News round-up (8 November 2024)

The long-awaited reforms to the Mental Health Act are due to be published next week, and will include proposals to stop people detained under the Act being held in police cells. There is good news, too, from a new trial, which has found that a digital tool using computer-generated avatars can help ease the symptoms of people with psychosis. Another randomised trial shows that, in low-income countries, group therapy is not only effective at treating depression but improving the wellbeing of others in the same household. A promising study looking at brain cells in humans and macaques has found a set of cells in the amygdala that could be targets for treatment.

 

Main stories this week

Insomnia app recommended by NICE unavailable in most of NHS

An app that can help people with insomnia is still unavailable to most patients in England, despite having been recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

 

Anxiety epidemic among children leads to sharp increase in mental health referrals

The number of young people being referred to mental health services for anxiety in the Bristol, Bath and Wiltshire area has more than doubled in the past five years.

 

Young people’s moods are directly affected by ‘likes’ on social media, study finds

Young people are more sensitive to social media feedback such as “likes” than adults, and this directly affects their mood, a new study has found.

 

Mental health charities offer cautious welcome for autumn budget

Mental health charities have welcomed the mental health measures in last week’s budget, though with some reservations.

Other stories this week

New bill will ban use of police cells in mental health detentions

Police will no longer be able to hold people who are being detained for mental health reasons in police cells, under government plans to reform the Mental Health Act.

Currently the police can use cells as a place of safety for up to 24 hours to allow those needing immediate care to be assessed by a doctor. The new bill will also introduce additional rights for people receiving treatment.

The Mental Health Bill, to be published on Wednesday, will introduce a 28-day limit on how long autistic people and people with learning disabilities can be detained, unless they have a co-occurring mental health condition.

Many of the proposals in the bill are taken from legislation drafted by the previous government. These include raising the threshold to detain people, and requiring that there is a realistic prospect that suggested treatment would have a therapeutic benefit.

 

Trial finds digital avatars reduce distressing voices in psychosis

A new therapy using computer-generated avatars can help reduce the distress caused to people with psychosis who hear voices, a trial has found.

AVATAR therapy is a series of guided therapy sessions during which voice hearers are able to have a conversation with an animated digital representation of their distressing voice.

The trial, carried out by researchers at King’s College London, was published in Nature Medicine. The 345 participants were randomly assigned to one of three groups: AVATAR brief (six sessions of therapy), AVATAR extended (12 sessions of more personalised therapy), or continue with their usual support.

The participants in the two AVATAR groups worked with a therapist to create a computerised visual representation of the voice that they hear (the avatar) and over several sessions, they learn to stand up to the voice and take control. At the end of 16 weeks, the participants in the two AVATAR groups were less distressed by the voices and had improvements in mood and wellbeing compared to those who did not receive the therapy.

 

Study reveals cost-effective benefits of treating depression in low-income countries

Treating people in low-income countries for major depressive disorder can also help improve their physical health and household members’ wellbeing, a new study has found.

The researchers from the RAND think tank examined a programme in Malawi, southern Africa, which trains local people in rural communities to help treat people who suffer from depression. They carried out a randomised trial of 487 people in a network of 14 health facilities in a remote region of the country. The treatment for depression included group therapy sessions, led by clinic staff and trained local community members, focusing on managing stress, managing problems and strengthening social support. Some patients also received medication.

At the end of the year, the prevalence of depression in participants was 38% lower than in the control group. Six months following the start of treatment, household members also reported fewer depressive symptoms, improved functioning and sizable reductions in their perceived burden of care.

 

Amygdala Cells Linked to Anxiety

Researchers at the University of California, Davis have identified specific cell types in the amygdala linked to anxiety, revealing potential new targets for treatment.

The scientists took samples from the brains of humans and rhesus macaque monkeys, separated individual cells and sequenced their RNA to see which genes are active in a particular cell. They then searched for specific cell types that expressed the genes implicated in anxiety and other disorders in humans.

The researchers found a group of cells expressing a gene called FOXP2, and discovered that in humans and macaques, FOXP2 is expressed in cells on the edges of the amygdala, called intercalated cells. Separate research in rodents has found that a small group of FOXP2-expressing cells play a role as “gatekeepers,” controlling signal traffic in or out of the amygdala. The combined data suggests that intercalated cells could be a potential treatment target for anxiety disorders.

 

National Institute for Health and Care Excellence unveils CHEERS-AI

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has developed a new reporting standard for health economic valuations of AI technologies.

CHEERS-AI (Consolidated Health Economic Evaluation Reporting Standards for Interventions that Use Artificial Intelligence) aims to improve transparency and quality in the reporting of studies on the cost-effectiveness of AI enabled healthcare interventions.

NICE has conducted a review of how AI for healthcare is evaluated and identified limitations including poor quality input data, conflicts of interest in the authors, a lack of transparent reporting and unclear information about the functionality of the technology.

The new reporting standard,  which is based on existing best practice in health economic evaluation reporting, will help health care decision makers to understand the value of treatments that use AI, helping patients to gain faster access to those most likely to work.

 

Playing mahjong may help prevent dementia and relieve depression symptoms

Playing mahjong may help prevent dementia and relieve symptoms of depression, a new study has found.

The scoping review, published in the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, looked at 53 studies, of which 47 were observational and six were intervention studies. It found that the observational studies suggested that more mahjong-playing experience was associated with better cognitive, psychological and functional abilities. As an intervention, playing mahjong was found to enhance general cognitive abilities and short-term memory and relieve depressive symptoms.

Researchers said the studies also found that players aged 60 or above had stable or even improved cognitive function, better eye-hand coordination than non-players and experience a sense of being socially connected.