What factors determine the need for social care in older age?

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Martin Stevens interrogates an analysis of a longitudinal study dataset to discover what it says about determinants of social care and support use in older age.

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High potency cannabis and the risk of psychosis

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Eleanor Kennedy writes her debut blog on a recent case-control study of people in South London, which explores the links between first-episode psychosis and the use of high potency cannabis (skunk).

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Are we jumping to conclusions in our understanding of psychosis?

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Andrés Fonseca appraises a longitudinal study in people at high risk of psychosis, which looks at misattributing speech and jumping to conclusions.

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Schizophrenia and violent crime: perpetrators or victims?

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Debut blogger Vishal Bhavsar summarises an Israeli population-based study that explores the links between schizophrenia and violent crime. He calls on researchers to focus on people with schizophrenia as victims rather than perpetrators of crime.

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Long working hours are associated with increased alcohol use

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Sally Adams summarises a new BMJ systematic review and meta-analysis of working hours and alcohol use, which finds a link between longer working hours and risky alcohol consumption.

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Folic acid for depression: RCT finds no effect on reducing incidence of depression or bipolar

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Elly O’Brien summarises a recent RCT of folic acid for depression, which explores whether mood disorders can be prevented in young people at familial risk. The trial finds no evidence that folic acid supplementation reduces the incidence of mood disorders compared to those taking placebo.

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Alcohol use disorders and mortality in Nordic countries

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Andrew Jones appraises a recent study of mortality and life expectancy of people with alcohol use disorders in Denmark, Finland and Sweden, which provides some useful insight into the impact of hazardous alcohol use.

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Lifestyle changes for cognition and dementia: better than a new drug?

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Should all molecular research institutes looking at neurodegenerative diseases be replaced by parks, playgrounds and cycle paths? Mark Horowitz highlights a recent systematic review of modifiable risk factors associated with cognition and dementia, which suggests that from a public health perspective, there may be some sense in this idea.

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Risk factors for dementia: separating the facts from the myths

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We are grateful to Josephine Neale who has read the 104 page World Alzheimer Report 2014 and summarised it for us in this very readable blog. The report is a comprehensive analysis of the risk factors for dementia, which focuses on a range of protective and modifiable factors.

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