Schizophrenia can be a severe and chronic illness characterised by lack of insight and poor compliance with treatment. Psychoeducational approaches have been developed to increase patients’ knowledge of, and insight into, their illness and its treatment. It is supposed that this increased knowledge and insight will enable people with schizophrenia to cope in a more [read the full story…]
Many people with schizophrenia struggle to adhere to their oral antipsychotic drug regimen. It is thought that depot antipsychotic drugs (a special preparation of the medication, which is given by injection and is slowly released into the body over a number of weeks) may reduce relapse rates by improving adherence. This systematic review searched for randomised controlled [read the full story…]
This care recommendation produced by Drew H. Barzman (Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center) sets out to answer the following question: Among children with ADHD and aggression, is the pharmacological treatment of ADHD, versus no pharmacological treatment of ADHD, effective in reducing aggressive behaviour? The authors searched Medline, PsychInfo, the National Guidelines [read the full story…]
This clinical trial was one of the two included in the recently published Cochrane Review and has itself just been published. It was a multi-centred trial that took place at One District General Hospital Orthodontic Department and two Specialist Orthodontic Practices. Orthodontic patients aged between 10 and 18 years old, were randomly allocated to either receive [read the full story…]
About 75% of cleft lip and palate patients have a bony defect in the gum of the mouth (alveolar cleft). If not repaired it gives rise to many problems. While bone grafting is widely accepted by professionals in cleft care, there is still controversy around the technique, timing, site from which bone is taken and [read the full story…]
This new Cochrane review compares methods of fixing tubes on back (molar) teeth to allow the wires need to move the teeth pass through them. These can be welded to bands cemented to teeth or glued (bonded) directly to the teeth. They only found two well designed trials which suggest that bonded molar tubes are [read the full story…]
A new Cochrane review has found 7 randomised controlled trials that investigate the efficacy of amphetamine derivatives against placebo or an active intervention. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a childhood onset psychiatric disorder that can persist into adulthood in up to 50% of patients. From a clinical point of view, ADHD is characterized by hyperactivity, [read the full story…]
The Cochrane Scizophrenia Group have updated the systematic review that brings together all randomised controlled trials (RCTs) designed to prevent progression to psychosis in people showing prodromal symptoms, or to improve outcome for people with first-episode psychosis. The reviewers found 18 RCTs this time around, but (as is often the case with systematic reviews) the [read the full story…]
There’s an updated Cochrane review which evaluates the effects of naltrexone maintenance treatment versus placebo or other treatments in preventing relapse in opioid addicts after detoxification. The Cochrane reviewers concluded: Oral naltrexone as maintenance treatment to prevent relapse in opioid addicts who have undergone detoxification Opioid dependence is considered to be a lifelong, chronic relapsing [read the full story…]
