Does taking antidepressants during pregnancy harm the child? Here are the facts

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Ian Jones summarises a number of studies that consider the benefits and harms of antidepressants during pregnancy, including a recent cohort study that found that exposure to antidepressants in the womb is associated with a modest increased risk of speech and language disorders.

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Time to stop prescribing antidepressants to young people with depression?

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Andrew Shepherd considers the implications of a recent network meta-analysis of the efficacy and tolerability of antidepressants for children and adolescents with depression.

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Specialist depression service may help people with persistent depression

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Ben Hannigan reports on a recent RCT of the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of a specialist depression service versus usual specialist mental health care to manage persistent depression.

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Training alone doesn’t improve outcomes for depression in primary care

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Linda Gask writes her debut Mental Elf blog on a recent systematic review, which evaluates healthcare team training programs that aim to improve depression in primary care.

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Antidepressants and psychotherapy for OCD in adults: network meta-analysis

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Alan Underwood summarises a recent network meta-analysis of medication and talking treatments for OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) in adults.

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The case for investing in anxiety and depression treatment on a global scale

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Chris Sampson looks at a major new economic study into the return on investment of increased coverage for anxiety and depression treatment.

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Antidepressants don’t help with many cognitive impairments, even when they do improve mood

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Lucas Shelemy on a recent randomised longitudinal study that explores the effect of antidepressant treatment on cognitive impairments associated with depression.

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Adding antidepressants to antipsychotics in schizophrenia: do they work, for what, and are they safe?

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Alex Langford explores the emerging findings from a recent meta-analysis looking at the efficacy and safety of antidepressants added to antipsychotics for people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychosis.

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Self-harm on the rise, but many denied mental health assessments

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Katrina Witt explores a recently published paper that draws on the Multicentre Study of Self-Harm in England. The cohort study found that around one-half of self-harm patients do not receive psychosocial assessment, despite 2004 NICE guidance that recommends everyone who has self-harmed should have a comprehensive assessment of needs and risk.

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Treatment is uncommon for common mental disorders

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Suzanne Dash reviews a cross-sectional study of the prevalence and treatment of common mental disorders in the English national population, which inspires her to host a mental health epidemiology quiz. Fingers on buzzers…

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