Kirsten Lawson

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Kirsten is a Consultant Psychiatrist at Kent & Medway NHS and Social Care Partnership NHS Trust with nearly 30 years of clinical experience. She has previously worked to develop a network of Liaison services across Kent; completed a significant improvement project within community based services and is now clinically focussed on acute inpatient services. Throughout her career she has gained a wealth of experience in management and leadership roles. Kirsten has blogged for the Mental Elf since 2013 and is a displaced Scot; part geek, part Christmas fanatic, part elf and National Patient Safety & Care Award winner. She is passionate about learning and development; bringing Psychiatry to the masses. Listening to people is her superpower; ensuring there is holistic patient care across all mental health diagnoses and that trauma and neurodiversity are identified and considered appropriately. She can be found on Twitter as @drkirstenlawson.

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Depression and coronary heart disease: reasons to remain UPBEAT-UK

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Kirsten Lawson summarises the UPBEAT-UK programme of research into the relationship between coronary heart disease and depression and anxiety in primary care patients.

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How much mental health presents in emergency departments? We don’t really know

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Kirsten Lawson is frustrated by the uncertainty highlighted in a recent systematic review of the epidemiology of mental health attendances at emergency departments.

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Bringing together physical and mental health: King’s Fund report on integrated care

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Kirsten Lawson takes us through the key messages from the recent King’s Fund report on bringing together physical and mental health.

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Will it hurt? Chronic pain and psychological functioning

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Kirsten Lawson examines a recent meta-analysis of psychological functioning in people living with chronic pain. She discovers that anxiety is more common than depression in people with chronic pain and that practitioners should prioritise psychological functioning when caring for patients suffering from chronic pain.

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No sexual health history please, we’re British!

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Kirsten Lawson presents the results of a systematic review of observational cross-sectional studies, which looks at the worldwide prevalence of HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C in people with severe mental illness.

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Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration

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Kirsten Lawson explores the benefits of working across professional and therapeutic boundaries, highlighted beautifully by the recent COINCIDE RCT of collaborative care for patients with depression comorbid with diabetes or cardiovascular disease.

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Antidepressants for depression in cancer: Cochrane review highlights lack of evidence

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Kirsten Lawson reports on a recent Cochrane systematic review, which highlights a lack of high quality trials about the efficacy and safety of antidepressants for depression in cancer.

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Guess who? Put a face to a name

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Kirsten Lawson reviews a randomised controlled trial looking at the impact of providing clinician photos on inpatient’s recall of names and roles. Is this an effective way to improve communication between inpatients and their care team?

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Woodland walks and your ‘Elf

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Kirsten Lawson dons her walking boots and reports on the national Walks for Health (WfH) programme, which has been investigated in an observational study looking at the mental, emotional and social well-being of people who participate in woodland walks.

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