Irreversible pulpitis often presents as an acute and intense pain and is a frequent reason for emergency dental visits. Treatment involves accessing the root canal of the tooth to remove the inflamed pulp (nerve) and cleaning the root canal. The aim of this review was to assess the effects of systemic antibiotics for irreversible pulpitis. [read the full story…]
Depression is a big problem. In fact, it’s the third leading cause of disease burden worldwide (WHO, 2004 – as cited in Shinohara et al, 2013) and the largest source of nonfatal disease burden in the world (Ustun, 2004 – as cited in Shinohara et al, 2013). What’s more, the number of people affected by it [read the full story…]
While this commentary is based on Canadian experiences, the authors do look at examples of health technology assessments elsewhere, applying the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) as the gold standard for others to follow. Health technology assessments are “an evidence-based policy tool that helps inform decision-making on how to balance demand and [read the full story…]
Schizophrenia is a serious neurodevelopmental disorder that often starts during adolescence. Current treatment guidelines (NICE, 2013) recommend atypical antipsychotics for adolescents with this condition, but this is based largely on studies of adults with the condition. The Cochrane Schizophrenia Group conducted this systematic review to synthesise the current evidence base for atypical antipsychotic medication in [read the full story…]
Criteria to identify subgroups experiencing an at-risk mental state (ARMS) have been developed and are widely adopted internationally, but this has fueled recent debates about unintended stigmatising consequences of identifying and providing treatment to people at risk of psychosis. While the Early Detection and Intervention Evaluation 2 (EDIE-2) trial has shown that cognitive therapy (CT) [read the full story…]
Background In 2009, ‘The Improving Access to Psychological Therapies’ (IAPT) programme produced ‘Positive Practice Guidance’ on support to people with learning disabilities which reiterated the need to ensure that mental health problems were identified as early as possible, but pointed out that barriers still existed in relation to providing psychological therapies to people with learning [read the full story…]
This systematic review of psychological therapies for borderline personality disorder (BPD), conducted in Spain, takes an interesting approach to reviewing the literature. Unfortunately, there appear to have been challenges in translating the systematic review from Spanish and the text can be difficult to follow at times. This is a real shame as it is an [read the full story…]
In recent years, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) has become the most widely delivered therapy for depression within the NHS. CBT interventions are recommended by NICE for people with mild, moderate and severe depression. By contrast, recent NICE guidelines recommend counselling only for people with persistent subthreshold depressive symptoms or mild to moderate depression who decline another [read the full story…]
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…]
Clinical trials in the field of social anxiety to date have primarily focussed on the effect of either anxiolytic medication or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). At best these trials have demonstrated only moderate efficacy for either treatment independently (Davidson et al, 2004; Clark et al, 2003; Heimberg et al, 1998; Stein et al, 1998), and [read the full story…]
