Joe Pierre reports on the first published study exploring the relationship between antipsychotic dose and risk of relapse in first episode schizophrenia, which suggests that standard antipsychotic dosing is best for relapse prevention.
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Michael Ostacher critically appraises and summarises a recent Cochrane systematic review, which presents the latest best evidence on the efficacy of lamotrigine in the maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder.
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Steven Marwaha publishes his debut blog on a review article that asks if there is consensus across international evidence-based guidelines for the management of bipolar disorder.
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John Baker looks at the 2-year follow-up results of a cluster RCT on the effectiveness of financial incentives to improve adherence to maintenance treatment with depot antipsychotics.
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Ioana Cristea takes a closer look at a recent non-inferiority RCT, which compares mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) plus discontinued antidepressants versus MBCT and maintenance antidepressants.
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André Tomlin presents the results of the PREVENT RCT published today in The Lancet, which investigates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy compared with maintenance antidepressant treatment in the prevention of depressive relapse or recurrence.
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Elena Marcus summarises a recent network meta-analysis published in The Lancet of the comparative efficacy and tolerability of medication for the maintenance treatment of bipolar disorder.
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Meg Fluharty summarises a recent Cochrane review, which tells us that high-dose buprenorphine is an effective maintenance treatment for heroin compared to placebo, but fixed flexible-dosing methadone is superior to buprenorphine at participant retention.
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People with serious mental health issues such as schizophrenia have higher rates of cigarette smoking than the general population, with estimates suggesting more than 50% are current smokers. When people in this population do manage to quit during treatment we then see particularly high rates of relapse after treatment ends. A new randomised control trial (Evins [read the full story…]
The support of individuals with experience of psychosis is complex and relies on a combination of psychopharmacology (antipsychotic drugs), psychological therapies and social interventions. Antipsychotics will often be the first line treatment offered, with the intention of reducing psychotic symptom burden. Following the resolution of immediate symptoms the role of antipsychotics becomes less clear; should [read the full story…]
