Publications by authors named "Boliang Guo"

Background: Well Parent Japan (WPJ) is a new hybrid group parent training programme combining sessions to improve mothers' psychological well-being with a culturally adapted version of the New Forest Parenting Programme (NFPP). This study investigates the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of WPJ against treatment as usual (TAU) within Japanese child mental health services.

Methods: TRANSFORM was a pragmatic multi-site randomised controlled trial (RCT) with two parallel arms.

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Background: A RCT of a novel intervention to detect antidepressant medication response (the PReDicT Test) took place in five European countries, accompanied by a nested study of its acceptability and implementation presented here. The RCT results indicated no effect of the intervention on depression at 8 weeks (primary outcome), although effects on anxiety at 8 weeks and functioning at 24 weeks were found.

Methods: The nested study used mixed methods.

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Background: During the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic, children and young people (CYP) faced significant restrictions. The virus and mitigation approaches significantly impacted how health services could function and be safely delivered.

Aims: To investigate the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns on CYP psychiatric admission trends during lockdown 1 (started 23 Mar 2020) and lockdown 2 (started 5 Nov 2020) of the COVID-19 pandemic in England.

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Background: Many intensive care unit (ICU) staff experience intrusive memories following work-related traumatic events, which can lead to long-term mental health outcomes and impact work functioning. There is a need for interventions that target intrusive memories in this population; however, factors such as mental health stigma and difficulty in fitting interventions into busy schedules can pose barriers. The Brief Gameplay Intervention For National Health Service Intensive Care Unit Staff Affected By COVID-19 Trauma (GAINS) study tested a brief, digital imagery-competing task intervention (including computer gameplay) with the aim of reducing the recurrence of intrusive memories, which holds promise for overcoming some of these barriers.

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Background: The increasing prevalence and acuity of mental disorders among children and adolescents have placed pressure on services, including inpatient care, and resulted in young people being admitted at-distance or to adult wards. Little empirical research has investigated such admissions.

Objective: To determine the incidence, clinical characteristics and 6-month outcomes of patients aged 13-17 years old admitted at-distance (>50 miles from home or out of region) to general adolescent psychiatric wards or to adult psychiatric wards.

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Background: Despite the known health costs of persistent depression, there is no established service framework for the treatment of this disorder and a lack of long-term outcome data to inform commissioning. To address this gap, we report the long-term clinical effectiveness of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) testing a specialist, collaborative model of care for people with persistent moderate to severe unipolar depression.

Methods: A multicentre, pragmatic, single-blind, parallel-group randomised controlled trial comparing outcomes from a Specialist Depression Service (SDS) offering collaborative treatment with cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy for 12 months with treatment as usual (TAU) for persistent, moderate-severe depression in UK secondary care.

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Intrusive memories (IMs) after traumatic events can be distressing and disrupt mental health and functioning. We evaluated the impact of a brief remotely-delivered digital imagery-competing task intervention on the number of IMs for intensive care unit (ICU) staff who faced repeated trauma exposure during the COVID-19 pandemic using a two-arm, parallel-group, single-blind randomised controlled trial, with the comparator arm receiving delayed access to active treatment (crossover). Eligible participants worked clinically in a UK NHS ICU during the pandemic and had at least 3 IMs of work-related traumatic events in the week before recruitment.

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Background: Randomised sham-controlled trials of cranial electrostimulation with the Alpha-Stim Anxiety Insomnia and Depression (AID) device have reported improved anxiety and depression symptoms; however, no adequately powered sham-controlled trials in major depression are available. We investigated whether active Alpha-Stim AID is superior to sham Alpha-Stim AID in terms of clinical effectiveness for depression symptoms in major depression.

Methods: The Alpha-Stim-D trial was a multicentre, parallel group, double-blind, randomised controlled trial, recruiting participants from 25 primary care centres in two regions in England, UK.

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Background: With the rapid increase in the prevalence of dementia in the United Kingdom and beyond, the emotional, social, and economic burden on individuals, families, and health care services continues to rise. Currently, interventions that enable people living with dementia to better manage their condition and achieve a good quality of life are needed.

Objective: This study aimed to explore how the Promoting Independence in Dementia (PRIDE) app can promote and support the self-management of people living with mild dementia.

