The Bridge, ACAMH’s Magazine, shares the latest clinically relevant child and adolescent mental health research, best practice, and policy. We publish accessible, interesting, and useful articles to inform our readers’ work with young people, bridging the gap between expert evidence and current practice. Do please share with your networks and get involved by following us on Twitter @TheBridgeACAMH and to contribute, and to give feedback, please email TheBridge@acamh.org
The Bridge
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Neuroscience Edition
Welcome to this Neuroscience themed edition of The Bridge. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is currently promoting the neurosciences in its curriculum, for training Psychiatrists of the future. One of the many reasons for this is to develop more “Parity of Esteem” between physical and mental health conditions.
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Psychological resilience
Having spent a lot of time on a camp bed in a paediatric ward with young people and their families, some of whom were inpatients for weeks on end and facing huge physical challenges, it has made me wonder a great deal about the elements of psychological resilience in young people.
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Depression, Self-harm and Suicidal Thoughts
There are good treatments available for depression, (pharmacological and non-pharmacological) though more options are required to meet the needs of those that do not respond well to treatment. The costs to society, not just the treatment cost but also cost to individuals and wider society including education and employment, are huge.
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ASD and OCD
This edition of ‘The Bridge’ focusses on Autism Spectrum Disorders and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Both of these can resemble each other with the over-focus, special interests and anxieties seen in ASD resembling the obsessions of OCD, and the routines, rituals and need for order and sameness that can be seen in ASD resembling the compulsions in OCD.
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Conduct Disorders and Aggression
Children and young people with conduct disorders often have additional comorbid learning difficulties, neurodevelopmental or mental health disorders, so it is important to be able to assess, recognise and offer appropriate interventions. The effects on a young person’s future and society may be significant if not managed well.
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PTSD Edition
Trauma can occur in many forms from single exposure to a life-threatening or fear-inducing event, to sustained trauma ranging from neglect, other abuses, famine or war. All of which can present in clinical practice.
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Tourette Syndrome edition
Welcome to the February 2019 edition of The Bridge. The focus of this edition is Tourette Syndrome, a condition, which has much stigma attached, stereotyped views by society about what it means and a lack of national clinical guidance.
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Sleep Edition
This edition of The Bridge concentrates on sleep, a poignant reminder that I am editing this on a 6am train to London having shortened my own sleep cycle and feeling rather sleep deprived on this dark winter morning.
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Anxiety Edition
This edition of The Bridge covers the topic of anxiety. Owing to anxiety being common, with all of us experiencing a state of anxiety at some time and many also having trait anxiety, it is no surprise that ACAMH’s two main academic outputs the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry and Child and Adolescent Mental Health contain some good quality research on anxiety advancing our knowledge of the science and evidence based practice.
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Neurodevelopmental Disorders
This edition of The Bridge concentrates on Neurodevelopmental Disorders. Research, particularly on treatments in children within the neurodevelopmental arenas is limited and in many ways behind general mental health research for children or adults.
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