Primary care multidisciplinary team consultations might not help deprived mothers with anxiety or depression

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Mothers living in socioeconomically deprived communities are vulnerable to anxiety and depression, but traditional medical approaches often fail to reach them. This prospective randomised controlled trial set out to compare the effectiveness of a lengthened multi-disciplinary team consultation with normal primary care in reducing anxiety and depression in mothers. Ninety four mothers were recruited from three general practices from [read the full story…]

Read code searches may result in under-detection in primary care registers of patients with learning disabilities

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The identification of people with learning disabilities within primary care is a requirement for GPs in the UK who receive additional income for maintaining registers of such as part of the Quality and Outcomes Framework (QOF). If they opt to provide Directed Enhanced Services (DES), they must develop and maintain a register of patients with [read the full story…]

US study finds significantly high prevalence of diabetes in adults with learning disabilities

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The healthcare needs of people with learning disabilities are well documented, we know they visit primary care professionals less often than would be expected and  receive fewer screening tests and fewer health investigations. This U.S. study looked at the health status of ‘working-age adults with cognitive limitations’ and compared this with adults with no disability [read the full story…]

Barriers to good management of depression in primary care: the views of GPs and nurses

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A research team from the Institute of Psychiatry in London have conducted a systematic review of qualitative and quantitative studies of General Practitioners’ and Practice Nurses’ attitudes to managing depression in primary care. They found 7 qualitative and 10 quantitative studies, none of which looked at depressed people with co-morbid physical illness. Two contrasting understandings of depression were [read the full story…]