The media is filled with stories about traumatised children and adolescents, such as the school shootings at Sandy Hook and Columbine. However, a range of more common traumatic events, such as accidents and caregiver maltreatment, receive less attention. We sought to understand how common traumatic experiences are in the lives of U.S. youths by conducting a study examining trauma [read the full story…]
Anxiety disorders, such as generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), social anxiety, panic disorder and phobias, are common and affect between 5 – 19% of all children and adolescents (Costello, 2004; as cited in James et al, 2013, pg. 6). Anxiety problems in childhood or adolescence can disrupt social and educational life, and may persist into adulthood. [read the full story…]
Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is substantially more effective than standard care at reducing symptoms of health anxiety in medical patients, and can be delivered by non-specialist staff with minimal training at little extra cost, according to an RCT published by The Lancet today. The CHAMP (Cognitive behaviour therapy for Health Anxiety in Medical Patients) trial [read the full story…]
Last week, Kirsten Lawson blogged about mindfulness-based stress reduction as a treatment for breast cancer. We have featured a number of blogs on mindfulness in the last couple of years, including a piece about the use of Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT). MBCT is recommended by NICE to prevent relapse in people who have already experienced three [read the full story…]
Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is widely researched and recommended as an evidence-based treatment for adult depression, but despite the strength of research comparing CBT approaches with other forms of care, there are few recent systematic reviews on this topic. Cuijpers and collaborators provide such a review in a recent meta-analysis published in The Canadian Journal of [read the full story…]
Do not use psychological debriefing when a child has been exposed to a traumatic event such as assault or a major car crash. And if you treat a child who has developed Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) due to trauma, do not use pharmacotherapy either (that is, not as a first line treatment). Rather, apply the [read the full story…]
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition that has recently been given a significant amount of TV airplay and media coverage, perhaps most notably in the Channel 4 documentary Jon Richardson: A little bit OCD, which received mostly good reviews from mental health groups. Despite this reasonable public profile, our knowledge about the best way [read the full story…]
The harmful impact of depression extends far beyond the individual sufferer to caregivers, friends and family members. Children of people with depression are more likely to suffer from depression themselves. This may be due to both inherited and environmental factors. This new randomised controlled trial (RCT), published earlier this week in JAMA Psychiatry, set out [read the full story…]
A major challenge in the treatment of depression is that only a proportion of people respond to the first treatment they try. For example, with antidepressants only 40% of people will see their symptoms fall to a level that can be considered a recovery. Trying further treatments after the first one does not work can [read the full story…]
Bulimia nervosa (BN) is an eating disorder; the diagnosis of which requires: persistent preoccupation with eating and an irresistible craving for food, episodes of overeating in which large amounts of food are consumed over a short period of time and potentially attempts to counteract the “fattening” effects of food by self-induced vomiting or laxative abuse. [read the full story…]
