Mark Horowitz

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Mark Horowitz is a training psychiatrist, now working as a Clinical Research Fellow at UCL and North East London NHS Foundation Trust. He is an Associate Editor of the journal Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology and has edited a collection of papers in the journal on Discontinuing Psychotropic Medication. He has a PhD in psychopharmacology and the neurobiology of depression from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King’s College London. He has an interest in rational psychopharmacology and safe deprescribing of psychiatric medications, which has been the focus of his recent work published in The Lancet Psychiatry, JAMA Psychiatry, the British Journal of Psychiatry and Schizophrenia Bulletin, as well as a forthcoming textbook on the subject.

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Is ‘natural’ better? Evidence for the efficacy of complementary therapies for antenatal depression

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Can we encourage patients to continue taking complementary and alternative (CAM) treatments for antenatal depression or should we be firmly discouraging them from doing so? We already know from surveys that 11% of primary care patients with anxiety and depression are taking complementary or alternative therapies, which is around the same proportion of people who [read the full story…]

Mental and substance use disorders are the leading cause of non-fatal illness worldwide

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Data from the largest and most comprehensive survey of causes of illness worldwide has been published in the Lancet. This paper represents the latest analysis of the data set collected in the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study 2010 (GBD 2010) and focuses on the global burden of illness due to mental [read the full story…]

New Cochrane review provides strategies for managing sexual dysfunction brought on by antidepressants

Sexual dysfunction

One of the major complaints of people on antidepressant medication is the effect it has on their sex lives. It does this in three main ways – it affects sexual desire, the ability to achieve and sustain an erection in men and alters the sensation of orgasms and ejaculation. These side effects are one of [read the full story…]

The burden of disease due to chronic illnesses, especially mental health illnesses is rising in the UK

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The NHS is thought of as a model health care system. It has experienced several reforms over the last 20 years, including greatly increased amounts of spending. So how have these changes affected the burden of disease due to mental health problems over this period, and how does the UK’s record in this area stack [read the full story…]

Psychosocial and psychological interventions can prevent postpartum depression, says new Cochrane review

Pensive woman

The period after giving birth to a child can be difficult for women and in the first twelve weeks after childbirth 13-19% of women will experience post-partum depression (O’Hara 1996, Gaynes 2005). Post-partum depression is bad news – not only does it increase the chance of the mother going onto develop a severe clinical depression [read the full story…]