Robert Howard
53.5K posts
@ProfRobHoward
UCL old age psychiatrist | Improving dementia and mental health treatment | RCPsych President candidate | Layla | Clinical academic training
There is no serious danger of leaving depression in pregnant women untreated with antidepressants. Absolutely none. The clinical effect is far below what is clinically relevant and the drugs double suicides and have many other serious harms. It is naive to think that clinicians can weigh benefits and harms. If they did, no one would use antidepressants.
🧵People are often told the pairing of antidepressants with therapy is optimal, suggesting the dulling of distressing symptoms will create space for deeper emotional work. 1/
Politics vs Evidence? “The independent appeal panel has ruled that some elements the committee used to inform its decision-making in relation to the cost-effectiveness of donanemab & lecanemab need further consideration.” thetimes.com/article/27f32f…
Just about everyone knows someone with a mental health condition who is not getting completely better with standard mental health care. New and innovative treatments should be embraced and encouraged. Millions of people are waiting and hoping.
COVID INQUIRY: MODULE 3 REPORT “Fundamental flaws in the UK’s approach to IPC [infection prevention & control] guidance, for example in relation to the use of PPE, put patients and healthcare workers at risk.” — Baroness Hallett, Chair of the Covid Inquiry Read more here… ⬇️
There is no serious danger of leaving depression in pregnant women untreated with antidepressants. Absolutely none. The clinical effect is far below what is clinically relevant and the drugs double suicides and have many other serious harms. It is naive to think that clinicians can weigh benefits and harms. If they did, no one would use antidepressants.
The largest meta-analysis ever done on ACT and depression just landed! 263 studies. 21,830 participants. I remember when "where are your data?" was the question. We are not there anymore. ACT produces a large overall effect on depression (g = .88), climbing to g = 1.18 in studies that directly targeted it. And even studies that weren't targeting depression still produced significant reductions. You don't have to aim at it to help with it. One thing I want to mention: the team used the ACBS study list rather than standard search engines, because standard engines miss non-English and non-indexed journals in ways that aren't neutral in their impact. That list exists because of thousands of hours of work by people who refused to leave studies out just because they weren't indexed in the right places. Good science requires that kind of stubbornness. Congratulations to the whole team for their work! You can check out the full analysis here: stevenchayes.me/4bllnFH I've also created a fun Notebook LM version of it, which you can access here: stevenchayes.me/4benE5w #psychologicalflexibility #ACT #ACTtherapy
I’m starting to question the very concept of ‘delusions’: the very act of labeling you as delusional implies a superiority on my part - that my grasp of reality is superior to yours in a way that does not merit argumentation. Why would that ever be an appropriate stance to adopt?
