By the age of 19, between a fifth and a quarter of young people have suffered from a depressive disorder. There are associations between depression and self-harm, suicide, substance abuse, poor academic performance and social dysfunction. The most robust evidence exists for two particular psychological interventions: cognitive behavioural therapy and interpersonal therapy. There is evidence [read the full story…]
Depression can be difficult to detect and diagnose and this difficulty only increases when other mental health conditions are also present. This systematic review conducted by a team of researchers from Groningen in the Netherlands, set out to identify the best instrument for diagnosing depression in people with schizophrenia. Their concern was that some diagnostic [read the full story…]
In November 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration required that black box warnings be placed on all antidepressant medications warning they may result in increased risk of suicidal tendencies in children and adolescents. It is now considered good practice that patients of all ages who initiate antidepressants should be monitored for clinical worsening or [read the full story…]
The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme which was established to treat people with mild to moderate depression and anxiety. Positive Practice Guidance was published in 2009, but there are currently no areas listed as having a special interest in psychological therapies to people with learning disabilities. You can download the Positive Practice Guidance [read the full story…]
In the absence of a systematic review, we often go looking for randomised controlled trials as the best available evidence to answer questions about treatment. These two small randomised controlled trials from Korea and Iran respectively, investigate the effectiveness of laughter on mental health. The first trial from Kyungpook National University Hospital investigated the effects of [read the full story…]
A report into the care received by patients with anxiety and depression across more than 350 NHS-funded psychological therapy services in England and Wales has revealed good overall standards of care, but substantial variation in quality. The National Audit of Psychological Therapies (NAPT), commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership (HQIP) and carried out by [read the full story…]
An international group of eminent clinicians have produced an executive report for the World Psychiatric Association, which looks at how well antidepressants work in the acute treatment of depression. The study is described as a ‘scholarly narrative review’ and the authors have considered guidelines, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and randomised controlled trials from a very wide [read the full story…]
Adherence to drug treatment is a constant challenge for mental health practitioners, so any research that explores why patients stop taking their medication is usually of interest. There are many published studies that look at the reasons why people decide to stop taking their antidepressants, and these range from finding it difficult to cope with [read the full story…]
The authors of this review set out to provide a comprehensive, critical review of the clinically relevant literature concerning depression in Down syndrome (DS) focusing on epidemiology, potential risk factors, diagnosis, course characteristics and treatment. The search was carried out in January 2011 and excluded review articles not adding new information and single case reports. [read the full story…]
The aim of this study was to establish the relative safety and balance of risks for antidepressant treatment in older people. The cohort study included 60,746 patients aged 65 years and over diagnosed with depression. The study was based in 570 general practices in the UK supplying data to the QResearch database. The study objectives [read the full story…]
