Today’s blog comes courtesy of The Lifestyle Elf. If you’re interested in healthy lifestyle research on diet, exercise, smoking, drinking and other public health issues, you can follow my cousin on Twitter, Facebook and via her excellent blog. When you’ve got a problem, where do you look for help, support and information? Here in the [read the full story…]
I’ve blogged before about the association between stroke and depression. It seems logical that people who have strokes are at risk of depression afterwards, but studies have also shown a more concrete relationship between the two conditions. This new meta-analysis conducted by a research team from Soochow University in China looks at prospective studies to [read the full story…]
NICE published a clinical guideline on the treatment and management of depression in adults with chronic physical health problems in 2009. This new evidence update refreshes that guidance by searching for new systematic reviews and randomised controlled trials on the subject and summarising them in a short (16 page) document. The authors searched a range [read the full story…]
This new guidance from NICE is aimed at people responsible for ensuring the social and emotional wellbeing of children aged under 5 years. It will be of interest to professionals who plan and commission children’s services, as well as midwives, health visitors, GPs, paediatricians, practitioners working in child and adolescent mental health services, social workers, [read the full story…]
SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) are the main producer of clinical practice guidelines in Scotland. They have produced a wide range of guidelines relevant to mental health over the years including publications on perinatal mood disorders and the non-pharmaceutical management of depression. They have also been widely praised for their excellent mobile apps, the first [read the full story…]
Some readers will be aware that the Mental Elf is no loner. I have a number of elfin cousins who also run websites that help busy professionals keep up to date with the latest research, policy and guidance in their field. One such site is The Lifestyle Elf, and she has written a blog recently [read the full story…]
This new briefing from the NHS Confederation sets out the policy context around tackling homelessness and addressing the mental health needs of homeless people. It also examines what considerations need to be made when planning, designing and delivering mental health services for homeless people and highlights examples of good practice. Around 70% of people accessing [read the full story…]
Driving down suicidal behaviour in young people has long been a major target for public health professionals. This new study from researchers in Denmark will help inform this important work. The case control study used data from the Danish national register (403,431 in total) to assess the risk of suicide attempts after contact with a [read the full story…]
The Department of Health have published a new piece of best practice guidance, which they hope will assist those who need to share information about individuals involved in domestic violence, for example at a MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) – a local, multi agency victim-focused meeting where information is shared on the highest risk [read the full story…]
We know that various psychotherapies are effective in treating adult depression, but there remains quite a bit of uncertainty about which specific therapies work best and what factors within the treatments contribute most to the improvement. This new meta analysis from a mixed group of researchers from the Netherlands, USA, Switzerland and Sweden, looks at [read the full story…]
