‘Public Health’ at Psychology, Philosophy and Real Life, Page 7

While unemployment rates are monitored regularly and play a crucial role in shaping government monetary policy, the hidden economic impact of depression and anxiety may be just as significant: it turns out that more people receive government benefits as a result of severe depression and anxiety than receive benefits for being unemployed. Experts are urging the government to fund 200 new treatment centres to offer psychological therapy to those affected.

The anti-obesity drug rimonabant hasn’t even been approved for sale yet in the European Union, yet counterfeit versions of the drug are already being sold illegally over the internet, using the drug’s proposed brand name Accomplia. The EU Commission has warned bluntly: “Patients who buy unlicensed and counterfeit or illicit copies of rimonabant may be putting their health at risk”.

Individuals with bipolar I or II major depression are often misdiagnosed as having unipolar major depression. But a new screening method, testing just three factors, promises to help distinguish between those suffering from bipolar disorder and unipolar major depression.

The authors of a two-year inquiry, backed by the Mental Health Foundation and the Camelot Foundation, have called on the UK Government to launch a national initiative to develop better and more appropriate responses to young people who self-harm, starting with an awareness campaign targeted at professionals, parents and young people.

The BBC’s Radio 4 Saturday morning reported on NHS plans for a pilot project in Staffordshire which would allow patients engaging in self-harm to continue to do so under medical supervision. With the radio interviewers seemingly intent on ferreting out whatever controversy they could discover, it seemed to me that important points were missed about the role of self-harming as a coping mechanism.