Psychological therapies have been shown to be effective in the treatment of depression. However, evidence is focused on individually delivered therapies, with less evidence for group-based therapies.

To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of group-based psychological therapies for depression in primary care and the community.

We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and the Cochrane Collaboration Depression, Anxiety and Neurosis Review Group database from inception to July 2010. The Cochrane risk of bias methodology was applied.

Twenty-three studies were included. The majority showed considerable risk of bias. Analysis of group cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) v. usual care alone (14 studies) showed a significant effect in favour of group CBT immediately post-treatment (standardised mean difference (SMD) −0.55 (95% CI −0.78 to −0.32)). There was some evidence of benefit being maintained at short-term (SMD =–0.47 (95% CI −1.06 to 0.12)) and medium- to long-term follow-up (SMD =–0.47 (95% CI – 0.87 to −0.08)). Studies of group CBT v. individually delivered CBT therapy (7 studies) showed a moderate treatment effect in favour of individually delivered CBT immediately post-treatment (SMD = 0.38 (95% CI 0.09–0.66)) but no evidence of difference at short- or medium- to long-term follow-up. Four studies described comparisons for three other types of group psychological therapies.

Group CBT confers benefit for individuals who are clinically depressed over that of usual care alone. Individually delivered CBT is more effective than group CBT immediately following treatment but after 3 months there is no evidence of difference. The quality of evidence is poor. Evidence about group psychological therapies not based on CBT is particularly limited.

A propensity to attend to other people's emotions is a necessary condition for human empathy.

To test our hypothesis that psychopathic disorder begins as a failure to attend to the eyes of attachment figures, using a ‘love’ scenario in young children.

Children with oppositional defiant disorder, assessed for callous–unemotional traits, and a control group were observed in a love interaction with mothers. Eye contact and affection were measured for each dyad.

There was no group difference in affection and eye contact expressed by the mothers. Compared with controls, children with oppositional defiant disorder expressed lower levels of affection back towards their mothers; those with high levels of callous–unemotional traits showed significantly lower levels of affection than the children lacking these traits. As predicted, the former group showed low levels of eye contact toward their mothers. Low eye contact was not correlated with maternal coercive parenting or feelings toward the child, but was correlated with psychopathic fearlessness in their fathers.

Impairments in eye contact are characteristic of children with callous–unemotional traits, and these impairments are independent of maternal behaviour.

There is a debate over whether disruptive behaviour should be regarded as a central component of, or rather as an epiphenomenon with little diagnostic value for, psychopathy.

To test whether callous–unemotional traits and conduct disorder can be dissociated in the English and Romanian Adoptee Study, a prospective longitudinal study of adopted individuals with a history of severe early institutional deprivation.

The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment was used to establish DSM-IV diagnoses for conduct disorder (and also oppositional defiant disorder) at the 15-year follow-up stage. The Inventory of Callous–Unemotional Traits questionnaire was administered to assess psychopathy traits.

There was no significant association between callous–unemotional traits and conduct disorder, both according to parent and youth self-report assessed categorically and dimensionally after controlling for confounds.

The majority of individuals with high callous–unemotional traits did not show conduct disorder in this special sample of children. This supports the view that, while common, an overlap between these aspects of psychopathology is not inevitable and so provides evidence for the dissociation of these two concepts. In terms of classification, we argue for a diagnostic scheme where psychopathy can be diagnosed independently of conduct disorder.

Maternal smoking during pregnancy may increase the risk of nicotine dependence, especially in girls, but data are conflicting and confounding by other familial factors cannot be ruled out.

To clarify the relationship between prenatal tobacco exposure and adolescent tobacco uptake and dependence in boys and girls respectively, while taking confounding factors into close consideration.

We conducted a prospective longitudinal study, comprising 3020 Swedish youths followed from 11 to 18 years of age. Exposure and outcome information was elicited via self-administered parental and repeated youth questionnaires. Hazard ratios (HRs), odds ratios (ORs) and corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated as measures of associations.

Girls prenatally exposed to maternal tobacco use had a two-to threefold increased odds of experiencing a high number of withdrawal symptoms (OR = 2.83, 95% CI 1.68–4.87), craving for tobacco (OR = 2.04, 95% CI 1.28–3.32) and heavy tobacco use (five or more cigarettes or snus dips per day) (OR = 1.93, 95% CI 1.30–2.86). These associations were weaker among boys, and did not reach formal statistical significance. Associations between prenatal tobacco exposure and onset of regular tobacco use in both genders appeared to be mostly explained by parents' social position and postnatal smoking behaviour.

Prenatal exposure to tobacco is linked to an increased risk of nicotine dependence among adolescent girls.

It is well established that the presence of prominent anxiety within depressive episodes portends poorer outcomes. Important questions remain as to which anxiety features are important to outcome and how sustained their prognostic effects are over time.

To examine the relative prognostic importance of specific anxiety features and to determine whether their effects persist over decades and apply to both unipolar and bipolar conditions.

Participants with unipolar (n = 476) or bipolar (n = 335) depressive disorders were intensively followed for a mean of 16.7 years (s.d. = 8.5).

The number and severity of anxiety symptoms, but not the presence of pre-existing anxiety disorders, showed a robust and continuous relationship to the subsequent time spent in depressive episodes in both unipolar and bipolar depressive disorder. The strength of this relationship changed little over five successive 5-year periods.

The severity of current anxiety symptoms within depressive episodes correlates strongly with the persistence of subsequent depressive symptoms and this relationship is stable over decades.

