Quality of life for people with multiple sclerosis: new systematic review looks at risk, protective factors and psychological interventions

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Elena Marcus summarises a recent systematic review on quality of life in adults with multiple sclerosis, which identified a range of promising psychological interventions for improving quality of life.

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Advance Care Planning for people with dementia: recognising moral dilemmas faced by physicians

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In his debut blog, Justin Chan appraises a meta-review on the moral barriers and facilitators that physicians encounter when talking about Advance Care Planning for people with dementia.

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Talking about self-harm and suicide in primary care: the views of young people

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In her debut blog, Jo Lockwood summarises a qualitative paper which finds that young people want GPs to initiate conversations about self-harm and suicide in primary care.

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Is it feasible to use apps to support people with first episode psychosis?

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In her debut blog, Rosa Pitts summarises the ARIES trial, which suggests it may be feasible to use a smartphone app (My Journey 3) to help prevent relapse in psychosis, although questions remain about long-term participant engagement with the app.

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Experience of psychotropic medication and decision-making

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Jennifer Rose Oulton reviews a qualitative study that explores the experiences of psychotropic medication use and decision-making for adults with learning disabilities and their carers.

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“I mean, what is depression?” How GPs distinguish between emotional distress and depressive disorder

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Linda Gask reviews a recent qualitative exploration of UK general practitioners’ perceptions of distinctions between emotional distress and depression.

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Mindfulness to support antidepressant withdrawal: patient views and experiences

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Hannah Bowers writes her debut blog on a recent qualitative study, which explores how mindfulness-based cognitive therapy can help people stop taking antidepressants and recover from depression. This paper includes the views and perspectives of participants in the 2015 PREVENT trial.

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Weekly singing in choir may improve the mental health of cancer carers

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Katherine Tallent writes her debut blog on a recent longitudinal controlled study exploring psychosocial singing interventions for the mental health and well-being of family carers of patients with cancer.

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Poor insight in psychosis predicts higher mental healthcare service use

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In Joseph Lam’s debut blog he explores a recent research paper which uses an electronic dataset to investigate the relationship between insight and service use in first episode psychosis.

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Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

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David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

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