People with learning disabilities are living longer and, as a result, are experiencing chronic illness. Here, Katherine Runswick Cole reflects on a review of the literature looking at the psychosocial impacts of living with chronic illness.
[read the full story...]
Lia Ali and colleagues from the IMPARTS project present the findings of their group discussions about a recent review of mortality in mental disorders. Along the way she discusses the staff training they carried out and the tweet chat they ran to consider the implications of this research, both to individuals and on the global burden of disease.
[read the full story...]
Chris Sampson reports on a new HTA systematic review and economic evaluation of art therapy for non-psychotic mental health disorders like depression, anxiety and phobias.
[read the full story...]
Jake Crawshaw summarises a systematic review which investigates the relationships between positive psychological constructs and health outcomes in cardiovascular disease.
[read the full story...]
Natasha Clarke summarises a recent Cochrane review of pharmacotherapy for anxiety and comorbid alcohol use disorders, which found only very low quality evidence about the effectiveness of medication (buspirone, paroxetine, sertraline) for treating patients with both conditions.
[read the full story...]
Dr Kirsten Lawson reviews one of Dr Wayne Katons’ last cohort studies looking into depression and diabetes and it’s effect on the risk of dementia.
[read the full story...]
Ermintrude considers a literature review on social work and carers of people living with cancer, wondering how the evidence can make a case for improvements in the UK.
[read the full story...]
Elena Marcus finds inconclusive results in this recent systematic review of psychological therapy for anxiety in bipolar spectrum disorders, which includes trials of CBT, mindfulness based cognitive therapy and stress management therapy.
[read the full story...]
Amy Green appraises a systematic review of CBT for insomnia (CBTi) in people with comorbid mental illness, which concludes that cognitive behaviour therapy could be an effective alternative to hypnotics. However, concerns about the review methodology cast some doubt on the findings.
[read the full story...]
Current NICE guidelines state that PTSD should not be dealt with unless alcohol dependence is first treated. Paul Christiansen summarises a systematic review of the comorbidity between PTSD and alcohol misuse and wonders where the guidance leaves patients and professionals.
[read the full story...]
