Young people’s experiences of suicidal distress in their own words

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India Bellairs-Walsh summarise a Scottish qualitative study of young people’s lived experiences of suicide and self-harm, which explores intention, rationality and authenticity, and has many implications for practice.

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How do friendships influence adolescent self-injurious thoughts and behaviours?

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In her debut blog, Bella Brereton writes with Rasanat Fatima Nawaz to summarise a systematic review that explored the associations between self-injurious thoughts and behaviours and school-based friendship networks in adolescents, using sociometric data.

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Sharpening the focus: viewing self-harm images online – harmful and protective?

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Jo Lockwood, Camilla Babbage and Ellen Townsend consider a systematic review exploring the impact of viewing self-harm images online, which finds that images can trigger powerful emotions and may relate to a change in cognition, affect and behaviour.

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Suicide and self-harm in children: prevalence rates cause for concern

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In Mahmoud Arif’s debut blog, he and Rasanat Fatima Nawaz summarise a meta-analysis published in The Lancet Psychiatry, which estimated the prevalence rates of self-harm behaviours and suicidal ideation in children aged 12 years and under.

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Psilocybin for ‘treatment-resistant depression’: an island of hope in an ocean of uncertainty?

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In this blog, UCL MSc students consider an RCT published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which suggests that psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy may help reduce depression in people with severe and enduring illness, but side effects are common and more research is needed to look into longer term effects.

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Suicide prevention for autistic people: the importance of belonging, mental health and movement

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Shania Lorenz summarises a recent network analysis on the complex pathways to suicide and suicidal thoughts among autistic people, which may include a lack of caring and supportive friends, feeling like an outsider, movement differences like restlessness, and mental health problems like anxiety.

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Are the kids alright? Emergency help for suicide and self-harm during the COVID-19 pandemic

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In her debut blog, Molly McCarthy appraises a recent Lancet Psychiatry systematic review and meta-analysis exploring the patterns of paediatric emergency department visits for suicide attempts, suicidal ideation, and self-harm incidents before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Online experiences: a risk factor for suicide?

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Louise La Sala and Jo Robinson review a UK-wide case series study of young people who died by suicide, which explores their previous suicide-related online experiences.

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Multiracial young adults at higher risk of mental illness compared to their monoracial counterparts, according to US university research

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Andie Ashdown summarises a cross-sectional study exploring mental health disparities between multiracial and monoracial young people in the United States.

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Suicide and self-harm in nurses and midwives: urgent attention needed according to new systematic review

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Ben Hannigan summarises a recent systematic review exploring the prevalence, risk factors and interventions for suicide and self-harm in nurses and midwives.

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