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In this paper, I consider the debates surrounding the prevention of mental disorder and the promotion of mental health. In so doing, I offer some provisional insights into the wider notion of wellb...

This paper aims to illustrate the advantages of critical realism for biological scientists and to offer an example, for others in philosophy and the social sciences, of applied natural science in p...

A critical realist reflection on the Power Threat Meaning Framework (PTMF) is offered. By way of introduction, critical realism is discussed in relation to varieties of constructivism. It is aligne...

This is Lord Richard Layard's most recent book on mental health, and it is one of a series of books dating back to his (2005) publication Happiness. Layard is a British labour economist and his wor...

A foundational axiom about flux and impermanence from Heraclitus, alluding to the river, has been an important reference point for the philosophy of critical realism. This article begins with this,...

This is a follow up paper to a previous Special Issue (January 2019) of Forum about the Power Threat Meaning Framework. It offers a viewpoint from two contributors about some of the Framework’s roots in pre-Socratic philosophy.

There are reports of Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) and cranial neuropathies occurring during or shortly after severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection.1,2 Some recent infections are known to trigger GBS. A recent epidemiologic cohort study found no evidence for causality between coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and GBS.3 There is a modest risk of GBS attributed to any vaccination (about 1 to 3 additional cases per million people vaccinated for seasonal influenza),4 and this has raised the possibility that the worldwide COVID-19 vaccination campaign may lead to some people developing GBS.5 Documents submitted to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine, d26.COV2.S, a recombinant, replication-incompetent adenovirus serotype 26 (Ad26) vector encoding a full-length and stabilized SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, however, include reports of 2 patients, 1 in the placebo and 1 in the active arm of the trial, developing GBS within 2 weeks of receiving an injection.6,7 Here we report the clinical features of the participant who received the vaccine (5 × 1010 viral particles) at the intended dose for clinical practice and discuss why this case cannot be used to establish a causal association between vaccination and the onset of GBS.

An account is provided of the historical context of the work one of the best-known figures in British psychology in the 20th century, Hans Eysenck. Recently some of this has come under critical scrutiny, especially in relation to claims of data rigging in his model of smoking and morbidity, produced from the 1960s to the 1980s. The article places that controversy, and others associated with Eysenck, in the longer context of the shifting forms of epistemological and political legitimacy within British psychology in the past hundred years. Eysenck was both lionised and disparaged during his life and after his death. This account explores that ambiguity in order to discern the challenge for British psychology to maintain disciplinary coherence. An understanding of this fluxing historical picture is guided by the meta-theoretical resource of critical realism.

This fascinating book has the look of a transposed Ph.D. thesis and thus the implied strengths and weaknesses attendant upon such a format. It is dense, comprehensive and well fitted for a referenc...

As versions of human science, psychology and sociology have overlapping but also contrasting epistemologies. In addition, both national/cultural, as well as global, factors shape their character. These points are applied to the development of the two disciplines in the context of 20th century Britain. The dominant influences of eugenics and empiricism in the first part of the century are examined and contrasted with the later impact of postmodernism. The ambiguous position of social psychology remains at the boundary of the two disciplines today.

The examination of personal experience in human science has been highly variegated. At one end of a spectrum, strong subjectivists prioritise and privilege personal experience as an authentic marker of being human and as a window into our embedding social contexts. At the other end are neuro-reductionists, who explain (or even explain away) personal experience as merely an epiphenomenon of brain activity. With a focus on mental health and psychiatry, critical realism is used to explore this spectrum and it endorses a view that the brain affords our capacity to think, feel and act as human agents in contingent contexts but cannot ultimately explain any of these.

