A four-year longitudinal evaluation of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with a range of mental health disorders.

Objectives: To examine if the COVID-19 pandemic had a differential impact longitudinally over four years on psychological and functional impact in individuals with a pre-existing anxiety, bipolar or emotionally unstable personality Disorder (EUPD).

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 52 patients attending the Galway-Roscommon Mental Health Services with an International Classification of Diseases (ICD)-10 diagnosis of an anxiety disorder ( = 21), bipolar disorder ( = 18), or EUPD ( = 13) at four time points over a four-year period. Patients' impression of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic was assessed in relation to anxiety and mood symptoms, social and occupational functioning and quality of life utilising psychometric instruments and Likert scale data, with qualitative data assessing participants' subjective experiences.

Discussing poverty within primary-care consultations: implications for mental health support.

Background: Poverty can have significant impacts on health and wellbeing. However, asking patients about their broader socio-economic circumstances is not routine within primary care consultations.

Aim: To understand healthcare professionals' experiences of communicating with patients about their socio-economic circumstances and how a bespoke training programme supported these conversations in routine consultations.

Diagnosis and treatment of dehydration after stroke: A synthesis of existing evidence.

Dehydration after stroke is associated with poor health outcomes, increased mortality, and poses a significant economic burden to health services. Yet research suggests that monitoring and assessment of hydration status is not routinely undertaken. In this commentary, we critically appraise a systematic review which aimed to synthesise the existing evidence regarding diagnosis and treatment of dehydration after stroke.

Psychiatry and psychotherapy: the science of sitting with uncertainty.

Objective: This perspective piece aims to delve into the challenges and possibilities arising from uncertainty in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

Method: This is a perspective piece.

Results: Historical considerations, polarised conceptual frameworks, interacting systems, limited randomised controlled research, and varying practice approaches, coalesce to form an exoskeleton of ambiguity and uncertainty in psychiatry and psychotherapy that seems almost impenetrable.