Raphael Underwood reports on a thematic analysis of joint crisis plans, which explores what service users with psychotic disorders want in a mental health crisis or relapse.
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John Baker considers the findings of a recent meta-synthesis of research looking at the role of acute mental health nurses from the perspective of the nurses themselves. He concludes that, whilst this viewpoint is important, it’s also vital that we consider what service users think nurses should provide.
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Raphael Underwood summarises a recent systematic review looking at implementing family involvement in the treatment of patients with psychosis.
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Kathryn Walsh summarises a recent systematic review on crime, fear of crime and mental health, which highlights a number of interventions that are not effective in reducing the fear of crime.
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Shared decision making is now commonplace, but will this approach ever be fully embraced in relation to antipsychotic prescribing? Liz Hughes reports on a recent qualitative study of consultant psychiatrists’ experiences that sheds some light on the issue.
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Josephine Neale summarises a recent review of qualitative evidence that finds carers’ views are mixed and lie on a spectrum of acceptance of their relative as actively dying with dementia.
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Benzodiazepines are used to treat insomnia, anxiety and chronic back pain due to their sedative and muscle relaxing effects. They’ve got a sting in the tail though and can cause memory disruption, loss of coordination and dependence if used long term. It’s therefore recommended that other treatments, such as psychological interventions, are tried first and [read the full story…]
Last July I wrote a blog (Helping patients and carers deal with a diagnosis of dementia: one size doesn’t fit all) about a systematic review of qualitative evidence (Bunn, 2012) relating to patients and carers experiences of reaching and adapting to a diagnosis of dementia. That blog was heavily influenced by personal experience of my [read the full story…]
I have been procrastinating about writing this blog for a while. This is, in part, caused by hesitancy about involving myself in the CBT for psychosis (CBTp) debate. Regular readers of the Mental Elf will be aware that in recent months Jauhar and colleagues presented results of a meta-analysis that called into question the effectiveness [read the full story…]
While it is predicted that depression will achieve the status of the biggest disease burden in the Western World before too long, providing access to evidence-based clinical interventions (medicines and talking treatments) for this growing number of people is a source of concern. Supporting people to take steps to actively self-manage their symptoms and condition [read the full story…]
