Staying #Up2Date 🚨

1: A Promising Low-Cost Strategy for Eating Disorder Care

A meta-analysis of 36 RCTs found that digital interventions, such as websites, apps, and chatbots, were associated with improvements in eating disorder outcomes. Compared to standard care, digital methods reduced eating disorder psychopathology, objective binge eating, and other comorbid mental health outcomes in both acute and longer-term phases. These results support digitally delivered interventions for eating disorders as an effective, scalable, and inexpensive format to help narrow the treatment gap — especially when waiting lists for standard treatment are lengthy.

2: Using Mobile Health to Address Cardiovascular Risk in Psoriasis

An RCT of 111 adults with psoriasis assessed whether lifestyle-focused text messaging improved how patients manage their disease-related cardiovascular risk. After 6 months of text messages discussing the impacts of tobacco, exercise, and diet on cardiovascular disease, patient activation was significantly higher compared to usual care — meaning individuals were more confident in their knowledge and ability to manage their own health. Improvements were also seen in medication adherence and adherence to a Mediterranean diet, showing that digital tools can help manage cardiovascular risk in dermatology care.

The Unlinkable Link 🔗

Guess where the data landed on RFK Jr.’s autism claims.

What happened: A new large study found no evidence linking antidepressant use during pregnancy to autism.

Why it matters: A meta-analysis of more than 25 million pregnancies contradicts theories promoted by the US Health Secretary — the same one who petitioned the FDA to revoke all COVID vaccines — namely, that antidepressants increase the risk of autism. 

Researchers analyzed data from 37 earlier studies, including nearly 650,000 pregnancies involving antidepressant use and nearly 25 million without exposure. At first, the data did suggest a connection between prenatal antidepressant exposure and  autism, as well as ADHD. But when they took other variables into account — like family history, mental health, and genetics, all of which impact the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders — the association significantly weakened. 

But: Experts also looked at fathers who used antidepressants while the mother was pregnant. They also found higher rates of autism and ADHD in children whose father used antidepressants while the mother was pregnant. But because the medication can’t reach the baby in the womb, researchers say the link is more likely explained by shared family traits. 

One notable exception: for women with pre-existing mental health disorders, older antidepressants like amitriptyline and nortriptyline were linked with increased ADHD and autism risk in children. But these medications are typically only prescribed when others don’t work — meaning certain mental health conditions could correlate with autism. 

It should be said: neither amitriptyline nor nortriptyline was on the list of medications that RFK Jr. claims “give children autism.”

Bottom line: Withholding antidepressants during pregnancy can worsen maternal depression — carrying serious risks for both mother and child. The study isn’t saying these medications are uncomplicated. Proving causation in neurodevelopmental disorders is far more complex than experts and “experts” make it seem.

Course of the Week

A New Era in Nonsteroidal Topical Treatment for Atopic Dermatitis, Seborrheic Dermatitis, and Plaque Psoriasis

Steroids have long been the default for chronic inflammatory skin conditions, but the landscape is shifting. This free, 30-minute Mainpro+ accredited module walks through atopic dermatitis, seborrheic dermatitis, and plaque psoriasis with a focus on when and how to integrate nonsteroidal options into practice. Case-based, practical, and built for the clinicians managing these patients in primary care.

Hot Off The Press

1: 🥬 Kimchi might be the most unexpected weapon yet in the fight against microplastics. A new study out of South Korea found that a probiotic bacterium derived from kimchi can bind to nanoplastics in the gut and help the body excrete them. In lab conditions mimicking the human intestine, most other bacteria lost their grip almost entirely (binding dropped to 3%), while the kimchi strain held on at 57%. In germ-free mice, those given the probiotic excreted more than double the nanoplastics of untreated mice. This is early-stage research, but it adds a genuinely surprising dimension to the nanoplastics-as-public-health-threat conversation.

2: 🌿 Canada’s allergy season didn’t get worse this year… it got compressed. A new report from Aerobiology Research Laboratories says pollen levels across Canada have roughly doubled in recent years, with climate change extending warm seasons and giving pollen more runway. But 2026 has a bonus problem: a cooler spring delayed early-season trees like cedar and maple, meaning their pollen is now dropping at the same time as birch, oak, and poplar. On top of that: decades of municipal landscaping that favoured male trees to reduce fruiting debris, inadvertently loading cities with more pollen-producing trees than necessary.

