Tuesday 6, July 2010

NICE publish two new guidelines on alcohol-use disorders

NICE have published two guidelines in June relating to alcohol-use disorders:

1. Alcohol-use disorders: preventing the development of hazardous and harmful drinking
2. Alcohol-use disorders: diagnosis and clinical management of alcohol-related physical complications

The first piece of guidance focuses on prevention and early identification of alcohol-use disorders amongst adults and adolescents.

The second piece of guidance would be of particular interest to health professionals who are skilled in the assessment and monitoring of acute alcohol withdrawal symptoms and signs in adults and young people.

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Guidance

The Royal College of Psychiatrists have published a new guideline titled: Self-harm, suicide and risk: helping people who self-harm. The guidance will be of interest to psychiatrists, mental healthcare professionals, third-sector workers, those who self-harm and their carers.

NICE have published guidance titled: How to stop smoking in pregnancy and following childbirth. The guidance is intended for commissioners, managers and practitioners who have a direct or indirect role in, and responsibility for, helping women to stop smoking in pregnancy and following childbirth.

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Evidence based summaries

The May 2010 (Vol. 14 Issue 1) issue of the Evidence-Based Mental Health Journal was published last month. As always, it features a wide range of reliable mental health research that has been synthesised and summarised for busy professionals.

Click here to see the May 2010 (Vol. 14 Issue 1) issue of Evidence Based Mental Health Journal.

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Systematic reviews

This month there have been 4 newly published or updated reviews from the Cochrane Library:

• Interventions for smoking cessation and reduction in individuals with schizophrenia
• Meditation therapies for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
• Pharmacological interventions for borderline personality disorder
• Psychological interventions for antisocial personality disorder

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Annual Evidence Updates

NHS Evidence - Public Health have published its second Annual Evidence Update on Drugs Misuse. The theme for this update is Drugs misuse treatment in offender populations. This year, as well as identifying a number of new guidelines and key policy documents, the update focusses on treatments for female offenders. The collection have teamed up with experts in the field of drugs addiction to evaluate the evidence and put it into context.
To access the complete findings follow this link.

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Economic Evaluations

There are 4 newly published economic evaluations from the NHS Economic Evaluation Database (NEED):

• A cost-effectiveness analysis of alcohol prevention targeting licensed premises
• Cost-effectiveness of donepezil in the treatment of mild or moderate Alzheimer's disease
• Cost-effectiveness of nidotherapy for comorbid personality disorder and severe mental illness: randomized controlled trial
• One-year clinical and economic consequences of oral atypical antipsychotics in the treatment of schizophrenia

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Health Technology Assessments (HTA)

• Aripiprazole (Abilify) for major depressive disorder
• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing for post-traumatic stress disorder
• Financial incentives to improve adherence to anti-psychotic maintenance medication in non-adherent patients - a cluster randomised controlled trial: FIAT (Financial Incentives in Assertive Outreach)
• Positron Emission Tomography (PET) for Alzheimer's disease (AD)
• St. John's Wort (Hypericum perforatum) for major depressive disorder
• Telephone intervention for depression

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Policy reports and service development

The following reports and service development documents have been published in June:

Royal College of Psychiatry

• Role of the Consultant Psychiatrists: Leadership and excellence in mental health services
• Looking Ahead: Future Development of UK Mental Health Services

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)

• The smoke filled room

North East Public Health Observatory

• Use of mental health services by minority ethnic groups in England

The Kings Fund

• How patients choose and how providers respond?

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News

NHS Choices - Behind the Headlines

• Can magnets ease Alzheimer's?
• Gambling addiction linked to genes
• Bingeing teens 'risk brain damage'
• Bone marrow and mental illness

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Calling all depression specialists...

NHS Evidence - mental health will be publishing another Annual Evidence Update (AEU) on Depression on Monday 4th October, 2010.

The purpose of the AEU is to collate all of the most important evidence from guidelines, systematic reviews and other high quality research that has been published in the past 18 months.

We need people with expert subject knowledge to help us to review the evidence we find this time around. If you have a clinical background or expert subject knowledge on Depression, and you would be able to spare a couple of hours of your time to help us with the reviewing process then please contact Faye Hodges at Faye.Hodges@minervation.com.

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Useful links

This months useful links are as follows:

• Schizophrenia Annual Evidence Update 2010
• Depression Annual Evidence Update 2009
• Royal College of Psychiatry - Continued Professional Development Online

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