Mental Health & Social Care Bulletin No. 406

The Department of Health has announced that it is extending its street triage scheme of sending out mental health nurses with police officers on the beat to five new areas. The department has also announced that it will use its presidency of the G8 summit to highlight dementia by holding a dementia summit. Meanwhile NICE has launched a guideline consultation on psychosis and schizophrenia. All this and more in Bulletin 406. 

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.

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Antipsychotic drugs linked to blood clots

Research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has linked the prescribing of antipsychotic drugs to increased dangers of blood clots. The Nottingham University study maintains that the evidence is the most persuasive yet. Patients prescribed these drugs in the last two years have a third higher risk of developing clots. Other scientists agree that antipsychotics are powerful drugs that should be treated with caution.

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Religion & Psychosis

A study in Psychological Medicine journal refutes previously held ideas that intense religious experiences will result in serious mental problems. The evidence points to the fact that even the experience of brief pyschosis will be limited.

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Psychosis and drug abuse

A UK study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry has examined the role of substance abuse in the severity of first-episode psychosis. 272 patients were assessed and the researchers concluded that persistant substance abuse caused higher levels of relapse, than for those who had no misuse of drugs.
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Cannabis and Psychosis link debunked

There has been much research supporting the theory that psychosis or schizophrenia prevalence is increased by cannabis usage. In a new online study in advance of publication in the journal Schizophrenia Research, UK scientists at Keele University refute this with findings following a systematic review.


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