Will it hurt? Chronic pain and psychological functioning

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Kirsten Lawson examines a recent meta-analysis of psychological functioning in people living with chronic pain. She discovers that anxiety is more common than depression in people with chronic pain and that practitioners should prioritise psychological functioning when caring for patients suffering from chronic pain.

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Does the placebo effect inflate the effectiveness of psychotherapy?

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Sarah Knowles reviews a recent meta-analysis about the effects of blinding on the outcomes of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy for adult depression.

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What happens to people after discharge from secure psychiatric hospital?

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Laura Hemming considers a recent systematic review of patient outcomes following discharge from secure psychiatric hospitals. The review finds that patients from secure units have a higher chance of mortality and suicide following discharge, than people from other settings.

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Economic impact of youth mental health services in the UK

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Alastair Canaway and Chris Sampson look at a new PSSRU report on youth mental health services in the UK, and how they affect health, education and employment.

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Cannabis: what do we know and what do we need to know?

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Ian Hamilton considers a recent literature review published in JAMA Psychiatry, which explores the effects of cannabis use on human behaviour, Including cognition, motivation and psychosis.

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Increased vulnerability of migrants: non-affective psychosis in Sweden

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Mina Fazel considers the findings of a new Swedish cohort study, which looks at the risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychoses in refugee migrants and non-refugee migrants from across three continents.

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Suicide during the perinatal period

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Katrina Witt reviews a new UK study, which finds that women who ended their own lives during the perinatal period were significantly more likely to have a recent onset of depression, and were less likely to be receiving active treatment, and particularly medication, at their time of their death.

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Long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression

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Sarah McDonald presents the results of the Tavistock Adult Depression Study; a pragmatic RCT of long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy for treatment-resistant depression.

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Crisis intervention for severe mental illness: Cochrane call for more evidence

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John Baker is struck by the lack of evidence for crisis intervention for people with severe mental illness, highlighted by a recently updated Cochrane systematic review.

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Methylphenidate for ADHD: have Cochrane got it wrong this time?

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Chris Hollis appraises a recent Cochrane systematic review, which casts doubt over the quality of trial evidence and the clinical effectiveness of Methylphenidate for ADHD.

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