The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-30DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1351
Adrian O'Dowd
{"title":"Quarter of young adults in England have a mental health condition, data suggest.","authors":"Adrian O'Dowd","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1351","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1351","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"36 1","pages":"r1351"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144521361","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Shalmali Deshpande, Samantha Ross, Sharangini Rajesh, Maija Kallioinen
{"title":"Maternal and child nutrition: nutrition and weight management in pregnancy, and nutrition in children up to 5 years—summary of new NICE guidance","authors":"Shalmali Deshpande, Samantha Ross, Sharangini Rajesh, Maija Kallioinen","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r954","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r954","url":null,"abstract":"### What you need to know Nutrition during pregnancy and in early childhood can have a noticeable short term and long term impact on health of the mother/parent and the child, including complications related to pregnancy and development throughout childhood. Promoting optimal nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood is important to address health inequalities among disadvantaged populations.1234 For example, in the UK, the uptake of folic acid supplementation before pregnancy and the rate of breastfeeding are lowest among those living in the most deprived areas and younger parents.56 This article summarises select recommendations from the new National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on maternal and child nutrition: nutrition and weight management in pregnancy, and nutrition in children up to 5 years.7 This guideline replaces the old NICE guideline on maternal and child nutrition (PH11) and the recommendations on weight management during pregnancy from the NICE guideline on weight management before, during, and after pregnancy (PH27), which have been stood down. Many sections in the guideline reinforce existing UK government advice, and the NICE guideline aims to improve the uptake of this advice. The guidance is aimed towards all healthcare workers (including midwives, health visitors, …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"49 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488859","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1202
Kathryn V Dalrymple, Martha Mwangome, Stephanie Lamb, Ingrid Wolfe
{"title":"Nutrition in pregnancy and the early years","authors":"Kathryn V Dalrymple, Martha Mwangome, Stephanie Lamb, Ingrid Wolfe","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1202","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1202","url":null,"abstract":"Balancing evidence with everyday implementation The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published new UK guidelines on maternal and child nutrition,1 at a time of growing recognition of the critical role of early life nutrition in long term health outcomes.23 Optimal nutrition during pregnancy and early childhood has lasting effects on growth, development, and future health for both mother and her offspring.4 The guidelines, summarised in a linked BMJ education article,5 provide a comprehensive framework for healthcare professionals, aiming to improve nutrition during pregnancy and in children under 5 years by making recommendations related to vitamin supplementation, healthy weight in pregnancy, and optimal feeding practices in early childhood. One challenge with the updated guidelines is the considerable responsibility placed on families—potentially exacerbating inequalities. Specifically, calls for homemade meals and reductions in processed food consumption are unrealistic for many families facing economic hardship or time constraints. These practical challenges risk reinforcing, rather than alleviating, health inequalities. In addition, many of the recommendations target population level public health goals, such as vitamin supplementation and fostering a healthier eating environment, rather than interventions that healthcare professionals can implement. …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"630 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488871","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1329
Michael Marmot
{"title":"Trump’s budget is one big “beautiful” regressive policy","authors":"Michael Marmot","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1329","url":null,"abstract":"US President Donald Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), passed by the US Congress, is certainly big. Its beauty is more questionable. The act forms one part of Trump’s signature economic strategy, the other being tariffs. Yale University’s Budget Lab calculated the distributional effects of both the OBBBA and the tariffs implemented as of 1 June 2025. The figures show that, after taxes and transfers, the household income of the poorest 80% of households will go down. The poorer the household, the greater the reduction will be. The poorest 10th of households will lose 6.5% of their income; the richest 10th will gain 1.5%.1 The budget is regressive—tax cuts that favour rich people, service cuts that hurt poor people—but so, too, are the tariffs. Tariffs are a tax on imported goods, paid by the importer. Most economists conclude that those extra taxes will show up in the prices that customers have to pay. Consumption of everyday goods, affected by tariffs, makes up a larger percentage of household expenditure of poor households …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488866","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1324
Kamran Abbasi
{"title":"The law may be an ass, but is it our last hope to protect health?","authors":"Kamran Abbasi","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1324","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1324","url":null,"abstract":"The legal system, an ancient butt of jokes about its absurd rulings and quirks, may be the only authority standing between us and our self-inflicted doom. Wherever we look—where democratic rights are denied, where elected leaders ape unelected demagogues, where commercial interests steamroll public interest, or where powerful nations render multilateral organisations and international norms irrelevant—holding to the laws that govern individual rights and the responsibilities of nations is now of the greatest imperative. The power of law making, wielded by politicians, was demonstrated last week with two landmark UK parliamentary votes in favour of fundamental and historic changes to legislation. The first was to decriminalise abortion, meaning that women will no longer be punished by the legal system for a pregnancy termination (doi:10.1136/bmj.r1261).1 The law change is …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488872","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1328
Heidi Phillips, Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick
{"title":"Shared care prescribing for ADHD medication—benefits prevail and risks can be managed","authors":"Heidi Phillips, Ulrich Müller-Sedgwick","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1328","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1328","url":null,"abstract":"Salisbury discusses the challenges of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) care in the UK, particularly the strain on NHS services and the complexities of shared care prescribing.1 The rise in ADHD diagnoses has exposed systemic inadequacies, leading to long waiting times and inconsistent care pathways.2 Concerns about overmedication and misdiagnosis are valid and merit attention, as do issues around shared care prescribing.3 But the discussion would benefit from a broader perspective that reflects the diverse experiences of …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488868","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1336
British Medical Journal Publishing Group
{"title":"Coral Sharpe: GP who fought against the prejudices of her day to become a doctor","authors":"British Medical Journal Publishing Group","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1336","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1336","url":null,"abstract":"This Obituary (BMJ 2025;388:r624, 31 March 2025, …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"57 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488873","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The BMJPub Date : 2025-06-26DOI: 10.1136/bmj.r1241
Helen P. Davies, Kiran C Patel
{"title":"General practice at the core of neighbourhoods","authors":"Helen P. Davies, Kiran C Patel","doi":"10.1136/bmj.r1241","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.r1241","url":null,"abstract":"There is a current emphasis on transformation in the NHS being driven as close to the patient as possible, namely by focusing on neighbourhoods. General practice represents the largest number of patient contacts at a neighbourhood level and is also the most recognised form of contact with the NHS by the public. It is critical to success that the organisation of general practice supports neighbourhood working and integrated neighbourhood teams (INT). GPs are experiencing widespread burnout and low morale. Increasingly GPs are choosing part-time work and portfolio careers. There has also been an erosion of GP identity and divisions are emerging within the profession between salaried and partner GPs. Despite a strong commitment to continuity of care, the system is failing to provide it. Primary care handles 90% of patient contacts with less than 10% of the national budget—a stark indication of its efficiency, but also its vulnerability. The number of GPs leaving the profession exceeds those joining, and existing GP’s workload is greater than ever. A recent Royal College of General Practitioners survey suggested that 42% of GPs are unlikely to be working …","PeriodicalId":22388,"journal":{"name":"The BMJ","volume":"630 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144488861","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}