The role of mindfulness training in sustaining weight reduction: retrospective cohort analysis.

Background: Psychological stress has an established bi-directional relationship with obesity. Mindfulness techniques reduce stress and improve eating behaviours, but their long-term impact remains untested. CALMPOD (Compassionate Approach to Living Mindfully for Prevention of Disease) is a psychoeducational mindfulness-based course evidenced to improve eating patterns across a 6-month period, possibly by reducing stress.

Implementing proposed reforms of the Mental Health Act for people with intellectual disability and autism: the perspective of multidisciplinary professionals in intellectual disability teams.

Background: A recent government white paper sets out proposals for reforms to the Mental Health Act 1983 (MHA). Some of these proposals affect people with intellectual disabilities and/or autism.

Aims: To explore both positive and unintended negative effects of the proposed reforms by gathering the perspectives of healthcare workers from multiple disciplines, working with intellectual disability and/or autism in community and in-patient settings.

Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder in people with intellectual disability: statistical approach to developing a bespoke screening tool.

Background: Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is common among people with intellectual disability. Diagnosing ADHD in this clinically and cognitively complex and diverse group is difficult, given the overlapping psychiatric and behavioural presentations. Underdiagnoses and misdiagnoses leading to irrational polypharmacy and worse health and social outcomes are common.

Psychiatry and neurodevelopmental disorders: experts by experience, clinical care and research.

People with neurodevelopmental disorders often present with challenging behaviours and psychiatric illnesses. Diagnosis and treatment require patients, families and healthcare professionals to work closely together in partnership, acknowledging their respective areas of expertise. Good treatment outcomes should also be underpinned by robust research evidence.

Long-stay patients with and without intellectual disability in forensic psychiatric settings: comparison of characteristics and needs.

Background: In recent years, concerns have been raised that too many patients stay for too long in forensic psychiatric services and that this is a particular problem in those with an intellectual disability.

Aims: To compare the characteristics, needs, and care pathways of long-stay patients with and without intellectual disability within forensic psychiatric hospital settings in England.

Method: File reviews and questionnaires were completed for all long-stay patients in high secure and a representative sample of those in medium secure settings in England.

Measuring relational security in forensic mental health services.

Relational security is an important component of care and risk assessment in mental health services, but the utility of available measures remains under-researched. This study analysed the psychometric properties of two relational security tools, the See Think Act (STA) scale and the Relational Security Explorer (RSE). The STA scale had good internal consistency and could highlight differences between occupational groups, whereas the RSE did not perform well as a psychometric measure.

Vitamin D deficiency in an inpatient forensic intellectual disability service.

No research has examined vitamin D deficiency among inpatients within forensic intellectual disability services, despite their potentially increased risk. Tests of serum 25(OHD) concentration in blood are routinely offered to patients within the service as part of the admission and annual physical health check. Results were classified as deficient <25, insufficient <50, sufficient 50-75 or optimal >75.

The clinical, forensic and treatment outcome factors of patients with autism spectrum disorder treated in a forensic intellectual disability service.

Background: To describe the characteristics of those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) treated within a forensic intellectual disability hospital and to compare them with those without ASD.

Method: Service evaluation of a cohort of 138 patients treated over a 6-year period.

Results: Of the 138, 42 had an ASD.

Predicting institutional violence in offenders with intellectual disabilities: the predictive efficacy of the VRAG and the HCR-20.

Background: There is a developing evidence base to support the use of risk assessment instruments in offenders with intellectual disability (ID). The aim of this study was to try to develop this literature with the inclusion of a control group of mentally disordered offenders without an ID, using the HCR-20 and VRAG.

Materials And Methods: The VRAG and the HCR-20 were completed for a group of offenders with an ID (n = 25) and a control group (n = 45), in four medium-secure units across the UK.

Personality disorders in offenders with intellectual disability: a comparison of clinical, forensic and outcome variables and implications for service provision.

Aim: To establish any differences between patients with and without a diagnosis of personality disorders, being treated in a secure inpatient service for offenders with intellectual disability (ID) in the UK.

Method: A cohort study involving a selected population of people with ID and offending behaviours. Results The study included a total of 138 patients, treated over a 6 year period - 77 with a dissocial or emotionally unstable personality disorder and 61 without.