Do prescribed opioids increase self-harm and suicide?

Pills,With,Funny,Faces,And,A,Glass,Bottle,On,A

Study of 3 million Australian adults prescribed opioids, 84% of self-harm events and 81% of suicides didn’t involve opioids. Challenges belief that prescribing increases self-harm risk.

[read the full story...]

Fatal drug overdose in healthcare workers: occupational hazards and systemic factors

Young,Sad,Female,Caucasian,Uk,Us,Gp,Ems,Doctor,Carer

Healthcare workers have twice the risk of fatal drug overdose compared to other workers. This study of 58 coroner reports found that occupational hazards (workplace access to drugs, clinical knowledge, prescribing power) combined with mental health problems and work stress contributed to these deaths, highlighting the need for systemic workplace interventions.

[read the full story...]

Do hobbies protect against adolescent substance misuse? Not so fast…

Selective,Focus,Dutch,Angle,Shot,Of,Modern,Teen,Boy,Playing

A new study claims hobbies reduce substance misuse in adolescents, but are we mistaking correlation for causation? Before we start fiddling with interventions, this blog explores the risks of jumping to conclusions.

[read the full story...]

Adverse childhood experiences increase the risk of juvenile reoffending

Hand,Of,Prisoner,In,Steel,Jail,Background

In Athena Chow’s debut blog, she summarises a systematic review and meta-analysis on the relationship between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and risk of juvenile reoffending.

[read the full story...]

Mapping the trajectory of psychiatric diagnoses: Danish study finds that mental health diagnoses may change over time

edward-howell-VlTJdP8ZY1c-unsplash

In her latest blog, Dona Matthews summarises a recent publication in The Lancet Psychiatry, which mapped the psychiatric diagnostic trajectories of 184,949 Danish patients over a 10-year period.

[read the full story...]

Substance use is higher and more excessive in transgender people: evidence, limitations and gaps

jorge-saavedra-jbxL_EXEZB8-unsplash

Ivan Ezquerra-Romano summarises a systematic review looking into the prevalence of substance use among transgender people compared to their cisgender counterparts.

Today we also announce the launch of a new survey that will help us understand alcohol use in UK transgender and non-binary people.

[read the full story...]

Many men do seek help prior to suicide, but are services adequately designed to assess men’s needs?

Featured

Cara Richardson summarises a qualitative photovoice study, which finds that some men who died by suicide did seek help before their death, but the help given was often ineffective.

[read the full story...]

Cost-effective strategies for mental health workplace intervention

chris-montgomery-smgTvepind4-unsplash

Chris Sampson summarises a review on the cost-effectiveness of mental health workplace interventions, which presents up-to-date evidence on the different things that employers can do to help those in their workforce affected by mental health problems or substance misuse.

[read the full story...]

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

s-b-vonlanthen-135ys6lOTOM-unsplash

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.

[read the full story...]

Alcohol use and people with learning disabilities

Drunk

Yesterday we posted about a U.S. review which identified the small number of studies on substance abuse and the lack of clear estimates of prevalence. Normally, here at Elf towers, we only identify studies that are reviews of literature, or single studies that report results. But given yesterday’s posting, we thought it might be interesting [read the full story…]