Is too much screen time bad for our children? Perhaps, but how much do we really know?

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David Turgoose explores a systematic review of reviews that looks at the effects of screen time on the health and well-being of children and adolescents. The review found that higher levels of screen time were related to some physical and mental health concerns, such as poor diet, obesity and depression.

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Cognitive biases in adolescent depression: the more you have, the worse you feel

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Maria Loades explores a cross-sectional study of the combined influence of cognitions in adolescent depression, which investigates biases of interpretation, self-evaluation and memory, and concludes that a negative evaluation of the self is strongly associated with depression severity and with a diagnosis of depression.

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Cleft lip and palate: maxillary distraction osteogenesis or orthognathic surgery for hypoplastic maxilla?

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This Cochrane review update of the effects and long-term results of maxillary distraction osteogenesis compared to orthognathic surgery for the treatment of hypoplastic maxilla in people with cleft lip and palate only includes 1 small RCT. The trial suggests that distraction osteogenesis may produce more satisfactory results however the trial is considered to be at very high risk of bias so the findings should be viewed cautiously.

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Loneliness in psychosis and related psychological and social factors

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Jingyi Wang publishes her debut blog on a recent systematic review of loneliness in psychosis, which shows that the relationship between loneliness and psychosis remains poorly understood due to a lack of high quality studies.

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Brutalised child soldiers and traumatic distress

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Our blog today explores a new study in the British Journal of Psychiatry of post-traumatic stress disorder among former Yazidi child soldiers in northern Iraq.

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Pets are mostly good for our mental health

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Kirsten Lawson considers the findings of a recent narrative review and synthesis, which looks at the power of support from pets and companion animals for people living with mental health problems.

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Self-stigma interventions for people with schizophrenia

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Laura Hemming explores a recent narrative review and meta-analysis of psychosocial interventions for self-stigma in people with a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis.

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Impact of functional alterations on quality of life in Alzheimer disease

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Clarissa Giebel analyses a qualitative study of how functional alterations impact quality of life in Alzheimer disease.

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Will it hurt? Chronic pain and psychological functioning

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Kirsten Lawson examines a recent meta-analysis of psychological functioning in people living with chronic pain. She discovers that anxiety is more common than depression in people with chronic pain and that practitioners should prioritise psychological functioning when caring for patients suffering from chronic pain.

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