child and adolescent

Birth – 18 years.

Our child and adolescent Blogs

Short-term use of second-generation antipsychotics can cause side effects in children and adolescents

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Over the last few years, we have seen more and more children and young people being prescribed antipsychotic drugs. The theory behind this increase is that the newer antipsychotic drugs have fewer side effects than the older typical antipsychotics. However, some small and relatively short duration studies have shown that the newer drugs may also [read the full story…]

Psychological therapies can help reduce pain in children with painful conditions

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Any parent whose child has a chronic or life-threatening illness will attest to the fact that it can be a worrying, stressful and exhausting journey. Parents can struggle to juggle caring for their child with work, social and other commitments. This can lead to parents suffering from mental health problems themselves, in addition to the [read the full story…]

Teenage cannabis use may reduce IQ in adulthood

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This well conducted prospective cohort study looks at the impact that cannabis use can have on the development of the brain over a 20 year period, from the teenage years to middle-age. The research studied 1,037 people from New Zealand who are part of the Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development study, which followed participants from [read the full story…]

New Family Nurse Partnership reports from the Department of Health

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Family Nurse Partnership (FNP) is a preventive programme for vulnerable first time young mothers. It offers intensive and structured home visiting, delivered by specially trained nurses, from early pregnancy until the child is two. The Department of Health has published 3 new reports that provide the results of further evaluative studies of the FNP programme. [read the full story…]

Assertive outreach no better than standard care at preventing further suicide attempts in young people

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Regular close contact with specially trained staff is generally regarded as the best course of treatment for someone who has recently attempted to kill themselves, in order to prevent a repeat suicide attempt. Of course it can be difficult to engage with this group of patients after-treatment, but recent research suggests that assertive and motivational [read the full story…]

Psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people: NICE starts consultation

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The two month consultation period for the new NICE guideline on psychosis and schizophrenia in children and young people has now begun. You must be registered as a stakeholder to comment on the guideline and you have until 27th September 2012 to make your views known. The guideline is aimed at clinicians and service commissioners [read the full story…]

Modular psychotherapy may be the answer for young people with comorbid depression, anxiety and conduct problems

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Young people with mental health problems often suffer from comorbidity, i.e. a complex mix of different conditions like depression, anxiety and conduct problems. Clinical research very often investigates specific treatments (e.g. CBT) for single disorders (e.g. depression) and guidelines and manuals are then developed for clinicians to help them treat these individual conditions. The problem [read the full story…]

More research needed before polyunsaturated fatty acids can be recommended for ADHD in children and adolescents

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Drug treatments are commonly used to treat children and young people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methylphenidate and amphetamine are two of the most popular, but these are not effective for all patients and sometimes cause problematic side effects. Children and adolescents with ADHD have been shown to have significantly lower plasma and blood [read the full story…]

Call for culturally sensitive services for people with learning disabilities from South Asian communities

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People from ethnic minorities in the UK are likely to face inequalities, discrimination and disadvantage. From the late 1990s, studies began to document examples of racist attitudes being shown towards South Asian children with learning disabilities, There were also suggestions that South Asian parents received later diagnosis of learning disability in their child, with the [read the full story…]

More evidence to suggest that central nervous stimulants are safe in the short-term for children and young people with ADHD

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Back in February, I blogged about a cohort study published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which concluded that ADHD drugs are not linked with an increased risk of serious cardiovascular events. The last few years has seen heated debate about the use of central nervous stimulants in children and young people. The lack [read the full story…]