Psychological interventions for treating foot ulcers, and preventing their recurrence, in people with diabetes.

Background: Diabetic foot ulceration (DFU) can be defined as a full-thickness wound below the ankle and is a major complication of diabetes mellitus. Despite best practice, many wounds fail to heal, and when they do, the risk of recurrence of DFU remains high. Beliefs about personal control, or influence, on ulceration are associated with better engagement with self-care in DFU.

Ethnic differences in cognition and age in people diagnosed with dementia: A study of electronic health records in two large mental healthcare providers.

Objectives: Qualitative studies suggest that people from UK minority ethnic groups with dementia access health services later in the illness than white UK-born elders, but there are no large quantitative studies investigating this. We aimed to investigate interethnic differences in cognitive scores and age at dementia diagnosis.

Methods: We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) applied to the electronic health records of two London mental health trusts to identify patients diagnosed with dementia between 2008 and 2016.

Do memory aids help everyday memory? A controlled trial of a Memory Aids Service.

There is a growing body of knowledge about the use of compensatory memory aids in memory rehabilitation, but relatively few controlled trials on how to train the use of such aids. This study investigated the effects of systematic training in the use of compensatory memory aids on everyday memory functioning within a Memory Aids Service. In a controlled clinical trial, a comparison was made between treatment participants and waiting list controls.

Delusional jealousy and person directed hostility: 5-year follow-up of a patient after anoxic brain injury.

Aim: This study presents a case report on the emergence of delusional jealousy and person-directed hostility in a patient following anoxic brain injury.

Case Study: The patient did not have a pre-injury history of mental illness, nor a family history of a psychotic disorder. This patient was followed-up over a 5-year period and his history of treatment response, violence risk management and successful rehabilitation are presented.

Effective therapeutic milieus in secure services for women: the service user perspective.

Background: Women in secure setting represent a group for whom gender sensitive treatments are only emergent. Service users are viewed as participants in treatment developments. However, the opinions of forensic patients have, in contrast to other service users, been under researched.

Coherence and other autistic spectrum traits and eating disorders: building from mechanism to treatment. The Birgit Olsson lecture.

Aim: To revisit Gillberg's hypothesis proposed in 1992, which was that anorexia nervosa should be considered within the spectrum of autistic disorders.

Method: A search was made of the literature relating to the behavioural traits, and cognitive, emotional and neuroanatomical intermediate phenotypes that are shared between autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) and anorexia nervosa.

Results: People with eating disorders in the acute phase (less so after recovery) share some behavioural traits (social impairment and restricted and repetitive behaviours) and intermediate phenotypes (weak central coherence, and impaired set shifting and theory of mind) with people in the autistic spectrum.

Factors predictive of length of stay for women in medium secure settings.

Attempts to understand determinates of length of stay in secure settings has been given increased impetus by minimum standard setting and payment by results initiatives. Factors predictive of length of stay in the extant literature include, index offence, previous engagement in therapy, symptomatology, personality pathology and need. These factors were assessed for their predictive validity in a sample of 70 consecutive admissions to a women's medium secure service.

Complement activation as a biomarker for Alzheimer's disease.

There is increasing evidence from genetic, immunohistochemical, proteomic and epidemiological studies as well as in model systems that complement activation has an important role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD). The complement cascade is an essential element of the innate immune response. In the brain complement proteins are integral components of amyloid plaques and complement activation occurs at the earliest stage of the disease.

A systematic review of the terms used to refer to people who use mental health services: user perspectives.

Objective: The terms used to refer to people who receive mental healthcare have been described as either potentially stigmatizing or empowering. This paper systematically reviews empirical studies of terminological usage in order to ascertain current knowledge.

Methods: Multiple databases were searched using the terms 'patient', 'client', 'service user' and 'consumer'.

An audit of the use of breakaway techniques in a large psychiatric hospital: a replication study.

This paper describes an audit study of the effectiveness of breakaway training conducted in a specialist inpatient mental health hospital. Breakaway techniques comprise a set of physical skills to help separate or break away from an aggressor in a safe manner, but do not involve the use of restraint. Staff (n= 147) were assessed on their ability to break away from simulations of potentially life-threatening scenarios in a timely manner, and using the techniques taught in annual breakaway or refresher training.

Novel targets for drugs in schizophrenia.

Since the discovery of the first antipsychotic drug, chlorpromazine, in the early 1950s, all effective antipsychotic drugs have been found to share the common property of dopamine D2 receptor antagonism. There has been some suggestion that simple D2 receptor antagonism may not confer optimal antipsychotic efficacy. Currently available antipsychotic drugs leave many symptoms of the illness untreated and cause unacceptable side effects.

Gray matter abnormalities associated with duration of untreated psychosis.

Purpose: A long duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) is associated with relatively poor clinical and social outcomes. In order to identify whether an anatomically mediated mechanism may give rise to poorer outcomes, it is important to identify whether a long DUP is associated with greater brain structural abnormalities.

Method: 81 patients with first-episode psychosis (schizophrenia, affective, and other psychoses) were scanned using high resolution Magnetic Resonance Imaging.