MBCT and its putative...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
April 1, 2011
Emmanuel H During, Fanny M Elahi, Olivier Taieb et al.
84 citations
Objective: Although the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fourth Edition, acknowledges the existence of dissociative trance and possession disorders, simply named dissociative trance disorder (DTD), it asks for further studies to assess its clinical utility in the DSM-5. To answer this question, we conducted the first review of the medical literature. Method: The...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
March 1, 2009
Emmanuel Stip, Geneviève Létourneau
88 citations
This paper reviews the presence of psychotic features in the nonclinical population. The results of a literature review suggest that delusional and hallucinatory experiences are more common in the general population than we may think, and that there could well be a symptomatic continuum between people who have and people who have not been diagnosed with indisputable psychotic disorders. In the...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
March 1, 2009
Emmanuel Stip
4 citations
Can J Psychiatry. 2009;54(3): 137-139. The diagnostic entity of schizophrenia creates a loose boundary around a heterogeneous collection of interrelated and relatively distinct phenotypes. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)-V planning process is currently under way and it has once again ignited the debate about the boundaries of this diagnosis. One question concerns...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
April 1, 2007
Tony Toneatto, Linda Nguyen
316 citations
OBJECTIVE: To review the impact of mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) on symptoms of anxiety and depression in a range of clinical populations. METHOD: Our review included any study that was published in a peer-reviewed journal, used a control group, and reported outcomes related to changes in depression and anxiety. We extracted the following key variables from each of the 15 studies...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 1, 2006
Louisa Degenhardt, Wayne Hall
Objective: To assess whether cannabis use in adolescence and young adulthood is a contributory cause of schizophreniform psychosis in that it may precipitate psychosis in vulnerable individuals. Method: We reviewed longitudinal studies of adolescents and young adults that examined the relations between self-reported cannabis use and the risk of diagnosis with a psychosis or of reporting...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 1, 2006
Wayne Hall, Louisa Degenhardt
Objective: To explore the implications for mental health services, for health education about the risks of cannabis use, and for public policy toward cannabis use of observational evidence that cannabis use is a contributory cause of psychosis. Method: Using comparative analyses of similar evidence for the harmful effects of alcohol, tobacco, and amphetamine use, we considered the relation...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
November 2005
Mark A. Lau, Shelley F McMain
Recent innovations in psychological treatments have integrated mindfulness meditation techniques with traditional cognitive and behavioural therapies, challenging traditional cognitive and behavioural therapists to integrate acceptance- and change-based strategies. This article details how 2 treatments, mindfulness-based cognitive therapy and dialectical behaviour therapy, have met this...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
June 1, 2005
Erika Dyck
88 citations
In the popular mind, d-lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) research in psychiatry has long been associated with the CIA-funded experiments conducted by Ewen Cameron at the Allen Memorial Institute in Montreal, Quebec. Despite this reputation, a host of medical researchers in the post World War II era explored LSD for its potential therapeutic value. Some of the most widespread trials in the...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
May 1, 2005
Mehmet Yucel Agargun, Mustafa Gulec, Ali Savas Cilli et al.
To examine whether there is a relation between nightmares and serum lipid levels. Fifteen subjects who met DSM-IV criteria for the diagnosis of nightmare disorder and 15 healthy control subjects participated in the study. We used an enzymatic colorimetric method for cholesterol and triglyceride determination. We measured high-density lipoprotien (HDL) cholesterol using the direct...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
August 1, 2002
Samantha R. Gross, Sean P. Barrett, John S. Shestowsky et al.
97 citations
Objective: This study investigates the drug consumption patterns of a sample of rave attendees in the city of Montreal, Quebec, and seeks to identify the prevalence of 3,4-methylendioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) and other drug use in this population. Method: We administered a self-report questionnaire to 210 respondents. For various licit and illicit substances, participants reported their age of...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
November 1, 1999
Russell A. Powell, Travis L Gee
Objective: To examine the possibility that hypnosis has significant iatrogenic effects on dissociative identity disorder (DID). Method: This paper reexamines previously published data that have been interpreted as indicating that hypnosis does not exert significant iatrogenic effects on DID. Results: The use of hypnosis is associated with differences in DID phenomenology and number of DID...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
September 1, 1991
Douglas H. Frayn
15 citations
The dreams of anorexic patients' were recorded using a standardized sleep questionnaire concerning the perceptual qualities and affects remembered from their dreams. The anorexic subjects consistently had less frequent dream recall, fewer dreams in colour and fewer pleasurable themes than was noted in the normal controls. Anorexics frequently saw themselves in their dreams as having a distorted...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
October 1989
J L Craven
Meditation has been increasingly recommended as a practice with potential psychotherapeutic benefit. This paper provides a description of meditative practice and discusses selected issues related to the conceptual and technical integration of meditation with modern psychotherapeutic interventions. Evidence suggests that meditation may contribute to psychotherapeutic change and that the...
The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry
December 1, 1987
Russell Noyes, Samuel Kuperman, Stephen B. Olson
Primary depersonalization disorder is believed to be resistant to treatment. However, we report the successful treatment of a case with desipramine and suggest that, because there is a link between depersonalization and anxiety disorders, tricyclic antidepressants may prove effective for depersonalization.