Medicine and Science from The BMJ

Diagnosing dementia, treating personality disorder

inda Gask, professor of primary care psychiatry at the University of Manchester, explains why a personality disorder diagnosis is not as hopeless as many patients and doctors fear.Also Carol Brayne, professor of public health at the University of Cambridge, discusses how to make the most of the UK government’s push to diagnose dementia, even though the evidence is limited.See also:http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5276http://www.bmj.com/content/347/bmj.f5125http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(13)61570-6/fulltext

Looking forward

For our first podcast of 2010, we’ll be asking various medical professionals what they’d like to see happen to healthcare in the next decade.Also, Chris Grundy tells us how effective 20 mph zones really are at preventing accidents.

Retrained to eat

This week, research published on bmj.com shows that overweight and obese teenagers can be taught to eat more sensibly by using a device called a mandometer. Professor Julian Shield, who led the study, talks about the results.Also this week, the response to one of the articles in the latest Christmas BMJ was enormous. Duncan Jarvies talks to Nathan Grills, the author of the article, about the storm in a sleigh.

Disaster and dementia

Haiti this week suffered its worst earthquake in 200 years. Marc Dubois, general director of aid charity MSF UK, talks about how his organisation is responding to the disaster and how doctors can help.Also, BMJ clinical editor Elizabeth Loder interviews Benjamin Wolozin about the link between cardiovascular disease and dementia.Krishna Moorthy talks to Helen Morant about what medicine can learn from aviation.

12 steps to public health

This week the Faculty of Public Health has released its manifesto tor a healthier Britain. Duncan Jarvies speaks to the faculty’s president, Professor Alan Maryon-Davis, about the manifesto’s recommendations.Also new online this week, we have a clinical review on depression in adolescents. We talk to one of the authors, Professor Anita Thapar, about one aspect of it - prevention - and the promising research that is under way.

Clubfoot

Several articles on bmj.com deal with clubfoot disorder. Kirsten Patrick gives us a quick history of the condition, and talks to Andrew Hogg - a GP trainee - about a film he made in South Africa to help Zulu parents understand it. Also this week, Trish Groves tells Duncan Jarvies about the importance of sharing data - and the possible problems that may arise. Deborah Cohen takes us through the news.

Urinary tract infections

Urinary tract infections are commonly seen in primary care, particularly in women, yet there are gaps in the evidence about their treatment. Trish Groves talks to Paul Little about a group of papers that compare management approaches for the condition, look at their cost effectiveness, and analyse patients’ reactions to them.Duncan Jarvies takes us through the news.

Transmuting tamoxifen

This week new research was published on the use of the SSRI (selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor) antidepressants, in combination with the drug tamoxifen. For some time there have been concerns about prescribing them together, and a new study finally quantifies that, David Juurlink explains how.Also this week, a child’s early years will affect the rest of their life, in terms of medical as well as social and educational outcomes. Clyde Hertzman talks about what governments are, and should be, doing to help build a solid foundation.Juliet Walker and Birte Twisselmann takes us through the week’s news.

Personal care

In this week’s podcast Sam Lister, health editor of the Times, explains the political fight that’s emerging around provision of free home health care for elderly people.Duncan Jarvies talks to Iain Chalmers, from the the James Lind Initiative, about the importance of making information about clinical trials available to the public.Sabreena Malik takes us through this week’s news.

Disinvestment

Estimates of HIV are just that, estimates – but in order to research the progression of the virus, and the effectiveness of intervention strategies, those estimates have to be as accurate as possible. Professor Prabhat Jha joins us to explain the novel way in which he and his team have collected data in India to provide a more accurate picture about the spread of the virus.Also this week, as spending cuts are planned across public services, the financial strain on the UK health service is increasing. One way in which some money can be saved is through disinvestment; ceasing treatments which have been superseded, or shown ineffective. Peter Littlejohns, the clinical and public health director of the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), joins us to explain what NICE is doing in that arena.Annabel Ferriman takes us through the news.