Psychiatrists, GPs and other professionals working in the substance misuse field will benefit from reading these new guidelines from the British Association for Psychopharmacology. The guidelines cover the pharmacological management of alcohol, nicotine, opioids, benzodiazepines, stimulants and associated comorbidity with mental health problems and substance use or abuse in pregnancy. They look specifically at comorbidity, [read the full story…]
Ooh, what a palaver over the depression and exercise story! Such a lot of words have been written about the study published in the BMJ last week, including by me. The study itself was well conducted but frankly disappointing (for us readers and the researchers themselves), finding as it did that a specific treatment to [read the full story…]
All general practices will be interested in this 4-page document from the Royal College of General Practitioners, which will help them respond to the Department of Health strategic objective about domestic violence. The guidance provides an overview to help general practices develop their own domestic abuse policy. It also includes resources to help the practice [read the full story…]
NICE has developed a series of case studies for GPs to help apply the recommendations from the Common mental health disorders guideline to practice. The case studies which are informed by clinical experience, include contributions from GPs, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists to help GPs when considering the range of treatments and approaches that are recommended [read the full story…]
The Commissioning for Quality and Innovation (CQUIN) payment framework enables commissioners to reward excellence by linking a proportion of providers’ income to the achievement of local quality improvement goals. The framework aims to embed quality within commissioner-provider discussions and to create a culture of continuous quality improvement, with stretching goals agreed in contracts on an [read the full story…]
This new guidance from NICE is aimed at people responsible for ensuring the social and emotional wellbeing of children aged under 5 years. It will be of interest to professionals who plan and commission children’s services, as well as midwives, health visitors, GPs, paediatricians, practitioners working in child and adolescent mental health services, social workers, [read the full story…]
SIGN (Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network) are the main producer of clinical practice guidelines in Scotland. They have produced a wide range of guidelines relevant to mental health over the years including publications on perinatal mood disorders and the non-pharmaceutical management of depression. They have also been widely praised for their excellent mobile apps, the first [read the full story…]
The Department of Health have published a new piece of best practice guidance, which they hope will assist those who need to share information about individuals involved in domestic violence, for example at a MARAC (Multi Agency Risk Assessment Conference) – a local, multi agency victim-focused meeting where information is shared on the highest risk [read the full story…]
The World Health Organization’s Mental Health Gap Action Programme (mhGAP) aims to tackle mental, neurological and substance use disorders in low- and middle-income countries. 14% of the global burden of disease is made up by these disorders and many people do not have access to the treatments they need. The programme asserts that with proper [read the full story…]
A multidisciplinary group of Dutch scientists have produced a guideline to help diagnose and treat medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUPS) and somatoform disorders (SD) in primary care, hospitals and occupational health settings. The guideline summarises the best available evidence and attempts to answer 4 key questions, for which the following findings are presented: 1. Preventive [read the full story…]