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Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder associated with numerous functional deficits and poor long-term outcomes. Internationally, behavioral interventions are recommended as part of a multimodal treatment approach for children with ADHD. Currently, in Japan, there are limited interventions available to target ADHD.

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Clinical guidelines for mental health disorders produced by the National Institute of Care Excellence (NICE) emphasise a recovery-based approach clinical care with collaborative decision-making. The aim of the study was to explore service user experience of collaborative decision-making and recovery focussed care in relation to a NICE clinical guideline for bipolar disorder four years after publication. Participants with a clinical diagnosis of bipolar disorder were recruited from adult mental health services in four specialist mental health NHS Trusts through health professional or self-referral following advertisement.

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Background: Improving care at home for people with dementia is a core policy goal in the dementia strategies of many European countries. A challenge to effective home support is the occurrence of crises in the care of people with dementia which arise from changes in their health and social circumstances. Improving the management of these crises may prevent hospital admissions and facilitate better and longer care at home.

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Aim: To examine how patients spend their time in stroke rehabilitation units in England.

Methods: We recruited 144 patients within a month after stroke from four stroke rehabilitation units and observed their activity type, interactions and location. Each participant was observed for 1 min every 10-minutes, for a total of 20 h, over three consecutive days.

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Objectives: There is a lack of independent longitudinal evidence on the factor structure and validity of the Zanarini Rating Scale for Borderline Personality Disorder (ZAN-BPD). This study aimed to investigate the dimensionality of ZAN-BPD and its conceptual consistency over time.

Methods: Adult BPD participants (n = 276) were recruited for a multicentre, two-arm randomised clinical trial with ZAN-BPD measured at baseline and follow up at 12, 24 and 52 weeks.

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Background: Effective help for depression and anxiety reaches a small proportion of people who might benefit from it. The scale of the problem suggests the need for effective, safe web-based public health services delivered directly to the public. One model, the Big White Wall (BWW), offers peer support at low cost.

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Background: Medication for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) should be closely monitored to ensure optimisation. There is growing interest in using computerised assessments of ADHD symptoms to support medication monitoring. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility and acceptability of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) to evaluate the efficacy of one such computerised assessment, the Quantified Behavior (Qb) Test, as part of medication management for ADHD.

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Depressed patients often do not respond to the first antidepressant prescribed, resulting in sequential trials of different medications. Personalised medicine offers a means of reducing this delay; however, the clinical effectiveness of personalised approaches to antidepressant treatment has not previously been tested. We assessed the clinical effectiveness of using a predictive algorithm, based on behavioural tests of affective cognition and subjective symptoms, to guide antidepressant treatment.

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Background: As the number of people living with dementia grows, so does the need to provide them with adequate psychosocial support. Many people with dementia live at home with family carers, who also require social and emotional support to cope with their role. Community group singing has received attention for its potential to support people with dementia and their carers.

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Background: The 17-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS17) is used world-wide as an observer-rated measure of depression in randomised controlled trials (RCTs) despite continued uncertainty regarding its factor structure. This study investigated the dimensionality of HDRS17 for patients undergoing treatment in UK mental health settings with moderate to severe persistent major depressive disorder (PMDD).

Methods: Exploratory Structural Equational Modelling (ESEM) was performed to examine the HDRS17 factor structure for adult PMDD patients with HDRS17 score ≥16.

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Background: Cross-sectional studies show that transgender people are more likely than cisgender people to experience depression and anxiety before gender-affirming hormone treatment (GAHT). However, the effect of GAHT on mental health in transgender people, and the role of other factors that may have a predictive effect, is poorly explored.

Objectives: Using a longitudinal methodology, this study investigated the effect of 18-month GAHT on depression and anxiety symptomatology and the predictors on mental health outcomes in a large population of transgender people.

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Background: The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is widely used to assess child and adolescent mental health problems. However, the factor structure of the SDQ is subject to debate and there is limited evidence investigating measurement equivalence invariance (ME/I) between treatment groups, informants, and across time.

Method: A randomised controlled trial (RCT) recruited 250 participants (6-17 years) who had been referred for an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) assessment.

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