Christmas edition of the mental health bulletin

The Christmas edition, no. 328, of the mental health bulletin is available to download now.

Happy Chritmas to you one and all

Mental Health Bulletin No. 327

The pre-Christmas edition, no. 327, of the mental health and social care bulletin is available to download now. There will be a mini bulletin on Friday 23rd

Debt impinging upon mental health

In the report "A nation living on the never-never" by The Smith Institute on the state of the nation's debt, a chapter by Sean Duggan, chief executive of the Mental Health Centre, is devoted to the interplay between debt and mental health. Duggan states that mental health services should acknowledge the need for financial advice and likewise financial services should be aware of the mental health problems aligned to debt.

Mental health and abortion

Having an abortion does not increase the chances of becoming depressed when a woman is experiencing an unwanted pregnancy. Giving birth in these circumstances produced the same numbers of depressed women according to figures published by the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (NCCMH) on behalf of the Department of Health. NCCMH analysed 44 studies but commented that it was unclear whether all the women included in the studies became depressed as a result of unwanted pregnancy or whether some had mental health problems to begin with.

Read the full article
Read the original report

Mental Health Bulletin No. 326

No. 326 of the mental health bulletin is now available to view on the website. Packed with new research, news, publications and conferences

Gambling link to Psychosis

A study by Spanish researchers published in Comprehensive Psychiatry suggests that mentally ill patients who suffer from psychosis are more likely to have an addiction to gambling compared to those suffering from other conditions. Pathological gambling has always been linked to conditions such as alcoholism but little research has been done in the past on its comorbidity with psychosis.

Read the full article
Read the original abstract

Mental Health Bulletin No, 325

Mental Health Bulletin No. 325 is ready to download ahead of schedule

Mental Health Bulletin No. 324

The latest edition , no. 324, of the Mental Health & Social Care Current Awareness Bulletin in now available on the EPHRU website. Full of the latest news, research, publications and conferences

Early warning on dementia

It is estimated that six out of ten cases of dementia in England go undiagnosed, DH notes, as it launches a campaign to raise awareness of the early signs and symptoms of the condition. Based on a pilot run in the North West and Yorkshire and Humberside NHS areas, this campaign comprises TV, radio and print advertisements.

Flawed care in the community

A report from the Centre for Social Justice has condemned community services for mental health as unfinished and flawed and failing the people for whom they were designed for. The lack of sufficient community care services is resulting in patients being sent inappropriately to hospitals that are not providing the required treatments.

Read the full article
Read the report

Mental Health Bulletin No. 323

Ahead of schedule, EPHRU Library's Mental Health Bulletin No. 323 is now available for viewing and downloading.

Mental Health Bulletin No. 322

EPHRU Library has published the latest edition no. 322, of the mental health and social care bulletin. Another week's round-up of the news, research, publications and conferences

Mental Health Bulletin No. 321

The latest edition. no. 321, of the mental health and social care current awareness bulletin is available ahead of schedule. This weekly round has news, research, publications and conferences on all aspects of mental health and social care.

Social phobia a reality

A US study of teenagers published in the journal Pediatrics, concludes that social phobia is a bona fide serious mental condition rather than just shyness.The authors point out that this condition can occur in people who are not naturally shy in other ways. They hope this research will dispel the myth that social phobia is a made up condition.

Read the full article
Read the original abstract

Mental Health Bulletin No. 320

The 320th issue of the Mental Health & Social Care Bulletin is now available to download. Go to the Local Additions section for information about free mental health iPhone apps

Double boost to fight stigma

The long running campaign that aims to stamp out the stigma attached to mental illness, Time to Change, has received a £20 million injection. The Department of Health has pledged £16 million and Comic Relief has also donated £4 million. The care services minister made the announcement on Monday 10th October, World Mental Health Day.

