Poor school attendance and anxiety: what’s the link?

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Lucinda Powell summarises a recent systematic review about the association between anxiety and poor attendance at school, which suggests links between anxiety and unexcused absences/truancy, and school refusal.

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Medical cannabis for mental illness: current use is not supported by research #MHQT

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As we prepare for our Cannabis #MHQT event on Wed 26 Sep, Luke Sheridan Rains dissects a narrative review that asks: Is cannabis treatment for anxiety, mood, and related disorders ready for prime time?

His answer is that current evidence does not support the use of medical cannabis for mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression.

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Loneliness in psychosis and related psychological and social factors

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Jingyi Wang publishes her debut blog on a recent systematic review of loneliness in psychosis, which shows that the relationship between loneliness and psychosis remains poorly understood due to a lack of high quality studies.

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CBT for anxiety: new meta-analysis confirms significant improvements to target symptoms

CBT plus taper is effective at reducing benzodiazepine use in the short term (3 months) but this effect is not sustained at 6 months.

Inês Pote summarises a recent meta-analysis of randomised placebo-controlled trials of cognitive behavioural therapy for anxiety and related disorders.

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Poor social communication in children may be a risk factor for social anxiety

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Carla McEnery appraises a new study that asks: are social and communication difficulties a risk factor for the development of social anxiety?

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Virtual Reality for Social Anxiety Disorder: can we get fully immersed in this treatment just yet?

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Joe Barnby publishes his debut elf blog on a recent randomised controlled trial of virtual reality compared with in vivo exposure in the treatment of social anxiety disorder.

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Digital interventions for social anxiety disorder: new meta-analysis finds mixed results

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Carla McEnery reports on a recent meta-analysis of technology-assisted interventions for Social Anxiety Disorder, which finds positive results from Internet-delivered CBT and Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy.

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Are Internet interventions cost-effective for mental health?

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Chris Sampson looks at a systematic review of the economics of Internet interventions for common mental health problems such as depression and anxiety.

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CBT versus psychodynamic psychotherapy for social anxiety disorder: long live the dodo or time for a change in research emphasis?

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Andrew Shepherd appraises a study of the long-term outcomes of psychodynamic therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy in social anxiety disorder, which finds both therapies are efficacious in treating social anxiety disorder in the short- and long-term.

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Does group CBT treatment reduce social anxiety disorder? Possibly, perhaps, maybe not!

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Social Anxiety Disorder used to be called Social Phobia and is generally regarded as the most prevalent form of common anxiety disorder. Estimates of lifetime prevalence vary but according to a US study, 12% of adults in the US will have social anxiety disorder at some point in their lives (Kessler et al, 2005). According [read the full story…]