Is it bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder?

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Murtada Alsaif considers the challenges facing psychiatrists in diagnosing bipolar disorder or borderline personality disorder. He reports on a recent qualitative study that explores the practical experience of psychiatrists and nurses and concludes that clinical diagnostic practice cannot reliably distinguish the two conditions.

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Impact of functional alterations on quality of life in Alzheimer disease

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Clarissa Giebel analyses a qualitative study of how functional alterations impact quality of life in Alzheimer disease.

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Independent living: what matters most to very old people?

Older people with learning disabilities need opportunities to speak for themselves

Jill Manthorpe reports on an Australian qualitative study on what independent living means to very old people.

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Service user involvement in mental health care planning

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Alison Faulkner writes her debut Mental Elf blog about a new qualitative study, which explores how meaningful service user involvement can be integrated into the mental health care planning process.

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Community treatment orders and personalisation: an unresolvable paradox?

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Ian Cummins explores new research about community treatment orders and the paradox of personalisation under compulsion.

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Carers’ experiences of involvement in care planning

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Mike Clark summarised a recent qualitative study of carer involvement in care planning, and reflects on what has changed for mental health carers in the last 20 years.

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Decision making among male carers of people with dementia

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Jeanne Carlin explores a study on decision making in male carers of people with dementia and reflects on her own experiences in interpreting the findings.

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Living positively with dementia: findings from a qualitative systematic review

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Clarissa Giebel finds a lot to discuss in a recent qualitative systematic review about living positively with dementia.

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Engagement in activities following total joint replacement

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In her first guest blog Ali Rowsell, a research fellow at the University of Southampton, Faculty of Health Sciences, discussed a longitudinal qualitative study on understanding why people may or may not engage in activities following total joint replacement.

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