Inside Health Folgen

Millions of anti-depressants are prescribed every year and more than half of people taking them have been doing so for two years or more. But how do you know when you're better and how can you tell that the time is right to stop taking them? Withdrawal symptoms are often confused with a return of the original depression so careful tapering of medication is crucial. Tony Kendrick, Professor of Primary Care at the University of Southampton gives Dr Mark Porter a run down of what to do, and what not to do, when it comes to coming off medication. If you're 40 or above you're to receive dementia awareness as part of the latest Prime Minister's Challenge on Dementia 2020, just announced. The plans to include dementia education for middle aged people in future NHS Health Checks are aimed at making England - no plans as yet to replicate this in Scotland, Wales or Northern Ireland - the best country in the world for dementia care. Dr Margaret McCartney reviews the new proposals.Seven thousand people in the UK are currently waiting for life saving organ transplants - and every year 1200 die because there's a critical shortage of donor organs. It's meant that the transplant community has had to consider using organs that aren't quite as perfect as they would like. Poorer quality, older or damaged organs are now being considered when they would have been rejected in the past. Mark visits Rutger Ploeg, Professor of Transplant Biology at the University of Oxford at the Oxford Transplant Centre to find out about the pioneering work to treat, heal and re-condition organs using normothermic perfusion devices - essentially mini-life support machines that work at body temperature. Frederique Rattue was the first woman at her local hospital to use "vaginal seeding" when her fourth child was born by caesarean section a year ago. It's a practice that involves taking a swab from the mother's vagina and rubbing it over the baby's mouth, face and skin after birth and the theory is that vaginal seeding will restore the microbiota of infants born by caesarean section, boosting their gut bacteria and reducing the risk of allergies or obesity. Dr Margaret McCartney discusses the theory of vaginal seeding and the evidence that the practice leads to health benefits for the baby.

The use of talc and its potential connection with ovarian cancer has hit the headlines after a court ruling in America. Given that nearly half the UK population uses talc to some degree GP Dr Margaret McCartney looks at the evidence and puts any link in perspective. PBC is an often missed condition that causes severe itching and fatigue with the resulting liver damage mistakenly associated with drinking too much. Laura Gilmore lived with the symptoms for many years - scratching herself raw and falling asleep during the day but still not waking refreshed - before getting a diagnosis. Professor James Neuberger explains the science behind PBC.Plus treating severe head injury and why a commonly used intervention used in intensive care units across the country is being questioned. Professor Peter Andrews is the man behind a new trial looking at the evidence for hypothermia, or cooling people with head trauma to prevent damage. The trial was stopped because early evidence suggested harms from this commonly used practice. Dr Mark Porter discusses the implications for critical care medicine across the world with Peter Andrews and Professor John Myburgh who is at the University of New South Wales in Sydney.

Up to half a million people in the UK could have it, but it's a condition that hardly anybody has heard about: Charles Bonnet Syndrome. It happens to people who are losing their sight through age-related macular degeneration, cataracts, diabetic eye problems or glaucoma. They see vivid and often frightening visual hallucinations and these images are soundless. Judith Potts' mother Esme was in her 90's when she eventually admitted to her daughter that she was seeing frightening images of goblins and Victorian children all around her. Judith had never heard of the condition and as she tells Dr Mark Porter, neither had any of the health professionals taking care of her mother. Shocked that there was so little awareness about something that is so common, she set up an awareness group, Esme's Umbrella. Dr Dominic Ffytche, Clinical Senior Lecturer at King's College London's Institute of Psychiatry and an expert in visual hallucinations, tells Mark that a key area of research is why some people have Charles Bonnet Syndrome and others don't.Co-proxamol, or Distalgesic as it's better known, was a common drug for mild to moderate pain in the 1990's. But a decade ago, a review by the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) decided that it wasn't a good painkiller and it had very worrying side effects. Its licence was withdrawn and doctors were urged to switch patients onto different medication (although it could still be prescribed on a "named patient" basis). Dr Andrew Green, Chair of the Clinical and Prescribing arm of the GP committee of the British Medical Association tells Mark he's disturbed that nearly ten years after the licence was withdrawn, thousands of patients are still being prescribed co-proxamol at a high cost to the NHS while Bedfordshire GP Dr John Lockley defends continued and careful prescribing for a tiny number of patients who can't get relief from other medication.In a week in which hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for more children to receive the Meningitis B vaccine, Dr Margaret McCartney talks to Mark about the tricky decisions involved in planning immunisation programmes.Traditional bedside paper charts, which record and monitor patients' vital signs, have been replaced in Oxford hospitals with smart PC tablets. Clinical staff enter patients' blood pressure, heart rate and temperature on the tablet and the new "smart" system provides an early warning traffic light system, alerting them if there's a deterioration in the patient's condition. This means clinicians can prioritise care and another major bonus is that the same information is available, at the touch of a button, to medical staff across Oxford's hospitals. The project is called SEND - System for Electronic Notification and Documentation - and it's a collaboration between the University of Oxford and Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Mark goes to Oxford and with intensive care consultant and SEND Project Leader Dr Peter Watkinson, sees how the new paperless system is working.