Can Tetris help to reduce the intensity and distress of traumatic intrusive memories?

Sometimes life seems like Tetris: it throws at you several, different and unrelated things, and you try to mix and match them, and fit together everything at your best in a seemingly infinite struggle. 
Trying to clear the stage now and then, and maybe get that winning combo, just before everything becomes too overwhelming...

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Shot on Canon 550D, edit in Lightroom Classic CC.

Tanya Garg blogs a study which finds that visuospatial tasks like playing Tetris, do not reduce the intensity and distress of intrusions after watching a traumatic film.

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Half of all frontline health workers were mentally ill during early months of COVID-19 pandemic

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Kate Chartres and Dafni Katsampa summarise a systematic review exploring anxiety, depression, trauma-related, and sleep disorders among healthcare workers during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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How could MDMA-assisted and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy help people with depression and PTSD?

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Anya Borissova and Philip Brooks consider a recent review exploring MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy for trauma-related mental health difficulties.

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Is complex trauma associated with worse outcomes than non-complex trauma?

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Rudo Dube summarises a longitudinal study which finds that people exposed to complex trauma had higher levels of general psychopathology and were more likely to experience conditions such as PTSD, depression and psychotic symptoms.

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“We are family, even when apart”: family separation and mental health in refugees

Silhouette of a angry husband turning back while his wife and daughter are looking at him.Angry father turning back on his family

In her debut blog Elizabeth Hall reviews a study focusing on the impact of family separation on mental health outcomes among settled refugees in Australia.

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Psychotherapeutic approaches and treatment efficacy for comorbid BPD and PTSD

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Natalie Kashirsky summarises a systematic review on optimising treatment for comorbid BPD (borderline personality disorder) and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder).

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Do therapist factors have an impact on PTSD outcomes in children and adolescents?

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In his debut blog, Sam Thompson explores a paper that looks into the associations between therapist factors and treatment efficacy in randomised controlled trials of trauma‐focused CBT for children and youth with PTSD.

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Youth mental health interventions: umbrella review presents efficacy and acceptability data

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In his debut blog, Nick Meader tackles a huge umbrella review of youth mental health interventions, which presents the efficacy and acceptability of 72 different approaches to help children and young people.

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Are trauma-informed treatments effective for justice-involved youth?

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Laura Hemming summarises a meta-analysis which struggles to make firm conclusions about the effectiveness of trauma programs for justice-involved youth.

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No evidence that medication can prevent PTSD in people exposed to trauma, according to new Cochrane review

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In his debut blog, Richard Meiser-Stedman explores a recent Cochrane systematic review which finds no evidence for the use of medication to prevent the onset of PTSD in people who have been exposed to a traumatic event.

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