Dementia advice, Antidepressants, Transplant organs, Vaginal seeding
Inside Health
BBC
4.4 • 575 Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2016
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Greg Jenna and good news, Your Dead to Me is back for a new series. Here we go. Yes, we'll explore Emperor Nero's notorious reign with Professor Marybeard and Patton Oswald. I would not want my daughter having the remote control, not alone an empire. We'll dissect the decadent life of Philippe Duke-Dor-Leon with Tom Allen. I've often tried to pretend I'm an aristocrat and being very quickly knocked down. |
| 0:23.0 | And there'll be so much more with comedians like Olga Koch, Mike Mosniak and Rihalina. |
| 0:26.9 | I'm excited. |
| 0:27.6 | You're dead to me. |
| 0:28.5 | The comedy podcast that takes history seriously. |
| 0:30.9 | Listen first on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:33.1 | Hello and welcome to this Inside Health podcast. |
| 0:35.8 | I'm Dr Mark Porter and this program was first broadcast on |
| 0:38.9 | the 8th of March 2016 on BBC Radio 4. It's an eclectic mix ranging from a liver in a box in a |
| 0:46.0 | transplant centre, albeit a very high-tech box, to DIY vaginal seeding. That's using maternal |
| 0:53.0 | vaginal secretions to inoculate babies born by |
| 0:56.6 | cesarean section with the sort of microorganisms that they would have picked up naturally |
| 1:00.8 | during a vaginal birth. But my favourite item this week, not least because it's most relevant to what |
| 1:05.9 | I do as a GP, is when and how to stop antidepressant therapy. |
| 1:13.5 | Enjoy the podcast and I hope to catch you next week. |
| 1:15.9 | Coming up today, antidepressants. |
| 1:19.2 | Most of the debate surrounding these drugs in recent years has centred on if and when to start them in people with depression. |
| 1:23.9 | But what happens at the other end of therapy when you're better? |
| 1:27.4 | How do you stop them? |
| 1:29.1 | A rough guide is if you've been on the medicine for some weeks, then you need some days to come off |
| 1:34.9 | them. If you've been on them for some months, you probably need a few weeks to come off them. |
| 1:39.7 | And if you've been on them for years, you probably need some months to come off them. So the advice is that we should taper treatment |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.

