Online psychotherapy for the COVID era: digital healthcare with insights from Auschwitz?

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M. David Enoch writes his debut elf blog on a recent article in the BJPsych Bulletin about the trailblazing use of online interventions to enable autonomous psychological care.

His blog also suggests that during the current pandemic we may learn something important from Viktor Frankl’s Logotherapy, which was born out of the horrors of the World War II concentration camps.

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Can enhanced CBT help people with eating disorders during COVID-19?

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Helen Bould summarises a guide for clinicians on how to deliver enhanced cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-E) for people with eating disorders during COVID-19.

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Guidance for online therapy during COVID-19

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Liesbeth Tip highlights the new OxCADAT guidance for psychotherapists providing online therapy for people with anxiety, panic or trauma.

This blog also contains many ideas and an extensive list of useful research and resources for delivering internet based treatment for people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Cost-effectiveness of CBT for depression: uncertainty remains

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Chris Sampson reviews a recent US study which looks at the cost-effectiveness of CBT versus second-generation antidepressants for the initial treatment of major depressive disorder.

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Should we be offering twice weekly psychotherapy for people with depression?

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Jack Kerwin and Derek Tracy summarise a new RCT published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which suggests that twice weekly psychotherapy (CBT or IPT) may be more effective than once weekly sessions for people with depression.

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Psychological interventions for grief: a systematic review

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Linda Gask summarise a systematic review which suggests that psychological interventions are efficacious in treating prolonged grief. She concludes that it’s time to pay more attention to the suffering caused by prolonged grief both in research and clinical practice.

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The Trial: pharmacotherapy versus psychotherapy for schizophrenia – how do trials compare?

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Keith Laws looks at a systematic review of patient and study characteristics, which asks: are randomised controlled trials on pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy for positive symptoms of schizophrenia comparable?

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Depression in later life: healthcare professionals’ views about referrals and management

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Alison McKinlay summarises a literature review of qualitative research exploring healthcare professionals’ views of depression in later life, which highlights the quandaries faced by healthcare professionals in primary care, particularly in areas where funding and access to services are limited.

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Can a ‘personalised psychosocial toolbox’ help people reduce ‘on-top’ drug use during opioid substitution treatment?

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Vicky Carlisle summarises a promising recent RCT on the efficacy and cost-effectiveness of an adjunctive personalised psychosocial intervention in treatment-resistant maintenance opioid agonist therapy.

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Psychotherapy for adult depression: is it as good as it’s cracked up to be?

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Ellie Gant summarises a meta-analysis that asks: Was Eysenck right after all? A reassessment of the effects of psychotherapy for adult depression. The paper suggests that we seriously overestimate the benefits of psychotherapy by including biased trials in meta-analyses, and that there’s insufficient reliable research to be certain about the effectiveness of problem-solving therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy and behavioural activation.

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