Psychotic-like experiences associated with self-harm, according to new systematic review, but further research is needed

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Katrina Witt critiques a recent systematic review of psychotic-like experiences and the risk of self-harm and suicide in the general population.

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Childhood bullying and mental illness in young adulthood

The risk of psychotic experiences was found to be increased for both self-reported bullies and victims at age 8 and 10.

Jasmin Wertz appraises a recent Finnish cohort study, which explores how different forms of children’s bullying involvement are associated with mental illness and use of specialised psychiatric services in young adulthood.

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Mindfulness-based interventions in primary care: absent but successful

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Ioana Cristea appraises a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of mindfulness in primary care. She finds that the evidence is insufficient to draw any reliable conclusions about the actual effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in primary care settings.

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Top mental health blogs in 2015

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André Tomlin presents his review of 2015, the year when the Mental Elf came of age. He highlights our top mental health blogs, showcases the #WeCATS and #ElfCampfire activities and explains how the new National Elf Service website can help you engage more with relevant and reliable research.

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Can social networking alleviate loneliness in later life?

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Farhana Mann appraises a cross-sectional survey of social networking site usage, loneliness and mental health in community-dwelling older adults.

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Smoking and chronic mental illness: what’s the best way to quit or cut down?

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Meg Fluharty considers the findings of a BMJ State of the Art review, which looks at the evidence for smoking cessation in people with chronic mental illness such as schizophrenia, unipolar depression, bipolar depression, anxiety disorders and PTSD.

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IPT and CBT best for depression in children and young people, says network meta-analysis

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Laura Hemming summarises a recent network meta-analysis of psychotherapies for depression in children and young people, which finds that Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) were significantly more efficacious than other psychotherapies at post-treatment and follow-up.

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Improving diagnosis of bipolar disorder: can blood-based diagnostic panels help?

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Can blood-based diagnostic panels help us reduce the misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment often experienced by people with bipolar disorder? Murtada Alsaif reviews a recent retrospective study that has some encouraging findings for biologically identifying the disease.

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Work Capability Assessments linked with increase in suicides

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Ian Cummins considers the findings of a recent longitudinal study that measures the impact that welfare reform and disability assessments have had on mental illness and rates of suicide.

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All in the mindfulness? Reflections on the Mindful Nation report

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André Tomlin considers the recommendations for health service delivery and research from the recent Mindful Nation report.

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