A new study on depression and the delivery of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been published in The Lancet. Researchers from the University of Bristol studied 297 depression sufferers, of whom half received conventional CBT and half received online CBT. Their findings showed that the online therapy was more beneficial than the face-to-face option.
The interim report of the The Boorman review into the health and wellbeing of NHS staff has just been published. It has warned that staff are being bullied and harrassed in the workplace which is resulting in high levels of distress.
A study published in the journal Psychiatry Research has found that schizophrenics have problems dealing with fearful emotions. Researchers studied and compared results from sixty people, half who were suffering from schizophrenia.
A study published in Science magazine observed the behaviour of Capuchin monkeys and consequently how social bonds are formed. Researchers found that the monkeys prefered the company of the scientists who, when interacting with them, mimicked their own actions.
The European Council for Optometry and Optics has advised that Down's Syndrome patients should have regular eye tests. New research published in Optometry and Vision Science has found that the structure of the eyes of people with Down's Syndrome differs significantly from people who do not have the syndrome.
A leading charity, the British Heart Foundation, has responded to a study published in the British Journal of Health Psychology which investigated the prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients who had suffered heart attacks. The charity's spokesmen said it was vital that rehabilitation programmes were better funded to ensure both mental and physical recovery could be achieved.
Data from World Health Organization (WHO) surveys covering 100,000 people from twenty one countries has been analysed by US researchers from Harvard University. The authors looked at how mental disorders affected the occurances of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
A survey conducted at St Patrick's University Hospital in Ireland has concluded that 1 out of 10 people who have a mental illness do so in silence for up to a year before they ask for help. Feelings of shame and fear of the stigma attached to mental illnesses meant that sufferers would not even discuss their problems with their closest friends.
An American study to be published in the August 9th online edition of the journal Stroke says that using a combination of antidepressants with cognitive behavioural therapy improves the recovery from clinical depression for patients who have suffered a stroke. The research found that after eight weeks, within a cohort of 101 patients, the decrease in depression scores was 47% for those on combined treatment compared to 32% for those who had received standard care.
A Danish study in the Archives of General Psychiatry has found that whilst the instances of myocardial infarction for patients with severe psychiatric problems is comparable with the rest of the population, mortality rates are much higher for these patients.
