Edward Picot’s blog (incorporating Dr Hairy)

The Research Summaries and Quiz for October 2018 have just appeared online at http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/ . Subjects covered this time:

How data protection changes will affect your practice
BMJ 2018;361:k1764
Anticholinergic drugs and risk of dementia: case-control study
BMJ 2018;361:k1315
Anticholinergic drugs and dementia in older adults
BMJ 2018;361:k1722
Exploring low mood in a person with cancer
BMJ 2018;361:k1488
Electronic cigarettes for smoking cessation
BMJ 2018;360:j5543
Clostridium Difficile
BMJ 2018;360:k155
Stemming the tide of antimicrobial resistance: implications for management of acne vulgaris
Br J Gen Pract 2018; 68 (667): 64-65
Vaccinations not covered under Section 7a: who pays?
Br J Gen Pract 2018; 68 (667): 92-93
Early detection of multiple myeloma in primary care using blood tests: a case–control study in primary care
Br J Gen Pract 13 August 2018; bjgp18X698357
Antibiotic prescribing quality for children in primary care: an observational study
Br J Gen Pract 15 January 2018; bjgp18X694409

Up the track behind our house there’s a wild apple tree, and as this seems to be a good year for apples it has been shedding lots of windfalls onto the track for a couple of weeks now. As I was walking home from work last night, by torchlight, I stumbled across this:

You can probably imagine my thoughts. ‘Wooah! The aliens have landed!’ However there are no other signs of an alien incursion, except that just inside the gate of what we call the Rabbit Field, underneath a row of sweet chestnut trees, a similar but smaller and scrappier pattern has been made out of the nuts:

I went to The Film Bunch show in Bethnal Green in London on Thursday night, because they were showing ‘Dr Hairy in: Mince Pies’. It was well worth the effort: really nice people, and some really interesting short films, most of them far more professional-looking than my own. The theme of the evening was ‘DIY films’, so I was hoping they’d all be a bit crappy like mine, but no such luck.

The Film Bunch as an organisation seeks to promote access to film and film-making for people who are hard of hearing. Shaz, the founder and main organiser, is hard of hearing herself (although you wouldn’t know it to talk to her); all the films they show are subtitled; and for the Q&A sessions at the end of each half of the show, they had somebody doing signing, and somebody else typing the conversation so that it could be shown in text on a back-screen.

Amongst other people I got chatting to a guy called Oscar Kraft (in fact I started by chatting to his father, a Rabbi called Niel, mainly because he was the oldest-looking bloke in the room apart from myself). Oscar had a film in the show about Non-Verbal Learning Disability (NVLD), a condition he has himself. He has now sent me the link for a video of the Q&A session the two of us took part in, at the end of the first half of the show. Oscar is sitting to my left, and comes across as completely self-possessed and self-confident. The girl to my right is Jennifer Juan, who had a rather nice poem-video in the show called ‘Love is Love’.  Here’s the video:

I’m delighted to say that ‘Dr Hairy in: Mince Pies’ has been selected to be shown on Thursday 20th September 2018 at a DIY Short Films event at St Margaret’s House, 21 Old Ford Road, Bethnal Green, London E2 9PL.  The event runs from 6.30 – 9.30, it’s three quid to get in, and you can find more information about it at https://thefilmbunch.com/events/2018/09/20/diy-films

If you want to see the video itself, you can find it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzVp9PStEiI

Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries + Quiz for September 2018 are now online. For further information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/

Subjects covered this time:

New uses for old drugs

BMJ 2018;361:k2701

Childhood adversity and risk of suicide: cohort study of 548 721 adolescents and young adults in Sweden

BMJ 2017;357:j1334

Depersonalisation and derealisation: assessment and management

BMJ 2017;356:j745

Prescribing for ADHD in primary care

Br J Gen Pract 2018; 68 (669): 170-171. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18X695357

Artificial pancreas treatment for outpatients with type 1 diabetes: systematic review and meta-analysis

BMJ 2018;361:k1310

Posterior circulation ischaemic stroke

BMJ 2018;361:k1185

Tests for diagnosing and monitoring non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in adults

BMJ 2018;362:k2734

Hormone disrupting chemicals: slow progress to regulation

BMJ 2018;361:k1876

Sulfonylureas as second line drugs in type 2 diabetes and the risk of cardiovascular and hypoglycaemic events: population based cohort study

BMJ 2018;362:k2693

‘The Doubter’s Mysteries’ are an attempt to write a short cycle of Mystery Plays – ie. plays based on Bible stories, like the Medieval Mystery Plays of York, Chester and Wakefield – from the point of view of a sceptical modern audience; an audience which either doesn’t believe in God, or can’t work out what he’s playing at.

There are fourteen of these plays, and the first is now online: ‘The Creation (and the Fall of Lucifer)’.

http://edwardpicot.com/mysteries

The new Research Summaries and Quiz for August 2018 are now online. For further information about Dr Hairy’s Research Summaries please visit http://www.drhairy.org/concrete5/index.php/research-summaries/

Subjects covered this time:

Better healthcare must mean better for patients and carers
BMJ 2018;361:k1877
Risk of stroke and transient ischaemic attack in patients with a diagnosis of resolved atrial fibrillation: retrospective cohort studies
BMJ 2018;361:k1717
Risk of meticillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and Clostridium difficile in patients with a documented penicillin allergy: population based matched cohort study
BMJ 2018;361:k2400
Comparison of prostatic artery embolisation (PAE) versus transurethral resection of the prostate (TURP) for benign prostatic hyperplasia: randomised, open label, non-inferiority trial
BMJ 2018;361:k2338
Prospective external validation of the Predicting Out-of-OFfice Blood Pressure (PROOF-BP) strategy for triaging ambulatory monitoring in the diagnosis and management of hypertension: observational cohort study
BMJ 2018;361:k2478
Effect of tai chi versus aerobic exercise for fibromyalgia: comparative effectiveness randomized controlled trial
BMJ 2018;360:k851
Dyslipidaemia and cardiovascular risk
BMJ 2018;360:k835
Chronic pancreatitis
BMJ 2018;361:k2126
Education and myopia: assessing the direction of causality by mendelian randomisation
BMJ 2018;361:k2022
Learning to live with hearing voices
BMJ 2018;361:k2018
Leptospirosis: the possible risk to those participating in water-based sports and activities
Br J Gen Pract 2018; 68 (673): 394-395. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3399/bjgp18X698285

Two more images from a picture-book I’ve been working on called ‘Pilchards’. A tin of pilchards:

And a plate of pilchards on toast:

Two more images from a picture-book I’ve been working on, called Pilchards.

Kevin the Carrot’s mum:

Two naughty spuds:

From a picture-book I’ve been working on, called ‘Pilchards’