Bullying is bad for your mental health, even if you are the bully

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Clinicians and mental health researchers have long recognised that there is a link between traumatic experiences in childhood and symptoms of psychosis or non-clinical psychotic experiences presenting in adolescence or adulthood. One type of traumatic experience is the experience of abuse, whether physical, emotional or social in nature.  When it comes to bullying, any or [read the full story…]

Psychiatric illnesses and some chronic physical illnesses are associated with an increased risk of self-harm and suicide

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Last month, the Department of Health published the ‘Closing the Gap’ report, which highlighted the importance of better integration of physical and mental health care at every level. The report specifically flagged up the need for frontline services to respond better to people who self-harm, and cited statistics that emphasise the cyclical nature of the [read the full story…]

Possible association between second hand smoke and caries ADA-EBD critical summary

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There has been much discussion in the UK about the possibility of banning smoking in cars when children are present.  This latest summary from the ADA-EBD looks at a 2011 systematic review by Hanioka et al that considered the possibility of a link between second hand smoke (SHS) and dental caries that we first highlighted [read the full story…]

Currently little evidence to support smoking as a risk factor for peri-implantitis

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Dental Implants are now seen as a predictable treatment strategy for restoration in the partially or totally edentulous patient. Peri-implantitis is one potential complication and the prevalence has been reported as ranging from 6 – 28%. Smoking has been identified as a potential risk factor. The aim of this review was to assess the evidence [read the full story…]

Do smoking cessation treatments increase the risk of depression and suicide?

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Smoking is a major preventable cause of morbidity and premature mortality throughout the world. There are an estimated 460,000 hospital admissions attributable to smoking in people aged over 35 every year, with an average annual cost to the NHS of £2.7 billion. Many strategies exist to help people give up smoking. The most common are [read the full story…]

Insufficient evidence of an association between crowding and caries – ADA-EBD critical summary

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This ADA Critical Summary looked at a 2012 systematic review by Hafez et al. The aim of the review was to assess the relationship between dental crowding and the development of caries. The summariser notes that the search was comprehensive but the inclusion criteria were not clear.  Studies were assessed for quality and all the [read the full story…]

Varenicline, smoking cessation and neuropsychiatric adverse events

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Varenicline is a prescription drug to help people stop smoking that works by stimulating the nicotine receptors in the brain to reduce cravings and decrease the pleasure that results from smoking. Quit attempts aided by varenicline are up to 2-3 times more successful than those without (Cahill et al 2009 and 2012). However, following the [read the full story…]

Treating antenatal depression could prevent offspring adult depression

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Depression in late adolescence is a major public health concern, not least because it is strongly predictive of persistent, adult depression, which can have a severe effect on socioemotional functioning, education and employment. Increasingly, depression research is turning its attention to the matter of prevention of depression rather than exclusively focusing on treatment options and [read the full story…]

The largest ever study of self-harm in prisons: prevalence, risk, clustering and subsequent suicide

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New research published today in the Lancet shows that up to one in four women prisoners in England and Wales self-harm every year. The largest study of self-harm in prisons also reports that female prisoners are four times more likely to self-harm than male inmates. Previous systematic reviews have investigated self-harm in prisons (Lohner, 2007 and Dixon-Gordon, [read the full story…]

Review finds weak link between cannabis use and increased risk of developing depression

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Cannabis is the second most commonly used recreational drug, after alcohol, in the UK. The number of regular users has risen considerably over the past decade, and this has been particularly apparent in the adolescent population. With this rise there have been concerns about the long term consequences of heavy cannabis use. Cannabis use has [read the full story…]