The excellent Time to Change initiative is quick to point out that people with mental health problems are more likely to be the victims of violence than the perpetrators. However, it remains the case that certain mental health conditions are more frequently associated with antisocial behaviour and violence than others. Personality disorders (PD) are one [read the full story…]
The NICE guideline on borderline personality disorder (BPD) tells us more about what not to use to treat the condition than it does really help to recommend proven therapies. The guideline recommends the following: “Do not use brief psychological interventions (of less than 3 months’ duration) specifically for borderline personality disorder or for the individual [read the full story…]
Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic medication used to treat the symptoms of schizophrenia, most usually used as a treatment of last resort where people have not responded to other anti-psychotic treatments. It has a number of severe side effects including and can also cause the excessive production of saliva and weight gain.. The researchers in [read the full story…]
The notion of the therapeutic community emerged in the 1940s and was developed in the UK throughout the subsequent decades. Therapeutic communities developed participative approaches to working with people with long term mental illness. Usually residential, they offered a complete therapeutic milieu with therapists and patients living in the same environment and within the same [read the full story…]
Events that occur immediately before and after birth (perinatal factors) can often have a significant impact later in life. Research has shown that the risk of many mental health and neurological conditions (schizophrenia, ADHD, depression, autism and eating disorders) increases when complications occur around this time. However, there have been relatively few studies to date [read the full story…]
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) affects our mood and our ability to interact with others. It’s one of the most common personality disorders, affecting around 2% of the population. People with BPD often have other mental health conditions such as substance misuse problems, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, eating disorders or other personality disorders. Many people with [read the full story…]
A keystone of policy relating to the support of people with learning disabilities in England is the involvement of service users in planning and delivering their support. This is also reflected in policy relating to risk assessment and management processes. However, the evidence from the literature at present suggests that this involvement is not yet [read the full story…]
The Department of Health have published their proposed next steps to develop services for offenders with severe personality disorders in the NHS and Criminal Justice System. This follows a consultation that ran from Feb-May this year. In short, this work seeks to ensure that: the personality disordered offender population is a shared responsibility of the [read the full story…]
Treating depression is rarely straightforward, but treating someone who is depressed and also has comorbid personality disorders can be even more complicated. Studies have shown that short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) is a treatment worth considering for depression and personality disorders when they occur individually, but this intervention has not yet been studied systematically for people [read the full story…]
This study set out to look at associations between psychiatric disorders in people with learning disabilities and challenging behaviours. The study used a large sample and controlled for sex, age, autism and degree of learning disability. The researchers used data from 47% of all people with learning disabilities who were known to and receiving services [read the full story…]
