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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Poorer cardiovascular screening, diagnosis and management if you have a mental illness

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Joanne Wallace summarises a systematic review that highlights disparities in the management of cardiovascular risk factors in people with mental illness.

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People with severe mental illness have more adverse outcomes from medical or surgical treatment

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Laoise Renwick considers the findings of a recent systematic review on the safety of service users with severe mental illness receiving inpatient care on medical and surgical wards.

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People with severe mental illness die younger and things are getting worse

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Judith Harrison publishes her debut blog on a recent cohort study in the British Journal of Psychiatry, which shows that the “mortality gap” is increasing for people with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia.

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Life expectancy in schizophrenia and years of potential life lost

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Joanne Wallace summarises a recent systematic review and meta-analysis that reinforces the urgent call for better interventions to address the causes of premature death in schizophrenia.

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The weekend effect in mental health services: new evidence suggests no increased risk of suicide, inpatient mortality or seclusion

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Laura Hemming reviews two recent studies that investigate whether patients admitted to a psychiatric hospital at the weekend had worse clinical outcomes, as well as the specific weekend versus weekday incidences of suicide in very high-risk mental health patients.

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Childhood traumatic brain injuries predict risk of poor long-term outcomes

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Eleanor Kennedy reports on a nationwide Swedish cohort study, which finds that traumatic brain injury consistently predicted later risk of premature mortality, psychiatric inpatient admission, psychiatric outpatient visits, disability pension, welfare recipiency and low educational attainment.

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Bipolar disorder in older men linked to increased risk of dementia

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Elena Marcus presents a recent study that shows how older Australian men with bipolar disorder have an increased risk of dementia and early death.

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Alcohol use disorder and increased mortality

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Matt Field summarises a recent Swedish longitudinal cohort study of alcohol use disorder and mortality across the lifespan. This study quantifies the environmental and genetic risk factors that contribute to increased mortality in people with alcohol use disorder.

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What happens to people after discharge from secure psychiatric hospital?

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Laura Hemming considers a recent systematic review of patient outcomes following discharge from secure psychiatric hospitals. The review finds that patients from secure units have a higher chance of mortality and suicide following discharge, than people from other settings.

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