Dafni Katsampa critiques a recent randomised controlled trial evaluating the effectiveness of Step-by-Step, a WHO-guided digital intervention for Syrian refugees with depression in Lebanon.
[read the full story...]Be kind to your mind and exercise: can exercise buffer the effects of stressful life events?
In his debut blog, Justin Chapman reviews a longitudinal study which finds that exercising can buffer against depression after stressful life events.
Justin is live blogging for The Mental Elf at #EquallyWellAu23 this week, alongside Elf Coordinator Laura Hemming who is on live tweeting duties.
[read the full story...]Mapping the trajectory of psychiatric diagnoses: Danish study finds that mental health diagnoses may change over time
In her latest blog, Dona Matthews summarises a recent publication in The Lancet Psychiatry, which mapped the psychiatric diagnostic trajectories of 184,949 Danish patients over a 10-year period.
[read the full story...]Integrating smoking cessation treatment into routine care for people with mental illness: how will the NHS cope?
Amelia Talbot summarises a qualitative study on people’s views of integrating smoking cessation treatment into routine care for people with mental illness.
[read the full story...]Psilocybin for ‘treatment-resistant depression’: an island of hope in an ocean of uncertainty?
In this blog, UCL MSc students consider an RCT published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which suggests that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may help reduce depression in people with severe and enduring illness, but side effects are common and more research is needed to look into longer term effects.
[read the full story...]Suicide prevention for autistic people: the importance of belonging, mental health and movement
Shania Lorenz summarises a recent network analysis on the complex pathways to suicide and suicidal thoughts among autistic people, which may include a lack of caring and supportive friends, feeling like an outsider, movement differences like restlessness, and mental health problems like anxiety.
[read the full story...]Cellular immune phenotypes of depression: a gateway to precision medicine
In her debut blog, Fabiana Corsi-Zuelli summarises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the role of peripheral immune cells in depression, with a focus on implications for future immunotherapy trials.
[read the full story...]Interventions to foster resilience in nursing staff may help (a little) in the short-term
Olga Lainidi summarises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the effectiveness of resilience interventions on the mental health of nursing staff.
[read the full story...]Add on iCBT: weak evidence of modest benefits in depression and anxiety
Liesbeth Tip and Antigone Lanitis reflect on a recent systematic review and meta-analysis that investigated internet-delivered psychological treatment as an add-on to treatment as usual in depression, anxiety, and PTSD.
[read the full story...]Serotonin hypothesis of depression: balance (and imbalance) is in the eye of the beholder
The 2022 review by Moncrieff et al on the serotonin theory of depression received a great deal of media coverage. In this blog, Rebecca Wilkinson and Sameer Jauhar shed fresh light on this research and what it means for mental health science and practice.
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