Mary Butler explores a recent randomised controlled trial of probiotic formulations for patients with bipolar disorder or schizophrenia spectrum disorder.
[read the full story...]Probiotics for bipolar disorder and schizophrenia
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Cognition and heterogeneity in first-episode psychosis before antipsychotic treatment
Ana Veic looks at an updated systematic review which suggests that patients with psychosis display cognitive difficulties very early in the disease process, and concludes this variation in cognitive function should prompt individual clinical assessments to optimise care.
[read the full story...]Sensing someone who isn’t really there: what is felt-presence?
Tyler Elliot summarises a recent literature review that summarises the philosophical, phenomenological, clinical, and non-clinical correlates of felt presence.
[read the full story...]Antidepressants, cognition, and emotional blunting: what’s the evidence?
Angharad de Cates reviews a recent Danish trial, which finds that escitalopram reduced participants’ reinforcement sensitivity compared to those on placebo. This lower reinforcement sensitivity may be similar to the emotional blunting effect often reported by patients during SSRI treatment.
[read the full story...]Social media use and disordered eating: Australian study finds a link in young teenagers
Francesca Bentivegna reviews a recent Australian study which finds a significant association between social media use and disordered eating in young adolescents.
[read the full story...]Dog therapy for dementia: can fluffy friends help with thinking and memory problems?
Clare Dolan and Sarah Gregory summarise a recent systematic review on the effectiveness of dog therapy for people living with dementia, which suggests that animal assisted therapy may be a useful complementary treatment to help with the behavioural and psychological symptoms of dementia.
[read the full story...]Too much of a good thing: the cognitive impact of problematic internet use
Marissa Kube-Clare reviews a recent meta-analysis on the impact of Problematic Internet Usage on different domains of cognition. The review concluded that Problematic Internet Use was associated with significant cognitive impairment.
[read the full story...]Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?
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.
[read the full story...]Review of apps and other digital technology to assess cognition in older adults
Sarah Gregory writes her debut elf blog on a clinical review in the Evidence-Based Mental Health journal about digital technologies for the assessment of cognition.
[read the full story...]Reminiscence therapy for people living with dementia: Cochrane review is inconclusive
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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