It seems that every week there is a new story about coffee in the press. They range from knee-jerk health warnings to studies that show decreased risk of suicide among coffee drinkers. It’s hard to know what to believe. Existing research has focused mainly on the effects of caffeine on cardiovascular disease (generally finding no [read the full story…]
For many of us, music therapy represents a safe, cheap and enjoyable treatment option for older people living in care. A ‘no brainer’ for those responsible for the daily activities provided to keep care home residents active in body and mind. This small randomised controlled trial conducted by researchers from Taipei Medical University in Taiwan [read the full story…]
Researchers from Nottingham University have published a meta-review that aims to evaluate the quality of existing reviews and to enable reliable comparisons of alternative computerised cognitive behaviour therapy (cCBT) packages for treating mild to moderate depression with or without anxiety. The reviewers conducted a systematic search and found 12 systematic reviews from 10 studies covering [read the full story…]
Unsurprisingly, research shows that people who have deviant sexual preferences are more likely to commit sexual offences, so it makes sense that if we can more accurately identify deviant sexual preferences, we will be able to reduce crimes of this nature. Phallometry (also known as penile plethysmography or phallometric assessment) involves placing a device around [read the full story…]
Substance use during pregnancy is common. In national prevalence surveys, 14% of Canadian women reported using alcohol during their last pregnancy, and 17% reported smoking during pregnancy. The prevalence of illicit drug use among Canadian women of childbearing age is less but not insignificant. In United States population surveys, around 5% of pregnant women reported [read the full story…]
This new report from the Audit Commission says that the NHS needs to improve the quality of its data if the government is to expand its Payment by Results (PbR) system. The data for ‘non-tariff’ areas such as community services and chemotherapy was often of poor quality, and it is these areas that will be [read the full story…]
Researchers from Oxford University’s Centre for Suicide Research have conducted a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies that explore health service staff attitudes to people who self-harm. It’s obvious to say that staff attitudes are going to have a big impact on the care of patients, but this research sought to review the nature [read the full story…]
Studies show that as many as 90% of prisoners have some kind of mental health issue and admissions to psychiatric hospital are also common (10% of male and 30% of female prisoners). This updated briefing paper from the Centre for Mental Health examines the provision of mental health care for adults in the criminal justice [read the full story…]
A previous systematic review has shown that People with severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder are over three times more likely to lose their teeth. Another large cross-sectional study from the USA has now been published that looks at the associations among depression, anxiety, use of oral health services, and tooth loss. This [read the full story…]
Inpatient psychiatric rehabilitation is needed for about 1% of people with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia. Patients are cared for within a rehabilitation centre, sometimes attached to a hospital. The aim is to help these patients recover so that they can be discharged into the community. There is huge variation in the amount of [read the full story…]
