Increased risk of non-fatal overdose associated with non-prescribed benzodiazepine use in Scotland, UK.

Background: Drug-related deaths (DRDs) in Scotland increased for seven years in a row between 2014 and 2020, consolidating Scotland's place at the top of the United Kingdom and European drug-related mortality charts. One of the defining features of this recent and rapid rise has been the role of benzodiazepines, which are now involved in the majority of all DRDs. These deaths are linked to use of non-prescribed, benzodiazepine-type novel psychoactive substances (NPS) which have been identified by the United Nations as a global threat to public health.

Severe Mental Illness and Type 2 Diabetes Outcomes and Complications: A Nationwide Cohort Study.

Objective: To compare cardiovascular and mortality outcomes in people with severe mental illness (SMI) versus no mental illness in a national cohort study of people with type 2 diabetes.

Research Design And Methods: We included adults diagnosed with type 2 diabetes between 2004 and 2018 from the national Scottish diabetes register, ascertaining history of mental illness from linked psychiatric and general hospital admission records. We identified major cardiovascular disease (CVD) events, all-cause mortality, and CVD-specific mortality through record linkage.

Severe mental illness and quality of care for type 2 diabetes: A retrospective population-based cohort study.

Aims: To compare quality of care for type 2 diabetes in people with severe mental illness (SMI) versus no mental illness.

Methods: We used routinely collected linked data to create a retrospective cohort study. We included 158,901 people diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in Scotland during 2009-2018 of whom 1701 (1%), 768 (0.

Association of severe mental illness with stroke outcomes and process-of-care quality indicators: nationwide cohort study.

Background: Severe mental illness (SMI) is associated with increased stroke risk, but little is known about how SMI relates to stroke prognosis and receipt of acute care.

Aims: To determine the association between SMI and stroke outcomes and receipt of process-of-care quality indicators (such as timely admission to stroke unit).

Method: We conducted a cohort study using routinely collected linked data-sets, including adults with a first hospital admission for stroke in Scotland during 1991-2014, with process-of-care quality indicator data available from 2010.

Severe mental illness and mortality and coronary revascularisation following a myocardial infarction: a retrospective cohort study.

Background: Severe mental illness (SMI), comprising schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression, is associated with higher myocardial infarction (MI) mortality but lower coronary revascularisation rates. Previous studies have largely focused on schizophrenia, with limited information on bipolar disorder and major depression, long-term mortality or the effects of either sociodemographic factors or year of MI. We investigated the associations between SMI and MI prognosis and how these differed by age at MI, sex and year of MI.

Use of sequence analysis for classifying individual antidepressant trajectories to monitor population mental health.

Background: Over the past decade, antidepressant prescriptions have increased in European countries and the United States, partly due to an increase in the number of new cases of mental illness. This paper demonstrates an innovative approach to the classification of population level change in mental health status, using administrative data for a large sample of the Scottish population. We aimed to identify groups of individuals with similar patterns of change in pattern of prescribing, validate these groups by comparison with other indicators of mental illness, and characterise the population most at risk of increasing mental ill health.

Recent outbreaks of infectious syphilis, United Kingdom, January 2012 to April 2014.

Six outbreaks of infectious syphilis in the United Kingdom, ongoing since 2012, have been investigated among men who have sex with men (MSM) and heterosexual men and women aged under 25 years. Interventions included case finding and raising awareness among healthcare professionals and the public. Targeting at-risk populations was complicated as many sexual encounters involved anonymous partners.

Promoting and protecting the health of children and young people.

Background: The health-related behaviours adopted by children and young people can have both immediate and long-term health effects. Health promotion interventions that target children and young people can lay the foundations of a healthy lifestyle that may be sustained into adulthood. This paper is based on a selective review of evidence relating to health promotion in childhood, carried out to support the external working group on the 'Healthy Child' module of the Children's National Service Framework.

Changes in the pattern of work in a rural community hospital 1987-1997.

Objectives: To examine time trends in clinical activity at a rural community hospital, and to assess associated changes in the complexity of the care received by inpatients.

Design: Descriptive study utilising routine Scottish Morbidity Records data (SMRO1) and locally collected data, along with a retrospective review of admission case notes to quantify clinical inputs to patient care.

Setting: Portree community hospital on the island of Skye.

Practical lessons from the management of an outbreak of small round structured virus (Norwalk-like virus) gastroenteritis.

An outbreak of viral gastroenteritis caused illness in 92 people during October 2000. All the cases had an association with one hotel and 80% of cases identified had attended one of two buffet meals on 18th October 2000. Cohort analysis did not implicate any particular foodstuff in this outbreak.

An outbreak of E. coli O157 infection with evidence of spread from animals to man through contamination of a private water supply.

An outbreak of E. coli O157 infection occurred in the Highland Region of Scotland in the summer of 1999. The source of the outbreak was traced to an untreated private water supply.