Read the full article

Lack of mental health sevices for female prisoners

A joint inspection by probation, prisons and Crown Prosecution Service inspectorates has found that community mental services for female prisoners are extremely poor and in 53% of cases services were unsatisfactory

Read the full article

World Mental Health Day

Today is World Mental Health day. Visit the WFMH site

Mental Health Bulletin No. 319

The 319th edition of the mental health and social care bulletin is published today. Crammed with up todate information and research. 8 new publications included

Class A Drug treatment declines

The number of people beginning treatment for dependancy on cocaine and heroin fell substantially from 2008/9 numbers according to the National Treatment Agency for Substance Abuse. The greatest decline was in the under 30's age group. This has been seen as a positive indiction of the way drug dependancy is being dealt with and not a lack of services precluding addicts from gaining help

Read the full article
Read the report

Mental Health Bulletin No. 318

The 318 issue of the Mental Health and Social Care Current Awareness Bulletin is out today. It is packed with all the usual topics in both the research and news sections. The website page has been revamped. There are new conferences too.

Read the bulletin

A new dedicated clinic for Club Drugs

A new clinic dedicated to combating addiction to "Club" drugs such as ecstasy and ketamine has opened up in West London at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital. A similar clinic was opened in 2009 at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM). It is hoped that the new clinic will be instrumental in preventing users of club drugs from progressing onto cocaine and heroin





Read the full article

More say for the Learning Disabled needed

Mencap has criticised the ability of health professionals to understand, due to a lack of adequate training, the Mental Capacity Act and to then apply it to people with profound and multiple learning disabilities (PMLD). As a direct result people with PMLD have too little involvement in the decision-making surrounding their care. After a three year collaboration with four other services Mencap have now published a guidance toolkit on their website: Involve Me

Read the full article

Barriers to ethnic carers uptake of dementia services

A study in International Psychogeriatrics journal investigated why carers of ethnic minority dementia sufferers were significantly later in obtaining medical help compared to non ethnic carers. The authors concluded that traditional beliefs surrounding the duty of the family to look after its members prevented carers from seeking specialist help. The researchers also concluded that interventions were required that would break down the barriers to ethnic carers accessing specialist help.

Read the original abstract

"Alarming" NHS child eating disorder statistics

NHS figures just released show a sharp increase in children being treated for eating disorders. In England 2000 children were treated with 197 under the age of 13 being admitted to hospital. The figures from 35 hospitals were procured under the Freedom of Information Act.

Read the full article

Teenage abstinence or economy of truth?

Figures released by by the NHS Information Centre reveal that there has been a decrease in smoking, drinking and drug taking by teenagers. The data for 2009-2011 was procured from a survey conducted on 7,264 11- 15 year olds from 246 schools


Read the full article

Antidepressant use on the increase

The Office of National Statistics has released Social Trends 41. Included in this comprehensive set of data is mental health information. The report gives figures that show the use of antidepressants has risen dramatically since 1991. In that year 9 million prescriptions were authorised, but by 2009 it had risen to 39.1 million. The data also shows that in England in the period of 2009-10, 11% of the population was diagnosed with depression.

Read the full article
Read the report

Male Eating Disorders Unrecognised

According to the Royal College of General Practitioners eating disorders are going undetected in men. Apparently a doctor when faced with an abnormally thin male is likely to diagnose depression rather than anorexia or bullimia. Although NHS figures register a 66% rise in the past ten years in men being admitted to hospital for eating disorders, the charity BEAT says the NHS does not keep statistics for non-hospitalised sufferers and this could be the tip of the iceberg.

Read the full article

The failure of drug treatment policies

The coalition government has indicated that it wants to radically change the way drug addicts are treated. In the wake of this the Centre for Policy Studies, a Conservative party linked think tank, has concurred that the present methods are not working. It recommends that methadone prescribing and benefits funding that cost around £3.6bn per year be replaced with a rehabilitation programme

Read the full article
Read the original report

Parents, teenagers and drinking

A survey carried out on behalf of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation has highlighted the influence of parental drinking habits on their offspring. It appears that even moderate parental overindulgence can affect teenage attitudes what is acceptable limits of intake

Read the full article

Family support includes brothers and sisters

Statistics gathered by the mental health charity Rethink have found that support for the siblings of people with mental illness is an area that needs addressing. In the case of 20% of the participants of the survey, there was no support at all. This had a detrimental effect on the mental health of the siblings themselves

Read the full article

No value in early autism screening

A new review of the literature recommends, inspite of US practice, that there is no value in screening very young children for autism. The authors of the study published in Pediatrics report that more harm than good might be achieved as misdiagnosis is common. Furthermore with no cure or adequate support in place little is gained by screening

Read the full article
Read the original abstract

Leptin and depression

The hormone Leptin has been linked to levels of depression in women. Leptin controls appetite and women who had higher amounts of this hormone showed lower levels of depression. Body Mass Index played no part in the results of this research which is being presented at The Endocrine Society's 93rd Annual Meeting in Boston

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Self harm in Wales on the rise

A study commissioned by the Welsh Assembly: 2011 Children and Young People’s Wellbeing Monitor for Wales has shown that self harm is on the rise amonst young people in Wales. The charity YoungMinds commented on the findings intimating that the actual figures were probably higher than those cited in the report. However the stuiy found that drinking and smoking in young people is still declining.

