Emily Stapley summarises a Mendelian randomisation study that investigates associations between the timing of menarche with depressive symptoms and depression in adolescence.
[read the full story...]Schizophrenia risk and the complement C4 gene
Mandy Johnstone writes her debut Mental Elf blog on a recent Nature study, which identifies a set of genetic variations that are strongly associated with the risk of developing schizophrenia.
[read the full story...]Associations between video game use, academic performance and mental health issues in European primary school children
Pete Etchells posts his debut Mental Elf blog on a recent study, which explored whether video games were associated with mental illness, cognition or social skills in young children.
[read the full story...]Smokescreen: smoking in the movies and initiation of smoking in adolescents
Sally Adams on a new systematic review and meta-analysis which suggests that smoking imagery in films may increase the risk of smoking initiation in young people.
[read the full story...]Cannabis and mental illness: it’s complicated!
Suzi Gage considers the findings of a big new US cohort study, which investigates the relationship between cannabis use and various substance use, mood and anxiety disorders.
The blog also features a podcast interview with Suzi Gage talking about this new study and her own work in this field, plus a short conversation with Ian Hamilton highlighting his forthcoming #CannabisMatters event.
[read the full story...]Mondays and New Year’s Day associated with peaks in suicide incidence
Emily Stapley reports on a recent study of the timing of general population and patient suicide in England. She discovers that Springtime, Mondays and New Year’s Day are all associated with peaks in suicide incidence.
[read the full story...]Proton-pump inhibitors and risk of dementia
Caroline Struthers reports on a recent prospective cohort study which finds a strong association between the use of proton pump inhibitors and a significantly increased risk of dementia.
[read the full story...]What happens to people after discharge from secure psychiatric hospital?
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.
[read the full story...]Cannabis: what do we know and what do we need to know?
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.
[read the full story...]Increased vulnerability of migrants: non-affective psychosis in Sweden
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.
[read the full story...]