Serotonin hypothesis of depression: balance (and imbalance) is in the eye of the beholder

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The 2022 review by Moncrieff et al on the serotonin theory of depression received a great deal of media coverage. In this blog, Rebecca Wilkinson and Sameer Jauhar shed fresh light on this research and what it means for mental health science and practice.

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Transdiagnostic approaches to mental health: Keeping the baby and throwing out the bathwater

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Melissa Black and Tim Dalgleish summarise and critique a recent review on transdiagnostic psychiatry, which they feel presents an overly negative view of transdiagnostic approaches in mental health.

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Will increased medication adherence, even if ‘coproduced’, solve the problem of ethnic inequalities and injustices in BAME communities?

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Diana Rose takes issue with a training programme for mental health professionals that aims to increase medication adherence in BAME Service Users.

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Open Dialogue: what’s the evidence?

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Sameer Jauhar and colleagues critically assess the evidence for Open Dialogue, presented in a recent narrative review of quantitative and qualitative studies, which finds that most current studies are highly biased and of low quality, and there is an absence of clear data on effectiveness.

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Prescription drug misuse in women: US review inconclusive

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Rob Poole writes his debut elf blog on a recent systematic review of trends in prescription drug misuse among women, which finds a mixed and complex picture with few conclusive findings.

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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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Systematic review of recovery may leave more questions than answers

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Simon Bradstreet is left feeling frustrated by this systematic review of person-oriented recovery in people living with severe mental illness, which neglected to include a significant amount of relevant research.

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Power Threat Meaning Framework: innovative and important? #PTMFramework

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Paul Salkovskis and Jo Edge explore the Power Threat Meaning Framework that was published in January 2018 by the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology.

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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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#UnderstandingPsychosis?

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Sameer Jauhar and Paul Morrison consider the revised Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia report from the British Psychological Society Division of Clinical Psychology, which includes updated sections on definitions, aetiology and treatment.

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