Training alone doesn’t improve outcomes for depression in primary care

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Linda Gask writes her debut Mental Elf blog on a recent systematic review, which evaluates healthcare team training programs that aim to improve depression in primary care.

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Whooley questions have high sensitivity and modest specificity in the detection of depression

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Ian Anderson on a recent diagnostic accuracy meta-analysis, which shows that the Whooley questions for depression are effective at ruling out the condition, but that false positives are common.

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Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT)

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Sally Adams summarises a meta-analysis of specialty substance use disorder services following brief alcohol intervention, which finds a lack of evidence for SBIRTs despite the widespread public health support for this type of programme.

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Rise of the machine learning algorithm: the future of diagnosing schizophrenia?

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Samei Huda reviews a meta-analysis of multivariate pattern recognition studies, which aims to detect neuroimaging biomarkers for schizophrenia.

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Population screening for dementia

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Rosalyn Nelson reports on a recent systematic review about population screening for dementia, which highlights the negative attitudes of patients, carers and health care professionals towards screening. She asks: what are the risks of ignoring diagnosis?

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Screening for bipolar spectrum disorders (MDQ, BSDS and HCL-32)

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Elena Marcus appraises a recent meta-analysis of screening for bipolar spectrum disorders, which concludes that the MDQ and HCL-32 tools are supported by more evidence than the BSDS tool.

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Intermediate Care pathways for musculoskeletal conditions – are they working?

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In this blog, Lesley Dawson considers a systematic review examining musculoskeletal Intermediate Care pathways to evaluate their effectiveness, outcomes and identify gaps in evidence.

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Dental screening: a role for hygiene-therapists?

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This study compared the diagnostic accuracy of dental screening by hygiene-therapists with dentists. The results show that they could be used to screen for caries and periodontal disease. This could allow for a change in the traditional model of dental care seen in the UK.

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