Can experiencing mental illness literally cause heartache?

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A systematic review of 22 million people finds several mental health conditions, including PTSD, depression and anxiety, are linked to higher acute coronary syndrome risk.

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Cardiovascular screening for people with severe mental illness: still missing the full picture

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Only 35% of people with severe mental illness received all six cardiovascular risk factor checks within one month in this UK primary care study. Financial incentives temporarily increased comprehensive screening but effects were uneven and short-lived. Young men of non-White ethnicity were most likely to miss screening, highlighting persistent inequalities.

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Painting prevention: How the arts promote health and tackle non-communicable diseases

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Non-communicable diseases cause 74% of global deaths. Could singing, dancing or storytelling really make a difference? This new review explores how arts-based interventions can boost public health worldwide.

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Are circadian rhythms the key to understanding our physical and mental health?

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Amy Ferguson discusses the latest research exploring the role of our circadian rhythms on our health, looking at different variants in the BMAL1 gene.

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Can hearing interventions slow down cognitive decline?

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In this blog, Daisy Long and the elf apprentices that took part in the woodland workshop undertook a group critical analysis on Lin, F.R., Pike, J.R., Albert. M.S., Arnold, M., Burgard, S., Chisolm, T. & others (2023) paper on Hearing intervention versus health education control to reduce cognitive decline in older adults with hearing loss in the USA (ACHIEVE): a multi-centre, randomized controlled trial.

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Genetic risk for schizophrenia is associated with changes in heart structure and function

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Nadine Parker and Ole Andreassen summarise a recent UK population-based cohort study, which looks at the impact of polygenic risk for schizophrenia on cardiac structure and function in over 32,000 people.

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Periodontal treatment for preventing cardiovascular disease in people with periodontitis

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This Cochrane review update on the effects of periodontal therapy for primary or secondary prevention of CVD in people with chronic periodontitis includes 2 studies which provide very low certainty evidence. No additional studies have been included since the last update in 2019.

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The caring dyad: how patients and their informal carers experience severe mental illness and cardiometabolic disease

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Lydia Poole considers the caring dyad (the relationship experience of the patient and their informal carer) and the realities of living with cardiometabolic risk, metabolic syndrome and severe mental illness.

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Metacognitive therapy for depressive symptoms in cardiac patients: new findings from the PATHWAY trial

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Lydia Poole reviews a recent randomised controlled trial evaluating group metacognitive therapy for depression and anxiety in cardiac patients.

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Increased risk for physical illness in schizophrenia is not caused by genetic liability for the disorder: according to new data-linkage study

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Dolly Sud appraises a recent data linkage study on the impact of schizophrenia genetic liability on the association between schizophrenia and physical illness.

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