Decision-making capacity of inpatients with schizophrenia: don’t assume people are incapable

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Mental Health Masters Students from UCL summarise a recent cross-sectional study on the association of decision-making capacity for treatment and research in inpatients with schizophrenia and related psychoses.

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Burnout and consultants’ retirement plans

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John Moriarty and colleagues review a UK cross-sectional study of NHS consultants, which looks at psychosocial work characteristics, burnout, psychological morbidity symptoms and early retirement.

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Smoking bans and violence on mental health wards: what’s the link?

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John Baker isn’t convinced by the findings of a systematic review on smoking bans and violence in mental health settings, which concludes that the introduction of smoke-free policies generally do not lead to an increase in violence.

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Whose Safety is it Anyway? Service user and carer involvement in mental health care safety #MHNR2018

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Alison Faulkner takes a recent study as the starting point for an exploration of mental health care safety, service user and carer involvement, raising concerns, risk, harm, power, relationships and much more.

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Social media: good and bad experiences and the impact on depression

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Sarah Hetrick publishes her debut blog on a recent US cross-sectional study that looks at the association between positive and negative social media experiences and symptoms of depression.

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The US opioid crisis: quantifying the impact

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Emma Wincup examines a recent US cross-sectional study that measures the burden of opioid-related mortality in the United States, which suggests that opioids (prescribed and illicit) could kill nearly half a million people across America over the next decade.

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Polypharmacy for major depression: is practice evidence-based?

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Jessica Bone reports on a recent cross-sectional study that looks at the clinical correlates of augmentation/combination treatment strategies in major depressive disorder.

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Cyberbullying: comparatively rare, not especially damaging or pernicious

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Shirley Reynolds reports on a recent population-based cross-sectional study that surveyed 1 in 5 of all 15 year olds in England, to ask them about bullying, cyberbullying and adolescent well-being.

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Investigating the link between loneliness and sleep quality in young people

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Ahmed Al-Shihabi and Farhana Mann report on a recent twin study that explores the links between loneliness and sleep quality in young adults.

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Mental health expenditure associated with higher quality care and better service user experience

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Kwame McKensie publishes his debut Mental Elf blog on a recent cross-sectional study, which explores the relationship between national mental health expenditure and quality of care in longer-term psychiatric and social care facilities in Europe.

This is the fourth in a new series of Mental Elf blogs produced in partnership with the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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