Treating PTSD in children and young people #ISTSS2019

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In Dr David Trickey’s debut blog for Mental Elf, he comments on the new ISTSS treatment guidelines for children and young people with post traumatic stress disorder.

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Digital self-management of schizophrenia: the MindFrame app

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Muna Dubad explores a Danish qualitative analysis of young adults’ perspectives of a smartphone app (MindFrame), which is designed for people recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, to empower them to self-manage their condition.

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“Where I End And You Begin”: A personal commentary on Russo’s ‘Through the eyes of the observed’ #PsychDrugDebate

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Sarah Carr shares her own experiences of psychiatric medication and provides a critical reading of Jasna Russo’s new #PsychDrugDebate paper: ‘Through the eyes of the observed: re-directing the research on psychiatric drugs’.

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How should we redirect research on psychiatric drugs? #PsychDrugDebate

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Alison Faulkner dissects the new McPin Foundation Talking Point Paper by Jasna Russo entitled: Through the eyes of the observed: re-directing research on psychiatric drugs.

Follow #PsychDrugDebate today on Twitter for further discussion about this vital issue.

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Commonly prescribed psychiatric drugs: do they work?

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John Baker summarises a review of commonly prescribed medication that covers seven psychiatric drugs, including antidepressants, antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, methylphenidate and cholinesterase inhibitors.

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Enteral feeding tube guidelines not followed in residential settings

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For some people with learning disabilities, difficulties in eating and swallowing mean that enteral tubes are used to consume food and sometimes to take medication.

Here, Fawn Harrad looks at a Belgian study in which researchers observed whether staff in residential settings were following guidelines in the use of enteral feeding tubes to administer medications.

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Direct training with accessible materials improves knowledge of medication and capacity to consent in small group of adults with learning disabilities

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People with learning disabiilties may be on multiple medications and be on them for long periods of time. They need access to the best possible support to help them make decisions about their medications. In this post, we look at an action research study that offered training to people to see if it improved their knowledge and their capacity to consent.

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35% of people with learning disabilities in Australian city prescribed psychotropic medications

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It is estimated that in UK, up to 200,000 people with learning disabilities are given anti-psychotic drugs, which can have powerful side effects, like risk of weight gain, impotence and strain to the cardiovascular system, and with little evidence of their efficacy in treating challenging behaviour. There are equal concerns about the use of anti-convulsant [read the full story…]

People with learning disabilities still not getting adequate information and support to make decisions about medications

Health information

Making the decision to consent to medical treatment requires access to information, presented in clear and understandable ways. There is evidence that that people with learning disabilities do not always understand information about medications they are prescribed, for example from the medication matters project carried out at the Norah Fry centre  which produced a series of [read the full story…]

Psychiatric outpatients clinic improves prescribing of medication in people with learning disabilities

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Many studies have looked at the difficulties associated with medication management in people with learning disabilities. This study set out to looked at an approach to medication management and treatment in an outpatient psychiatry clinic for 198 community-residing children and adults with learning disability who were referred to the clinic and subsequently discharged over an [read the full story…]