Virtually delivered guided self-help for binge eating disorder and bulimia nervosa: findings from a service evaluation.

Background: Timely intervention is beneficial to the effectiveness of eating disorder (ED) treatment, but limited capacity within ED services means that these disorders are often not treated with sufficient speed. This service evaluation extends previous research into guided self-help (GSH) for adults with bulimic spectrum EDs by assessing the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary effectiveness of virtually delivered GSH using videoconferencing.

Method: Patients with bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED) and other specified feeding and eating disorders (OSFED) waiting for treatment in a large specialist adult ED out-patient service were offered virtually delivered GSH.

Seeking help for mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A longitudinal analysis of adults' experiences with digital technologies and services.

The COVID-19 pandemic brought about dramatic changes in how patients access healthcare from its outset. Lockdown restrictions and remote working led to a proliferation of digital technologies and services, which also impacted mental health provisions. Against the backdrop of new and changing support services, along with an unprecedented emphasis on mental health, relatively little is known about how adults sought out and received support for their mental health during this period.

Management of fraudulent participants in online research: Practical recommendations from a randomized controlled feasibility trial.

Objective: Fraudulent participation is an escalating concern for online clinical trials and research studies and can have a significant negative impact on findings. We aim to shed light on the risk and to provide practical recommendations for detecting and managing such instances.

Methods: The FREED-Mobile (FREED-M) study is an online, randomized controlled feasibility trial to assess a digital early intervention for young people (aged 16-25) in England or Wales with eating problems.

Trajectories of depression symptoms, anxiety symptoms and functional impairment during internet-enabled cognitive-behavioural therapy.

Underlying classes capture differences between patient symptom trajectories during psychological therapy. This has not been explored for one-to-one internet-delivered therapy or functional impairment trajectories. Patients experiencing depression or anxiety received cognitive-behavioural therapy with a therapist using an online chat platform (N = 52,029).

The United Kingdom Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative.

Objective: The United Kingdom Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI UK), part of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Mental Health BioResource, aims to deepen our understanding of the environmental and genetic etiology of eating disorders. EDGI UK launched in February 2020 and is partnered with the UK eating disorders charity, Beat. Multiple EDGI branches exist worldwide.

Sociodemographic, mental health, and physical health factors associated with participation within re-contactable mental health cohorts: an investigation of the GLAD Study.

Background: The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study is a large cohort of individuals with lifetime anxiety and/or depression, designed to facilitate re-contact of participants for mental health research. At the start of the pandemic, participants from three cohorts, including the GLAD Study, were invited to join the COVID-19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics (COPING) study to monitor mental and neurological health. However, previous research suggests that participation in longitudinal studies follows a systematic, rather than random, process, which can ultimately bias results.

The network structure of mania symptoms differs between people with and without binge eating.

Objectives: People with bipolar disorder who also report binge eating have increased psychopathology and greater impairment than those without binge eating. Whether this co-occurrence is related to binge eating as a symptom or presents differently across full-syndrome eating disorders with binge eating is unclear.

Methods: We first compared networks of 13 lifetime mania symptoms in 34,226 participants from the United Kingdom's National Institute for Health and Care Research BioResource with (n = 12,104) and without (n = 22,122) lifetime binge eating.

Genetic examination of the Mood Disorder Questionnaire and its relationship with bipolar disorder.

The Mood Disorder Questionnaire (MDQ) is a common screening tool for bipolar disorder that assesses manic symptoms. Its utility for genetic studies of mania or bipolar traits has not been fully examined. We psychometrically compared the MDQ to self-reported bipolar disorder in participants from the United Kingdom National Institute of Health and Care Research Mental Health BioResource.

Trajectories of depression and anxiety symptom severity during psychological therapy for common mental health problems.

Background: There is substantial variation in patient symptoms following psychological therapy for depression and anxiety. However, reliance on endpoint outcomes ignores additional interindividual variation during therapy. Knowing a patient's likely symptom trajectories could guide clinical decisions.

Different trajectories of depression, anxiety and anhedonia symptoms in the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in a UK longitudinal sample.

Background: While studies from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have described initial negative effects on mental health and exacerbating mental health inequalities, longer-term studies are only now emerging.

Method: In total, 34 465 individuals in the UK completed online questionnaires and were re-contacted over the first 12 months of the pandemic. We used growth mixture modelling to identify trajectories of depression, anxiety and anhedonia symptoms using the 12-month data.

Factors associated with anxiety disorder comorbidity.

Background: Anxiety and depressive disorders often co-occur and the order of their emergence may be associated with different clinical outcomes. However, minimal research has been conducted on anxiety-anxiety comorbidity. This study examined factors associated with anxiety comorbidity and anxiety-MDD temporal sequence.

Risk and protective factors for new-onset binge eating, low weight, and self-harm symptoms in >35,000 individuals in the UK during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Objective: The disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has been associated with poor mental health, including increases in eating disorders and self-harm symptoms. We investigated risk and protective factors for the new onset of these symptoms during the pandemic.

Method: Data were from the COVID-19 Psychiatry and Neurological Genetics study and the Repeated Assessment of Mental health in Pandemics Study (n = 36,715).

Comparison of depression and anxiety symptom networks in reporters and non-reporters of lifetime trauma in two samples of differing severity.

Background: Reported trauma is associated with differences in the course and outcomes of depression and anxiety. However, no research has explored the association between reported trauma and patterns of clinically relevant symptoms of both depression and anxiety.

Methods: We used network analysis to investigate associations between reported trauma and depression and anxiety symptom interactions in affected individuals from the Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study (n = 17720), and population volunteers from the UK Biobank (n = 11120).

Risk factors for developing COVID-19: a population-based longitudinal study (COVIDENCE UK).

Background: Risk factors for severe COVID-19 include older age, male sex, obesity, black or Asian ethnicity and underlying medical conditions. Whether these factors also influence susceptibility to developing COVID-19 is uncertain.

Methods: We undertook a prospective, population-based cohort study (COVIDENCE UK) from 1 May 2020 to 5 February 2021.

Comparison of symptom-based versus self-reported diagnostic measures of anxiety and depression disorders in the GLAD and COPING cohorts.

Background: Understanding and improving outcomes for people with anxiety or depression often requires large sample sizes. To increase participation and reduce costs, such research is typically unable to utilise "gold-standard" methods to ascertain diagnoses, instead relying on remote, self-report measures.

Aims: Assess the comparability of remote diagnostic methods for anxiety and depression disorders commonly used in research.

Age and sex-related variability in the presentation of generalized anxiety and depression symptoms.

Background: Generalized anxiety and depression are extremely prevalent and debilitating. There is evidence for age and sex variability in symptoms of depression, but despite comorbidity it is unclear whether this extends to anxiety symptomatology. Studies using questionnaire sum scores typically fail to address this phenotypic complexity.

The Genetic Links to Anxiety and Depression (GLAD) Study: Online recruitment into the largest recontactable study of depression and anxiety.

Background: Anxiety and depression are common, debilitating and costly. These disorders are influenced by multiple risk factors, from genes to psychological vulnerabilities and environmental stressors, but research is hampered by a lack of sufficiently large comprehensive studies. We are recruiting 40,000 individuals with lifetime depression or anxiety and broad assessment of risks to facilitate future research.