In her debut blog, Cara McErlain summarises a recent qualitative systematic review exploring patients’ perspectives on barriers and facilitators to accessing mental health support through primary care services in England.
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Lucy Barrass considers a systematic review exploring the detection of depression in primary care settings in low- and middle-income countries.
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Laurence Palfreyman explores a mixed methods systematic review, which brings together research from across the world looking at why people fail to attend their first psychotherapy appointment.
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Jonathon Tomlinson considers his options as a GP supporting people with depression and complex needs, after reading a new systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, which suggests that higher doses of antidepressants bring maximum side effects with only marginal gains.
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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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Andrew Shepherd summarises a recent systematic review of the effectiveness of psychotherapy for depression in primary care, which contains a lot of data but leaves him feeling rather deflated.
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Nikki Newhouse summarises a recent US health technology assessment of antidepressants for depression in pregnancy and the postpartum period, which concludes that the evidence remains inconclusive about the benefits and harms of antidepressants for depression in pregnancy.
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The ideal treatment for common mental health problems in those with chronic physical illness would have to be reliable, easy to deliver, inexpensive and accessible by a group of people whose physical impairment may affect treatment adherence. NICE guidelines (CG90 Depression; the treatment and management of depression in adults) recommend self-help interventions (SHIs) based on [read the full story…]
Introduction The quality and outcomes framework was set up in 2004 to incentivise aspects of clinical practice within general practice in the UK. Two standards which are incentivised in depression are DEP4 (the percentage of patients who have had assessment of severity at diagnosis using a tool validated for use in primary care (PHQ-9, BDI-II, [read the full story…]
Individuals with severe mental illness (SMI) have shortened life expectancies compared to the general population. This is partly down to higher rates of chronic physical illness. Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death among patients using mental health services. It is assumed that interventions used to reduce CVD are similarly effective in patients with [read the full story…]
