Antidepressants: benefits and harms in children and adults

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Samei Huda discusses the findings of a recent review into suicidality and aggression during antidepressant treatment. The systematic review and meta-analyses were based on clinical study reports and included some important adverse effects of antidepressants in children and young people.

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Do happy people live longer?

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Mark Horowitz looks at the prospective UK Million Women Study and wonders if happiness itself has a directly impact on mortality.

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Joining the dots: mental and physical health

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Lia Ali and colleagues from the IMPARTS project present the findings of their group discussions about a recent review of mortality in mental disorders. Along the way she discusses the staff training they carried out and the tweet chat they ran to consider the implications of this research, both to individuals and on the global burden of disease.

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Substance use disorders increase mortality following release from prison

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Andrew Jones summarises a recent nationwide longitudinal cohort study, which explores the relationship between substance use disorders, psychiatric disorders, and mortality after release from prison.

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How much impact can optimism and positivity have on clinical outcomes in cardiovascular disease?

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Jake Crawshaw summarises a systematic review which investigates the relationships between positive psychological constructs and health outcomes in cardiovascular disease.

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Oral care with antiseptics reduced ventilator associated pneumonia

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17 RCTs were included in this review of oral care to reduce ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP). Evidence suggests it can reduce prevalence but not ICU mortality, length of ICU stay or duration of mechanical ventilation.

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Increased risk of mortality in people with learning disabilities and epilepsy: Findings from a systematic review

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Epilepsy affects approximately 22% of people with learning disabilities, compared to approximately 1% of the general population.

Here, Silvana Mengoni looks at a systematic review of the literature investigating mortality in people with learning disabilities and epilepsy.

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Premature mortality in bipolar disorder

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Elena Marcus appraises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of premature mortality in bipolar affective disorder, which finds that people with bipolar disorder have increased mortality rates compared with the general population.

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Varenicline and the risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events and death

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Natasha Clarke publishes her debut Mental Elf blog about a new systematic review and meta-analysis investigating the risk of neuropsychiatric adverse events associated with the smoking cessation drug varenicline.

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Is moderate alcohol consumption good for you?

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Beware underpowered observational studies! Marcus Munafò helps us understand why a recent BMJ study on all cause mortality and age specific alcohol consumption is not as simple as the newspapers would have us believe.

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