Read the full BBC article
Read the report

Hope for new Alzheimer's treatments

The Alzheimer's Society have announced that their research programme could lead to new treatments for dementia in the next ten years. It is hoped the program Drug Discovery will find ways of delaying dementia and also alleviating the severity more effectively

Read the full article

Depression, GPs and confidence

A newly published survey gives an eye-opening insight into the way depression is managed by GPs. The survey was conducted as a part of the"There's more to depression" campaign. The research found that although 96% of GPs try to ascertain the severity of a patient's depression at the initial diagnosis, their confidence in managing depression from then on drops, and only 11% of GPs felt they had the expertise to give expert advice. Read the full article

Appealing against detention under the Mental Health Act

The personal experiences of patients appearing before the First-tier Tribunal (Mental Health), formerly the Mental Health Review Tribunal have been collated into an innovatative report commissioned by the Administrative Justice and Tribunals Council (AJTC) and the Care Quality Commission (CQC). 150 interviews were conducted with patients who had appealed against being detained under the Mental Health Act. It is the first time that such information has been available Read the full article Read the report

New campaign to combat stigma

Time to Change is launching a new campaign to tackle the stigma surrounding mental illness. The campaign "It's time to talk, it's time to change" comes in the wake of the results of an online survey which revealed the reluctance of people who had had mental health problems to discuss this openly.

Read the full article

SLaM's dual OCD trials

The Obsessive Compulsive Disorder service for children and adolescents run by SLaM (South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust) is the only one in the country that provides this range of treatments. It is currently running two trials which they hope will improve outcomes. One is assessing Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) delivered by telephone and the other is investigating the prescribing of the drug D-Cycloserine.

Read the full article

Robbing Peter to pay Paul?

Mental health leaders are warning that adult mental health and social care services are at risk in the rush to address the targets for child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). The government strategy No Health without Mental Health states that it is proven early intervention in childhood reduces mental health problems in adulthood and expects the NHS to prioritise CAMHS

Read the full article

The family & future mental health

A report published by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ)has criticised the government's new mental health strategy. It states that no provision has been made to tackle family breakdown which is a major cause of mental health problems in children and in adulthood. The report findings are in conclusion to a poll carried out on 1000 people affected by mental health problems of which 50% cited family breakdown as a causal.

Read the full article
Read the CSJ report

Mephedrone available on the Internet

The dance drug Mephedrone which was made illegal nearly a year ago is still available to buy on the Internet, according to a BBC Radio 5 Live investigation. Internet dealers are offering large quantities of the Class B drug along with others that are yet to be made illegal. Also other dealers are now selling Mephedrone in the hope of introducing users to hard drugs.

Read the full article

Does it cut both ways?

The government has announced its plans to boost the profile of mental health services to an equal footing with physical conditions. £400 million is to be injected with particular focus on child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). It is hoped that as well as reducing stigma, 1.2 million people will recover earlier than previously. However charities such as Young Minds have warned that the spending cuts elswhere, such as Sure Start centres, will undermine the strategy.

Read the Department of Health document
Read the charities reply

Progress but no cure

Two studies describe new methods of detecting Alzheimer's disease. One, a blood test, hopes to indicate whether there is a predispostion towards dementia when older. The other, a scanning test,will allow early detection and subsequent treatment. However both studies in the Journal of the American Medical Association reiterate that they offer no more insight into a cure for Alzheimer's

Read the full article
Read the scanning test abstract
Read the blood test abstract

Mental Health detention rises

There has been a large rise in the number of people being detained under the Mental Health Act in England. An increase of 30% on the 2008-9 period was recorded in 2009-10. For the first time in five years there was a rise in inpatient cases, data from the Information Centre showed.

Read the full report