Focus on agomelatine.

Background: Agomelatine is a novel antidepressant with agonist activity at melatonin receptors (MT(1) and MT(2)), and antagonistic effects at the 5HT(2c) serotonin receptor.

Scope: This is a review of current evidence for clinical efficacy and safety, drawn from a literature review using Medline and PsycInfo in 2010 using search terms including agomelatine, melatonergic antidepressant and Valdoxan.

Findings: Agomelatine has antidepressant properties and from early on in its prescription agomelatine can improve sleep architecture and efficiency.

Zotepine: a clinical review.

Zotepine is a second generation antipsychotic drug, a substituted dibenzothiepine tricyclic molecule, with effects on dopamine, serotonin and noradrenaline receptors. This article reviews the relevant research studies on the drug based on a search of numerous medical databases for research and literature concerning zotepine and adverse reactions reported to the UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency. There are double-blind trials demonstrating zotepine as an efficacious antipsychotic with a safe side effect profile that compares favourably with other atypical antipsychotics with regard to metabolic effects and movement disorders.

Should women be a special case when it comes to services for psychosis?

Women with psychosis are distinctly different from men with the same condition. In a number of areas the distinctions are quite noticeable, in terms of mood symptoms, physical health issues, post-traumatic issues and social loss, for example. The question is: what represents best care for women, and is care best done in specialist units? Care programmes for women need to manage both complex affective disorders and schizophrenia.

Focus on levomepromazine.

This is a review of the uses of levomepromazine in psychiatry, based upon MEDLINE, PSYCLIT and EMBASE literature searches. The main indications for this drug in psychiatry are schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder. Levomepromazine's sedative properties particularly fit it to use in psychiatric intensive care.

Focus on aripiprazole.

This paper is an overview of recently published research concerning the neuroleptic drug aripiprazole. Aripiprazole is an antipsychotic drug with high affinity for D(2)- and D(3)-receptors and the dopamine autoreceptor. It also has serotonin 5-HT(1A)-receptor partial agonist and 5-HT(2A)-receptor antagonist properties.

Post-traumatic stress disorder in UK police officers.

Prevalence rates for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in police officers may be six or more times the prevalence rates for the community. Once established, is PTSD in police officers more severe than PTSD in civilians? This small study looks at the symptom frequencies in established cases of PTSD in 31 police officers and 72 civilians and compares the two. No significant differences were found, although there was a tendency for higher use of alcohol and to try not to think about the trauma.

Student nurse attitudes to teaching/learning methods.

This article outlines the findings of a study which investigated the attitudes of 203 general and psychiatric student nurses from nine schools of nursing towards a defined number of teaching/learning methodologies. All students were at the end of their first year or the beginning of their second year of a 3-year first-level training. Data were collected using an instrument based on a semantic differential scale.

Quality assurance: is it professional insurance?

Quality assurance (QA) is being hailed as a 'new frontier' of nursing. Its diffusion into nursing theory and practice in the United Kingdom is outlined. QA is not an alien import; favourable preconditions already existed.