To seek or not to seek? COVID information-seeking linked to poorer mental health

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Olga Lainidi summarises a paper from the UK COVID-19-MH study, which explores the links between COVID-19 information-seeking behaviours during the pandemic, and depression, anxiety and loneliness.

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Do experiences of loneliness differ across the lifespan?

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Gemma Wilson-Menzfeld and Alison Osborne review a nationally representative US survey which finds that loneliness affects people of all ages; particularly young adults, people in middle age, and also very old age.

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Language matters: how should we talk about suicide?

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In her debut blog, Charlotte Huggett summarises a recent online survey which explored views on the language we should use to discuss suicide. The study concludes that the most acceptable phrases are currently: “attempted suicide”, “took their own life”, “died by suicide” and “ended their life”.

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Suicide awareness materials: do they help people with suicidal ideation?

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Edel Ennis writes her debut blog and reviews an online RCT on the effects of suicide awareness materials on individuals with recent suicidal ideation or attempt. Do stories of hope and recovery help protect people from suicide?

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Media reporting of suicide loss: learning from family and friends who have been bereaved by suicide

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Hannah Scott writes her debut blog on a recent qualitative study which looks at the experiences of people bereaved by suicide regarding media reporting of the death.

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Too much TV is associated with decline in verbal memory

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Sarah Gregory summarises findings from a large dataset analysis which explores the relationship between watching television and later cognitive decline.

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Media coverage of mental illness has increased significantly in recent years

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Ed Sykes from the Science Media Centre considers a recent study of changes in newspaper coverage of mental illness from 2008 to 2014 in England.

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‘Beat the cheat’: disability welfare benefits and newspaper reporting

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Gerry Bennison offers food for thought in his blog on research into how disability welfare has been characterised in popular UK tabloid articles.

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Depression to blame for violent crime? The curse of the headline writers

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Laurence Palfreyman highlights a population study from researchers at Oxford University, which investigates the links between depression and violent crime. The study finds that people with depression were three times more likely to have been convicted of violent crime than those without depression, but we need to be careful about how we interpret these relative risk figures.

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Can schools prevent eating disorders?

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In 2012 there was a call from Parliament to research school interventions to reduce body dissatisfaction. Helen Bould reports on an RCT of school-based prevention programme for eating disorders, which highlights the need for more work in this area.

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