Over 40% of all cigarettes smoked in England are smoked by people with severe mental illnesses. This group are more likely to become physically ill than the rest of the population, but they are less likely to be given help to quit. Smoking is especially common among people with mental health problems: whilst 1 in [read the full story…]
Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a condition that has recently been given a significant amount of TV airplay and media coverage, perhaps most notably in the Channel 4 documentary Jon Richardson: A little bit OCD, which received mostly good reviews from mental health groups. Despite this reasonable public profile, our knowledge about the best way [read the full story…]
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is the most common behavioural disorder in the UK, with sufferers experiencing inattentiveness, hyperactivity, and impulsivity. It is estimated to affect 3-9% of school aged children and young people in the UK (those aged 3 to 18), and 2% of adults worldwide (DSM-IV criteria). Typically ADHD will continue from childhood [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline for depression in children and young people was published way back in September 2005. Any elf worth his salt will tell you that a whole heap of evidence has been published since then, so it’s good to see an evidence update appear this week from NICE, which brings together research published from 17th [read the full story…]
I wonder if the timing of this publication was planned to be so close to the release of DSM-5, but this debut guidance on social phobia (now known as social anxiety disorder) is certainly going to ruffle some feathers. It fuels the discussion about the medicalisation of human personality traits and some will see it [read the full story…]
NICE have published a new guide to help commissioners provide evidence-based care for people with dementia. Providing care for our ageing population seems not to have been out of the news in recent years and rightly so, especially as the headline stories are frequently not positive. A recent Care Quality Commission report found that people [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on the longer-term care and treatment of self-harm was published in November 2011 and contains research published up until January 2011. A group of experts including psychiatrists, psychologists and social workers has compiled an evidence update looking at the high quality research that has been published in the last two years (from [read the full story…]
Conduct disorders are the most common reason why children are referred to mental health services and it’s estimated that around 5% of all UK children aged 5-16 have a diagnosis of the condition. Around half of the young people affected by conduct disorders go on to have a serious mental health problem as an adult. [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on common mental disorders (PDF) was published back in May 2011, which means that it only included evidence published up until the end of 2010. This is a fast moving field, so NICE have now put out an evidence update, which focuses on new evidence published from Sept 2010 to Oct 2012. This [read the full story…]
NICE have published a new evidence summary (PDF) on the problems associated with alcohol misuse, which augments the clinical guideline (PDF) that came out 2 years ago. This is a fast moving area, so quite a significant amount of research has been produced in the last 2 years, which may have an impact on clinical [read the full story…]
