Dave Steele has degrees in Medicine, Applied Psychology and Education. He has previously worked as an assistant for adults with learning disabilities, in psychology research (primarily schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease) and in an adolescent psychiatric. He has a particular interest in mental health stigma, having written blog posts previously on the subject (among myriad others). He has developed psychiatry teaching material on the stigma of mental illness, the diagnosis and management of delirium and measures of wellbeing. He is also interested in schizophrenia, old age psychiatry, liaison psychiatry and the organisation of mental health care. He can be found on Twitter, albeit talking about more varied (and most often nonsense) topics as @hullodave.
Dave Steele summarises a recent randomised controlled trial, which suggests that there may be benefit in self-stigma programmes for those with severe mental illness, but more work is needed.
Dave Steele explores a recent literature review about the impact and measurement of social dysfunction in late life depression, which focuses on how wearable technology can be used to measure and support social functioning in older adults.
Dave Steele warms up for the winter triathlon season by reading a new systematic review on the effect of exercise on depressive symptoms in adolescents.
Dave Steele appraises a systematic review that reports music therapy combined with standard therapies is effective for treating depressive symptoms in older adults. He’s unconvinced by these claims and would like a bit more harmony in the evidence-base before striking up the band.
David Steele reports on a recent cross-sectional study, which found that stigma was linked with increased psychological distress and poorer quality of life in people with intellectual disabilities.
David Steele considers the implications of a Swedish population registry study, which finds that people with eating disorders and their close relations are at increased risk for attempting and/or completing suicide.
David Steele summarises a recent systematic review that found small to medium long-term effects from anti-stigma interventions with very little research coming from low income countries.
