Major depression remains a serious condition that often proves refractory to pharmacological or psychotherapeutic interventions. Because depression can have many “faces”, clinicians should be aware of the great symptom variability among depressed patients and consider subforms when prescribing medication. In a sizeable amount of patients (up to 25%, Coryell et al., 1984), depression presents with [read the full story…]
During 2010/11 there were 1.53 million hospital admissions for illnesses directly attributable to smoking in the UK. These admissions, along with other smoking-related expenses, cost the NHS approximately £5 billion pounds per year. Fortunately, the NHS is spending £88.2 million per year on cessation treatments, many of which have been repeatedly demonstrated to be highly [read the full story…]
The sexual abuse of children is a worldwide problem that has lasting and sometimes lifelong impacts on the child, their family and the community. There is a substantial amount of research that now demonstrates the long term impacts of child sexual abuse which includes: The increased incidence of all types of mental health difficulties; Increased [read the full story…]
Can we encourage patients to continue taking complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments for antenatal depression or should we be firmly discouraging them from doing so? We already know from surveys that 11% of primary care patients with anxiety and depression are taking complementary or alternative therapies, which is around the same proportion of people who [read the full story…]
Substance use is common in people with mental health problems, and this can have important negative consequences for health and social function. The high comorbidity of mental health problems and substance use is a major contributor to the shorter life expectancy of this population – a person with a severe mental disorder can expect to [read the full story…]
A new review by Pieper et al 2013 aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the research on treatments for both pain and challenging behaviour in people with dementia. It hinges around the fact that pain is commonly undertreated because it is not easy to recognise unless there is a diagnosed physical cause, and also because [read the full story…]
In the Woodland we all enjoy a good sing-a-long, but can this actually be therapeutic? Music therapy has a growing database with regards to its use in helping to treat a variety of mental health disorders. It is thought of as a systematic intervention that uses music experiences (active or receptive) and the relationships that [read the full story…]
Chances are you’ve heard of the internet. Unless you’re reading this after it’s been transcribed onto some parchment and brought to you by a psychologically-interested crow in which case you’ve got some further research to do. In terms of eating disorders, most people may associate the internet with those ghastly pro-anorexia sites which for reasons [read the full story…]
Worldwide, around 100,000 young people take up smoking every day and approximately 1 in 4 young people in the UK and USA smoke regularly. Although these figures have been falling over the last 20 years, they still represent a major public health concern. Evidence suggests that addiction to nicotine develops quickly in adolescence, and most [read the full story…]
Over the past decade the term ‘wellbeing’ has made an increasing appearance in health and social care policy, with the Office for National Statistics undertaking the first UK national wellbeing survey in 2012. Although a lot of work has been done, there still doesn’t seem to be an agreed definition of what wellbeing is or [read the full story…]
