Volunteer activity in specialist paediatric palliative care: a national survey.

Objective: To assess the involvement of volunteers with direct patient/family contact in UK palliative care services for children and young people.

Method: Cross-sectional survey using a web-based questionnaire.

Setting: UK specialist paediatric palliative care services.

Understanding the role of the volunteer in specialist palliative care: a systematic review and thematic synthesis of qualitative studies.

Background: Volunteers make a major contribution to palliative patient care, and qualitative studies have been undertaken to explore their involvement. With the aim of making connections between existing studies to derive enhanced meanings, we undertook a systematic review of these qualitative studies including synthesising the findings. We sought to uncover how the role of volunteers with direct contact with patients in specialist palliative care is understood by volunteers, patients, their families, and staff.

Volunteers in specialist palliative care: a survey of adult services in the United Kingdom.

Background: Worldwide, the demand for specialist palliative care is increasing but funding is limited. The role of volunteers is underresearched, although their contribution reduces costs significantly. Understanding what volunteers do is vital to ensure services develop appropriately to meet the challenges faced by providers of palliative care.

The personal experience of dysmenorrhoea: an interpretative phenomenological analysis.

This study explored six women's experiences of primary dysmenorrhoea using semi-structured interviews analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Rather than focusing on pain, participants broadened the study focus to coping with the menstrual process as a whole. This was seen to be mediated by menstrual taboos and by the theme of 'order', arising from a strong feeling of a menstrual timetable and the need for rational explanation.

Psychological therapies in bipolar disorder: the effect of illness history on relapse prevention - a systematic review.

Objectives: Despite some encouraging outcomes and shared components of psychological therapies specific to bipolar disorders, not all studies found conclusively that the addition of a psychosocial intervention to pharmacological interventions improves outcomes. There was some tentative evidence from post hoc analyses that patients with more than 12 previous episodes did not benefit from psychoeducation or cognitive therapy. This paper presents a systematic review and meta-analysis which examines the overall efficacy of bipolar disorder-specific psychological therapies and the impact of the number of previous episodes on the efficacy of psychological therapies in relapse prevention.

Mental health and childbirth.

Because of the potential impact that all mental health problems in the antenatal and postnatal periods may have on the mother and her child, the NICE guideline should be read by all midwives. Those in management positions must help implement and disseminate the guideline. In the last article in this series, we will look more closely at implementation.

Treatment options in moderate and severe depression: decision analysis supporting a clinical guideline.

Background: Treatment options for depression include antidepressants, psychological therapy and a combination of the two.

Aims: To develop cost-effective clinical guidelines.

Method: Systematic literature reviews were used to identify clinical, utility and cost data.

Occupational stress in consultants in accident and emergency medicine: a national survey of levels of stress at work.

Objective: To assess levels of occupational stress in UK accident and emergency (A&E) consultants.

Method: Postal survey of complete enumeration of UK consultants.

Main Outcome Measures: GHQ-12 and SCL-D, and respondents' reported perceptions of stressors.