Last month, the Department of Health published the ‘Closing the Gap’ report, which highlighted the importance of better integration of physical and mental health care at every level. The report specifically flagged up the need for frontline services to respond better to people who self-harm, and cited statistics that emphasise the cyclical nature of the [read the full story…]
People with serious mental health issues such as schizophrenia have higher rates of cigarette smoking than the general population, with estimates suggesting more than 50% are current smokers. When people in this population do manage to quit during treatment we then see particularly high rates of relapse after treatment ends. A new randomised control trial (Evins [read the full story…]
While it is predicted that depression will achieve the status of the biggest disease burden in the Western World before too long, providing access to evidence-based clinical interventions (medicines and talking treatments) for this growing number of people is a source of concern. Supporting people to take steps to actively self-manage their symptoms and condition [read the full story…]
Smoking is a major cause of morbidity and mortality across the world and accounts for over 60% of deaths in people who do smoke. The World Health Organisation estimates that tobacco kills almost 6 million people per year, with 5 million as a result of direct tobacco use. Innovative treatment approaches aimed at improving smoking [read the full story…]
Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) still represents a challenge to psychiatric practice. Since patients have usually failed at least two antidepressants, drugs originally prescribed for other conditions are often tried as an augmentation (Souery er al., 2006). Amongst them, lithium (a mood-stabiliser used in the treatment of bipolar disorders) as well as atypical antipsychotics (AAPs, indicated for [read the full story…]
At the start of using neuroimaging to try and understand mental health problems, the focus was on a specific area of the brain that might be different. As the methods have become more sophisticated, the ability to look at how different areas of the brain are linked into functional networks has developed. Whilst damage to [read the full story…]
It is oft argued by libertarian think-tanks that introducing minimum pricing for alcohol would lead to moderate drinkers from low socio-economic status backgrounds suffering disproportionately. Indeed, this was cited as a reason for the Government dropping the policy they had previously endorsed. A new paper published today in the Lancet suggests this may not actually [read the full story…]
The effects of the global stock market crash of 2008 have not just been economic. The health and social consequences of the financial crisis are becoming clearer over time and were anticipated by public health academics early on. Based on a 30 year review of EU data on how economic changes affect mortality, in 2009 [read the full story…]
People with schizophrenia stop taking their antipsychotics for a wide range of reasons (e.g. debilitating side effects or a belief that they will not help them), but when they do health professionals often find it extremely difficult to care for these patients, because the alternative treatment options available to them are very limited. Of course, [read the full story…]
Breathe. Hold in your mind your view of what constitutes the most effective psychological therapy for acute depression. Try not to identify with your favourite therapy but simply observe it and let it be. Wish it well. And breathe again. This was not the approach of the Cochrane Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Group when it [read the full story…]
