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The Mental Elf
New evidence this month on the role of pets in supporting our mental health, early life deprivation and resilience, violence and women's mental health, and trauma-informed approaches to care.
Digital Mental Health: public discussion
Join us in London or online for the next Mental Health Question Time event at 6.30pm on Wednesday 15th March. Get your FREE tickets now!
Alison Faulkner (and her cats) delight in a recent qualitative study looking at the impact pets can have on the everyday lives of people diagnosed with a long-term mental health condition.
André Tomlin summarises the latest instalment of the ERA (English and Romanian Adoptees) study, which explores the neurodevelopmental and mental health trajectories of Romanian orphans who experienced severe levels of early life deprivation.
Sarah Carr explores a narrative review of trauma informed approaches to mental health care, which aims to provide a definition and plan for future development.
Joe Hayes summarises a new meta-analysis in the British Journal of Psychiatry that shows how the initial severity of depression does not alter the efficacy of cognitive behavioural therapy. This...
Kirsten Lawson presents the findings and recommendations of the recent National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death #TreatAsOne report.
Stefan Rennick-Egglestone highlights a brand new IPD meta-analysis of self-guided Internet-based cognitive behavioural therapy for the treatment of depression.
Jasmin Wertz summarises the recently published IMPACT trial, which found that CBT, short-term psychoanalytical psychotherapy and brief psychosocial interventions (psychoeducation) were all equally effective in treating depression in children and...
Ioana Cristea summarises the latest Cochrane review on CBT, third-wave CBT and IPT based interventions for preventing depression in children and adolescents
Guy Goodwin and Andrea Cipriani highlight a number of methodological concerns in a new network meta-analysis of psychosocial therapies for the adjunctive treatment of bipolar disorder.
Derek Tracy and Lisa Lloyd look back over the last 17 years of mental health crisis care and consider the findings of a new survey of Crisis Resolution Teams in...
Raphael Underwood summarises the NEURAPRO trial, which concludes that Omega-3 fatty acids are no better than placebo at preventing transition to psychosis in young people at ultrahigh risk for psychotic...
Lucy Simons discusses whether peer support interventions can help to provide physical health improvements for people living with severe mental illness.
Announcing an exciting new digital partnership between the Evidence Based Mental Health journal, the NIHR MindTech Healthcare Technology Co-operative and The Mental Elf.
Today is #TimeToTalk Day, so we've asked Kirsten Lawson to consider a brand new systematic review out today, which explores the association between mental health-related stigma and active help-seeking.
At the start of LGBT History Month, Sarah Carr presents some recent research into sexual orientation and symptoms of common mental disorder or low wellbeing.
Sarah Knowles explores a qualitative study of young adults' perspectives on producing and consuming user-generated content about diabetes and mental health.
Victoria Betton on a recent meta review of digital health interventions for children and young people with mental health problems. The question is, does the evidence square with her experience...
Murtada Alsaif considers a recent systematic review on the safety and efficacy of adjunctive second-generation antidepressant therapy with a mood stabiliser or an atypical antipsychotic in acute bipolar depression.
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.
Tony McGinn presents a high-level overview of the state of parent training evidence. His blog draws on over 30 systematic reviews with meta-analyses, to bring you a handy summary of...
Derek Tracy writes his debut Mental Elf blog on a recent study that explored the clinical factors that impacted on outcomes in crisis resolution services across two large mental health...
Samei Huda highlights a recent RCT of antipsychotics (risperidone and haloperidol) versus placebo for symptoms of delirium in palliative care, which suggests we need non-drug alternatives for this group of...
Joanne Wallace summarises the recent Cochrane systematic review on risperidone versus placebo for schizophrenia, which concludes that the best available evidence does not show that the benefits of risperidone outweigh...
Ian Hamilton and Mark Holland appraise new NICE guidance on dual diagnosis. Their blog highlights the ongoing inequity in service provision for people with serious mental illness and comorbid substance...
