In a population-based cohort study of 1433 mothers with schizophrenia in Ontario, Canada (2003–2011), we compared women with and without psychiatric admission in the 1st year postpartum on demographic, maternal medical/obstetrical, infant and psychiatric factors and identified factors independently associated with admission. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
It has been argued that those with a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnosis experience greater levels of self-stigma than those with other severe mental illness (SMI) diagnoses. This is primarily due to the recognition that those diagnosed with schizophrenia are viewed most negatively by the public (Wood et al., 2014), experience the greatest amount of discrimination (Dinos et al., 2004) and encounter the most rejection (Lundberg et al., 2008). This is supported by research which has found that almost half (47.1%) of participants in a large European sample with a schizophrenia-spectrum diagnoses reported experiencing self-stigma (Brohan et al., 2010).
Given its commonality and the adverse outcomes associated with self-stigma, there has recently been an increasing interest in the development of interventions to reduce self-stigma.
Smoking in the general population is on the decline. However, in people with severe mental disorders (SMDs) such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder the estimated smoking prevalence rate is anywhere between 50-80%. High rates of medical morbidity and severely reduced life expectancy are associated with increased prevalence rates in these individuals.
Pharmacological treatments for smoking cessation are effective in the general population. We have blogged extensively about the efficacy, tolerability and cost-effectiveness of the three main treatments; transdermal nicotine patches (TNP), varenicline and bupropion.
There is emerging evidence to suggest individuals with SMDs are often motivated to quit and pharmacological treatments in those with SMDs are similarly effective. Despite these promising findings, treatments are often under-utilised, with one study finding less than one third of clinicians advising patients about smoking cessation.
An employment support scheme for people receiving treatment for first episode psychosis helped more than half into full-time education, jobs or work placements and improved self-esteem.
In a pragmatic clinical trial, this study sought to compare relapses among patients receiving either long-acting injectable or oral second-generation antipsychotics.
Blogpost. The message from recent surveys is that it’s not just people with a diagnosis of schizophrenia who hear voices in their heads, many people considered mentally well do to. This revelation may have a welcome de-stigmatising effect in terms of how people think about some of the symptoms associated with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but a new study published in Psychosis asks us to hang on a minute – to say that one “hears voices” can mean different things to different people.
Schizophrenia is not a taboo topic anymore. Some aspects of the illness, like hearing voices and delusions (‘positive symptoms’), are increasingly spoken and written about by laypeople. But ‘negative symptoms’ (lack of thought content, motivation, meaningful pleasure and sociability) and the predisposition for people with schizophrenia to get depressed, are still commonly under-appreciated.
Both these domains are often treated by adding an antidepressant to an already-prescribed antipsychotic, but the evidence for this isn’t as comprehensive as we’d like. There have been multiple small studies, but there is little consensus and some subsidiary questions (like whether antidepressants might worsen positive symptoms) remain unanswered. Fortunately for us, a team based in Munich have recently published a systematic review and meta-analysis in the American Journal of Psychiatry, to pull together all of the data in this broad area (Helfer et al, 2016).
The present findings suggest different roles of membrane and serum lipids in schizophrenia pathophysiology. To further elucidate the relation of lipid biology to disease traits, replication in independent studies of longitudinal samples are warranted.
Today we have launched a new publication which showcases projects that promote early intervention in mental health and draws out tips from the commissioners and practitioners involved in their development and delivery.
Our new film - part of our Don't Ignore Your Mental Health (DIYMH) focus on psychosis - looks at the role employers can play in helping members of their teams to overcome psychosis and other mental health problems, and how they can keep them in, or help them to return to, work.
We feature two local employers, Decent Group and Organic Blooms, and we hear from two members of our South Gloucestershire recovery team: occupational therapist Hayet Laverack and vocational lead Paul Broadhead.
The film,Psychosis: how employers can help, is available on the focus on psychosis 'resources' tab at www.diymh.com along with the accompanying Psychosis: tips for employers sheet from Paul Broadhead, which provides further advice about the positive role employers can play.
This study aimed to explore differences in links between negative symptoms and neurocognitive deficits in adolescent and adult patients with first-episode schizophrenia. Schizophrenia is a mental disorder often characterized by positive and negative symptoms, reduced emotional expression, excitatory status, and poor cognitive ability. The severity of negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia was reported to be more related to poor quality of life, weak functional ability, and heavy burden from families than with the severity of positive symptoms. Previous studies suggested correlations between the severity of negative symptoms in patients with schizophrenia and neurocognitive deficits.
Research suggests that tobacco smokers may develop psychosis at an earlier age than non-smokers, with effects on psychotic symptoms. We aimed to test the difference in age of onset of psychosis between smokers and non-smokers . Design Self-report data was collected from smokers and non-smokers in a population of first episode psychosis patients. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Second-generation antipsychotics are commonly prescribed for pediatric patients with schizophrenia and schizophrenia spectrum disorders despite their lack of approval for use in children. Although considered a safer alternative to first-generation antipsychotics, there is evidence to suggest that second-generation antipsychotics may be associated with some adverse events as well as an increase in prolactin levels. The purpose of this review is to examine the risk of prolactin-related adverse events in pediatric patients using antipsychotics and to quantify changes in prolactin for this population.
To compare objective and subjective weight gain of second-generation antipsychotics in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. SSSFT staff can use the OVID link, or you can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The primary objective of this study was to investigate whether the choice and dosage of antipsychotic medication differ between patients with schizophrenia starting treatment in an inpatient or outpatient unit. In addition, we investigated whether the reason for the introduction of new antipsychotic medication had an impact on the treatment setting and whether the use of benzodiazepines differed between inpatients and outpatients. SSSFT staff can use the OVID link, or you can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Several studies show an association between schizophrenia and low levels of vitamin D. To date, there are only few studies about the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in patients with bipolar disorder. We hypothesized that vitamin D deficiency is less common among patients with bipolar disorder than among patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. A second hypothesis is that vitamin D deficiency is more prevalent among patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorders than among the general Dutch population. SSSFT staff can use the OVID link, or you can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
When the people hospitalized in psychiatric units demonstrate aggression, it harms individuals and creates legal and financial issues for hospitals. Aggression has been linked to inpatient, clinician and environmental characteristics. However, previous work primarily accessed clinicians’ perspectives or administrative data and rarely incorporated inpatients’ insights. This limits validity of findings and impedes comparisons of inpatient and clinician perspectives. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens details for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you requesting.