With more people dying each year and many spending their final days in institutions, researchers argue that wider access to palliative care could offer a more humane and cost-effective alternative, write ROX MIDDLETON, LIAM SHAW and MIRIAM GAUNTLETT
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The downgrading of depression
New guidance from Nice could strip those with severe symptoms from the support they need, writes RUTH HUNT
[Nils Werner/flickr/Creative Commons]
In the second part of her critique of Wes Streeting’s TenYear Plan for Health, HELEN MERCER looks at the central planks of this privatisation blueprint
A call from the World Peace Council to the peace movements of the world
DR HANA SAADA asks why a war crime against innocent children on this scale does not dominate the world’s coverage of the US-Israeli war on Iran
From the colonial oil plunder of 1909 to the current threat of a regional inferno: Western interference in Iran forms a chain of coups, puppets, and cynical geopolitics centered on oil, says MARC VANDEPITTE
NORMA AUSTIN HART reports from a conference on on the rights of women prisoners in the Scottish criminal justice system
THE National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has published its draft guidelines on the treatment of depression — the first change in 12 years.
In this it differentiates between what it calls mild, moderate and severe depression, with a so-called “menu” of treatment options available, to tempt healthcare providers and patients away from anti-depressants.
It would be hard to argue against increasing choice. But still there are a few points that remain a concern, such as how decisions are made as to what group a patient belongs to, along with the pressure on services. More widely, why are the terms reactive and clinical not being used and why are these changes being made now?
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