According to a new report, expenditure on NHS Stop Smoking Services has risen by nearly £10 million to £61 million in 2007/08.

The report also shows that over 680,000 people set a date to give up smoking through the NHS Stop Smoking Services in 2007/08, up 13% from the previous year. Of these, 52% managed to stay off cigarettes at the time of their four week follow-up.

The majority of people who tried to give up smoking used nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), while 14% received the smoking cessation drug varenicline (Champix).

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According to an article on the Guardian, the number of people admitted to hospital in England with mental illnesses linked to use of illegal drugs has doubled in the past decade. Figures show that 38,170 adults and children were admitted with drug-related mental and behavioural disorders in 2006-2007, an increase of 101% since 1996-1997.

Marjorie Wallace, chief executive of the mental health charity Sane, said: “More than twice as many young men were admitted as young women, which suggests men may be more likely to self-medicate with illicit drugs to manage their emotional distress.”

The figures show that men accounted for 79% of the 1,573 deaths from illicit drug use in England and Wales in 2006.

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According to a survey, conducted by the charity Rethink, of more than 3000 mental health service users, 87% reported the negative impact of stigma on their lives. Research found that nearly 9 out of 10 people with mental health problems have been affected by stigma and discrimination, with two thirds saying they have stopped doing things because of the stigma they face.

Rethink reported: “Stigma stops people with mental health problems from doing everyday things such as applying for jobs, making new friends, and going out to pubs and shops. It can even prevent people from reporting a crime”.

An article on the Guardian highlighted this with reference to employment: “One-third of people with mental health problems report having been dismissed or forced to resign, and, according to a report published in 2004 by the Social Exclusion Unit, just 24% of people with long-term mental health problems are in employment, despite them having the highest “want to work” rate of any group.”

According to the charity Rethink, the message service users want to convey, is: “We are people. See me, not the illness.” It is stigma that makes this difficult.

Mental health charity Mind has recently announced Dr Liz Miller as Mind Champion of the Year 2008. The award honours those who have made a significant contribution to challenging discrimination against people with mental health problems. Liz is a practising GP in London and suffers from bipolar disorder. She has written and spoken about her own experience, and co-founded the Doctors’ Support Network, a self-help group for doctors experiencing mental health problems.

Liz is also a founding trustee of Stand to Reason, a UK organisation committed to fighting discrimination and changing attitudes to mental illness, led by people who have experienced mental illness and based on research.

Liz said: “I’m very touched to receive the award. It’s really important that we change attitudes about mental health, and a good starting point is changing attitudes within the medical profession”.

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According to research, every year over 13 million working days are lost in the UK due to stress and stress-related symptoms, and experts believe it affects everyone at least every two weeks. Frances Ive, founder of the website Healthy Soul, has written the book Stress - The Essential Guide (due out in September) to tackle this issue head on.

Frances said: “Everyone suffers with some form of stress at least once in his or her life; it’s a natural part of life. The important thing is knowing what to do about it when it happens. This essential guide gives you that knowledge in an easily digestible format so action can be taken and control regained”.

The book offers readers advice on what to do in extreme circumstances of stress, how to minimise the pressure and where to get further help and support. Available from Need2Know.

According to an article in The Independent, Doctors have called for graphic images of diseased livers to be displayed on wine and spirits bottles and beer cans to warn of the dangers of binge-drinking. They also called for soft drinks to be made significantly cheaper than alcohol, and for labels showing alcohol units to be a mandatory requirement on bar taps and bottles.

Dr Raj Nirula, a urologist at the Princess of Wales Hospital, said “alcohol consumption has doubled since 1960, leading to more hospital admissions and associated crime. It is becoming an epidemic. The images should be in pubs and on bottles, on every single drink.”

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According to official figures for England and Wales, the number of abortions among girls aged 16 increased by 10% in 2007 to 4,376. According to an article on the BBC, the number of abortions in the under 16s has risen by 27% in the past decade.

Gill Frances, chair of the Teenage Pregnancy Independent Advisory Group, said “We need high quality sex and relationships education at school and at home and effective contraception.”

Health Minister Dawn Primarolo said “Contraception plays a vital role in preventing teenage pregnancy and earlier this year I announced a further investment of £26.8m to improve women’s access to contraception and help reduce the number of abortions, repeat abortions and teenage pregnancies”.

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According to The National Association for Premenstrual Syndrome (NAPS), the UK charity for people with PMT, there’s been a rise in the number of young women being told they’ve got depression when their symptoms are actually linked to their periods and don’t last all month. Those being misdiagnosed as clinically depressed may be prescribed anti-depressants by their GP, which can be strong and addictive.

