Storytelling has a key role to play in a development and the extension of storytelling to people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) as an individualised activity, has been increasingly undertaken emphasising the sensory experience and the potential for social interaction. The authors of this study appear generally positive to the approach, although the [read the full story…]
A number of studies have looked at difficulties with overweight and underweight in people with learning disabilities. An added challenge is the issue of dietary assessment, where getting accurate information about the diet of people with learning disabilities can be difficult. The researchers in this study wanted to look at whether the use of personal [read the full story…]
Every year in England and Wales, a suicide occurs in roughly one patient for every thousand in mental health treatment. These numbers make it hard to research what mental health service providers can do to prevent further suicides, so it’s encouraging to see a new cross-sectional observational study published in the Lancet with funding from [read the full story…]
This large prospective observational study followed 1,635 chronically ill patients with schizophrenia for a 3 year period. The aim was to identify the best baseline predictors of recovery. Sixty-two factors were assessed as possible prognostic variables, including patient-reported variables, clinician-rated variables and medical record based resource utilisation. Here’s what they found: The likelihood of a [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…]
Antipsychotics are frequently used in the treatment of people with learning disabilities, but little is published in the literature concerning their metabolic and endocrine side-effects. The researchers in this observational study set out to compare indices of obesity, glucose, lipids and prolactin between 138 people with learning disabilities who were treated with antipsychotic medications and [read the full story…]
Prescribing anti-dementia drugs to patients could help delay their admission to care homes, according to a new study published in the October issue of The Psychiatrist. Psychiatrists Dr Emad Salib and Dr Jessica Thompson studied a total of 339 people with dementia, who were referred to psychiatric services in Peasley Cross Hospital in St Helens [read the full story…]
It seems that every week there is a new story about coffee in the press. They range from knee-jerk health warnings to studies that show decreased risk of suicide among coffee drinkers. It’s hard to know what to believe. Existing research has focused mainly on the effects of caffeine on cardiovascular disease (generally finding no [read the full story…]
A large observational study from Finland has found that women who drink alcohol and take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor antidepressives (SSRI) during the first trimester of pregnancy significantly increase their risk for foetal alcohol spectrum disorders. The study also found an increase in risk for some major congenital malformations associated with the use of SSRIs during the first [read the full story…]
Valproate is widely used as a mood stabiliser for people with bipolar disorder, despite the fact that there is very little evidence that shows the effectiveness of this treatment. This observational cohort study looked at over 4,000 bipolar patients in Denmark who were treated with lithium or valproate from 1995 to 2006. The results favoured [read the full story…]
