It’s good to talk: training psychiatrists to improve communication with patients

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John Baker evaluates the recent TEMPO cluster RCT, which explores training to enhance psychiatrist communication with patients who live with psychosis.

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Exercise in severe mental illness: barriers and motivating factors

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Joanne Wallace considers a recent systematic review of exercise in severe mental illness, which focuses on the factors that motivate people to exercise, and the barriers that can prevent physical activity.

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Sex matters: why have females been excluded from addiction research?

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Ian Hamilton explores two recent articles that consider the shocking sex and gender inequities in addiction research.

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Supported employment for people with severe mental illness

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Raphael Underwood highlights a recent international systematic review of individual placement and support for people with serious mental illness who are seeking to return to work.

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Adding antidepressants to antipsychotics in schizophrenia: do they work, for what, and are they safe?

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Alex Langford explores the emerging findings from a recent meta-analysis looking at the efficacy and safety of antidepressants added to antipsychotics for people with schizophrenia and schizophrenia-like psychosis.

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Have the EAGLES landed? Safety of varenicline, bupropion and NRT in smokers with and without mental illnesses

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Paul Christiansen presents the results of the EAGLES RCT into the neuropsychiatric safety and efficacy of varenicline, bupropion, and nicotine patches in smokers with and without psychiatric disorders.

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Outcomes in first episode manic psychosis

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Matthew Broome writes his debut Mental Elf blog on a three-year clinical and functional outcome comparison between first episode manic psychosis and first-episode schizophrenia.

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Schizophrenia and urban deprivation: When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do?

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Samei Huda reviews a recent study of schizophrenia and subsequent urban deprivation, which revisits the social drift hypothesis.

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Antipsychotic overprescribing in people with learning disabilities #UCLJournalClub

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Tayla McCloud from the #UCLJournalClub presents the findings of a cohort study showing that antipsychotics are being over-prescribed in people with learning disabilities.

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Childhood maltreatment and bipolar disorder

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Emily Currell writes her debut Mental Elf blog about a recent Lancet Psychiatry systematic review, which reports that childhood maltreatment is associated with an unfavourable course of bipolar disorder in adult years.

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