Marcus Munafo appraises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective, case-control and cross-sectional studies, which finds that daily tobacco use is associated with an increased risk of psychosis and an earlier age at onset of psychotic illness.
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Farhana Mann summarises an observational study of mood instability in people with mental illness, which explores its relationship with days spent in hospital, frequency of admissions, the likelihood of being sectioned and the chance of being prescribed antipsychotics and mood stabilisers.
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Sally Adams appraises and summarises the SCIMITAR pilot RCT, which investigates smoking cessation for people with severe mental ill health. The paper presents a highly promising bespoke intervention for smokers with bipolar disorder, psychosis or schizophrenia.
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John Baker summarises the REFOCUS RCT, which looks at supporting recovery in psychosis patients through care by community-based adult mental health teams.
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Clive Adams presents a summary of the latest evidence for CBTp and medication in the treatment of psychosis. This blog was published alongside Clive’s talk at the Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia conference in Bath on 11 June 2015
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Farhana Mann publishes her debut blog on an international analysis of psychotic experiences in the general population, which found a mean lifetime prevalence of having a psychotic experience was 5.8%.
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David Steele summarises a review of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, which looks at the mediators and moderators of the placebo effect in psychiatry.
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Kathryn Walsh presents a study of ‘high risk’ young people, which found that cannabis abuse or dependence significantly increased the risk of conversion to psychosis. The research also found that alcohol use weakened the relationship between cannabis use and conversion to psychosis.
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Caroline De Brun highlights the Psymaptic epidemiological prediction tool, which helps commissioners make evidence-based decisions about mental health service provision, specifically early intervention in psychosis.
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Meg Fluharty summarises a recent clinical overview of smoking cessation in people with severe mental illness, which provides useful practical advice to clinicians who are trying to help service users with schizophrenia, psychosis and other conditions to quit smoking
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