Mental health crisis care: clinical and cost effectiveness of models of care

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Caroline Leah publishes her debut blog on crisis care for people with mental health issues, which concludes that better quality evidence is needed to support the overall effectiveness of crisis care interventions.

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Psychotropic medication in pregnancy: new evidence may help achieve a safe balance

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Joanne Wallace considers a recent health technology assessment on the risks and benefits of psychotropic medication in pregnancy, which supports previous associations between valproate and adverse child outcomes.

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Prognosis of brief psychotic episodes

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Samei Huda presents the findings of a new meta-analysis, which explores the prognostic significance of competing ways of defining and measuring brief psychotic episodes.

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Cannabis: what do we know and what do we need to know?

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Ian Hamilton considers a recent literature review published in JAMA Psychiatry, which explores the effects of cannabis use on human behaviour, Including cognition, motivation and psychosis.

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Increased vulnerability of migrants: non-affective psychosis in Sweden

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Mina Fazel considers the findings of a new Swedish cohort study, which looks at the risk of schizophrenia and other non-affective psychoses in refugee migrants and non-refugee migrants from across three continents.

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Crisis intervention for severe mental illness: Cochrane call for more evidence

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John Baker is struck by the lack of evidence for crisis intervention for people with severe mental illness, highlighted by a recently updated Cochrane systematic review.

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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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Microglial activity in psychosis and schizophrenia

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Samei Huda summarises a small PET brain imaging study, which looks at two cohorts (Ultra High Risk of Psychosis v Controls and Schizophrenia v Controls) to compare relative levels of microglial activity.

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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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