Daily use of high-potency cannabis is associated with an increased risk of admission and more intervention after first-episode psychosis
ABSTRACT FROM: Schoeler T, Petros N, Di Forti M, et al. Effects of continuation, frequency, and type of cannabis use on relapse in the first 2 years after onset of psychosis: an observational study. Lancet Psychiatry 2016;3:947–53. What is already known about this topic Cannabis is a well-established environmental risk factor for psychosis.1 More frequent users and those who start at a younger age are at greater risk2 and the mean age of onset of psychosis among cannabis users is about 3 years younger than among non-users.3 In Europe and North America, about a third of patients with first-episode psychosis ...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Large, M., Nielssen, O. Tags: Causes and risk factors Source Type: research
Immigrant women and women with learning disabilities have complex mental health needs and service use in the perinatal period
Setting the scene Perinatal mental disorders are important contributors to maternal morbidity and mortality globally,1–3 and are associated with adverse infant and child outcomes.4 There is clear evidence-based guidance on the detection and treatment of perinatal mental disorders in the general population,5 6 but little evidence on vulnerable subgroups who may have distinct clinical presentation and/or service needs. In the two selected studies, population-based regional Canadian data are used to investigate perinatal mental health among migrant women (focusing on their postnatal use of mental health services compare...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Ayre, K., Khalifeh, H. Tags: Expert commentary Source Type: research
Correction
Rubio JM, Correll CU. Reduced all-cause mortality with antipsychotics and antidepressants compared to increased all-cause mortality with benzodiazepines in patients with schizophrenia observed in naturalistic treatment settings. Evidence Based Mental Health 2017;20:e6.
The last name of the second author was misspelt. The correct spelling is Correll. (Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health)
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Tags: Correction Source Type: research
Prognosis of delirium
Clinical casePatient: a woman aged 77 yearsPresent illness The patient had type II diabetes since her 50s which had been fairly well controlled and also suffered from an old myocardial infarction, but had been able to live alone in her apartment, managing the household on her own. She caught a common cold several days ago, which worsened the next few days, and the patient was febrile, unable to eat or drink. The daughter living in the neighbourhood took her to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with severe pneumonia and dehydration and was hospitalised. In the general medicine ward, however, she developed delirium the n...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Furukawa, T. A. Tags: EBMH Evidence-Based Case Conference Source Type: research
Reporting guidance considerations from a statistical perspective: overview of tools to enhance the rigour of reporting of randomised trials and systematic reviews
Conclusions
Reporting guidelines provide researchers with minimum criteria for reporting. If followed, they can enhance research transparency and contribute improve quality of biomedical publications. Authors should employ these tools for planning and reporting of their research. (Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health)
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Hutton, B., Wolfe, D., Moher, D., Shamseer, L. Tags: Editor's choice, EBMH Statistics in Practice Source Type: research
Implementing tools to support evidence-based practice: a survey and brief intervention study of the National Elf Service across Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust
Conclusions
Mental health professionals are engaged with EBM and those that used the National Elf Service felt it did, or could have the potential to impact on their clinical practice.
Clinical implications
Barriers and challenges to implement EBM more widely suggest targeted efforts should be made to embed evidence-based practice into the working culture. (Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health)
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Atkinson, L. Z., Forrest, A., Marriner, L., Geddes, J., Cipriani, A. Tags: Editor's choice Original article Source Type: research
Psychosocial interventions for self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempt in children and young people: What? How? Who? and Where?
We reviewed the evidence for the effectiveness of indicated individual psychosocial interventions for the treatment of self-harm, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in children and young people, with a particular emphasis on the emerging use of electronic methods to deliver psychological interventions. In total, 16 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) were identified, none of which included children under the age of 12 years. Cognitive–behavioural therapy is the most commonly implemented approach in RCTs until now, although problem-solving therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, social support and distal suppor...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Cox, G., Hetrick, S. Tags: Editor's choice Clinical review Source Type: research
What is the impact of a research publication?
