Examining the Relationship Between Trauma, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Psychosis in Patients in a UK Secondary Care Service.

Objective: Traumatic experiences and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common in schizophrenia. However, few studies screening for PTSD have established the temporality of PTSD-related traumatic events to psychosis onset. Furthermore, it is unclear how many patients attribute a trauma-based contribution to their psychosis or would find trauma-focused therapy acceptable.

Keeping it human: Pandemic era psychiatry teaching.

Background: Mental health is an important global issue, and doctors in training need a grounding in the principles of psychiatry. Undergraduate clinical placements in psychiatry can develop core knowledge and skills as well as challenging stigma towards mental illness. The onset of the coronavirus pandemic saw disruption to undergraduate clinical placements.

Bidirectional effects between loneliness, smoking and alcohol use: evidence from a Mendelian randomization study.

Background And Aims: Loneliness is associated with cigarette smoking and problematic alcohol use. Observational evidence suggests these associations arise because loneliness increases substance use; however, there is potential for reverse causation (problematic drinking damages social networks, leading to loneliness). With conventional epidemiological methods, controlling for (residual) confounding and reverse causality is difficult.

FAST enough? The U.K. general public's understanding of stroke.

Good public awareness of stroke symptoms and the need for rapid admission to hospital can improve patient outcomes. However, evidence suggests that this awareness is currently inadequate. Therefore, it is important to identify gaps in public knowledge to target public health campaigns appropriately.

NIAID resources for developing new therapies for severe viral infections.

Severe viral infections, including hemorrhagic fever and encephalitis, occur throughout the world, but are most prevalent in developing areas that are most vulnerable to infectious diseases. Some of these can also infect related species as illustrated by the threatened extinction of gorillas by Ebola infection in west and central Africa. There are no safe and effective treatments available for these serious infections.