News: The therapist will ring you now - Los Angeles Times

This LA Times article (22 September 2008) refers to a study from Northwestern University which found that people with depression continued seeing their telephone counsellor for longer than those who consulted an office-based therapist.

The study's author, David Mohr, comments that only 20% of those people who say they want therapy actually turn up and 50% drop out of treatment: "One of the symptoms of depression is people lose motivation. It's hard for them to do the things they are supposed to do. Showing up for appointments is one of those things."

It's not clear from this article whether the study measures efficacy. The fact that people remained with treatment for longer via telephone does not necessarily equate with clinical effectiveness of course, although it's interesting to see how the therapy world is changing to accommodate client need.

News: A quick fix for the soul - Guardian

Darian Leader writes an interesting piece for the The Guardian (9/9/08) about the UK government's concentration on cognitive behavioural therapy.

He writes: "Unlike CBT, traditional therapies do not aim to give access to a common, scientific reality but to take the patient's own reality seriously: to explore it, to define it, to elaborate it and to see where it will go. No outcome can be predicted in advance: the patient may go back to work but equally they may give up a well-paid job to pursue another path."

News: Older fathers linked with bipolar - BBC News

A Swedish study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry (Vol. 65, No. 9, September 2008) suggests a link between paternal age and bipolar disorder (BPD).

Older fathers are more likely to have children with BPD than younger fathers.

The study prompts a news item on the BBC News website (1 September 2008). BPD affects half a million people in the United Kingdom.