This review of the literature looked at issues relating to the development of haptic exploratory strategies in children who have visual impairment and learning disabilities. Haptic perception refers to the recognition of objects through touch, involving the perception of patterns such as edges, curves and textures, whereby people can identify three-dimensional objects by moving their [read the full story…]
The aim of this study was to compare the outcomes of pulpotomy treatment using calcium-enriched mixture (CEM) cement and mineral trioxide aggregate (MTA) in carious-exposed vital immature permanent first molars. Participants (n=51, 1 tooth per patient) with immature molars with clinical carious exposure with symptomatic/asymptomatic pulpitis were randomised to undergo pulpotomy using either CEM (n=26) [read the full story…]
The Joint Commissioning Panel for Mental Health (JCP-MH) have published the first of their guides aimed at GPs who will soon be commissioning mental health services. Each of the guides provide a description of what a ‘good’ service configuration should look like, and brings together scientific evidence, service user and carer experience, and case studies [read the full story…]
A multidisciplinary group of Dutch scientists have produced a guideline to help diagnose and treat medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) and somatoform disorders (SD) in primary care, hospitals and occupational health settings. The guideline summarises the best available evidence and attempts to answer 4 key questions, for which the following findings are presented: 1. Preventive [read the full story…]
The NHS Commissioning Board has published a series of resources which may be useful for emerging clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). They include guidance and process documents, toolkits and other information around authorisation, governance, establishment and commissioning support. Developing Clinical Commissioning Groups: Towards authorisation (PDF) was published back in September 2011. It is now accompanied by Towards establishment: [read the full story…]
In 2004 the US Food and Drug Administration published a “black box” warning that highlighted an increased risk of suicide and suicidal thoughts in young people who were taking antidepressants. This warning was updated in 2007. A new analysis of 41 randomised controlled trials has been published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, which suggests [read the full story…]
In April 2013, subject to the Health and Social Care Bill becoming law, local authorities will become responsible for commissioning drug treatment and recovery services. An effective approach to tackling substance misuse will require partnership working across local authorities, health bodies and criminal justice agencies. The object is not only for individuals to overcome dependency, [read the full story…]
Cross sectional studies (Mordal et al) tell us that around a third of patients admitted to acute psychiatric wards have illicit drugs detected in their system on admission. A third of patients also report a need for professional help in relation to their substance use. This new systematic review from researchers at York University (Mdege [read the full story…]
Mental health is an area where a lot of evidence-based guidelines now exist. A lack of evidence isn’t always the problem. In some cases, one of the key issues is that clinicians don’t adhere to the guidelines. The reasons for this can be many and varied: because they don’t know about the guidelines, because it’s [read the full story…]
In mental health there has not been a consistent set of definitions that describe what is meant by an inpatient bed. This has led to difficulty in benchmarking and understanding patterns of performance. Understanding how inpatient beds and community services can best be utilised as part of a reshaped pathway, and whether the number of [read the full story…]
