What can genetics tell us about the link between cannabis and schizophrenia? #MHQT

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Suzi Gage summarises a recent GWAS of lifetime cannabis use, which reveals new risk loci, genetic overlap with psychiatric traits, and a causal influence of schizophrenia. Interesting new evidence ahead of our Mental Health Question Time #MHQT event in London tomorrow.

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Systematic review of recovery may leave more questions than answers

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Simon Bradstreet is left feeling frustrated by this systematic review of person-oriented recovery in people living with severe mental illness, which neglected to include a significant amount of relevant research.

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Low dose Amisulpride for very late onset schizophrenia-like psychosis: the ATLAS study

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Elwira Lubos summarises the recent ATLAS RCT of antipsychotic treatment for very late-onset schizophrenia-like psychosis, which provides evidence for the effectiveness of a very low dose of Amisulpride (100 mg).

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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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Sexual function matters to people living with serious mental illness

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Rudiger Pittrof and Elana Covshoff from SHRINE (Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights, Inclusion and Empowerment) explore a recent review, which looks at the impact of severe mental disorders and psychotropic medications on sexual health and its implications for clinical management.

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How valid are hospital psychiatric diagnoses?

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Vishal Bhavsar explores a recent study that uses data linkage to electronic patient records to assess the validity of selected mental health diagnoses in English Hospital Episode Statistics.

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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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Understanding the genetics of antipsychotic treatment response

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Marcus Munafo looks at a Chinese genome-wide association study that claims to have identified some of the genes associated with response to antipsychotic treatment.

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Improving outcomes for people with first episode psychosis

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Elwira Lubos summarises a recent review of reviews looking at the evidence for improving outcomes in first-episode psychosis.

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Antipsychotic effectiveness: the numbers don’t lie, check the scoreboard

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Students and Teachers from the King’s College London PNoMH Distance Learning MSc summarise a major new meta-analysis that brings together the last 60 years of placebo-controlled antipsychotic drug trials in acute schizophrenia.

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