Financial incentives for smoking cessation in pregnancy

shutterstock_90615607

Meg Fluharty highlights a recent study suggesting that financial incentives may be beneficial in helping pregnant women quit smoking. This recent study investigated the effectiveness of shopping vouchers in addition to NHS Stop Smoking Services to aid quit attempts in pregnant women.

[read the full story...]

Limited benefits of cognitive bias modification for adolescents: is it time to move on?

shutterstock_150385817

Ioana Cristea reviews a recent randomised controlled trial of cognitive bias modification to treat interpretation bias in adolescents. She argues that this new study adds weight to the ascertion that there are very limited, if any, mental health benefits for CBM interventions.

[read the full story...]

Can telecare be cost effective and improve quality of life?

shutterstock_174170834-2

Clarissa Giebel tackles a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of telecare assistive technology and examines the findings on cost effectiveness and quality of life.

[read the full story...]

Lisdexamfetamine for binge-eating disorder

shutterstock_224979535

David Steele summarises a recent randomised controlled trial, which finds that (in the short-term) Lisdexamfetamine successfully decreased binge-eating behaviour in patients with binge-eating disorder. But can we trust this evidence?

[read the full story...]

Engaging inpatients with mental health rehabilitation activities

shutterstock_224586868

Elly O’Brien reports on a recent RCT of a staff training intervention for inpatients in mental health rehabilitation, which is designed to increase patients’ engagement in activities.

[read the full story...]

Brief interventions for substance misuse in primary care

shutterstock_173833664

Claire Mokrysz reports on two RCTs in JAMA that find no superiority over control for brief interventions for substance misuse in primary care. A finding that casts some doubt on interventions such as motivational interviewing for unhealthy drug use in primary care patients.

[read the full story...]

Folic acid for depression: results of the FolATED study

shutterstock_32144176

Susie Johnson reports on the FolATED RCT and economic evaluation of folic acid for depression. The study finds no evidence that folic acid is clinically effective or cost-effective in augmenting antidepressants and speculates instead that methylfolate may be a better candidate for future research.

[read the full story...]

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction programmes reduced stress in mothers of children with disabilities in community sample RCT

mindfulness_shutterstock_64976824-150x150

Mindfulness is increasingly recognised as an effective way to reduce stress and improve well-being

Here Kate van Dooren looks at a randomised controlled trial of a mindfulness based stress reduction programme with mothers of children with autism and other developmental delays to look at its impact on levels of distress over time.

[read the full story...]

Relationship training for children and family practitioners: does it work?

shutterstock_218033521

Martin Webber looks at a rare social work randomised controlled trial (RCT) on relationship training for practitioners working with children and families and finds that even findings from a study using ‘gold standard’ research methodology have to be carefully examined for reliability.

[read the full story...]

Folic acid for depression: RCT finds no effect on reducing incidence of depression or bipolar

shutterstock_223561453

Elly O’Brien summarises a recent RCT of folic acid for depression, which explores whether mood disorders can be prevented in young people at familial risk. The trial finds no evidence that folic acid supplementation reduces the incidence of mood disorders compared to those taking placebo.

[read the full story...]