Suicide risk assessment and intervention: need for a new approach?
Olivia Kirtley and Alys Cole-King consider the implications of a new BMJ review on suicide risk assessment and intervention in people with mental illness. The post Suicide risk assessment and...
View ArticleChildhood sleep disturbance and risk of psychotic experiences
Joanne Wallace explores the relationship between nightmares/night terrors at age 12 with psychotic experiences at age 18, which has been confirmed by a recent UK birth cohort study. The post Childhood...
View ArticleCigarette smoking may enhance vulnerability for cannabis dependence
Andrew Jones considers the findings of a longitudinal study of young cannabis users in the UK, which highlights an association between cigarette smoking and cannabis dependence. The post Cigarette...
View Article“It can still happen here”: institutionalised abuse of people with learning...
Hannah Morgan reflects on a literature review of empirical evidence and wider social research, which seeks to place the abuse of people with learning disabilities in a broader cultural context. The...
View ArticleWhat factors can ameliorate cognitive ageing?
Raluca Lucacel summarises a systematic review of individually modifiable risk factors to ameliorate cognitive ageing. The study included Mediterranean diet, Tai Chi, Soy isoflavones, B Vitamins and...
View ArticleChildhood bullying and mental illness in young adulthood
Jasmin Wertz appraises a recent Finnish cohort study, which explores how different forms of children’s bullying involvement are associated with mental illness and use of specialised psychiatric...
View ArticleMicroglial activity in psychosis and schizophrenia
Samei Huda summarises a small PET brain imaging study, which looks at two cohorts (Ultra High Risk of Psychosis v Controls and Schizophrenia v Controls) to compare relative levels of microglial...
View ArticlePsychotic-like experiences associated with self-harm, according to new...
Katrina Witt critiques a recent systematic review of psychotic-like experiences and the risk of self-harm and suicide in the general population. The post Psychotic-like experiences associated with...
View ArticleDoes teenage cannabis use lower intelligence?
Ian Hamilton presents his debut blog on a recent prospective cohort study on the relationship between teenage cannabis use, IQ and educational attainment. The post Does teenage cannabis use lower...
View ArticleNew alcohol guidelines: what you need to know
Olivia Maynard takes a sober look at the new Department of Health alcohol guidelines, which say it's safest for both men and women to not regularly drink more than 14 units of alcohol per week. The...
View ArticleLater menopause linked with lower risk of depression
Meg Fluharty summarises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis that looks at the association of age at menopause and duration of reproductive period with depression after menopause. The post...
View ArticleEating disorders and suicide
David Steele considers the implications of a Swedish population registry study, which finds that people with eating disorders and their close relations are at increased risk for attempting and/or...
View ArticleTobacco use and alcohol intake key risk factors for head and neck cancer
The International Head and Neck Cancer Epidemiology (INHANCE) consortium is a collaboration of research groups leading large epidemiology studies to improve the understanding of the causes and...
View ArticleIncreased vulnerability of migrants: non-affective psychosis in Sweden
Mina Fazel considers the findings of a new Swedish cohort study, which looks at the risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychoses in refugee migrants and non-refugee migrants from across...
View ArticleWhat happens to people after discharge from secure psychiatric hospital?
Laura Hemming considers a recent systematic review of patient outcomes following discharge from secure psychiatric hospitals. The review finds that patients from secure units have a higher chance of...
View ArticleProton-pump inhibitors and risk of dementia
Caroline Struthers reports on a recent prospective cohort study which finds a strong association between the use of proton pump inhibitors and a significantly increased risk of dementia. The post...
View ArticleMondays and New Year’s Day associated with peaks in suicide incidence
Emily Stapley reports on a recent study of the timing of general population and patient suicide in England. She discovers that Springtime, Mondays and New Year's Day are all associated with peaks in...
View ArticleEating disorders more common in schools with more girls or more educated parents
Lucas Shelemy writes his debut Mental Elf blog about a paper by fellow Elf Helen Bould, which examines whether female student populations and higher levels of parental education are associated with...
View ArticleCannabis and mental illness: it’s complicated!
Suzi Gage considers the findings of a big new US cohort study, which investigates the relationship between cannabis use and various substance use, mood and anxiety disorders. The blog also features a...
View ArticleSmokescreen: smoking in the movies and initiation of smoking in adolescents
Sally Adams on a new systematic review and meta-analysis which suggests that smoking imagery in films may increase the risk of smoking initiation in young people. The post Smokescreen: smoking in the...
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