Only a swipe away: App-based support for reducing distress in university students

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This innovative Australian trial suggests that different mental health app interventions worked better depending on students’ distress severity. One size doesn’t fit all, but which apps should students choose?

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When CBT doesn’t work for OCD: could mindfulness help?

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Meta-analysis of 46 studies found mindfulness and acceptance programmes significantly reduced OCD symptoms, performing as well as CBT but with more research needed on long-term effects.

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Acceptance, mindfulness, and Parkinson’s: do third-wave therapies make a difference?

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Mindfulness-based approaches show early promise for people with Parkinson’s, but the evidence is small, scattered, and underpowered. This systematic review maps what we know, what we don’t, and why psychological care needs far more attention in Parkinson’s services.

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When helping hurts: potential harms from CBT and mindfulness in schools

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With classroom mental health programmes on the rise, this review raises an important question: are we doing more harm than good? The evidence suggests universal interventions may not be right for everyone.

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AWARE and INSPIRE: school mental health trials show mixed results and unexpected harms

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The Education for Wellbeing programme, funded by the Department for Education, was one of England’s largest school-based mental health research initiatives. It included two major trials (AWARE and INSPIRE) testing universal mental health approaches in schools between 2018 and 2024. What did these big studies really find?

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The great unknown? Assessing suicide risk in trials of psychological interventions for depression

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Derek de Beurs explores a meta-analysis which finds that randomised controlled trials of psychological interventions for depression rarely report assessments of suicide.

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Towards better psychological treatment of depression #DepressionSolvingTheToll part 3

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Part 3 in a four-part series on solving the toll of depression on populations. Pim Cuijpers focuses on the psychological treatment of depression and gives an overview of a meta-analytic research domain.

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Equipping young adolescents with wellbeing skills: does a universal, classroom-based CBT intervention promote positive mental health?

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Emily Hards and Maria Loades summarise a cluster randomised controlled trial exploring the effectiveness of universal process-based CBT for positive mental health in early adolescence.

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CBT reduces depressive symptoms in mothers with perinatal depression, but many questions remain unanswered

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In her debut blog, Kyla Vaillancourt summarises an umbrella review, which suggests that CBT is the most effective treatment for reducing symptoms of perinatal depression. However, many questions remain about psychological support for mothers, infants and families during the perinatal period.

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Temporomandibular disorders – management with psychological therapies

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This Cochrane review of the effects of psychological therapies in people (aged 12 years and over) with painful temporomandibular disorders (TMD)lasting 3 months or longer included 22 RCTs. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) was the most frequently studied but overall there was insufficient evidence on which to base a reliable judgement about the efficacy of psychological therapies for painful TMD

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