"Female Newcomers’ Adjustment to Life in Toronto, Canada: Sources of Stress and Their Implications for Delivering Primary Mental Health Care"

Stress disorders and other mental ill health may be brought on by the disruption caused by resettlement. We examine female newcomers' experiences of adjusting to a new place, metropolitan Toronto, Canada and a new health care system. We consider sources of mental stress experienced during adjustment. We frame this adjustment as a process that happens over place and through time. Thematic findings of interviews (n = 35) with female newcomers from five cultural-linguistic groups are reported. Sources of stress in adjusting to life in Toronto include: navigating a new place, personal safety concerns, adapting to a new lifestyle, and finding employment. Sources of stress in adjusting to a new health care system include: learning how to access care, not having access to specialists, and adapting to a new culture of care. We conclude by considering the implications of what newcomers report for the delivery of primary mental health care (i.e. 'first contact' care).The Lupina Foundatio

Hypothyroidism and Major Depression: A Common Executive Dysfunction?

Little is known about the possible link between the cognitive disorders associated with hypothyroidism and those encountered in depression. This study examines attentional and executive functions as well as the intensity of anxiety and depressive symptoms in hypothyroidism and major depression and the possible link between these symptoms and cognitive disturbances. This study confirms the existence of psychomotor slowing associated with attentional and executive disturbance in major depression as well as in hypothyroidism. However, while depressed subjects manifested a conscious bias with material of negative emotional valence, no such bias was found in the hypothyroid subjects. While the hypothyroid state is accompanied by anxiety/depressive symptoms, it seems that the latter are too discrete for an attentional bias to be observed with material with a negative emotional valence