People with bipolar disorder are found to be at greater risk of suicide compared to the general population. Clinicians should be more vigilant for signs of suicidality in this patient group. Suicide, the taking of one’s own life, sadly is the cause of death for around 5,500 people in the United Kingdom each year. In [read the full story…]
One of the major complaints of people on antidepressant medication is the effect it has on their sex lives. It does this in three main ways – it affects sexual desire, the ability to achieve and sustain an erection in men and alters the sensation of orgasms and ejaculation. These side effects are one of [read the full story…]
People affected by trauma present in a number of different settings (Solomon et. al., 1997), sometimes immediately after the trauma, and sometimes much later when they are experiencing the effects of traumatic stress, depression, anxiety or other mental health difficulties. When trauma leads to an individual developing a post traumatic stress reaction, there is not [read the full story…]
With the increasing popularity of dental implants and the difficulties of managing infections around them it is important to know whether the use of prophylactic antibiotics is beneficial or not. This review is an update of a Cochrane review originally published in 2008 and last updated in 2010. The aim of the review was to [read the full story…]
Patients presenting to their GP with a mental health problem are likely to be offered medication, in the form of antidepressants, and/or a ‘talking therapy’, such as counselling or CBT. This is because we know that both those broad categories of treatments (drugs and psychological therapies) are effective in reducing symptoms. However, it’s less clear [read the full story…]
Today we feature a blog from our good friend, The Dental Elf, whose remit includes Head and Neck cancers. The psychological impacts of such cancers can be devastating, so we were interested to see a systematic review looking at the impact of psychosocial interventions on anxiety, depression and quality of life. Unfortunately, the bottom line [read the full story…]
Clinical depression is one of the most common mental health problems occurring in children and adolescents. It is often accompanied or followed by additional negative outcomes, including social and academic problems, anxiety and substance use. Many depressed adolescents continue to have recurring problems throughout adulthood. A variety of antidepressant drugs, such as tricyclics and selective [read the full story…]
Early diagnosis and intervention for people with dementia is increasingly considered a priority. But there are still considerable barriers to achieving this, and nervousness from practitioners on the possible negative effect of earlier diagnosis of a condition widely perceived as untreatable and life-changing. A recent systematic review by Bunn et al analysed the qualitative evidence [read the full story…]
Periodontitis results in damage to the bone and connective tissues supporting the teeth. The use of barrier membranes aims to assist regeneration of periodontal tissues in order to overcome some of the limitations of conventional treatment. The aim of this review was to assess the outcomes of guided tissue regeneration (GTR) using an absorbable collagen [read the full story…]
Scientific studies comparing treatments for depression and depressive disorders keep the mental elves very busy. Most months we are asked to blog on about 3 newly published reviews on this hot topic. The interest in research on the treatment of depression comes as no surprise, when one considers that depressive disorders affect a staggering one-fifth [read the full story…]
