David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.
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This umbrella review of silver diamine fluoride (SDF) for the management of carious lesions in children and adults included 11 systematic reviews reporting on 30 unique primary studies. A consistent and growing body of research supports supports SDF’s effectiveness for arresting coronal carious lesions in the primary dentition and arresting and preventing root carious lesions in older adults.
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Jonathon Tomlinson considers his options as a GP supporting people with depression and complex needs, after reading a new systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis, which suggests that higher doses of antidepressants bring maximum side effects with only marginal gains.
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Andrea Cipriani and Anneka Tomlinson summarise a 10-year cohort study of antidepressant use and incidence of weight gain.
They also launch their new SUSANA project: Survey for Understanding Side effects of ANtidepressants in Adults. Please take the SUSANA survey now!
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A group of UCL Masters Students summarise a recent personal view by Mark Horowitz and David Taylor about tapering of SSRI treatment to mitigate antidepressant withdrawal symptoms.
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Liz Collier and Solomon Towuru summarise the recently updated Cochrane systematic review on reminiscence therapy for dementia, which includes evidence showing that reminiscence therapy may improve quality of life, cognition, communication and possibly mood in people with dementia in some circumstances, although all the benefits were small.
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21 studies mainly retrospective studies were included in this review of the dental and skeletal effects of mandibular advancement devices in treatment of obstructive sleep apnoea. while the findings suggest a number of potential side effects the quality of the available evidence in low.
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Joseph Hayes and Sameer Jauhar set the record straight on antidepressant withdrawal. They show how the recent review by Davies and Read is seriously flawed and does not accurately portray the data. They conclude that we urgently need clearer evidence on the incidence, severity and duration of any symptoms related to antidepressant withdrawal.
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This review of the impact of fixed appliance orthodontic treatment on clinical attachment levels included 9 small prospective studies finding no no clinically relevant detrimental effect. However the overall level of evidence is low to very low.
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Linda Gask looks at a recent survey of people with depression that explores their experiences of emotional blunting. The research finds that nearly half of depressed patients on antidepressants report significant emotional blunting, but it’s impossible to say whether this is caused by their medication or the depression itself.
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