Lisa Burscheidt reports on a recent Cochrane review that looks at the effects of kinship care versus traditional foster care for the safety, permanency and well-being of children removed from the home for maltreatment.
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Andrew Shepherd summarises a recent JAMA Psychiatry study looking at the efficacy of pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for adult psychiatric disorders (and uses words like hubristic and existential quite a lot!)
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Please help us shape the future of the Mental Elf website by completing this online survey. Your feedback will be really helpful and you could win £50 of Amazon vouchers.
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A new systematic review suggests that, when used alongside psychosocial interventions, medication can result in better alcohol consumption outcomes for people with drinking problems.
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John Baker reports on the first population based report of the positive effects of antipsychotic medication and mood stabilisers on reducing the risk of a conviction for violent crime, published in the Lancet in May.
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Who naturally recovers from PTSD and why? A recent meta-regression analysis finds an overall natural remission rate for PTSD of 44%, with no increase in remission after longer observation periods.
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André Tomlin and Martin Webber highlight the problems that social care professionals have in keeping up to date with the latest research. Fortunately help is at hand, with the Social Care Elf joining the National Elf Service soon.
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The MATISSE trial in 2012 concluded that group art therapy did no better than standard care at improving symptoms for people with schizophrenia. A new critique of that RCT from the British Association of Art Therapists says the therapy can be more useful.
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Health Economist Christopher Sampson reports on a recent systematic review and meta-analysis, which shows health-related quality of life utility values vary between studies and economic models should consider this.
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Raphael Underwood reports on routinely collected data from the Scottish Morbidity Record, which suggests that 1 in 8 people with first-ever diagnosed acute and transient psychotic disorders will develop schizophrenia within 3–5 years. Researchers conclude that those at high risk of transition may benefit from monitoring for possible diagnostic change.
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