Martin Drapeau

Rising cancer incidence and survival rates have led to an unprecedented demand for psychosocial care. Yet, limited financial and practical resources present a barrier to the provision of evidence-based care. Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) are well-positioned to enhance the quality and efficiency of psychosocial oncology care; however, little is known about their use and perceptions in the field. The present study explored the use and perceptions of CPGs among 172 Canadian psychosocial oncology clinicians via a cross-sectional, online survey. Findings revealed substantial variation in awareness, with over 20% of participants reporting no familiarity with CPGs, and low to moderate use of CPGs (M = 2.97, SD = 2.96) among users. Key barriers included a lack of formal training, limited applicability to local contexts, and systemic constraints such as high workloads. Conversely, participants highly endorsed facilitators, including accessible training programs, relevant tools/interventions, and greater institutional and community engagement. Clinician perspectives are paramount to the dissemination and implementation of psychosocial oncology CPGs. Our findings suggest that successful implementation requires broader accessibility, widespread adaptation, and greater community engagement. By addressing these systemic constraints, CPGs may be better positioned to bridge the gap between evidence and real-world service provision.

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy for depression includes cognitive and behavioural techniques to target depressive symptoms. Cognitive techniques are often separated into interventions that target automatic thoughts and those that target core beliefs. Interventions that focus on core beliefs have been presented in the literature for decades. However, a consolidated review of the available contents pertaining to interventions focusing on core beliefs when treating depression has yet to be completed. Aims: This scoping review aimed to identify and define core belief techniques and describe core treatment recommendations in the treatment of major depression. Method: A literature search was completed in three databases including PsychINFO, EMBASE and Medline. The methodology followed scoping review guidelines and a thematic analysis framework. Results: The review uncovered two clusters of techniques. The first aim to identify the core beliefs and include such techniques as reviewing the historical context for underlying beliefs, the downward arrow technique, and the use of inventories. The second aim to modify core beliefs and include techniques such as examining the evidence, exploring the advantages and disadvantages of a belief, conducting a historical test, the continuum method, and using positive data logs. Specific recommendations for using each technique are also presented.

With contemporary social movements related to civil rights, personal freedoms, and tensions in higher education institutions around academic freedom, ideological open-mindedness has become an increasingly popular research topic in recent decades. Such openness has been defined as a disposition to engage meaningfully with novel ideas that may conflict with one’s own, and to accommodate or disregard such views with delicacy, precision, and care (Cormier et al., 2026; Kwong, 2023). Findings on effective interventions to reduce ideological polarization remain limited, highlighting the need for a cohesive review. This review catalogued and analyzed findings on individual differences related to ideological open-mindedness through an exploratory research question: Are there measured individual differences (psychological and demographic variables such as personality traits, political beliefs, and gender) that relate meaningfully to ideological open-mindedness? The search process retained 152 records. Results showed associations between ideological open-mindedness and personality traits, age, gender, sexual orientation, culture, language, political standing, socioeconomic status, religious beliefs, education level and type, personal past experience, competence, personal beliefs and interests, and emotional tendencies. Considering varied associations between individual characteristics and differences in ideological open-mindedness, this review serves as a guide towards better understanding this complex construct as precursor to informing effective interventions.

Nearly 20% of women will be confronted with anxiety or depressive disorders during the perinatal period and this may lead to adverse outcomes for both mother and child. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the psychological intervention with the most empirical support for the clinical management of anxiety and depressive disorders. Anxiety and depression frequently occur in women during the perinatal period, and there is growing evidence that internet-delivered CBT (iCBT) could be an acceptable and effective intervention. THIS WAY UP, an Australian digital mental health service, has developed a program for postnatal anxiety and depression. This study protocol aims to examine the acceptability and efficacy of a French-Canadian adaptation of the program. The research team propose to conduct a mixed hybrid type 1 pragmatic randomized clinical trial and implementation study to replicate the findings of the trial conducted in Australia by Loughnan et al. (2019), as well as explore barriers and facilitators to potential large-scale implementation. TREATMENT AND CONTROL CONDITIONS: a) postnatal anxiety and depression iCBT program with three lessons to complete in a six-week period, added to treatment-as-usual (TAU); b) TAU. Participants will include French-speaking women with probable postnatal depression or anxiety as per the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) or the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). The primary outcome measures will be the GAD-7 and the EPDS. Secondary outcome measures will comprise self-reported instruments to evaluate psychological distress, quality of life, mother-child experience, and treatment experience. Qualitative interviews with participants and health professionals will provide insights on acceptability and delivery of the iCBT program. Statistical analysis will follow intent-to-treat principles. A mixed model regression approach will be used to account for between- and within-subject variations in the analysis of the effects of iCBT compared to TAU only intervention. The study will generate important data of efficacy and acceptability to patients, clinicians, and decision-makers to inform the scaling-up of the postnatal iCBT intervention in Canada. ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT06778096, prospectively registered on 2025/01/16.

