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Read the latest articles relevant to your clinical practice, including exclusive insights from Healthed surveys and polls.

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Help for kids with mental illness

Help for kids with mental illness

Kids Helpline has just launched a new mobile app for teenagers and young people with mental health issues. Called ‘niggle by Kids Helpline’, the new app aims to help young people identify any mental health concern or ‘niggle’. It has been designed to be used in conjunction with Kids Helpline’s existing services or as a stand-alone option for those people who may not have been willing or able to access help through traditional methods. The app provides, for free, hundreds of built-in resource and guided strategies that are all evidence-based.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
The problem with fertility apps

The problem with fertility apps

In years gone by, women would rely on the calendar on the wall to work out when their next menstrual cycle might occur. They would look to physical signs to tell them when they might be ovulating, and therefore when they’d be most likely to fall pregnant. More recently, we’ve seen the proliferation of mobile phone applications helping women track their current cycle, predict their next cycle, and work out when the best time is to try for a baby. There are more than 400 fertility apps available, and over 100 million women worldwide are using them. The personalisation and convenience of apps makes them empowering and attractive. But they require some caution in their use.

By Jessica Grieger, Prof Robert Norman
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Run for your life

Run for your life

As they say in the classics – run Forrest, run! New research shows people who run, regardless of how fast, how far or how often are likely to live longer than people who don’t. According to a systematic review and meta-analysis including 14 studies and over 230,000 participants, running as exercise was associated with a 27%, 30% and 23% reduced risk of all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality, respectively.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Miscarriages affect 1 in 6 pregnancies. We need better investigations and treatments

Miscarriages affect 1 in 6 pregnancies. We need better investigations and treatments

A miscarriage is a devastating event. Those who experience them are suddenly and unexpectedly robbed of the promise of new life and the dream of an expanded family. The emotional toll can be even greater if conception was delayed, or if fertility treatments were required to achieve a pregnancy. Many health providers have considered miscarriage as “nature’s way”, not fully acknowledging its emotional and psychological effects on those who have lost a pregnancy. Fortunately, this view is changing, and there is increasing advocacy for research into the causes, prevention and management of miscarriages. But there remains a long way to go.

By A/Prof Louise Hill
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorder

It is very difficult to estimate the prevalence of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder among Australian children. This is partly due to fact that the manifestation of the disorder can be very varied and often subtle, and partly due to the fact that very few women will give a history of drinking alcohol in pregnancy. But the experts say, if we consider that at least 20% of Australians drink at risky levels and up to half of all pregnancies are unplanned, you’ve got to suspect there’s quite a large cohort of affected children out there, many of whom may be yet to be diagnosed. So … you might want to check out this resource – a Toolkit for parents, caregivers and families of children with this condition – put out by the NOFASD (National Organisation for Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders).

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Outlook for premmies pretty good

Outlook for premmies pretty good

The majority of babies born prematurely will make it to adulthood without any major health issues, according to new research. In an extensive Scandinavian cohort study, researchers found there was a high prevalence of survival without any major comorbidities among those born prematurely, even though preterm births are known to be associated with cardiometabolic, respiratory and neuropsychiatric disorders in adulthood. There was an exception however. Outcomes were worse for those born extremely preterm (22-27 weeks). The study is important, say its authors, as most previous research has concentrated on the negative consequences of the baby not making it to term.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
The importance of ‘family’ for people with mental illness

The importance of ‘family’ for people with mental illness

People living with mental illness often require support from carers, such as family and friends, on a long-term and somewhat unpredictable basis. But these support networks are not always in place. Geographical or emotional distance from family members, conflict with friends, and the tendency for people with mental illness to withdraw from others means these individuals are often isolated. In two Australian surveys – a national snapshot survey of Australian adults with psychosis and another looking at adults with long-term mental health conditions such as depression, anxiety, and psychosis – only one-quarter reported receiving regular assistance from family or friends. About three out of every four people living with mental illness reported the absence of a carer or other informal support.

By Emily Hielscher, James Graham Scott, Sandra Diminic
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
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These 3 factors predict a child’s chance of obesity in adolescence

Three simple factors can predict whether a child is likely to be overweight or obese by the time they reach adolescence: the child’s body mass index (BMI), the mother’s BMI and the mother’s education level, according to our new research. The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, found these three factors predicted whether children of all sizes either developed weight problems or resolved them by age 14-15, with around 70% accuracy. One in four Australian adolescents is overweight or obese. This means they’re likely to be obese in adulthood, placing them at higher risk of heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cancer. Combining these three factors may help clinicians target care to those most at risk of becoming obese in adolescence.

By Kate Lycett, Anneke Grobler, Prof Markus Juonala, Melissa Wake
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Not so happy meals Fast food lowers testosterone

Not so happy meals: Fast food lowers testosterone

Eating a high-fat ‘fast food’ meal can reduce testosterone levels by 25% within an hour of ingestion in overweight and obese men, Australian research shows. And the effect can last for up to four hours, say the South Australian study authors in a recent issue of Andrologia. The new finding goes some way to explain, at least in part, the well-known link between male obesity and androgen deficiency and impaired fertility. If an obese man regularly consumes high fat meals and snacks throughout the day he will be constantly reducing his testosterone level to 75% of normal, and given that he is likely to be low in testosterone already (given his obesity) he can ill afford this further reduction if he wants to father a child.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
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Amiodarone in the aged

This week’s valuable resource award is a little different to the usual. Rather than a handy algorithm or useful assessment tool, this is, in fact an article from a recent Australian Prescriber. It’s about all the potential complications and side effects that can potentially occur with amiodarone, that reasonably popular drug that tends to get started in patients with AF and ventricular arrhythmias. In fact, the list of potential side-effects is quite extensive and not all that intuitive, particularly in elderly patients, which is why having this article bookmarked somewhere to be able to access at a moment’s notice is such a good idea.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
How music therapy can help anxious children

How music therapy can help anxious children

According to the NHS, as many as one in eight children aged five to 19 faces a mental health challenge. And a significant number of these cases are related to some form of anxiety. Of course, a degree of anxiety or worry may be a normal state of affairs for young people – particularly when moving schools, or around exam time. But for some, anxiety can affect every aspect of their daily lives. One effective method of providing support for this anxiety is music therapy, where music becomes the main tool the therapist uses to connect and work with the patient. This kind of therapy has been shown to be effective when treating children and young people living with anxiety based disorders.

By Elizabeth Coombes
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles
Better eating improves depression in young people

Better eating improves depression in young people

Improving a young person’s diet might be the key to helping them overcome their depressive symptoms, according to new Australian research. In a randomised controlled trial of just over 100 people with elevated levels of depression symptoms and a regular diet that was assessed as poor, researchers found that those allocated to the ‘diet change’ group, on average improved to the point of having no clinically significant symptoms after just three weeks. This was in stark contrast to the ‘habitual diet control group’ who unsurprisingly, showed no improvement in symptoms over the duration of the study.

By Dr Linda Calabresi
Clinical Articles iconClinical Articles

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