CATCH Academics’ article published in BMJ Open

A paper by members of CATCH is published in the current issue of the BMJ Open under the category of Mental Health.

The article: E-therapies in England for stress, anxiety or depression: what is being used in the NHS? A survey of mental health services is authored by CATCH PhD student, Matt Bennion and CATCH academics Dr Abi Millings and Professor Roger Moore who have been joined by Professor Gillian Hardy from the Department of Psychology at the University of Sheffield.

The study aimed to document the range of web and smartphone apps used and recommended for stress, anxiety or depression by the NHS in England.

It found that there were 13 different web apps and 35 different smartphone apps for depression, anxiety or stress available through either referral services or the online NHS Apps Libraries. The apps used and recommended vary by area and by point of access.

The paper concludes that future research is required to establish the evidence base for the apps that are being used in the NHS in England.

You can read the article and share it with your networks here http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/7/1/e014844. For more information about this study, please contact Laura Murray.

Newborn screening – BMJ award finalists

A prevention category featured in this years BMJ awards and the CLAHRC supported Newborn Screening was short-listed.     We didn’t win but there was some worthy opposition and it was a great experience.

The project demonstrated that the number of patients identified with five inherited metabolic disorders was in line with expectations and crucially that the positive predictive value of screening was better than anticipated.   All patients identified were placed on treatment within the agreed metric (day 17 of life) and in all cases this was earlier than would have been the case without screening avoiding severe disability or even death in the thirty, true positive cases detected.

To read about the other finalists, please click here.

Written by Professor Jim Bonham

The team (Anupam Chakrapani, Jim Bonham, Christine Cavanagh)

Is computerised therapy for adults with depression the way forward?

Computerised Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (cCBT) was initially developed due to the demand for face-to-face CBT. There are many arguments for and against this method of therapy.

A recent trial "Computerised cognitive behaviour therapy (cCBT) as treatment for depression in primary care (REEACT trial): large scale pragmatic randomised controlled trial" looked at the efficacy of cCBT.

View the article published in the BMJ here.

Can healthy people benefit from health apps?

Health apps for healthy people - what do you think?

Is there any evidence of harm?
Are they useless?
Do they enhance anxiety?
Do they simply reinforce one's healthy behaviour?

If these questions get you thinking... then why not click here and read more.