Perspectives Psy est une des revues phares de la communauté psychiatrique francophone

Rationale, Aims and Objectives: Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPGs) have been shown to improve healthcare services and clinical outcomes. However, they are useful resources only to the degree that they are developed according to the most rigorous standards. Multiple studies have demonstrated significant variability between CPGs with regard to specific indicators of quality. The Ordre des psychologues du Québec (OPQ), the College of psychologists of Quebec, has published several CPGs that are intended to provide empirically supported guidance for psychologists in the areas of assessment, diagnosis, general functioning, treatment and other decision‐making support. The aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of these CPGs.Methods: The Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument was used to assess the quality of the CPGs.Results: Our results show that although there have been some modest improvements in quality of the CPGs over time, there are important methodological inadequacies in all CPGs evaluated.Conclusions: The findings of this study demonstrate the need for more methodological rigour in CPGs development as such, recommendations to improve CPG quality are discussed.

Background: The integration of a personal recovery-oriented practice in mental health services is an emerging principle in policy planning. Self-management support (SMS) is an intervention promoting recovery that aims at educating patients on the nature of their mental disorder, improving their strategies to manage their day-to-day symptoms, fostering self-efficacy and empowerment, preventing relapse, and promoting well-being. While SMS is well established for chronic physical conditions, there is a lack of evidence to support the implementation of structured SMS programs for common mental disorders, and particularly for anxiety disorders. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of a group-based self-management support program for anxiety disorders as an add-on to treatment-as-usual in community-based care settings. Methods/design: We will conduct a multicentre pragmatic randomized controlled trial with a pre-treatment, post-treatment (4-month post-randomization), and follow-ups at 8, 12 and 24-months. Treatment and control groups: a) group self-management support (10 weekly 2.5-h group web-based sessions with 10–15 patients with two trained facilitators); b) treatment-as-usual. Participants will include adults meeting DSM-5 criteria for Panic Disorder, Agoraphobia, Social Anxiety Disorder, and/or Generalized Anxiety Disorder. The primary outcome measure will be the Beck Anxiety Inventory; secondary outcome measures will comprise self-reported instruments for anxiety and depressive symptoms, recovery, self-management, quality of life, and service utilisation. Statistical analysis: Data will be analysed based on intention-to-treat with a mixed effects regression model accounting for between and within-subject variations in the effects of the intervention. Discussion: This study will contribute to the limited knowledge base regarding the effectiveness of structured group self-management support for anxiety disorders. It is expected that changes in patients’ self-management behaviour will lead to better anxiety management and, consequently, to improved patient outcomes. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT05124639. Prospectively registered 18 November 2021.

Interest in the development and promotion of clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) continues to grow in many professions. However, the potential benefits associated with CPGs are dependent upon their quality. A number of studies have shown that the quality of CPGs varies greatly. Furthermore, the quality of many of the CPGs used in health and social sciences has yet to be examined. In light of this, the aim of this study was to examine the quality of CPGs that focus on intervention and care management in mental health in Quebec. A search of Quebec regulatory bodies websites was conducted and six CPGs were included in this study. The CPGs were assessed by four trained raters using the Appraisal of Guidelines for Research and Evaluation II (AGREE II) instrument. Items scores and domains scores were considered to determine the quality of the six CPGs. Results show that many of the CPGs did not achieve minimum ratings for numerous quality checks. Notably, none of the CPGs were designed using a rigorous methodology, they lacked transparency throughout the development process and insufficient consideration was given to the applicability of the recommendations they included. Because these shortcomings may hinder the efficacy and utilization of CPGs, suggestions to improve the development of CPGs and to improve their quality are discussed.

The development and implementation of clinical practice guidelines has flourished over the past two decades. Unfortunately, many studies have found that the quality of such guidelines is highly variable (Alonso-Coello et al. in Qual Safe Health Care 19:e58, 2010; MacQueen et al. in Can J Psychiatry 62:11–23, 2016); research suggests that some of the guidelines used in psychology have been developed using poor methods for guideline development (Bennett et al. in Depress Anxiety 35:330–340, 2018; Trepanier et al. in: Can Psychol 58: 211–217, 2017). While there remains a dearth of research in this area, typically, it is guidelines themselves that are examined by researchers, while too little attention is paid to the developers, and more specifically to how the guideline development groups are composed and the nature of the expertise of those involved in developing the guidelines. Given the importance of grounding guidelines in science, it is key that guideline development groups be comprised of research experts that will help ensure that this essential aspect be respected. In this brief paper, we provide findings from a recent study in which group composition as well as the expertise of guideline development committee members at the Order of Psychologists of Quebec (OPQ) was examined, as defined by academic research productivity. As results highlighted a clear imbalance between clinical and research expertise in these specific committees, with only a small percentage of researchers being represented, we conclude that major improvements need to be made for research to properly reach practitioners and make recommendations to facilitate this.