Is persistent anxiety and depression in childhood a one-way road to adverse outcomes in adulthood?

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In her latest blog, Laura Hankey summarises a longitudinal study using ALSPAC data that explored associations between anxiety, depression, and comorbid anxiety/depression in childhood and adverse outcomes in young adulthood.

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Severe mental illness and comorbid chronic physical illness: the clock’s ticking

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In her debut blog, Jodie Ferris summarises a recent cohort study on the temporal relationship between severe mental illness diagnosis and chronic physical comorbidity in the UK, which contains important findings for care and future research.

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Critiquing the evidence behind the “evidence-based conclusions” about ADHD

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Shuichi Suetani and Gaj Panagoda explore the World Federation of ADHD International Consensus Statement published in 2021, which contains “208 evidence-based conclusions about attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

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Hypomineralised second primary molars and prenatal, perinatal and postnatal exposures

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This review of adverse health conditions in the prenatal, perinatal and postnatal periods and associations with hypomineralised second primary molars(HSPM) included 14 studies. The findings suggest associations between HSPM and a number of condition but findings should be interpreted cautiously.

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Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

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David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

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Physical health inequalities in primary care

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Andy Bell from Centre for Mental Health and the Equally Well UK collaborative, calls for action in response to the Public Health England briefing on severe mental illness and physical health inequalities.

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Commissioning Support Units: Their progress so far

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The Health Service Journal has published this supplement to highlight the successes of Commissioning Support Units (CSUs), and to discuss their next steps, as they “enter a competitive market next year”, where they have to bid to get a place on the lead provider framework. There has been immense change since CSUs were first launched, [read the full story…]

Psychiatric illnesses and some chronic physical illnesses are associated with an increased risk of self-harm and suicide

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Last month, the Department of Health published the ‘Closing the Gap’ report, which highlighted the importance of better integration of physical and mental health care at every level. The report specifically flagged up the need for frontline services to respond better to people who self-harm, and cited statistics that emphasise the cyclical nature of the [read the full story…]

Limited evidence suggests that co-morbid chronic physical illness may not increase risk for recurrence in depression

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There is a widespread clinical presumption that people who have both major depressive disorder (MDD) and a co-morbid chronic physical illness represent a ‘double trouble’ group. This leads to the expectation that the depression prognosis for these people would be poor with increasing likelihood of recurrence. Evidence supports the view that depression is prevalent among [read the full story…]

Childhood adversity and early-onset mental disorders are independently associated with adult onset chronic physical conditions

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Read this important new research if you work in mental health or public health and have an interest in the relationship between mental disorders and adversity in childhood and chronic physical conditions in later adult life. The cross sectional study was conducted by researchers in New Zealand who set out to investigate whether childhood adversities [read the full story…]