Following on from our work last summer on the update to the depression in adults clinical guideline from NICE, we wanted to keep you informed about the latest developments.
The updated guideline was due to be published by NICE on 21 March 2018, however NICE has recently contacted registered stakeholders to tell them that this was changing with no new publication date yet set.
This follows a long line of delays throughout the development of this clinical guideline, with this most recent delay echoing the change in publication date from January 2018 to March 2018.
The update to this guideline has also recently attracted political interest, with a group of cross party MPs and Peers writing to Sir Andrew Dillon, Chief Executive of NICE, to express their “grave concerns over proposed changes to NICE guidelines”. You can read their letter in full below.
Cross party letter re NICE guideline February 2018 (pdf)
This letter was accompanied by the tabling of an Early Day Motion (EDM) in parliament. (EDMs allow MPs to draw attention to areas of interest to them, with other MPs able to support this work by putting their signature to it - find out more about EDMs on the parliament website).
This EDM states that clinical guidelines should properly reflect the evidence base and the weight of scientific opinion. It calls for NICE to hold a second stakeholder consultation on the updated guideline to ensure the weight of expert opinion from across the field is properly reflected – echoing many of the arguments we made in our response to the first stakeholder consultation.
We’ll continue to bring you updates on the development of depression in adults guideline as further details emerge.