Cyberbullying and mental health in young people

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Elly O’Brien summarises a recent US survey of adolescents, which investigates the relationship between cyberbullying, mental health and substance use problems, and the moderating role of family dinners.

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Is suicide contagious? Definition and epidemiology of suicide clusters

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Mark Smith summarises a recent narrative synthesis of research looking at the definition and epidemiology of suicide clusters.

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Interpersonal therapy and imipramine may be effective at reducing suicidal ideation in depression, but more research needed

Susie Johnson considers how effective conventional depression treatments are at reducing suicidal ideation in depression. The new study she summarises concludes that interpersonal therapy and antidepressants can also reduce suicidal ideation.

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Meta-review presents the risks of all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders

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This recent and well-conducted meta-review concludes that the impact on mortality and suicide of mental disorders is substantial, and probably poorly appreciated as a public health problem. Raphael Underwood’s blog summarises the data for all-cause and suicide mortality in mental disorders.

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Homelessness and mental illness in children and young people

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This study explores the prevalence of psychiatric disorder and comorbidity among a UK sample of young people with experience of homelessness. It finds an extremely high prevalence of mental illness, combined with low levels of mental health service use.

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Antidepressants, safety warnings and suicide risk in young people

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Andrew Shepherd reviews the recent controversial BMJ study that suggests the FDA black box warning about antidepressant use in young people, may have inadvertently caused an increase in suicidal behaviour. He finds it’s not quite that clear cut.

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Fewer patients kill themselves in mental health units, but there are bigger benefits to home care

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Suicides among mental health patients under home treatment are double the number of suicides in inpatient units, according to a new study published in The Lancet Psychiatry which looks at suicide rates in different mental health settings.

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Preventing serious adverse outcomes in schizophrenia

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People diagnosed with schizophrenia are 7.4 times more likely to be convicted of violent offences, 8.1 times more likely to die prematurely, and 20.7 times more likely to kill themselves.

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Bullying and cyberbullying increase the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adolescents

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Bullying is just not good for you.  Here on Mental Elf, we’ve already picked some great examples of studies demonstrating this.  André blogged about how bullied children are more likely to develop psychosis, and how bullies are at higher risk for teen pregnancy, and not so long ago, I told you how Wolke et al demonstrated that [read the full story…]

New evidence on antidepressants and suicide risk in children and young people

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Major depressive disorder (MDD) is unfortunately a relatively common condition in children and adolescents.  Depression is estimated to affect 2% of pre-pubertal children and 5-8% of adolescents (Son et al, 2000). As you might expect, depression has a significant negative impact on the development, functioning and risk for suicide in individuals affected, as well as [read the full story…]