North London Psychiatry Practice

15/05/2023

This year's Mental Health Awareness Week has begun and the theme is anxiety - such an important and complex (as I've come to realise over the years) issue. There is a fine line between a normal experience (for example, feeling anxious before a driving test or important work presentation) and a clinical disorder. It is so important that people find themselves on the right side of that line, so that those with appropriate anxiety aren't medicalised and those with what can be a hugely debilitating illness aren't deterred from getting help by some notion that they're 'just a bit anxious' and should get over it. Hopefully, discussing anxiety over the coming week will lead to better understanding for everyone.
More information here: https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/our-work/public-engagement/mental-health-awareness-week

The Mental Health Foundation is the home of Mental Health Awareness Week. Mental Health Awareness Week 2023 is taking place 15 to 21 May, and the theme is anxiety. Mental Health Awareness Week is an annual event where there is an opportunity for the whole of the UK to focus on achieving good mental....

22/11/2022

So there you go - loading up on some CBD gummies from the h**p shop won't protect you against the adverse effects of skunk.
Medically, any RCTs in this area are welcome, especially as we need more evidence on optimum dosing. We know that a LITTLE bit of THC (prescribed by people who know what they're doing) often augments the therapeutic effect of CBD.

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has found no evidence that cannabidiol (CBD) reduces the negative effects of cannabis.

04/11/2022

An interesting further development building on the work already done on psilocybin. The principle of using novel psychoactive substances (or medically-refined versions of old psychoactive substances) is well established and there are entire therapy programmes of ketamine-assisted psychotherapy available, particularly in the USA. A field to watch - more research on M**A would be interesting to see next.

In a trial, 25mg of psilocybin put patients in a dreamlike state, making therapy more likely to succeed.

06/02/2020

IT'S TIME TO TALK

Today is Time to Talk day. But more on that later…

I was at the Royal College of Psychiatrists a couple of months ago when I noticed something – there was a new logo behind the reception desk. The Royal College of Pathologists used to occupy the top floor of the building, but they seemed to have been replaced. I had no idea what MHFA stood for, but, when I got into the lift, I saw that the top floor had now been assigned to Mental Health First Aid England.

It is significant that a social enterprise, the principal aim of which is to improve the mental health of the nation by raising awareness of mental health issues through providing training to staff in various organisations to spot the signs of mental distress, is now based in the building of the professional body concerned with mental health. It demonstrates the increasing prominence of mental health and wellbeing in the public psyche. I have seen more patients who are senior bankers and lawyers in the last two years than I did in the previous eight.

High profile people in the public eye talking about mental health issues have certainly helped. Perhaps most remarkable, all things considered, is the involvement of royalty. The Duke of Sussex was very open in a recent television documentary about his mental health issues and he, his brother and their wives jointly started the Heads Together campaign to tackle the stigma around mental health and face some of the issues head on.

Another group promoting openness about mental health issues is Time to Change. They have instituted a Time to Talk Day, which has become an annual event; organisations are encouraged to spend that one day a year encouraging people to talk about mental health issues. And, as I said at the beginning, that day for 2020 is today.

If improved mental wellbeing is to be achieved as a public health objective, these sorts of initiatives are crucial. More of them are springing up and more of them are being acted upon by organisations and companies. We are not yet at the point where we are seeing an impact on public mental health compared to, say, the introduction of the childhood measles vaccine in 1968, but we are at least heading in the right direction.