Effectiveness of psychological interventions for carers of patients with severe mental illness (SMI): a systematic review.

Objectives: Interventions for carers of patients with severe mental illness (SMI) are effective in improving patient outcomes. This review examined the effectiveness of psychological interventions or support designed to help carers of patients with SMI.

Design: A systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) was conducted.

Experiences, acceptability and feasibility of an isometric exercise intervention for stage 1 hypertension: embedded qualitative study in a randomised controlled feasibility trial.

Background: Healthy lifestyle changes for patients with stage 1 hypertension are recommended before antihypertensive medication. Exercise has antihypertensive benefits; however, low adoption and high attrition are common. Patients need easily adoptable, effective and manageable exercise interventions that can be sustained for life.

An examination of service user satisfaction in forensic mental health settings.

High levels of service user satisfaction are viewed as a reliable indicator of a service providing good care and treatment. There has been limited research looking into levels of satisfaction in forensic mental health settings with most work focused on staff satisfaction in these settings. This study examined service users' levels of satisfaction with a forensic mental health service in the United Kingdom.

What is day hospital treatment for anorexia nervosa really like? A reflexive thematic analysis of feedback from young people.

Background: A significant proportion of young people do not respond to the NICE recommended treatment for anorexia nervosa: Family Therapy. Whilst historically these young people would be admitted to inpatient services, which are associated with greater treatment cost, greater risk of relapse, and worse outcome, more recently evidence is building for the effectiveness of day programmes. One day programme that has been found to be effective is the Intensive Treatment Programme (ITP) of the Maudsley Centre for Child & Adolescent Eating Disorders in London, UK.

Delivering clinical studies of exercise in the COVID-19 pandemic: challenges and adaptations using a feasibility trial of isometric exercise to treat hypertension as an exemplar.

The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted on the delivery of clinical trials in the UK, posing complicated organisational challenges and requiring adaptations, especially to exercise intervention studies based in the community. We aim to identify the challenges of public involvement, recruitment, consent, follow-up, intervention and the healthcare professional delivery aspects of a feasibility study of exercise in hypertensive primary care patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. While these challenges elicited many reactive changes which were specific to, and only relevant in the context of 'lockdown' requirements, some of the protocol developments that came about during this unprecedented period have great potential to inform more permanent practices for carrying out this type of research.