CBT and motivational interviewing: best bet for cannabis cessation? #CannabisMatters

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Mark Monaghan writes his debut Mental Elf blog about a systematic review on psychological and psychosocial interventions for cannabis cessation in adults. Part of our #CannabisMatters series, this review suggests that CBT and Motivational Interviewing may improve outcomes in a self-selected population of cannabis users.

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Mental health crisis care: clinical and cost effectiveness of models of care

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Caroline Leah publishes her debut blog on crisis care for people with mental health issues, which concludes that better quality evidence is needed to support the overall effectiveness of crisis care interventions.

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Away from crime and into treatment: diversion and aftercare for drug-using offenders

The review showed some evidence of publication bias

Can we steer drug-using offenders away from crime and into treatment? Chris Sampson explores a study of the cost-effectiveness of diversion and aftercare programmes for offenders using class A drugs.

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Folic acid for depression: results of the FolATED study

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Susie Johnson reports on the FolATED RCT and economic evaluation of folic acid for depression. The study finds no evidence that folic acid is clinically effective or cost-effective in augmenting antidepressants and speculates instead that methylfolate may be a better candidate for future research.

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Lithium is less expensive than olanzapine in treatment-resistant depression, but has unclear clinical benefits

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Treatment-resistant depression (TRD) still represents a challenge to psychiatric practice. Since patients have usually failed at least two antidepressants, drugs originally prescribed for other conditions are often tried as an augmentation (Souery er al., 2006). Amongst them, lithium (a mood-stabiliser used in the treatment of bipolar disorders) as well as atypical antipsychotics (AAPs, indicated for [read the full story…]

Drug and talking treatments can reduce violent behaviour in mental health and criminal populations, but more research is needed

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Studies show that over 1.6 million people are killed as a result of violence each year and it is thought that this estimate is considerably less than the actual number who die from assaults. Violence in inpatient hospital settings and emergency departments is the subject of a NICE guideline that is currently being updated. A [read the full story…]

Insufficient evidence for low-intensity interventions to prevent depression relapse or recurrence

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Anyone who has ever been depressed knows that there is always a chance that the condition may return. We know that the more episodes of depression an individual has, the more likely they are to have further episodes, so it’s vital that we do all that we can to prevent relapse after depression. This feeling was [read the full story…]