CPD Online eNewsletter December 2013

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Welcome to the December 2013 CPD Online eNewsletter

News:

Appointments – we are pleased to announce the appointment of our new Trainee Editor, Dr Suhaib Bin Bilal Hafi. Hafi takes over from Dr Nhishanth Gurunathan, who we thank for his invaluable help over the past year. In addition, we are delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Raj Persaud and Dr Peter Bruggen as Podcast Editors. We look forward to working with the new team.

Twitter – Hafi, the new CPD Online Trainee Editor, will be leading a series of weekly discussion topics on Twitter. If you have not already connected with the CPD Online Twitter feed, please follow us. The first discussion topic centres around the Miriam Carey story and whether she was advised not to drive by a psychiatrist. Please also see our module on Driving and mental disorders. This week’s topic is on: Jonathan Trott – Back from Ashes with "stress-related illness". Why are we still afraid to call it 'depression'?

Top tip:

Continue to test your knowledge – try the pre-module test prior to reading any of the module, make note of your answers and compare them to when you take the end of module test. How did you do?

Educational feature:

Tomorrow’s chip wrapper?

By Dr Stuart Leask, CPD Online Editor

Tomorrow's chip wrapper? Gone are the days when a portion of fish and chips came wrapped in yesterday’s newspaper, but the potency of the metaphor – the temporary value of ‘the latest information’ – remains. So much effort is put into research papers, editorials and reports, yet what they contain can fall out of date so quickly. The central demand of Continuing Professional Development (CPD), that we all keep our knowledge up to date, is indeed a challenge.

Happily, it was decided early in the development of the College’s CPD Online that learning modules would not be placed upon a library shelf like a journal article, to slowly gather mould – conceptually or literally. Rather, the necessary effort would be made to ensure the modules remained up to date wherever possible. This is achieved through two mechanisms: a reactive one, in that users of CPD Online are invited to leave comments about modules, some of which undoubtedly prompt a response to update part of a module, and a pro-active one, in that the original authors or invited experts are requested annually to review and update the material.

As a consequence, CPD Online offers the busy senior clinician something that would otherwise require a constant scanning of the latest research and guidelines, i.e. a source of learning material that remains up to date. Here at CPD Online we would certainly hope that peer groups and appraisers will recognise this. There may be plenty of value in their members repeating a module in a core topic that they completed a couple of years before. If this simply reassures them that what they know is up to date, this is valuable. After all, CPD is about ensuring we are up to date, not simply the pursuit of novelty.

New module:

Organisation theory: conceptual frameworks in a changing context
Certain crucial processes contribute to the success or failure of an organisation and the wellbeing or otherwise of its employees and clients. This module guides you through the theories that can help you understand your organisation, as a first step to working out how to improve it.

New podcast:

Post traumatic stress disorder: an evolutionary perspective

Dr Raj Persaud talks to Dr Chris Cantor, author of 'Evolution and Posttraumatic Stress: Disorders of Vigilance and Defence'.

Forthcoming modules:

Psychiatric intensive care

Complementary alternative medicines for ADHD and ASD

Recently revised modules:

		The Irish Mental Health Act 2001 [Revised & updated by the authors September 2013] Certain crucial processes contribute to the success or failure of an organisation and the wellbeing or otherwise of its employees and clients. This module guides you through the theories that can help you understand your organisation, as a first step to working out how to improve it.

		Supervised community treatment [Revised & updated by the authors August 2013] The introduction of supervised community treatment (SCT) through the 2007 amendments to the Mental Health Act 1983 was one of the most significant changes to mental health law in the last 20 years. It is also an element which has proved controversial, and both service user and professional groups have voiced strong views about its use. This module will consider how these principles may be applied.

		The Mental Health Act 1983: Safeguards (England)[Revised & updated by the authors August 2013] The presence of specific safeguards within the MHA 1983 provides an important counterbalance to the extensive powers that are inherent in the Act. Their effectiveness relies on professionals being both aware of the safeguards themselves and their responsibility to notify patients and Nearest Relatives of their rights under the Act. This module considers some of the main safeguards specific to the Mental Health Act 1983 and its use in England.

View the most popular modules and podcasts over the past month

New from Advances in Psychiatric Treatment:

Highlights of the November issue:

		Young people who cut themselves: can understanding the reasons guide the treatment? Young people who cut themselves may do so for reasons that go beyond diagnosis: perhaps as a response to trauma, a way of coping, to control their emotions or for cultural identification. Wright et al explore potential mechanisms involved when young people cut themselves and discuss the importance of individualised therapeutic approaches. They urge clinicians and researchers to refine, develop and research interventions, pointing out that new stand-alone DSM-5 category of ‘non-suicidal self-injury’ (NSSI) might provide a clarity of definition that will support this endeavour.

		Management of the renal adverse effects of lithium Lithium is a first-line treatment for bipolar disorder and an established augmenting agent for depression, with growing evidence of efficacy and anti-suicidal effect. However, its use has gradually declined because of its low therapeutic index, the need for regular blood tests and perceptions about its side-effects. Gupta et al give an overview of the renal adverse effects associated with the drug and advice on their monitoring and management. In particular, they discuss urinary concentration deficits and diabetes insipidus, chronic kidney disease and acute renal failure, nephrotic syndrome, hypercalcaemia, hyperparathyroidism and distal tubular acidosis.

Forthcoming: January issue.

Subscribe to or renew with CPD Online – subscriptions can start from any point during the year.

With best wishes,

The CPD Online Team