All GPs to have dementia training

PA, The Independent,
Monday, 22 December 2008

Every GP will be trained to spot the first signs of dementia under plans to provide sufferers with a better quality of life, the Government said today.

“Memory clinics” will also be set up in every town as places where patients can get treatment and support to live their lives as normally as possible, Care Services Minister Phil Hope said.

A total of 700,000 people in the UK have a form of dementia.

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Post traumatic stress rises among war zone soldiers

By: Martha Linden, PA, The Independent
Tuesday, 4 November 2008

Nearly 4,000 new cases of mental health disorder were diagnosed last year among armed services personnel, according to figures published today.

Mental health statistics released by the Ministry of Defence showed 3,917 new cases of armed services personnel assessed to have a mental disorder in 2007 by the MoD’s department of community mental health.

A breakdown of the statistics showed that, in line with the first nine months of last year, there were no statistically significant differences in the rates of overall mental disorder between those who had deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan and those who had not deployed during the last quarter of 2007.

But the figures showed a significantly higher rate of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among those who had deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan compared with those who had not deployed to these countries.

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Muslim GP faces sack over homophobic letter

By: Harriet Shawcross, PA, The Independent
Tuesday, 28 October 2008

A former head of the Islamic Medical Association sent a homophobic letter to a magazine for GPs, saying gay people needed the “stick of law to put them on the right path”, the General Medical Council heard today.

Dr Muhammad Siddiq was working as a GP at the Walsall Teaching Primary Care Trust when he wrote the letter to Pulse in July last year.

A GMC fitness to practise panel, in Manchester, heard Dr Siddiq’s letter read: “There is punishment and fine if you throw rubbish or filth on the streets, the gays are worse than the ordinary careless citizen, they are causing the spread of illness and they are the root cause of many sexually-transmitted diseases.

“They need neither sympathy nor help, what they need is the stick of law to put them on the right path.”

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Strict new benefit rules ‘will drive mentally-ill people into poverty’

By: Nina Lakhani, The Independent
Monday, 27 October 2008

People with mental health problems will be driven into poverty by the introduction of a new benefit today, campaigners have warned.

Around half of applicants for the employment and support allowance are expected to be rejected because of much stricter rules, forcing thousands of people with mental health problems on to the much less generous job-seekers allowance, or into jobs they are unable to cope with and which could lead to a relapse in their conditions.

Thousands more will face tough new sanctions on the benefit which replaces incapacity benefit, if they fail to attend regular work-based activities and interviews. This could lead to benefits being withdrawn completely.

Experts say this fails to take into account the erratic nature of mental illness and could leave sick people destitute.

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Ignored: the mentally ill killed by drugs that are meant to help them

By: Nina Lakhani, The Independent
Sunday, 5 October 2008

Campaigners plan to use World Mental Health Day to highlight discrimination within the medical profession against some of its most vulnerable patients.

Daniel Galvin died of a heart attack in August. He was six stone overweight and had high blood pressure; his hair was falling out and he was incapacitated by trembling legs. He was 29.

Daniel’s family believe his symptoms, and his untimely death, were caused by side effects from the powerful psychiatric drugs he had been taking for 14 years. He is, they think, one of thousands of people with mental health problems who have died prematurely because their physical health was neglected.

Rufus May, a clinical psychologist, said yesterday: “The real tragedy about Daniel’s death is that it symbolises how little things have changed in psychiatry. Young lives are still being wasted because we fail to listen to people and simply prescribe powerful drugs with little regard for their physical well being.

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Sick leave linked to early death

By: Laura May, PA, The Independent
Friday, 3 October 2008

Employees who take regular periods of long-term sick leave die earlier than their colleagues, a study by the British Medical Journal said today.

Researchers found that workers with more than one absence requiring a doctor’s note on their records were 66 per cent more likely to die prematurely.

And workers who had to stay off work because of psychiatric problems were two and a half more likely to die of cancer.

Those who had to take time off because of circulatory disease were the most likely to die before their healthy colleagues. Researchers found they had a four time higher chance of a premature death.

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ADHD: Ritalin over-prescribed to children

By: Jeremy Laurance, Health Editor, The Independent
Wednesday, 24 September 2008

The controversial drug Ritalin is being over-prescribed to children to control their unruly behaviour and should be avoided in those aged under five, the Government’s drugs watchdog said yesterday.

Instead of reaching for the prescription pad when confronted with a child who is inattentive, undisciplined and constantly on the move, doctors should refer parents for training in how to handle their children and alert teachers to provide support.

An estimated 3 per cent of children and 2 per cent of adults are affected by the condition. The guidance issued by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence (Nice) says children suspected of having ADHD should be assessed by specialist teams to determine the most appropriate treatment.

The guidelines say parent training and education programmes should be offered first for ADHD – not drugs.

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Vitamin B12 may protect brain

By: PA, The Independent

A key vitamin found in meat, fish and milk may help protect the brain as it ages, researchers said.

Vitamin B12 could help stop the brain shrinking – possibly preventing memory loss in older people and dementia.

A study of 107 people aged 61 to 87 found that those with lower vitamin B12 levels in their blood were six times more likely to experience brain shrinkage compared with those who had higher levels of the vitamin.

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Management of postnatal depression, a clinical review

By: Charles Musters, specialist registrar in perinatal psychiatry, Elizabeth McDonald, consultant in perinatal psychiatry and Ian Jones, senior lecturer in perinatal psychiatry.
BMJ, 8 August 2008

• Postnatal depression occurs after 13% of births.
• The nature of the puerperal trigger is still unknown, but several psychological, social, and biological factors probably play a part. Genetic factors have been implicated
• A previous history of postnatal depression or of any mental illness, poor social support, and depression during the pregnancy all increase the risk of developing the illness
• Postnatal depression needs to be identified and treated promptly and adequately because it can result in a range of lasting adverse outcomes for mother and child
• A range of psychological therapies is effective in treating postnatal depression
• Drugs are also effective and some antidepressants are thought to be safer in breastfeeding mothers than others. But in general the long term outcomes for exposed babies are unknown. Although tricyclic antidepressants have been prescribed for longer, most recent reproductive safety data, which include thousands of exposures, have been for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Because of concerns about toxicity, tricyclics are prescribed less often than selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors for postnatal depression.
• Drugs are recommended for women who decline psychological therapy, or for whom there would be an unacceptable delay in providing non-pharmacological measures.

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Typhoid carriers detained for life in mental hospital …

By: PA, The Independent
Monday, 28 July 2008

Many British people were locked up for life at a mental hospital because they were typhoid carriers, it was reported today.

At least 43 women were detained at Long Grove asylum in Epsom, Surrey, between 1907 and the facility’s closure in 1992, according to the BBC.

Despite having recovered from the disease, they were held because they still carried the bacterium, deemed to be a public health risk, the corporation’s Newsnight programme claims.

After antibiotic treatments emerged in the 1950s, the women continued to be detained but on mental health grounds, it is claimed.

Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, told the BBC: “They (the detained women) certainly were infectious; they had the potential to spread the infection to others if they had poor hygiene and they were preparing food and all that type of thing. But as a public health risk, I think they were basically targeted and there was a lot of over-exaggeration about the threat they posed.”

1. Typhoid fever is transmitted by the ingestion of food or water contaminated with faeces from an infected person.
2. The disease is characterised by a prolonged fever, as high as 40C, sweating, gastroenteritis, and diarrhoea.

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