Posts tagged with 'public health'
Alcohol: know your limits and increase the price
5th April 2009
A recent article in the British Medical Journal (Kmietowicz 2009) reports that "The chief medical officer for England has called for a minimum price of 50 pence (0.54; $0.70) to be charged for a unit of alcohol to reduce excessive drinking and its associated harms. Liam Donaldson said that antisocial …
Recent research: five papers on depression, stigma, biology, & extending the reach of psychotherapy
2nd April 2009
This set of five papers documents, in part, our mixed viewpoints on depression. Worryingly, Mehta & colleagues show deteriorating public attitudes towards mental illness in England (and to a lesser extent Scotland) between 1994 and 2003. Meanwhile Blumner et al demonstrate a shift towards a more biological view on causes …
Time to change: let’s challenge mental health discrimination
7th February 2009
On 26th January the BMJ reported on the new £18 million Time to Change campaign " ... to tackle the discrimination and stigma that surrounds mental health ... The Time to Change initiative is funded by Comic Relief and the National Lottery. Its aim is to tell the public that …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 4th post: light, lifestyle & sleep
16th September 2008
The SIGN draft guideline day on "Non-pharmacological management of mild to moderate depression" last Wednesday continued with two further presentations in this first section on "Lifestyle and Alternative/Complementary Therapies 1". After the "grade A" recommendations on exercise and St John's Wort given during the first two presentations (covered in the …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 3rd post: herbs & supplements
14th September 2008
This is the third in a series of blog posts on last Wednesday's SIGN draft guideline seminar on "Non-pharmacological management of mild to moderate depression." The first session of the day was on "Lifestyle and Alternative/Complementary Therapies 1". Yesterday's blog discussed the first presenter, Ian Ross's talk on the value …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 2nd post: exercise
13th September 2008
In yesterday's blog post, I gave some background to the SIGN guideline on non-pharmacological management of depression as well as details of how to download the draft guideline or see a webcast of the seminar where the draft guideline was presented. On the day of the seminar itself, last Wednesday, …
Draft SIGN non-pharmacological depression treatments guideline, 1st post: introduction & overview
12th September 2008
The Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) was formed in 1993 with the objective " ... to improve the quality of health care for patients in Scotland by reducing variation in practice and outcome, through the development and dissemination of national clinical guidelines containing recommendations for effective practice based on current …
Recent research: exercise, diet, and smoking
4th September 2008
There are a series of interesting recent research studies here highlighting the drastic reduction in physical exercise taken by young people as they move into their teenage years, the fascinating protective association between muscular strength and mortality in men even allowing for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potentially confounding factors, the …
A successful community approach to tackling increasing overweight in children
10th August 2008
The 8th August edition of the BMJ (Moynihan 2008) reports "The small town of Colac in rural Australia is attracting national and international attention for its approach to fighting childhood obesity, and reducing health inequalities." The news item goes on to say "Two hours west of Melbourne, with 11,000 inhabitants, …
“The demon drink” – social costs and social responses
18th January 2008
Modest alcohol intake seems pretty harmless and maybe even does a bit of good healthwise. However last month's editorial (Gilmore and Sheron 2007) in the Christmas edition of the British Medical Journal drummed in points it's important to remember. Ian Gilmore is President of the Royal College of Physicians and …