Clinical severity and instability as predictors for psychiatric hospitalisation: can one size fit all? 

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Florian Walter summarises a retrospective cohort study published in The Lancet Psychiatry that investigates whether early trajectories of clinical global impression severity can transdiagnostically predict later psychiatric hospitalisation.

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Prevalence of maxillofacial trauma in children and adolescents

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This review of the prevalence of maxillofacial trauma by different causes in children and adolescents included 58 studies. The findings indicated that road traffic accidents and falls were the commonest causes. However rates do vary across difference geographic regions.

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How do unaccompanied children cope with the experience of forced migration?

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Sophie Large explores an qualitative research study that looks into young refugees experiences of coping after experiencing unaccompanied forced migration.

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Is it possible to form a digital therapeutic alliance with a mental health app?

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Jenna Jacob summarises a qualitative study exploring the conceptualisation of the digital therapeutic alliance in the context of mental health apps that require no human support.

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Mouthguard wearing and athletic performance

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This review assessing the impact of wearing a mouthguard on athletic performance included 41 studies involving 852 athletes. While the findings suggest some potential benefits for athletic performance the included studies are small, very hetrogeneous with only 7 studies being at low risk of bias. Consequently the findings should be interpreted very cautiously.

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People with psychosis who attend more leisure activities have a higher quality of life

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Lorna Collins reviews a cross-sectional study that found the quality of life of people with psychosis is higher when they participate in leisure activities.

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Can hearing interventions slow down cognitive decline?

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In this blog, Daisy Long and the elf apprentices that took part in the woodland workshop undertook a group critical analysis on Lin, F.R., Pike, J.R., Albert. M.S., Arnold, M., Burgard, S., Chisolm, T. & others (2023) paper on Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multi-centre, randomized controlled trial.

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Brief interpersonal therapy may help relieve maternal depression during pregnancy

a pregnant woman in a grey top makes a heart shape with her hands over her pregnancy bump

In this blog, Francesca Kingston summaries a clinical trial from the US Care Project, which investigated whether depression can be reduced during pregnancy and before birth using a brief, safe intervention.

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Music, audio-visuals or virtual reality for dental anxiety?

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This review of the effectiveness of relaxing music, audio-visuals (AV), and virtual reality (VR) in reducing dental anxiety associated with tooth extraction included 11 RCTs. The findings suggest that music performed better than VR and AV . However the limited number of studies and variation in anxiety scales, musical and visual interventions used means that the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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Acupuncture for temporomandibular joint disorder?

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This review of the effectiveness and safety of acupuncture in treating temporomandibular joint disorders (TMD) included 32 RCTs. The findings suggest potential benefits for acupuncture compared with both active and inactive controls. However none of the studies were at low risk of bias and the certainty of the evidence was rated as very low to low. Consequently the findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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