Publications by authors named "Bartram M"

This study was aimed at identifying the prevalence of concurrent experience, poor mental health and problematic substance use, and its associated factors, among Canadian adults during the COVID-19 pandemic. A nationwide repeated cross-sectional sample of 14,897 Canadian adults (quota-sampled, weighted) were recruited on ten occasions between October 2020 and March 2022 using online panels. Concurrent experience was defined as mild to severe symptoms of depression (Patient Health Questionnaire-9) and/or anxiety (Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7) AND meeting screening criteria for problematic cannabis (Cannabis Use Disorder Identification Test-Revised) and/or problematic alcohol use (Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test).

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While genetic kidney diseases were long regarded as a rare cause of kidney failure, it has been shown in recent years that they account for a relevant proportion of cases. In cohorts of kidney transplant recipients, a monogenic cause is found in up to 30% of cases. Identifying the genetic cause of kidney disease has become much easier thanks to technological advances in DNA sequencing.

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Idiopathic inflammatory myopathy (IIM) summarizes rare, systemic autoimmune conditions primarily characterized by inflammatory damage to the skeletal muscle. Although primary damage occurs to the muscle, these IIM-related conditions involve other organs, including the skin, lungs, upper gastrointestinal tract, joints, and heart. While many patients have an adequate response to immunosuppressive treatment, some patients develop rapidly progressive and treatment-resistant life-threatening courses.

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Background: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people with eating disorders (EDs) and their families was profound, with surging rates of hospitalizations and referrals reported internationally. This paper provides an account of the additional health and social costs of ED care for young people living in Canada incurred during the COVID-19 pandemic, drawing attention to the available data to inform these estimates while noting gaps in data capacities to account for a full view of the ED system of care.

Methods: Three methodologies were used to capture costs: (1) provincial administrative data holdings available at the Canadian Institute of Health Information (CIHI) were used by Deloitte Access Economics to conduct analyses on costs related to hospitalizations, emergency room visits, outpatient visits with physicians and loss of well-being from being on a waitlist.

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Introduction: The RNA interference (RNAi) medication lumasiran reduces hepatic oxalate production in primary hyperoxaluria type 1 (PH1). Data outside clinical trials are scarce.

Methods: We report on retrospectively and observationally obtained data in 33 patients with PH1 (20 with preserved kidney function, 13 on dialysis) treated with lumasiran for a median of 18 months.

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Backgound: Autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD) is the most common inherited kidney disease, and leads to a steady loss of kidney function in adulthood. The variable course of the disease makes it necessary to identify the patients with rapid disease progression who will benefit the most from targeted therapies and interventions. Currently, magnetic resonance imaging-based volumetry of the kidney is the most commonly used tool for this purpose.

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Article Synopsis
  • The study investigates changes in moderate or severe symptoms of anxiety and depression in Canadians aged 35 and older from before to during the COVID-19 pandemic, using data from two health surveys.
  • Researchers categorized changes in mental health symptoms as no symptoms, remitted, incident, or persistent, analyzing factors like age, gender, income, and health behaviors that might influence these changes.
  • Findings reveal that various sociodemographic and health-related factors impacted mental health during the pandemic, highlighting the need for ongoing public health initiatives and policies that address mental health disparities and socioeconomic barriers.
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Introduction: Services to treat problematic alcohol use (PAU) should be highly accessible to optimize treatment engagement. We conducted a scoping review to map characteristics of services for the treatment of PAU that have been reported in the literature to be barriers to or facilitators of access to treatment from the perspective of individuals with PAU.

Methods: A protocol was developed , registered, and published.

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The majority of people who contract COVID-19 experience a short period of symptomatic infection. However, symptoms persist for months or years following initial exposure to the virus in some cases. This has been described as long COVID.

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Background: The Professional Association of Ophthalmologists (BVA) estimates that at least 100,000s of traffic accidents with 10,000s of injuries and fatalities are caused by known and unknown visual disorders on German roads every year. Until now, however, the police have not had the opportunity to check for potential visual disorders on the spot in cases of conspicuous driving. In a pilot project of the police with the Eye Hospital of the Hannover Medical School (MHH), the aim was for the first time to extend the existing tests of the police by adapted "car-side" vision tests.

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Background: Scarce are the studies focusing on initiation of new mental health service use (MHSU) and distinguishing individuals who have sought services but have been unsuccessful in accessing these.

Aims: Assessing the factors associated with initiating new MHSU as compared to no MHSU due to self-reported no need, no MHSU due to health system and personal barriers and MHSU using resources already in place.

Methods: The sample included participants ( = 16,435) in the five established regional cohorts of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (CanPath) who responded to the CanPath COVID-19 health surveys (May-December 2020 and January-June 2021).

