People living with dementia often have behavioural and psychiatric symptoms, such as agitation, and when these are severe, antipsychotics can be prescribed. Guidelines recommend prescribing antipsychotics at the lowest possible dose for the shortest possible time, but does this really happen in practice?

Juan Carlos Bazo Alvarez and Claudia Cooper's research team looked at primary care data from the UK, to assess prescribing practice, and found that prescriptions are higher and for longer than is recommended. In the podcast, we talk about their study and how things could be improved.

Read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00261-5/fulltext?dgcid=buzzsprout_icw_podcast_September_25_lanpsy

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Why is physical health so important for people with mental illness? In this episode, we talk about a new paper on lifestyle interventions for people with mental illness, covering which aspects of those interventions are beneficial for physical and mental health, and looking at key recommendations for how to implement these interventions in mental health settings.

Kasia Machaczek, Scott Teasdale, and Joe Firth talk about their new paper on this topic, which extends the work of a 2019 Lancet Psychiatry Commission on physical health in people with mental illness.

Read the Commission:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00170-1/fulltext?dgcid=buzzsprout_icw_podcast_August_25_lanpsy

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What if you could see the voice inside your head?

Auditory hallucinations in schizophrenia are often distressing, as the voices are often malicious and unrelenting. In a new type of immersive virtual reality-based therapy, a 3D avatar of the voice is built by the patient and therapist, and it is then confronted together during the sessions.

In this podcast, we discuss the randomised controlled trial of a large study into this VR therapy, and we hear from one of the participants in the study and one of the study therapists, as well as the lead on the study.

Read the full article:

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpsy/article/PIIS2215-0366(25)00161-0?dgcid=buzzsprout_icw_podcast_July_25_lanpsy

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