The use of physical interventions for people with learning disabilities must be within a locally agreed policy framework and as a last resort. Commissioners of services need to be assured that their use is appropriate and that good quality monitoring is taking place. The researchers in this study looked at the work of good practice [read the full story…]
The aim of this trial was to test the use of motivational interviewing (MI) as an approach to control caries in indigenous children. This cluster-randomised trial was conducted in Cree communities in Quebec. Cree women who recently had given birth or were between the 12th and 34th weeks of pregnancy were recruited. Mothers allocated to [read the full story…]
Over the last few years, we have seen more and more children and young people being prescribed antipsychotic drugs. The theory behind this increase is that the newer antipsychotic drugs have fewer side effects than the older typical antipsychotics. However, some small and relatively short duration studies have shown that the newer drugs may also [read the full story…]
Early intervention services for psychosis are aimed at people aged 14-35 who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis or at risk of doing so. The teams that work in this area usually include psychiatrists, psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, social workers and support workers. The NICE schizophrenia guideline recommends that early intervention services are offered [read the full story…]
Regular readers of the Mental Elf will recall the blogs (Here is the evidence for exercising if you are depressed and New Cochrane review shows that exercise helps with depression) I wrote back in June and July about the evidence for exercising if you have depression. A new systematic review was published in the British [read the full story…]
A state of high anxiety can have an impact on daily living. For people with learning disabilities, anxiety can be common and persistent anxiety can significantly affect people’s quality of life. There is a literature on effects of exercise on reducing anxiety, but the researchers in this study point out that there has been little [read the full story…]
Any parent whose child has a chronic or life-threatening illness will attest to the fact that it can be a worrying, stressful and exhausting journey. Parents can struggle to juggle caring for their child with work, social and other commitments. This can lead to parents suffering from mental health problems themselves, in addition to the [read the full story…]
We have posted previously about the use of physical interventions in services for people with learning disabilities and challenging behavioiur, with BILD estimating their use in around half of all people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviour. (BILD link). The researchers in this organisational case study were interested in whether the adoption of organisation-wide positive [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on borderline personality disorder (BPD) tells us more about what not to use to treat the condition than it does really help to recommend proven therapies. The guideline recommends the following: “Do not use brief psychological interventions (of less than 3 months’ duration) specifically for borderline personality disorder or for the individual [read the full story…]
There has been a recent surge of interest in use of sliver-fluoride regimens for caries control as sadly dental caries is still a significant problem worldwide. The aim of this trial was to compare the effectiveness of annual topical application of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) solution, semi-annual topical application of SDF solution, and annual application [read the full story…]