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Background: Long-read sequencing is increasingly used to uncover structural variants in the human genome, both functionally neutral and deleterious. Structural variants occur more frequently in regions with a high homology or repetitive segments, and one rearrangement may predispose to additional events. Bartter syndrome type 3 (BS 3) is a monogenic tubulopathy caused by deleterious variants in the chloride channel gene CLCNKB, a high proportion of these being large gene deletions.

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Objectives: Using Andersen's model of health care seeking behavior, we examined the predisposing, enabling, and need factors associated with mental health service use (MHSU) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic across Canada.

Methods: The sample included n = 45,542 participants in the 5 established regional cohorts of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow's Health (CanPath) and who responded to the CanPath COVID-19 health survey (May-December 2020), with complete data on MHSU. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were carried out to study MHSU as a function of predisposing, enabling, and need factors.

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Introduction: Genetic disorders are among the most prevalent causes leading to progressive glomerular disease and, ultimately, end-stage renal disease (ESRD) in children and adolescents. Identification of underlying genetic causes is indispensable for targeted treatment strategies and counseling of affected patients and their families.

Methods: Here, we report on a boy who presented at 4 years of age with proteinuria and biopsy-proven focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) that was temporarily responsive to treatment with ciclosporin A.

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Background: The increased need for mental health and substance use health (MHSUH) services during the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the need to better understand workforce capacity. This study aimed to examine the pandemic's impact on the capacity of MHSUH service providers and to understand reasons contributing to changes in availability or ability to provide services.

Methods: We conducted a mixed method study including a pan-Canadian survey of 2177 providers of MHSUH services and semi-structured interviews with 13 key informants.

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Introduction: Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, substance use health services for treatment of alcohol use disorder and problematic alcohol use (AUD/PAU) were fragmented and challenging to access. The pandemic magnified system weaknesses, often resulting in disruptions of treatment as alcohol use during the pandemic rose. When treatment services were available, utilisation was often low for various reasons.

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Objective: To investigate whether a tailored intersectoral discharge program (TIDP) impacts on multidimensional frailty, rehospitalization days, and patient-related outcome measures in older in-patients undergoing acute care and usual rehabilitative care.

Design: Randomized controlled trial of TIDP vs usual rehabilitative care with a 6-month follow-up, 2019-2020, and historical control with a 6-month follow-up, 2016-2019.

Setting And Participants: Geriatric co-managed internal medicine ward of a metropolitan university hospital.

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Background: To investigate whether vaccination against SARS-CoV-2 is associated with the onset of retinal vascular occlusive disease (RVOD).

Methods: In this multicentre study, data from patients with central and branch retinal vein occlusion (CRVO and BRVO), central and branch retinal artery occlusion (CRAO and BRAO), and anterior ischaemic optic neuropathy (AION) were retrospectively collected during a 2-month index period (1 June-31 July 2021) according to a defined protocol. The relation to any previous vaccination was documented for the consecutive case series.

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Background: Mental health research in Canada is not only underfunded but there remains an inequitable distribution of funding to address unmet needs especially in clinical and applied research. In 2018, the legalization of cannabis for non-medical use in Canada sparked the need to examine the relationship between cannabis use and mental health. The federal government allocated $10 M over 5 years to the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), a pan-Canadian health organization funded at arm's length by the federal government.

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The Mental Health and Substance Use Health (MHSUH) impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are proving to be significant, complex, and long-lasting. The MHSUH workforce-including psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, addiction counsellors, and peer support workers as well as psychiatrists, family physicians, and nurses-is the backbone of the response. As health leaders consider how to address long-standing and emerging health workforce challenges, there is an opportunity to move the MHSUH workforce out from the shadows through full inclusion in health workforce planning in Canada.

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Background: Timely knowledge mobilization has become increasingly critical during the COVID-19 pandemic and complicated by the need to establish or maintain lines of communication between researchers and decision-makers virtually. Our recent pan-Canadian research study on the mental health and substance use health (MHSUH) workforce during the pandemic identified key policy barriers impacting this essential workforce. To bridge the evidence-policy gap in addressing these barriers, we held a facilitated virtual policy dialogue.

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The negative impact of chronic kidney disease (CKD) on health status and quality of life in older patients has been well documented. However, data on frailty trajectories and long-term outcomes of older CKD patients undergoing structured Comprehensive Geriatric Assessment (CGA) with multidimensional frailty evaluation are sparse. Here, we analysed records from 375 CKD patients admitted to our university hospital (mean age 77.

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Recovery is a key concept driving system transformation in both the addiction and mental health sectors, with shared roots in advocacy and a shared focus on hope in the face of stigma, self-determination and meaningful lives. Nevertheless, while mental health recovery is possible even with on-going symptoms, addiction recovery generally starts with or leads to abstinence. This disconnection undermines coherence at the policy level and exacerbates fragmentation between services and supports in the mental health and addiction sectors in Canada and internationally.

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