Skin-picking as self-soothing: is emotion regulation the missing piece?

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A systematic review (of mostly cross sectional studies) explores whether difficulties regulating emotions play a role in skin picking disorder, and what this could mean for treatment.

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Targeting distressing mental imagery in psychosis: a neglected but promising area for intervention

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What if therapy focused not on thoughts or voices, but on the vivid images that often accompany them? The iMAPS-2 trial tested a novel imagery-focused therapy for psychosis, showing it’s safe, acceptable, and ready for a full-scale trial.

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Genes, brains and self-harm: New study links adolescent risk to biology and disadvantage

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Self-harm is common among adolescents and a strong predictor of suicide risk. A major new cohort study in the British Journal of Psychiatry explores how genetic risk and brain differences might explain who’s most at risk, and why.

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Exploring the impact of hostile environment policies on psychological distress of ethnic minority groups in the UK

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UCL MSc students consider research showing that the highest impact of hostile environment policies was noticed among Pakistani and Bangladeshi groups. This evidence suggests that interdisciplinary collaboration is needed to prevent psychological distress.

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Psychological distress over 30 years in Great Britain: the times they are a changin’ (or are they?)

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Niamh Dooley summarises a 2023 paper that investigated trends in psychological distress in the UK across a 28-year period, using data from three representative surveys.

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Compassion-focused therapy for psychosis: study suggests it’s feasible and acceptable, so what next?

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Ellen Iredale and Poppy Brown summarise a case-series study on compassion‐focused therapy for distressing hallucinations and delusions in psychosis, suggesting the potential to benefit people with psychosis.

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Self Help Plus for refugees: we need effective, low-intensity and scalable interventions

Asylum seekers and refugees in the UK increasingly face challenges impacting on their experiences of resettlement.

Alexis Low considers a meta-analysis which evaluates Self-Help Plus, a promising WHO intervention that could be scaled up to address the mental health needs of refugees and asylum seekers.

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Temporomandibular disorders – management with psychological therapies

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This Cochrane review of the effects of psychological therapies in people (aged 12 years and over) with painful temporomandibular disorders (TMD)lasting 3 months or longer included 22 RCTs. Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) was the most frequently studied but overall there was insufficient evidence on which to base a reliable judgement about the efficacy of psychological therapies for painful TMD

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Complex PTSD: 3 recent reviews yield clues about what helps #BIGSPD22

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Kirsten Barnicot summarises three recent systematic reviews exploring the most helpful interventions for people with complex PTSD.

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The links between social deprivation and mental health problems in immigrants and non-immigrants

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Rudo Dube writes about an Australian study of socially fragmented neighbourhoods and psychological distress among immigrants and non-immigrants in Australia.

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