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…]

Mental Health First Aid improves knowledge, reduces stigma and makes people more likely to offer support

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Sarah Knowles summarises a recent meta-analysis of Mental Health First Aid, which claims to be the first study to quantitatively synthesise the evidence in this field.

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Is aquatic exercise training effective for fibromyalgia?

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One of our female Elf friends has fibromyalgia, a chronic condition that causes pain all over their body. Do you know that fibromyalgia affects around seven times as many women as men? The condition typically develops between the ages of 30 and 50, but can occur in people of any age, including children and the elderly. [read the full story…]

Pharmacotherapy for PTSD: an update on the evidence finds some efficacy but small effect sizes

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Patrick Kennedy-Williams summarises a recent systematic review of pharmacotherapy for PTSD, which compares antidepressants with placebo for post-traumatic stress disorder. [Please note: this blog was amended on 7/5/15].

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