CBT for anxiety: new meta-analysis confirms significant improvements to target symptoms

CBT plus taper is effective at reducing benzodiazepine use in the short term (3 months) but this effect is not sustained at 6 months.

Inês Pote summarises a recent meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and related disorders.

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Person-centred care for dementia: impact on quality of life, agitation and antipsychotic use

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Hilary Shepherd reports on a recent paper from the WHELD trial on the impact of person-centred care training and person-centred activities on quality of life, agitation, and antipsychotic use in people with dementia living in nursing homes.

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Antipsychotic effectiveness: the numbers don’t lie, check the scoreboard

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Students and Teachers from the King’s College London PNoMH Distance Learning MSc summarise a major new meta-analysis that brings together the last 60 years of placebo-controlled antipsychotic drug trials in acute schizophrenia.

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Community treatment orders and social outcomes in psychosis

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Ian Cummins considers the findings of a recent 48-month follow-up study of social outcomes for patients with psychosis, which concludes that community treatment orders did not offer any long term benefits.

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Improving health related quality of life for people with dementia in care homes

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Hilary Shepherd writes her debut blog on a new paper from the WHELD cluster RCT, which looks at the impact of antipsychotic review and psychosocial intervention on health-related quality of life in people with dementia living in care homes.

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Complete dentures: which occlusal scheme is best?

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17 studies (11 RCTs) were included in this review of occlusal schemes for complete dentures suggesting that bilateral balanced occlusion does not confer better quality of life/satisfaction or masticatory performance and muscle activity.

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Recovering Quality of Life (ReQOL) scale: a PROM you don’t want to miss

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Martina Sawicka and Derek Tracy take a look at the ReQOL scale (Recovering Quality of Life): a patient reported outcome measure (PROM) for use with people experiencing mental health difficulties.

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Befriending interventions: are they effective?

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#UCLJournalClub students appraise a systematic review and meta-analysis on the effectiveness of befriending interventions for people with a variety of health conditions including mental illness.

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CBT for eating disorders: what impact on quality of life?

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Sarah McDonald explores a recent meta-analysis that summarises the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy for eating disorders on quality of life in adults.

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Mental health expenditure associated with higher quality care and better service user experience

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Kwame McKensie publishes his debut Mental Elf blog on a recent cross-sectional study, which explores the relationship between national mental health expenditure and quality of care in longer-term psychiatric and social care facilities in Europe.

This is the fourth in a new series of Mental Elf blogs produced in partnership with the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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