If you’ve got a mental health problem, who you gonna call?

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In her debut blog, Cara McErlain summarises a recent qualitative systematic review exploring patients’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health support through primary care services in England.

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Is anxiety a gateway to other mental health problems? Comorbidities with depression and other anxiety disorders

Results from the current study largely replicated findings from the NESDA dataset in demonstrating that those with comorbid anxiety and/or depression have more severe presentations that anxiety or depression alone.

Nina Higson-Sweeney summarises a study using data from the UK-based GLAD and COPING NBR cohorts to investigate factors associated with anxiety disorder comorbidity with anxiety and depression.

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Using the highs to combat the lows: ketamine-assisted therapy for anxiety and depression

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In her debut blog, Gabrielle Williams reviews a US study on the safety and effectiveness of ketamine-assisted therapy (a digital intervention combining psychotherapy, journaling and ketamine) for moderate to severe anxiety and depression.

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To seek or not to seek? COVID information-seeking linked to poorer mental health

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Olga Lainidi summarises a paper from the UK COVID-19-MH study, which explores the links between COVID-19 information-seeking behaviours during the pandemic, and depression, anxiety and loneliness.

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Clinical severity and instability as predictors for psychiatric hospitalisation: can one size fit all? 

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Florian Walter summarises a retrospective cohort study published in The Lancet Psychiatry that investigates whether early trajectories of clinical global impression severity can transdiagnostically predict later psychiatric hospitalisation.

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Music, audio-visuals or virtual reality for dental anxiety?

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This review of the effectiveness of relaxing music, audio-visuals (AV), and virtual reality (VR) in reducing dental anxiety associated with tooth extraction included 11 RCTs. The findings suggest that music performed better than VR and AV . However the limited number of studies and variation in anxiety scales, musical and visual interventions used means that the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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Trauma informed care on acute inpatient units: reducing self harm and restrictive practices

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Dr Kirsten Lawson is back! In this blog, Kirsten explores a service evaluation of trauma informed care practices in acute inpatient units, looking specifically at reductions in self-harm and restraint practices.

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Mental health service pathways for children and adolescents with depression: do we have the data?

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In her debut blog, Emiliana Tonini summarises a recent study exploring the healthcare pathways of children and adolescents seeking support for depression, from referral through to discharge.

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Every Mind Matters: evaluating the mental health literacy campaign

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In her debut blog, Amy Morgan summarises a qualitative study evaluating the government-funded Every Mind Matters campaign in the UK.

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Intraoral scanning v conventional impressions – patient related outcomes

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This review comparing patient-related outcomes of intraoral scanning and conventional impression methods included 13 studies. Nine of the included studies were RCTs and all were considered to be at unclear risk of bias. The findings indicated a patient preference for digital scanning over conventional impression techniques.

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