Unless policy-makers take active steps to ensure that the rhetoric of clinically-led commissioning reflects a multi-professional approach that put nurses at the heart of commissioning and delivery, the potential to improve health care for patients will not be realised, says Nurses in Commissioning Network. According to Involving Nurses in Commissioning: How to Get it Right [read the full story…]
People with serious mental illness are still living 15-20 years less than the rest of the population, according to a study from the Nordic countries. The study, published in the December issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, shows that the life expectancy gap has remained largely unchanged over the last 20 years, despite changes [read the full story…]
This fifth annual report on NHS adult specialist mental health services in England and the people who use them covers five years with the most recent information for 2010/11. It covers hospital care and services delivered in the community. This year, for the first time, data from a small number of NHS funded independent sector [read the full story…]
Depression can be difficult to detect and diagnose and this difficulty only increases when other mental health conditions are also present. This systematic review conducted by a team of researchers from Groningen in the Netherlands, set out to identify the best instrument for diagnosing depression in people with schizophrenia. Their concern was that some diagnostic [read the full story…]
The NHS Confederation Mental Health Network have a published a review that discusses the readiness of mental health commissioners and providers to start working under the new Payment By Results system from April 2012. The review involved speaking to more than 100 people from mental health trusts, commissioners, the independent sector, local authorities and national [read the full story…]
Children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are often prescribed antidepressant drugs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors – SRI), but many only partially respond to this treatment. This randomised controlled trial conducted by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, examined the effects of augmenting the antidepressant medication with cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT). The trial was quite [read the full story…]
In November 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration required that black box warnings be placed on all antidepressant medications warning they may result in increased risk of suicidal tendencies in children and adolescents. It is now considered good practice that patients of all ages who initiate antidepressants should be monitored for clinical worsening or [read the full story…]
In the absence of a systematic review, we often go looking for randomised controlled trials as the best available evidence to answer questions about treatment. These two small randomised controlled trials from Korea and Iran respectively, investigate the effectiveness of laughter on mental health. The first trial from Kyungpook National University Hospital investigated the effects of [read the full story…]
This systematic literature review and meta-analysis conducted by researchers from the University of Nebraska Medical Center, will be of interest to all clinicians who treat paediatric bipolar disorder. Treatment decisions for young people have previously been based on extrapolation from adult trials, case reports, open label trials or expert opinion. This new study provides a [read the full story…]
The new NHS operating framework has been published today and it sets priorities on a number of mental health issues. The Department of Health press release says: The operating framework describes the national priorities, system levers and enablers needed for NHS organisations to maintain and improve the quality of services provided, while delivering transformational change [read the full story…]