Depuis une vingtaine d’années, le champ psychothérapeutique, en France, en Angleterre et aux Pays-Bas, est engagé dans de profondes transformations. Dans une perspective socio-historique, cet article rend compte de trois temps : la formation d’un champ psychothérapeutique spécifique dans chacun des trois pays puis l’extension de la psychothérapie démédicalisée dans les années 1960-70 ; la constitution en priorité de santé publique des troubles courants devenus troubles de masse dans les années 1980-90, avec, à partir des années 2000, l’influence des politiques européennes ; enfin la redéfinition de la psychothérapie dans un contexte favorisant les thérapies fondées sur les preuves et le travail sur les capacités psychosociales. Si de semblables tendances s’observent, des spécificités nationales se maintiennent qui seront explicitées ici. For twenty years, the psychotherapeutic field in France, England and the Netherlands, has undergone significant transformations in relation to methods and professionals groups. In a socio-historical perspective, this paper brings describes three stages: in the 1960s and 1970s the formation of a specific psychotherapeutic field in these three countries, sharing a similar processes of extension and psychologization of psychotherapy; throughout the 1980s and 1990s, common mental health disorders which became mass disorders, have been elaborated as a public health priority with the influence of European policies since the 2000s; finally, psychotherapy has been redefined in a context that now emphasises evidence-based interventions that enhance psychosocial capacities and give precedence to Cognitive-Behavioural Therapies. While similar trends are observed in these countries, national characteristics nonetheless remain strong. Lógicas de las transformaciones en el ámbito psicoterapéutico en Inglaterra, Francia y en los Países Bajos: especificidades nacionales y tendencias comunesDesde hace dos décadas el ámbito psicoterapéutico en estos tres países ha experimentado profundas transformaciones. Dentro de una perspectiva sociohistórica el artículo pone en evidencia tres etapas : la formación de un ámbito psicoterapéutico específico en cada uno de esos tres países, la extensión de la psicoterapia desmedicalizada en los años sesenta y setenta y la toma de conciencia en tanto que problemas de salud pública de patologías cotidianas, consideradas como problemas de masa en los años ochenta y noventa con, a partir de la década del 2000, la influencia de las políticas europeas y finalmente la redefinición de la psicoterapia en un contexto que fervoriza las terapias probadas y el interés mostrado por las capacidades psicosociales. Si esta evolución es general las especificadas nacionales, descritas en el artículo, son evidentes.

BackgroundIntegrating advanced practice providers (APPs) into neurological practice can improve access, promote patient education, and reduce healthcare costs. APPs receive limited formal education in neurology, so on-the-job training is essential. We set out to identify common challenges and best practices for onboarding, training, and integrating APPs into neurological practice.MethodsWe conducted a survey and focus group with eight APPs currently practicing within an academic neurology department as part of a clinical quality improvement initiative. We explored their roles in multidisciplinary teams, challenges faced during onboarding and training, and strategies for success. Qualitative thematic analysis was performed.ResultsNeurology APPs serve diverse roles including caring for hospitalized and ambulatory patients, performing procedures, assisting trainees, and performing research. Participants reported limited formal neurological education prior to their job and a need for educational sessions and resources tailored to APPs. Neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, and generating a neurologic differential diagnosis were key knowledge gaps identified. We identified seven informal strategies for on-the-job training, seven challenges to on-the-job training, and factors promoting or threatening job satisfaction. Graded responsibility and clinical mentorship were essential for successful onboarding. APPs desired peer-to-peer mentorship and structured educational opportunities.ConclusionsCommon challenges and success strategies identified can inform the design of a formal curriculum for onboarding neurology APPs. Our findings suggest an optimal APP training process involves graded responsibility and support for self-directed learning, employs peer mentors, and targets education of the multidisciplinary team including physicians and patients. Our results may inform other institutions recruiting, hiring, and training APPs.

Ethical concerns have been raised about routine practice in paediatric gender clinics. We discuss informed consent and the risk of iatrogenesis in the prescribing of gonadotropin-releasing hormone analogues (GnRHas) and cross sex hormones to children and adolescents respectively. We place those clinical concerns in a wider societal context and invite consideration of two further relevant ethical domains: competing rights-based claims about male and female personhood; and freedom of expression about those claims. When reflecting on the assessment and medicalization of children and adolescents presenting at gender clinics, the matters of informed consent and iatrogenic risk should be the most pressing for clinicians. However, this is not just a matter of medical ethics, it also implies the need for a full ethical debate on competing notions of personhood and the defence of freedom of expression about transgender and its implications within contemporary democracies.

This paper examines differences in health-and-social care utilisation for individuals with physical and/or mental health problems. Logistic regression models are used to determine disparity in the percentage of General Household/Lifestyle Survey participants with physical compared to mental health problems receiving disability benefits or health care services between 2000 and 2011. Our findings of a relative underutilisation of secondary health care combined with a relative overutilization of out-of-work benefits by individuals with mental health problems is novel to the field of rehabilitative health care. These results provide evidence for the previously suspected disparity in health care utilisation of individuals with mental health problems and indicate problems in labour force integration. The findings support the political call for a ‘parity of esteem’, which, in Britain, was enshrined in the Health and Social Care Act of 2012. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1007/s10597-020-00566-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Edited collections create more than one dilemma. Publishers prefer non-edited books (a commercial matter). Editors lose control of their own authorial ambitions and may need to chase their contribu...