News

Congratulations to Dr Nicholas Hallet for his recent publication on Sage Journals website.

Following the Court of Appeal case of R v Edwards in England and Wales, there has been increasing pressure for expert psychiatric witnesses to comment explicitly on how a defendant’s mental disorder affects their culpability. Culpability is the degree to which a person can be held morally or legally responsible for their conduct, but defining culpability has proved difficult.

During 2015 Ian Lea and the Eating Disorders team took part in a shared research study with Kings College London by helping Kings College London to recruit patients with Anorexia Nervosa from our Trust as participants in the study.

Outpatient Interventions for adult anorexia nervosa typically have modest impact on weight and eating disorder symptomatology.  This study examined whether adding a brief online intervention focused on enhancing motivation to change and the development of a recovery identity (RecoveryMANTRA) would improve outcomes with Anorexia nervosa.

We have received the published research article which shows some positive results.  The adherence rates to the online intervention ranged from 77-83%. Although no significant changes in BMI were noted, the study concluded that augmenting outpatient treatment for adults with Anorexia nervosa with a focus on motivation and recovery produced short term reductions in anxiety and increased confidence to change and therapeutic alliance.

The Research Team would like to thank the Eating disorders team for their hard work and engagement on the study.

Well done to Karen Stanley, Tim Stevens and Zuzana Walker on having thier case study titled ‘The use of biomarkers in Alzheimer’s disease’ published on the Progress in Neurology and Psychiatry website.

‘Uncertainties remain around the use of biomarkers in clinical practice to diagnose Alzheimer’s disease.’​​

This study aimed to assess the factor structure and validity of two new questionnaires: a measure of relating to voices and a measure of social relating.

402 participants volunteered to take part in the ApPRoVE study via NHS Research staff with in the UK. The measures were subjected to factor analysis and compared to measures of voice hearing, mental health and well-being to evaluate construct, convergent, discriminant, and criterion validity. Factor analysis confirmed a three-dimensional set of items that measure assertive and non-assertive (passive and aggressive) relating. This resulted in the validation of the ‘Approve’ questionnaires – two 15 item measures of relating to voices and other people.

In conclusion, the Approve questionnaires can be used to assess a patient’s suitability for relationally-based psychological therapies for distressing voices and the extent to which assertive relating skills are developed during the therapy.

Well done to the research team.