Prevalence rates of mental disorders are frequently increased in long-settled war refugees. However, substantial variation in prevalence rates across studies and countries remain unexplained.

To test whether the same sociodemographic characteristics, war experiences and post-migration stressors are associated with mental disorders in similar refugee groups resettled in different countries.

Mental disorders were assessed in war-affected refugees from the former Yugoslavia in Germany, Italy and the UK. Sociodemographic, war-related and post-migration characteristics were tested for their association with different disorders.

A total of 854 war refugees were assessed (≥255 per country). Prevalence rates of mental disorders varied substantially across countries. A lower level of education, more traumatic experiences during and after the war, more migration-related stress, a temporary residence permit and not feeling accepted were independently associated with higher rates of mood and anxiety disorders. Mood disorders were also associated with older age, female gender and being unemployed, and anxiety disorders with the absence of combat experience. Higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were associated with older age, a lower level of education, more traumatic experiences during and after the war, absence of combat experience, more migration-related stress, and a temporary residence permit. Only younger age, male gender and not living with a partner were associated with substance use disorders. The associations did not differ significantly across the countries. War-related factors explained more variance in rates of PTSD, and post-migration factors in the rates of mood, anxiety and substance use disorder.

Sociodemographic characteristics, war experiences and post-migration stressors are independently associated with mental disorders in long-settled war refugees. The risk factors vary for different disorders, but are consistent across host countries for the same disorders.

Trauma-focused cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy (EMDR) are efficacious treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but few studies have directly compared them using well-powered designs and few have investigated response patterns.

To compare the efficacy and response pattern of a trauma-focused CBT modality, brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD, with EMDR (trial registration: ISRCTN64872147).

Out-patients with PTSD were randomly assigned to brief eclectic psychotherapy (n = 70) or EMDR (n = 70) and assessed at all sessions on self-reported PTSD (Impact of Event Scale – Revised). Other outcomes were clinician-rated PTSD, anxiety and depression.

Both treatments were equally effective in reducing PTSD symptom severity, but the response pattern indicated that EMDR led to a significantly sharper decline in PTSD symptoms than brief eclectic psychotherapy, with similar drop-out rates (EMDR: n = 20 (29%), brief eclectic psychotherapy: n = 25 (36%)). Other outcome measures confirmed this pattern of results.

Although both treatments are effective, EMDR results in a faster recovery compared with the more gradual improvement with brief eclectic psychotherapy.

The long-term efficacy of psychological treatments for binge eating disorder remains largely unknown.

To examine the long-term efficacy of out-patient group cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) and group interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for binge eating disorder and to analyse predictors of long-term non-response.

Ninety people with binge eating disorder were assessed 4 years after treatment cessation within a randomised trial (trial registration: NCT01208272).

Participants showed substantial long-term recovery, partial remission, clinically significant improvement and significant reductions in associated psychopathology, despite relapse tendencies in single secondary outcomes. Body mass index remained stable. While the IPT group demonstrated an improvement in eating disorder symptoms over the follow-up period, the CBT group reported a worsening of symptoms, but treatments did not differ at any time point.

The results document the long-term efficacy of out-patient CBT and IPT for binge eating disorder. Further research is warranted to elucidate the time course and mechanisms of change of these treatments for binge eating disorder.

Psilocybin is a classic psychedelic drug that has a history of use in psychotherapy. One of the rationales for its use was that it aids emotional insight by lowering psychological defences.

To test the hypothesis that psilocybin facilitates access to personal memories and emotions by comparing subjective and neural responses to positive autobiographical memories under psilocybin and placebo.

Ten healthy participants received two functional magnetic resonance imaging scans (2mg intravenous psilocybin v. intravenous saline), separated by approximately 7 days, during which they viewed two different sets of 15 positive autobiographical memory cues. Participants viewed each cue for 6 s and then closed their eyes for 16 s and imagined re-experiencing the event. Activations during this recollection period were compared with an equivalent period of eyes-closed rest. We split the recollection period into an early phase (first 8 s) and a late phase (last 8 s) for analysis.

Robust activations to the memories were seen in limbic and striatal regions in the early phase and the medial prefrontal cortex in the late phase in both conditions (P<0.001, whole brain cluster correction), but there were additional visual and other sensory cortical activations in the late phase under psilocybin that were absent under placebo. Ratings of memory vividness and visual imagery were significantly higher after psilocybin (P<0.05) and there was a significant positive correlation between vividness and subjective wellbeing at follow-up (P<0.01).

Evidence that psilocybin enhances autobiographical recollection implies that it may be useful in psychotherapy either as a tool to facilitate the recall of salient memories or to reverse negative cognitive biases.

Suicide rates in Scotland have increased markedly relative to those in England in recent decades.

To compare changing patterns of suicide risk in Scotland with those in England & Wales, 1960–2008.

For Scotland and for England & Wales separately, we obtained national data on suicide counts and population estimates. Gender-specific, directly age-standardised rates were calculated.

We identified three distinct temporal phases: 1960–1967, when suicide rates in England & Wales were initially higher than in Scotland, but then converged; 1968–1991, when male suicide rates in Scotland rose slightly faster than in England & Wales; and 1992–2008, when there was a marked divergence in national trends. Much of the recent divergence in rates is attributable to the rise in suicide among young men and deaths by hanging in Scotland. Introduction of the ‘undetermined intent’ category in 1968 had a significant impact on suicide statistics across Great Britain, but especially so in Scotland.

Differences in temporal patterns in suicide risk between the countries are complex. Reversal of the divergent trends may require a change in the perception of hanging as a ‘painless' method of suicide.