André Tomlin presents the top 10 mental health blogs of the year and highlights our mental health podcast, our new #BeyondTheRoom digital conference service, and the institutional subscriptions to the...
Gemma Shields reports on a recent longitudinal retrospective controlled study of the economic impact of early intervention in psychosis services in England.
Jasmin Wertz presents the findings of a recent systematic review and meta-analysis that explores the relationship between childhood adversity and bipolar disorder.
Camille Hart, Alys Cole-King and Siobhan O'Neill co-author this blog about a recent systematic review of risk factors and risk scales, which explores the feasibility of predicting suicide following self-harm.
Lisa Marzano writes her debut elf blog on a recent cross-sectional survey of Internet use in people with psychosis and depression, which explores the extent of the digital divide in...
Una Foye and Josefien Breedvelt from the Mental Health Foundation publish their debut elf blog on a recent systematic narrative review that aimed to identify and summarise research examining depression...
A repost of Simon Leigh's excellent recent article in Evidence-Based Mental Health on the clear need for consensus and guidance for app developers, as to which patient-reported outcome measures should...
Laura Hemming reviews two recent studies that investigate whether patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital at the weekend had worse clinical outcomes, as well as the specific weekend versus weekday...
Katrina Witt summarises a recent nationwide cohort study, which suggests that infection, particularly with hepatitis, HIV or AIDS, is a significant risk factor for suicide.
Suzanne Dash explores a recent meta-analysis of CBT and antidepressants for depression, which looked at negative and positive responses to treatment and what predicted different outcomes.
Today we are launching #BeyondTheRoom; an exciting new digital conference service that will create a buzz around your event, extend your reach, facilitate a democratic conversation, create a legacy and...
Simon Bradsheet publishes his debut elf blog on a recent review of mental health recovery, which provides a useful wake-up call to recovery enthusiasts and researchers to more fully take...
Ian Hamilton explains why the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have missed a trick by not updating their 2007 guidance on psychosocial interventions for substance misuse.
Vishal Bhavsar considers the findings of a cross sectional survey of over 3,500 men, which measured the prevalence of extremist attitudes in the general population and any associations with mental...
Alan Underwood summarises a population based cohort study of 2.4 million Swedish children, which highlights links between perinatal risk factors such as smoking during pregnancy, and later development of obsessive...
Mark Smith presents the findings from a qualitative systematic review of iCBT for depression, which tries to unearth the mechanisms of change of internet-based or computerised cognitive behavioural therapy.
Ellen Grimas summarises a systematic review on prenatal exposure to cannabis and maternal and child health outcomes, which highlights the lack of high quality research in this area.
Ian Cummins highlights the increased risk of all-cause mortality, suicide, self-harm, violence and victimisation in prisoners. He welcomes a recent review of reviews which contains clinical, policy and research recommendations.
Tracey Roberts examines whether a retrospective observational study accurately investigates the effectiveness of second and first generation antipsychotics.
#UCLJournalClub students worked collaboratively on this blog, which appraises and summarises a recent cross sectional study looking at the psychological mechanisms that mediate effects between trauma and psychotic symptoms.
Marcus Munafo explores a recent study that uses genetic data and family environmental information to quantify the risk of chronic pain and the contribution of risk variants for major depressive...
Podcast: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey
Sara Ketteley, Steven Marwaha and Keith Hawton discuss the findings of the fourth national survey of the mental health of English households. The conversation covers general psychiatric morbidity, bipolar disorder, self-harm, suicide and the impact of austerity on mental illness.
Podcast: Street Triage
André Tomlin speaks to mental health service users, police inspectors, clinicians and researchers in this 40-minute documentary about mental health crisis care. If you are new to street triage, this is a great introduction to get you up to speed.
Our thanks to everyone who contributed to this podcast and especially to Emma McAllister, Jenny Holmes, Michael Brown, Martin Webber and Bill Scott.
