How can digital technology help close the mortality gap for people with severe mental illness?

shutterstock_134284016

Lina Gega from the Closing the Gap Network explores a recent review of digital technology for health promotion, which looks at opportunities to address excess mortality in people living with severe mental illness.

[read the full story...]

Smoking cessation for people with severe mental illness? “Oh yes they can!” SCIMITAR+

stop-4036139_1280

David Shiers and Peter Byrne summarise the new SCIMITAR+ trial out today in The Lancet Psychiatry, which evaluates a bespoke smoking cessation intervention for people with severe mental illness.

[read the full story...]

Can smoking cessation improve cognitive functioning in people with psychosis?

diego-lopez-770963-unsplash

Dafni Katsampa explores a recent prospective cohort study that investigates the association between smoking behaviour and cognitive functioning in patients with psychosis, their siblings and healthy control subjects.

[read the full story...]

Psychosis and physical health: listening to patients and family carers

sculpture-3365574_1280

Shuichi Suetani and Sharon Lawn explore a recent viewpoint article on physical health problems in psychosis, which asks: Is it time to consider the views of family carers?

[read the full story...]

Physical activity participation in severe mental illness: one step closer? #ClosingTheGapSMI

rist-art-345630-unsplash

Suzan Hassan writes her debut elf blog on a recent research paper that highlights the factors associated with regular physical activity participation among people with severe mental illness.

Today sees the launch of the new Closing The Gap Network in York. Follow #ClosingTheGapSMI on Twitter for live updates throughout the day.

[read the full story...]

Transforming mental health throughout the life course #MQScienceMeeting 2019

Screenshot 2019-02-06 at 20.00.14

André Tomlin sets the scene for the 2019 #MQScienceMeeting which brings together researchers across different disciplines to explore cutting-edge new ways to understand, treat and prevent mental illness.

[read the full story...]

Lifestyle training for schizophrenia: STEPWISE fails to make a difference

clem-onojeghuo-1169553-unsplash

Ben Janaway writes his debut elf blog on the STEPWISE RCT which is out today in the British Journal of Psychiatry: Structured lifestyle education for people with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and first-episode psychosis.

[read the full story...]

Preventing mental illness, at long last

lily-banse-363743-unsplash

Peter Byrne, the Public Mental Health lead at the Royal College of Psychiatrists, welcomes a new BMA report entitled: “Tackling the Causes – promoting public mental health and investing in prevention”.

[read the full story...]

Physical health inequalities in primary care

list-not-equals

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.

[read the full story...]

Inhaling evidence about tobacco and psychosis

maxime-robert-662505-unsplash

Ian Hamilton explores a recent Finnish study of adolescent tobacco smoking and the risk of psychosis, which found that young people aged 15-16 who smoked more than 10 cigarettes a day were three times more likely to have psychosis by the time they reached age 30.

[read the full story...]