Depression and coronary heart disease: reasons to remain UPBEAT-UK

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Kirsten Lawson summarises the UPBEAT-UK programme of research into the relationship between coronary heart disease and depression and anxiety in primary care patients.

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Training alone doesn’t improve outcomes for depression in primary care

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Linda Gask writes her debut Mental Elf blog on a recent systematic review, which evaluates healthcare team training programs that aim to improve depression in primary care.

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Treatment is uncommon for common mental disorders

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Suzanne Dash reviews a cross-sectional study of the prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders in the English national population, which inspires her to host a mental health epidemiology quiz. Fingers on buzzers…

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Telehealth for depression: large pragmatic RCT of complex intervention

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Emily Stapley presents the findings of a trial which looks at the effectiveness of an integrated telehealth service for patients with depression.

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Whooley questions have high sensitivity and modest specificity in the detection of depression

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Ian Anderson on a recent diagnostic accuracy meta-analysis, which shows that the Whooley questions for depression are effective at ruling out the condition, but that false positives are common.

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Psychotropic medication in pregnancy: new evidence may help achieve a safe balance

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Joanne Wallace considers a recent health technology assessment on the risks and benefits of psychotropic medication in pregnancy, which supports previous associations between valproate and adverse child outcomes.

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Self-harm in primary care: more prescribing than referrals

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Olivia Kirtley and Alys Cole-King present a major new cohort study, which includes worrying evidence about the clinical management of patients in primary care following self-harm.

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Collaborative care for depression: acceptable, effective and affordable

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Ben Hannigan writes his debut blog on the CADET cluster RCT, which investigates the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of collaborative care for depression in UK primary care.

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Cognitive therapies for depression in adults: let’s just stick to the facts

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Ioana Cristea reviews the NIHR-DC Highlight on cognitive therapies for depression, published online today, which summarises three NIHR-funded trials (REEACT, CoBalT and PREVENT) looking at cCBT, CBT and MBCT for depression in adults.

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Does QOF reduce hospitalisation for people with severe mental illness?

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Andres Fonseca appraises a regression analysis looking at the quality and outcomes framework (QOF) and the impact it has on psychiatric admissions in people with severe mental illness.

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