The question of what role nutrition plays in mental health has been the sauce (ahem) of research interest in recent times. As covered previously by oursElves in relation to dementia, the majority of this research has looked at individual nutrients like Omega-3 fish oil and other minerals, with the broader area of diet receiving less [read the full story…]
Atypical (second-generation) antipsychotics are used to treat a variety of psychiatric conditions. Although they have fewer side effects than first-generation antipsychotics, weight gain and other metabolic problems (such as high blood pressure and diabetes) remain common side effects of taking atypical antipsychotic medication (Mind, 2012). The Mental Elf has previously blogged about a Canadian report [read the full story…]
It is now well accepted across the health and social care communities that the incidence of dementia is rising as people continue to live longer. The projected prevalence of dementia over the next ten to twenty years is causing widespread concern at all levels of policy making and care provision. There is a very real [read the full story…]
Periodontitis is common, but aggressive periodontitis (AgP) is thought to progress faster than chronic periodontitis (CP). Reviews suggest that tooth loss as a result of periodontitis is in the order of 1.5-9.8%. The aim of this current review was to investigate tooth loss and disease progression in aggressive periodontitis cases. The Medline and Embase databases [read the full story…]
Life after cancer diagnosis and treatment is full of uncertainties for the patients and their caregivers. The possibility of cancer returning is hard to dismiss at least in the first few years after the end of treatment. Life has often changed in many imperceptible and subtle ways for people who have undergone cancer treatment, as [read the full story…]
We have previously looked at a review and a number of studies addressing the issue of oral hygiene and ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) and (Dental Elf May 20th 2013). A new Cochrane review has just been published which aimed to assess the effects of oral hygiene care (OHC) on the incidence of VAP in critically ill [read the full story…]
30% of domestic violence (DV) begins during pregnancy and is most prevalent within the working and lower middle socio-economic classes. It is a major public health concern and abuse during pregnancy is of particular concern due to the health risks to both mother and child. It can cause physical and psychological harm to women, and [read the full story…]
Schizophrenia is considered a chronic long-term debilitating condition, affecting about 1% of the population. There has been considerable debate about which of the anti-psychotic medications are the best treatments. The debate has usually been structured around typical (older) and atypical (newer) anti-psychotic medications. The revised NICE guidelines (2009) moved towards a more neutral stance between [read the full story…]
Introduction The quality and outcomes framework was set up in 2004 to incentivise aspects of clinical practice within general practice in the UK. Two standards which are incentivised in depression are DEP4 (the percentage of patients who have had assessment of severity at diagnosis using a tool validated for use in primary care (PHQ-9, BDI-II, [read the full story…]
Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) have shortened life expectancies compared to the general population. This is partly down to higher rates of chronic physical illness. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among patients using mental health services. It is assumed that interventions used to reduce CVD are similarly effective in patients with [read the full story…]