An increasing number of metrics are used to measure the impact of research papers. Despite being the most commonly used, the 2-year impact factor is limited by a lack of generalisability and comparability, in part due to substantial variation within and between fields. Similar limitations apply to metrics such as citations per paper. New approaches compare a paper's citation count to others in the research area, while others measure social and traditional media impact. However, none of these measures take into account an individual author's contribution to the paper or the number of authors, which we argue are key limitati...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Fazel, S., Wolf, A. Tags: Open access Perspective Source Type: research
Cognitive-behavioural therapy can prevent transition to psychosis in ultra-high-risk participants in the long term
ABSTRACT FROM: Ising HK, Kraan TC, Rietdijk J, et al. Four-year follow-up of cognitive behavioral therapy in persons at ultra-high risk for developing psychosis: the Dutch Early Detection and Intervention Evaluation (EDIE-NL) trial. Schizophr Bull 2016;42:1243–52. What is already known on this topic? Major efforts have been made to prevent ultra-high-risk (UHR) participants from transitioning to psychosis. Previous studies have examined the efficacy of -3 fatty acid, antipsychotic medication and cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) as preventive interventions, without conclusive results.1 Methods of the study In...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Miron, J.-P., Abdel-Baki, A. Tags: Psychological interventions Source Type: research
Mood Zoom could be a promising tool for daily mood variability monitoring, potentially differentiating bipolar from borderline patients
ABSTRACT FROM: Tsanas A, Saunders KE, Bilderbeck AC, et al. Daily longitudinal self-monitoring of mood variability in bipolar disorder and borderline personality disorder. J Affect Disord 2016;205:225–233. What is already known on this topic Psychiatric evaluations of patients' diagnoses and symptoms largely rely on their autobiographical memory, ability to reflect and verbalise their inner experience and behaviour, and the interviewers' ability to conceptualise these communications. Reliable biomarkers for purposes of diagnosis and follow-up of illness course and treatment effectiveness are constantly sought. Both c...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Isometsä, E. Tags: Outcomes Source Type: research
Uncertain association between depression and stroke risk in a Chinese mega-study
ABSTRACT FROM: Sun J, Ma H, Yu C, et al. Association of major depressive episodes with stroke risk in a prospective study of 0.5 million Chinese adults. Stroke 2016;47:2203–8. What is already known on this topic Depression may be a direct cause of stroke.1 Alternatively, an observed association between depression and stroke may be generated by indirect processes when depression is not the immediate cause.1 Thus, depression, particularly if chronic or recurrent, could act as an upstream influence leading to increased stroke risk via intervening behaviours linked with low motivation such as smoking and lack of exercise...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Brunner, E. J., Weinreb, I. R. Tags: Causes and risk factors Source Type: research
Largest study to date shows overall use of antipsychotics in pregnancy does not appear to significantly increase the risk of congenital malformations
ABSTRACT FROM: Huybrechts KF, Hernández-Díaz S, Patorno E, et al. Antipsychotic use in pregnancy and the risk for congenital malformations. JAMA Psychiatry 2016;73:938–46. What is already known on this topic Atypical and typical antipsychotics (APs) are used to treat bipolar and psychotic disorders, and atypicals are increasingly used off-label to treat other disorders.1 With the rise of their use during pregnancy, we are increasingly in need of high-quality data to rely on for treatment recommendations as data from randomised controlled trials (RCT) are not available. Previous research on whether APs a...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - April 24, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Grigoriadis, S., Peer, M. Tags: Causes and risk factors Source Type: research
Randomised or not?
Dear editor We read with interest the two perspective articles about methylphenidate (MPH) in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) published in the previous issue of Evidence-Based Mental Health.1 2 Both papers quote a study we published in 19973 and note that there is an issue about whether it was randomised or not. Our paper was published in 1997, and at that time the requirement for randomisation was different than now. The original research design makes it hard for us to decide whether the study should be classified as randomised or not, so we describe here the procedure for assigning participa...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - January 19, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lufi, D., Parish-Plass, J. Tags: Letter Source Type: research
Letter in response to Drs Lee and Hoge's commentary
Dear editor, We are pleased to respond to Drs Lee and Hoge's1 commentary on our randomised controlled trial (RCT) published in JAMA (a summary of the original article can be found at https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26241597).2 While we readily acknowledge several limitations to the study, Drs Lee and Hoge have failed to consider or acknowledge several aspects of the study and its results. The main concern with Lee and Hoge's critique is its focus on a single time-point of data that seems to invite readers to ignore all other data. Lee and Hoge argue that the lack of a statistically significant difference between groups...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - January 19, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Erbes, C. R., Thuras, P., Lim, K. O., Polusny, M. A. Tags: Letter Source Type: research
Significant methodological flaws limit conclusions drawn by authors of a recent PTSD mindfulness study
ABSTRACT FROM: Polusny MA. Mindfulness-based stress reduction for posttraumatic stress disorder among veterans: a randomized clinical trial. JAMA 2015;314:456–65. What is already known on this topic Of six major international post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment guidelines, only two mention mindfulness-based treatments, and none recommend their routine use.1 2 Few mindfulness-based intervention studies exist for PTSD, and all have significant limitations in design, outcome measures and/or data handling.1 However, these interventions remain widely used. A core-component of PTSD treatment addresses autonomic...
Source: Evidence-Based Mental Health - January 19, 2017 Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Lee, D. J., Hoge, C. W. Tags: Psychological interventions Source Type: research
