Self-stigma interventions for people with schizophrenia

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Laura Hemming explores a recent narrative review and meta-analysis of psychosocial interventions for self-stigma in people with a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis.

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Web-based guided self-help can prevent or delay major depression

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Ioana Cristea is impressed by a large German randomised controlled trial published yesterday in JAMA, which shows web-based guided self-help to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of major depression.

This blog also features a podcast interview with the lead author of the research, Professor Pim Cuijpers.

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Is the NICE guideline for bipolar disorder biased in favour of psychosocial interventions?

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Guy Goodwin reviews a new paper in the Lancet Psychiatry by Jauhar, McKenna and Laws, that calls into question the trustworthiness of the NICE bipolar disorder guidance.

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Psychosocial suicide prevention in youth: is the evidence strong enough?

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Rachel Upthegrove appraises a recent systematic review of psychosocial suicide prevention for youth, which leaves her calling for better evidence to support investment in universal school-based interventions.

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Drug-using offenders with co-occurring mental illness

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Meg Fluharty summarises a recently updated Cochrane systematic review about interventions for drug-using offenders with co-occurring mental illness.

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Caring for people with severe mental illness: poor research means that carers get a raw deal

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Caroline Struthers is frustrated by the lack of high quality research identified by this recent review, which looks at interventions to improve the experience and well-being of those caring for people with severe mental illness.

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Functional remediation shows promise for enhancing functioning in patients with bipolar disorder

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Bipolar disorder is a term applied to conditions that are characterised by extreme mood swings.  These swings in mood range from periods of overactive excited behaviour (known as mania) to deep depression. Some people also see or hear things that others around them don’t (known as having visual or auditory hallucinations) or have strange, unshared, beliefs (known [read the full story…]

Psychosocial and psychological interventions can prevent postpartum depression, says new Cochrane review

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The period after giving birth to a child can be difficult for women and in the first twelve weeks after childbirth 13-19% of women will experience post-partum depression (O’Hara 1996, Gaynes 2005). Post-partum depression is bad news – not only does it increase the chance of the mother going onto develop a severe clinical depression [read the full story…]

Treatment of bipolar in specialised outpatient mood disorder clinics substantially reduces readmissions to psychiatric hospitals

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There is a limited amount of good quality research being published about bipolar disorder, particularly investigating the early stages. Bipolar is associated with a high risk of relapse and this risk of relapse increases with the number of previous episodes. Observational studies suggest that early intervention may improve both course and outcome, but currently progression [read the full story…]

No clear benefit for using ICT as psychoeducation and support for schizophrenia, according to new Cochrane review

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There is a great deal of interest in using information and communication technology (ICT) to support and treat people with mental health conditions. In the broadest sense, ICT includes not just computers, but also telephones, TV and radio; essentially any medium that can communicate information in a multimedia format. ICT interventions can be delivered at [read the full story…]