Genetic predictors of depression trajectories in adolescence

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Megan Skelton explores a study that uses polygenic scores in the context of longitudinal developmental data, to characterise developmental trajectories and the role of neuropsychiatric genetic risk variants in early-onset depression.

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Youth suicide prevention research needs a shake-up: lives depend on it

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Pooky Knightsmith appraises a systematic review and meta-analysis entitled: “What Works in Youth Suicide Prevention?”. She is disappointed that the review does not answer the question it sets, but sees this as a call to action for better quality research to help save lives.

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BlueIce app for managing self-harm: what do young people think?

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Bethan Davies shares her thoughts on a qualitative study of service users’ experience about the acceptability, use and safety of the BlueIce app for young people who self-harm.

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Evidence-based school-based mental health programmes; the extent of their implementation worldwide

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Tamsin Ford considers a literature review of the scope, scale, and dose of the world’s largest school-based mental health programmes, which suggests that evidence-based programmes have reached millions of children worldwide, but mainly in high income countries.

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Youth mental health research priorities: Right People, Right Questions #YoungPeopleMHQ

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Pooky Knightsmith summarises and discusses a brand new report from the McPin Foundation, which presents research priorities for children and young people’s mental health.

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Mental health stigma in schools: helping young people access support

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Lucinda Powell considers a recent systematic review of qualitative evidence on stigma related to targeted school-based mental health interventions. The review provides some interesting findings and useful strategies, given the recent UK government announcement that they are backing plans to make specialist mental health provision available in schools.

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Predicting suicide attempts in adolescents: machine learning is powerful, but don’t forget Bayes’ rule

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Derek de Beurs explores a recent study that uses longitudinal clinical data and machine learning to predict suicide attempts in adolescents.

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Treating depression with physical activity in young people

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Simon Brett summarises a robust systematic review that looks at the effectiveness of physical activity as a treatment for depression in adolescents and young adults.

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The cost of persuasive design: digital media use and ADHD

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Elvira Perez Vallejos and David Daley consider the findings of a recent cohort study in JAMA that looks into the association between digital media use and subsequent symptoms of ADHD in adolescents.

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Peer influence and risk taking behaviour during adolescence

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Emily Stapley explores a recent article by Sarah-Jayne Blakemore on avoiding social risk in adolescence, which argues that the social risk of being rejected by peers outweighs other potentially negative outcomes of decisions.

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