In these times of austerity, there is a lot of interest in computerised cognitive behavioural therapy (cCBT) as a treatment for people with depression and anxiety. It is hoped that this cheap and easy to deliver intervention can help to reduce the long waiting lists for face-to-face talking treatments. I’ve regularly blogged about cCBT over [read the full story…]
Early intervention services for psychosis are aimed at people aged 14-35 who are experiencing a first episode of psychosis or at risk of doing so. The teams that work in this area usually include psychiatrists, psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, social workers and support workers. The NICE schizophrenia guideline recommends that early intervention services are offered [read the full story…]
Regular close contact with specially trained staff is generally regarded as the best course of treatment for someone who has recently attempted to kill themselves, in order to prevent a repeat suicide attempt. Of course it can be difficult to engage with this group of patients after-treatment, but recent research suggests that assertive and motivational [read the full story…]
Young people with mental health problems often suffer from comorbidity, i.e. a complex mix of different conditions like depression, anxiety and conduct problems. Clinical research very often investigates specific treatments (e.g. CBT) for single disorders (e.g. depression) and guidelines and manuals are then developed for clinicians to help them treat these individual conditions. The problem [read the full story…]
Computerised cognitive behavioural therapy is a popular topic for research at the moment. We’ve seen a number of systematic reviews and large scale trials published over recent years, but the vast majority focus on adults with depression, so it’s hard to know how applicable the results are to adolescents. Of course, most young people are [read the full story…]
This week in The British Journal of Psychiatry, researchers in Norway have published results from their randomised controlled trial studying the effects of vitamin D on depressive symptoms in otherwise healthy adults. The study, directed by Dr Marie Kjaergaard and a team of doctors out of the University Tromsø in Norway, found that vitamin D [read the full story…]
Ooh, what a palaver over the depression and exercise story! Such a lot of words have been written about the study published in the BMJ last week, including by me. The study itself was well conducted but frankly disappointing (for us readers and the researchers themselves), finding as it did that a specific treatment to [read the full story…]
Back from my 5-mile run around the woodland yesterday morning I sat down to catch up on the latest elf stories. Many of the national newspapers reported on a new randomised controlled trial published in the BMJ, which studied ‘facilitated physical activity’ for people with depression. The headlines seemed to be in agreement: Exercise ‘no [read the full story…]
Memory clinics are becoming more widespread in the UK and elsewhere. They offer assessment, support, information and advice to people with memory problems and their carers. GPs will often refer patients to memory clinics if they feel that they may be in the early stages of dementia, but need an assessment before a diagnosis can [read the full story…]
Many children suffer from disruptive behaviour or anxiety disorders, but access to care for this group is notoriously poor because there are so many barriers to receiving help. Psychotherapy takes time and there remains a lack of funding and a dearth of trained professionals to deliver quality care. Added to this is the stigma experienced [read the full story…]
