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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Predicting psychiatric hospitalisation using routinely-collected measures

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Psychiatric hospitalisation can save lives, but it also carries major personal and economic costs. Could early warning scores help predict who’s most at risk, allowing for earlier, more targeted support? This new BMJ Mental Health study by Taquet and colleagues explores the potential.

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The genetic link behind sleep problems, cognitive dysfunction, and neuroticism in ‘treatment-resistant depression’

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A big new study suggests that certain genetic traits—like insomnia risk and neuroticism—may make depression harder to treat, while protective traits include education and cognitive ability.

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Cannabis use and its legalisation: analysing chronic pain in US veterans using electronic health records

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In their debut blog, Grace Williamson and Daniel Leightley review a US study on chronic pain, cannabis legalisation, and cannabis use disorder in US veterans.

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Mental health service pathways for children and adolescents with depression: do we have the data?

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In her debut blog, Emiliana Tonini summarises a recent study exploring the healthcare pathways of children and adolescents seeking support for depression, from referral through to discharge.

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Mental health care and the benefits system: linked data provides opportunities for new research

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Becky Appleton explores the potential of new data linkage opportunities for understanding the intersection between mental health service use and receipt of benefits in a South London service user population.

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Majority of people with ADHD in Ireland still thought to be untreated, despite increase in treatment rates

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In her debut blog, Poppy Ellis Logan summarises a longitudinal study which finds rates of ADHD prescription increased in Ireland between 2005 and 2015.

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“Personality disorders” more common in people with immune-mediated inflammatory diseases

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Jonathan Monk-Cunliffe explores a recent cohort study which finds that people with inflammatory diseases such as multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and inflammatory bowel disease are at greater risk of “personality disorder”.

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Suicide in children and young people can happen without warning

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Shirley Reynolds reviews a records study which finds that around one third of children and young people who die by suicide have no explicit prior risk.

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Is there a causal link between mental health problems and risk of COVID-19 infection?

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In his debut blog, Andrew Steptoe summarises two recent papers using electronic health record datasets, which suggest that having a psychiatric diagnosis may put people at risk of COVID-19 infection.

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