Dialectical behaviour therapy 'Skills for Living' for young people leaving care: A qualitative exploration of participants' experiences.

It is acknowledged that care leavers experience an accelerated transition into adulthood, despite often having complex psychosocial needs with limited support networks. The 'Skills for Living' programme was designed to improve the psychological wellbeing of care leavers and offers an adapted Dialectical Behaviour Therapy skills group as its primary intervention. This paper provides a qualitative evaluation of the programme. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 10 participants, and the data were analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). Four key themes emerged: 'Initial Apprehension and Reluctance to Participate', 'Connection, Understanding and Validation', 'Confidence with Social Skills', and 'Emotional Acceptance and Self-Soothing'. Clinical implications and recommendations are discussed.

A qualitative exploration of how people with bipolar disorder consider risk-taking in everyday decisions.

BACKGROUND: Difficulties with decision making and risk taking in individuals with bipolar disorder (BD) have been associated with mood episodes. However, there is limited information about these experiences during euthymia, the mood state where people with BD spent the majority of their time. AIMS: To examine how individuals with BD consider risk in everyday decisions during their euthymic phase. METHOD: We conducted a qualitative study that used semi-structured audio recorded interviews. Eight euthymic participants with confirmed BD were interviewed, and we used interpretative phenomenological analysis to analyse the data. RESULTS: We identified four themes. The first theme, 'Who I really am', involves the relationship between individual identity and risks taken. The second theme, 'Taking back control of my life', explored the relationship between risks taken as participants strove to keep control of their lives. The third theme, 'Fear of the "what ifs"', represents how the fear of negative consequences from taking risks impacts risk decisions. Finally, the fourth theme, 'The role of family and friends', highlights the important role that a supporting network can play in their lives in the context of taking risks. CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights aspects that can impact on an individual with BD's consideration of risk during euthymia. Identity, control, fear and support all play a role when a person considers risk in their decision-making process, and they should be taken into consideration when exploring risk with individuals with BD in clinical settings, and inform the design of future interventions.

Radiofrequency ablation of recurrent fibromatosis.

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation has received increasing attention as a promising technique for treating focal malignant disease and is a safe and effective technique for tumor control. The authors report a case in which RF ablation was performed in a woman with recurrent fibromatosis of the lower back who refused further surgery. Satisfactory results were obtained at long-term follow-up, with no recurrence of tumor.