Quetiapine for schizophrenia: more transparency needed in clinical trial reporting

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Andrew Shepherd reports on a recent systematic review, meta-analysis and reappraisal of Quetiapine for schizophrenia, which concludes that Quetiapine IR has a small beneficial effect on psychotic symptoms, but also leads to weight gain and sedation.

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Psychotherapy can reduce the risk of relapse or recurrence of depression

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Raluca Lucacel summarises a meta-analysis of psychological interventions in preventing recurrence of depression, which includes trials on cognitive behavioural therapy, interpersonal therapy and mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.

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How does parenting impact on the emotional wellbeing of children?

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Sarah McDonald summarises a systematic review and meta-analysis of how parenting can impact on childhood anxiety, depression and internalising problems.

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CBTp and medication in the treatment of psychosis: summarising the best evidence

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Clive Adams presents a summary of the latest evidence for CBTp and medication in the treatment of psychosis. This blog was published alongside Clive’s talk at the Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia conference in Bath on 11 June 2015

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Premature mortality in bipolar disorder

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Elena Marcus appraises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of premature mortality in bipolar affective disorder, which finds that people with bipolar disorder have increased mortality rates compared with the general population.

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CBT for treating and preventing perinatal depression

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Sarah McDonald appraises a systematic review of CBT for treating and preventing perinatal depression. The meta-analysis finds that, when compared to control conditions, CBT resulted in significant reductions in depressive symptoms in both treatment and prevention studies.

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CBT for substance misuse in young people

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Eleanor Kennedy summarises a Campbell systematic review of CBT for substance misuse in young people in outpatient treatment, which is inconclusive in terms of CBT being more or less effective than other therapies.

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Dose equivalents of antidepressants: standardising prescribing between different drugs

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Andrew Shepherd summarises a meta-analysis, which looks at the dose equivalents of antidepressants by bringing together data from 83 trials of 23 different antidepressants.

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The Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale is a good tool for diagnosing dementia in multicultural populations

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Clarissa Giebel summarises a systematic review, which concludes that the Rowland Universal Dementia Assessment Scale (RUDAS) has good sensitivity (77.2%) and specificity (85.9%) for diagnosing dementia in multicultural populations.

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Painful knee osteoarthritis? What is the effect of platelet-rich plasma injections?

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We come across lots of people who have painful knees due to osetoarthritis. They are always looking for ways to reduce their pain. A relatively new treatment has emerged, platelet-rich plasma (PRP) injections.  PRP is an autologous (where the donor and recipient are the same person) blood product with an elevated platelet concentration. Platelet-derived growth factors regulate [read the full story…]