Jackie Howe, who runs the charity, admitted that it can be hard for women to recognise that their symptoms are linked to their menstrual cycle, and women’s health spokesperson Sarah Jarvis agreed that a diagnosis can be difficult, saying: “The psychological symptoms of PMT and depression are very similar and so yes there can be a temptation to offer them anti-depressant drugs, because they can work for both”.

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A new study has recently found that drinking or smoking heavily may accelerate the development of Alzheimer’s disease. According to the results, drinkers may develop the disease nearly five years earlier, while heavy smokers may develop it two years earlier. The study was conducted on 938 people aged 60 or more who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.

Ranjan Duara, of the Mount Sinai Medical Centre in Miami Beach, said the results were significant “because it’s possible that if we can reduce or eliminate heavy smoking and drinking, we could substantially delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease for people and reduce the number of people who have Alzheimer’s at any point in time”.

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Recent findings published by the Guardian suggest that individuals with mental health problems are three times more likely to have debt problems. Experts warn that financial troubles can result in depression, anxiety and even suicide.

Those suffering with bipolar disorder are likely to be more affected than most, as experts believe over-spending is often part of the condition. A report published by the mental health charity Mind has found that debt is leaving tens of thousands of people struggling to live.

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According to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) a survey has been published saying that self-harm, anorexia, aggression and bullying are the results of increasing childhood stress. The teachers and lecturers believe that the children today are under a lot more pressure than 10 years ago. The stress that children are experiencing is caused by different issues, tests and exams, also home life and family break ups.

With the increase of young people committing suicide this has attracted media attention and is highlighting that there are issues that some children cannot deal with. There is a need for mental health care to be available in schools for the children that need it.

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According to a recent article in the Guardian, there’s proof that GlaxoSmithKline’s bestselling antidepressant (Seroxat) could make depressed children feel suicidal. Apparently documents recorded that not only did Seroxat make some children feel suicidal, but it worked no better than a placebo.

The documents detailing this research were actually handed over to officials of the drug regulatory body in 2003, and there has been a four year criminal investigation into the findings. By 2003, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority estimates that between 7,000 and 8,000 children were taking the drug.

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According to an article in the Independent, an increasing number of women in their 50’s and beyond are being treated for anorexia and other eating disorders. Youthful looking older celebrities (including Madonna and Sharon Stone) have been linked to older women having unrealistic expectations of how they should look as they age.

Anorexia is most commonly associated with young teenagers, however Ursula Philpot (chairman of the British Dietetic Association’s Mental Health group) has commented that “older women now make up at least 10% of eating disorder patients”. It was also suggested that these statistics could be a result of better diagnosis, however this remains unclear at present.

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According to an article in the Guardian, the Government has released details of its £170m plan to train 3,600 more psychological therapists in response to the study questioning the use of anti-depressants. According to the Department of Health, about 900,000 more people will be treated for depression and anxiety under the plan, and an estimated 450,000 of these will be cured.

Mental Health Groups accept that doctors have had little choice other than to prescribe anti-depressants due to the shortage of therapists. Alison Cobb, from Mind, said “Nine out of 10 GPs say they’ve been forced to dish out drugs because they don’t have proper access to ‘talking treatments’ such as cognitive behavioural therapy”. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (Nice) recommends that talking therapies should be tried before drugs are prescribed, but with the shortage of therapists, this is difficult.

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According to findings from a review of clinical trials, anti-depressants “worked no better than a dummy pill for mildly depressed patients and for most people suffering severe depression”. Researchers looked at four commonly-prescribed anti-depressants in the UK including fluoxetine (Prozac), venlafaxine (Efexor) and paroxetine (Seroxat). Professor Kirsch (from the Department of Psychology at the University of Hull) said: “The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking antidepressants is not very great”.

Researchers reported little evidence of benefit when analysing both unpublished and published data from the drug companies. They concluded: “We find that the overall effect of new generation antidepressant medications is below recommended criteria for clinical significance.”

A spokesman for GlaxoSmith Kline (which makes Seroxat said): “The authors have failed to acknowledge the very positive benefits these treatments have provided to patients and their families dealing with depression and their conclusions are at odds with what has been seen in actual clinical practice.”

Dr Hilary Jones (from popular TV programme GMTV) said “The best treatment for depression is always likely to be a combination of drugs and talking therapies.”

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