3: 🦠 Canada has its 1st confirmed case of Andes hantavirus, and it arrived by cruise ship. A Yukon resident aboard an Antarctic expedition that has already killed 3 passengers tested positive over the weekend after developing fever and headache while isolating in BC — they and their partner were transferred to hospital in Victoria, where the partner has since tested negative. 9 high-risk Canadians across BC, Alberta, and Ontario are in isolation, closely monitored. Another 27, who shared flights with a confirmed case, are being watched for symptoms. The detail that matters clinically: the WHO has identified the strain as Andes hantavirus, known to spread person-to-person. Public risk remains low, but this is one to watch, especially if your patients are already asking about it.

4: 🏠 The Strait of Hormuz is quietly messing with Canadian mortgage rates, and a growing number of homeowners are about to feel it. Iran’s chokehold on oil shipping has pushed inflation sharply upward over the last 2 months, raising the possibility that the Bank of Canada hikes rather than cuts — and every 100 basis point increase in mortgage rates strips roughly 8.5% off buying power. The timing is rough: 36% of Canadian homeowners already find payments challenging, nearly a quarter of that group renews in the next 12 months, and regulators have estimated up to 150,000 households could be particularly vulnerable at renewal. The long-term fundamentals still favour housing. But those green shoots in Canada’s real estate garden might turn out to be weeds.

5: 📡 A California jury just rejected Elon Musk’s $150B lawsuit against OpenAI, opening the door for one of the biggest stock market debuts in history. Musk had accused the AI titan of using its nonprofit origins to enrich itself through a for-profit company, now valued at $730B. The jury dismissed the suit, deciding Musk had waited too long to file, but his campaign isn’t over. He plans to appeal, continuing to accuse OpenAI of “stealing a charity” — ironic, given that he’d reportedly explored making them for-profit himself back in 2017.

Notable Numbers 🔢

$400K: the value of Bitcoin a man recovered from a wallet he’d been locked out of for 11 years, after an AI assistant spotted a bug in his recovery software that had been causing 3.5 trillion password attempts to fail. He originally paid around $250 per coin.

13: the number of people who died together in Pompeii’s Garden of Fugitives in 79 CE, one of whom CT imaging has now identified as a physician. He was apparently mid-flee and still had his medical kit on him.

2.6x: how much more likely someone aged 18-49 with severe obesity is to develop early-onset colorectal cancer than late-onset disease. The findings add to growing evidence that early-onset CRC behaves differently than the form seen in older adults, with links to inflammation, iron deficiency, IBD, and elevated CRP.

Postcall Picks ✅

🥚 Make: these protein snack bombs: hard-boiled eggs, pressed cottage cheese, Dijon, and a roll in either bacon-cheddar or herb-nut coating — 4g of protein per ball, 25 minutes, no cooking required. 

📖 Read: the LA Times’ summer reading list: 12 picks across fiction and nonfiction, ranging from a darkly comic political satire about a reality-show president to a Montreal garbageman’s meditation on consumerism and class. 

🏞️ Visit: the Penticton River Channel — a 7-kilometre lazy river float between 2 Okanagan lakes opening June 27. Tubes, giant 12-person floating islands, and a shuttle back to the start — the most medically justifiable thing you can do with a day off.

💰 Save: on a Nintendo Switch 2. EB Games is offering 3x trade-in value on any Switch console toward a new Switch 2 until June 11. Price goes up $50 in September, so sooner is better.

📺 Watch: this White Coat Investor episode where a physician practicing in a small community breaks down how they hit $1M in investments, and what the tradeoffs of rural practice actually look like when you factor in lifestyle and long-term finances.

Relax

First clue: Last word of the last answer to a multiple choice question

Give it a go →

Need a rematch? We’ve got you covered. Check out our Crossword Archive to find every puzzle we’ve ever made, all in one place.

Think you crushed it? Challenge your physician friends to beat your time.

Meme of the Week

Help Us Get Better

Advertise with Postcall

Want to reach thousands of Canadian physicians every week? Email denis.bricov@mdbriefcase.com to learn more.