Using the repertory grid technique to explore the experience of compassion by mothers in a mother and baby unit.

Despite differences between Mother and Baby Units (MBUs) and other inpatient psychiatric settings, research has not yet explored the nature and value of compassionate care offered by MBU staff despite the increasing importance of compassion in healthcare. This novel study investigated the experience of compassionate care by fifteen mothers admitted to a MBU in England using the Repertory Grid Technique. Our findings indicated that these women perceived their MBU care as compassionate.

Serving a community sentence with a mental health treatment requirement: Offenders' perspectives.

Background: Safe alternatives to custody for offenders with mental disorder are vital, not least as self-harm, and violence rates are rising among them in prisons. In England and Wales, the Criminal Justice Act 2003 allows a mental health treatment requirement (MHTR) to supplement a community or suspended prison sentence, but this combination is poorly understood and rarely sought.

Aim: To explore offenders' perspectives on the MHTR.

Outcomes for women admitted to a mother and baby unit: a systematic review.

Mother and baby units (MBUs) provide inpatient psychiatric care for mothers and their infants up to a year after childbirth. They are commissioned to support the mother-infant relationship as well as stabilize maternal mental health. As their efficacy at meeting these aims had not previously been systematically assessed, this paper reviewed the international literature relating to psychological outcomes following MBU admission.

Efficacy of mood stabilisers in the treatment of impulsive or repetitive aggression: systematic review and meta-analysis.

Background: Individuals with repetitive or impulsive aggression in the absence of other disorders may be diagnosed with intermittent explosive disorder according to DSM-IV, but no such diagnostic category exists in ICD-10. Mood stabilisers are often used off-license for the treatment of aggression associated with a variety of psychiatric conditions, but their efficacy in these and in idiopathic aggression is not known.

Aims: To summarise and evaluate the evidence for the efficacy of mood stabilisers (anticonvulsants/lithium) in the treatment of impulsive or repetitive aggression in adults.