Problem solving therapy may help people with adjustment disorders partially return to work, according to Cochrane

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Work-related stress is everywhere these days. Obviously us elves are pretty much immune, but looking at the Bristol Stress and Health at Work Study (Smith 2000) I can see that more than 50% of human respondents reported being extremely, very or moderately stressed at work. You lovely people do suffer from lots of emotional and [read the full story…]

Depressed people on disability benefits do as well on CBT as people not receiving benefits, according to new systematic review

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I’ve read with interest a number of recent publications that suggest that cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) may be less effective in patients receiving disability benefits versus other patients. The theory here is that the specific circumstances of being on disability benefits may somehow lead to poorer outcomes following CBT. There’s some evidence in other clinical [read the full story…]

Non-pharmacological interventions can help prevent and reduce weight gain in people who take antipsychotics

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The reduced life expectancy (15-20 years less) often faced by many people with schizophrenia is frequently a result of cardiovascular disease. Lifestyle choices (smoking, lack of exercise and poor diet) can increase the risk of these diseases, but people who take antipsychotic drugs often have the additional problem of weight gain that is caused by [read the full story…]

CBT and other psychotherapies can help children with PTSD in the short-term, but more evidence is needed according to Cochrane

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Nearly a year ago I blogged about a promising but small RCT, which showed that Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy may help young children with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The blog generated a fair bit of feedback from readers and so I’ve been on the look out ever since for a systematic review that brings [read the full story…]

New RCT shows that adding CBT to usual care helps people with treatment resistant depression

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The CoBalT trial was published last week in the Lancet. This important randomised controlled trial (RCT) examined the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) as an add-on treatment to usual care for people with treatment resistant depression. Previous studies have shown that only around one third of people with depression respond well to treatment with [read the full story…]

Growing evidence for talking treatments to help pathological gamblers

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Pathological gambling is defined by DSM-IV as a disorder of impulse control which includes a preoccupation with gambling, failed attempts to reduce gambling, and restlessness or irritability when prevented from gambling. It is likely to be reclassified as an addictive disorder in DSM-V. Gambling is something that most adults dabble in from time to time. [read the full story…]

NICE publish evidence update on generalised anxiety disorder in adults

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NHS Evidence have published an evidence update on generalised anxiety disorder in adults. Evidence updates are summaries of selected high quality evidence that has appeared since the relevant guideline was published, in this case NICE clinical guideline 113 ‘Generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder (with or without agoraphobia) in adults: management in primary, secondary and community care’ [read the full story…]

Targeted interventions for Yellow Flags in persistent low back pain: a systematic review

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Seeing as it is World Mental Health Day today, with its theme “Depression: a Global Crisis”, I thought that it would be appropriate to blog on psychosocial rather than physical interventions; particularly as persistent non-specific low back pain (NSLBP) can result in heightened anxiety, stress and depression. Furthermore, there is an increasing body of evidence that psychosocial risk [read the full story…]

New BMJ RCT finds that preventing depression in adolescents, with classroom-based CBT, may do more harm than good

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The prevalence of depression goes up sharply in mid-adolescence and it’s estimated that by age 19 up to 20% of people will have suffered from at least one episode of clinical depression. So it makes sense that prevention programmes should be targeted at young people in schools, and indeed, published research has shown that classroom-based [read the full story…]

Should we be offering mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to all patients with residual depressive symptoms?

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Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) is a group training approach that aims to prevent relapse and recurrence of depression. It combines mindfulness techniques with cognitive therapy and research shows that it is effective at reducing depressive symptoms as well as preventing relapse. The NICE depression guideline recommends that MBCT is offered to people who have experienced [read the full story…]