Interpersonal psychotherapy for eating disorders: a viable alternative to CBT?

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Georgie Parker summarises a systematic review which suggests that interpersonal psychotherapy may be as effective as CBT for eating disorders, particularly in certain groups.

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Peer support in mental health: understanding the evidence base, current challenges, and future opportunities #ActiveIngredientsMH

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In their debut blog, Magenta Simmons and Ellie Brown summarise a recent review on peer support for adults with mental health challenges, and present early findings from their active ingredients review on peer support for youth anxiety and depression.

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Psychotherapy for adult depression: is it as good as it’s cracked up to be?

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Ellie Gant summarises a meta-analysis that asks: Was Eysenck right after all? A reassessment of the effects of psychotherapy for adult depression. The paper suggests that we seriously overestimate the benefits of psychotherapy by including biased trials in meta-analyses, and that there’s insufficient reliable research to be certain about the effectiveness of problem-solving therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy and behavioural activation.

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Antidepressant withdrawal: reviewing the paper behind the headlines

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Joseph Hayes and Sameer Jauhar set the record straight on antidepressant withdrawal. They show how the recent review by Davies and Read is seriously flawed and does not accurately portray the data. They conclude that we urgently need clearer evidence on the incidence, severity and duration of any symptoms related to antidepressant withdrawal.

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Mindfulness for young people: to meta-analyse or not to meta-analyse?

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Sarah McDonald and André Tomlin consider another meta-analysis of mindfulness in young people, which finds “small effect sizes on a range of outcomes”. They conclude that we badly need more RCTs that reliably evaluate the effectiveness, safety and cost effectiveness of mindfulness in young people.

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Antipsychotic efficacy measured by real-world observational study

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Tracey Roberts examines whether a retrospective observational study accurately investigates the effectiveness of second and first generation antipsychotics.

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Faith based CBT for depression and anxiety: review highlights a lack of good quality evidence

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Alan Underwood considers a new systematic review and meta analysis, which highlights the lack of evidence for faith based CBT in treating people with depression or anxiety disorders.

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Physical Activity Levels in Rheumatoid Arthritis

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With our 5×50 worldwide exercise flash-mob challenge about to start on Friday 23rd November (see earlier post) we thought we would have a look at evidence related to physical activity and exercise for people with musculoskeletal conditions. The majority of research on people with RA has focused on the effect of exercise training with benefits [read the full story…]

The Effectiveness of Physiotherapy Exercises in Subacromial Impingement Syndrome

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As MSK elves we already know shoulder pain is one of the most common presenting musculoskeletal conditions accounting for between 7 -26% of general practitioner consultations in the UK. There are a variety of causes of shoulder pain and some of our previous blogs have discussed challenges to developing an acurate diagnosis. Once we have our appropriately [read the full story…]

Small but potential benefits of cryotherapy following total knee replacement surgery

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Osteoarthritis of the knee is a common condition and typically presents with painful and restricted function and sometimes varus (bow legs) and valgus (knock knees) deformity of the knee. Once the condition and pain worsens knee joint replacement surgery is a treatment option. Patients typically improve in terms of pain and function but there is [read the full story…]