The role of body image dissatisfaction in the relationship between body size and disordered eating and self-harm: complimentary Mendelian randomization and mediation analyses.

Disordered eating and self-harm commonly co-occur in young people suggesting potential for shared underlying causes. Body image dissatisfaction (BID) has been recognised as a psychological correlate of body size, associated with both disordered eating and self-harm. However, the investigation into etiological pathways early in the lifecourse to provide detail on how body size and BID may foster disordered eating and self-harm remains largely unexplored.

Continence Problems and Mental Health in Adolescents from a UK Cohort.

Background: Adolescents with continence problems experience unique threats to their psychological well-being, but long-term mental health sequelae are unknown.

Objective: To examine prospective relationships between incontinence/lower urinary tract symptoms (LUTS) and mental health problems in young people.

Design, Setting, And Participants: A prospective cohort study of young people (n = 7332: 3639 males and 3693 females) from a population-based sample was conducted.

Mental health problems, stressful life events and new-onset urinary incontinence in primary school-age children: a prospective cohort study.

Emotional/behaviour problems and exposure to stressful life events are thought to contribute to new onset of urinary incontinence (UI) amongst children who have attained bladder control. However, very few prospective studies have examined these associations. We assessed whether mental health problems and stressful life events were associated with subsequent new onset in UI using multivariable logistic regression in a prospective UK cohort (n = 6408).

Emotional dysregulation in childhood and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence: prospective associations and mediating pathways.

Background: Emotional dysregulation may be a risk factor for disordered eating and self-harm in young people, but few prospective studies have assessed these associations long-term, or considered potential mediators. We examined prospective relationships between childhood emotional dysregulation and disordered eating and self-harm in adolescence; and social cognition, emotional recognition, and being bullied as mediators.

Methods: We analysed Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children data on 3,453 males and 3,481 females.

Collecting genetic samples and linked mental health data from adolescents in schools: protocol coproduction and a mixed-methods pilot of feasibility and acceptability.

Objectives: To coproduce a school-based protocol and examine acceptability and feasibility of collecting saliva samples for genetic studies from secondary/high school students for the purpose of mental health research.

Design: Protocol coproduction and mixed-methods feasibility pilot.

Setting: Secondary schools in Wales, UK.

Disordered eating and self-harm as risk factors for poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: a UK-based birth cohort study.

Background: Young adults and especially those with pre-existing mental health conditions, such as disordered eating and self-harm, appear to be at greater risk of developing metal health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is unclear whether this increased risk is affected by any changes in lockdown restrictions, and whether any lifestyle changes could moderate this increased risk.

Methods: In a longitudinal UK-based birth cohort (The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, ALSPAC) we assessed the relationship between pre-pandemic measures of disordered eating and self-harm and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2657 young adults.

Association of Emotion Regulation Trajectories in Childhood With Anorexia Nervosa and Atypical Anorexia Nervosa in Early Adolescence.

Importance: People with anorexia nervosa often experience difficulties regulating their emotions. There is no longitudinal evidence as to whether these differences are already present in childhood or when they begin to emerge.

Objective: To investigate the association between emotion regulation trajectories from 3 to 7 years of age and symptoms of anorexia nervosa and atypical anorexia nervosa in adolescence.

Disordered eating and self-harm as risk factors for poorer mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic: A UK-based birth cohort study.

Background: Young adults and especially those with pre-existing mental health conditions, such as disordered eating and self-harm, appear to be at greater risk of developing metal health problems during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it is unclear whether this increased risk is affected by any changes in lockdown restrictions, and whether any lifestyle changes could moderate this increased risk.

Methods: In a longitudinal UK-based birth cohort (The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children, ALSPAC) we assessed the relationship between pre-pandemic measures of disordered eating and self-harm and mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2,657 young adults.

Do children with recurrent abdominal pain grow up to become adolescents who control their weight by fasting? Results from a UK population-based cohort.

Objective: Gastrointestinal (GI) problems are common in eating disorders, but it is unclear whether these problems predate the onset of disordered eating. Recurrent abdominal pain (RAP) is the most prevalent GI problem of childhood, and this study aimed to explore longitudinal associations between persistent RAP (at ages 7 and 9) and fasting for weight control at 16.

Method: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a UK population cohort of children.

Comorbidity of self-harm and disordered eating in young people: Evidence from a UK population-based cohort.

Background: Self-harm and eating disorders are often comorbid in clinical samples but their co-occurrence in the general population is unclear. Given that only a small proportion of individuals who self-harm or have disordered eating present to clinical services, and that both self-harm and eating disorders are associated with substantial morbidity and mortality, it is important to study these behaviours at a population level.

Methods: We assessed the co-occurrence of self-harm and disordered eating behaviours in 3384 females and 2326 males from a UK population-based cohort: the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC).

Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in two longitudinal UK population cohorts.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic and mitigation measures are likely to have a marked effect on mental health. It is important to use longitudinal data to improve inferences.

Aims: To quantify the prevalence of depression, anxiety and mental well-being before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Using a cross-cohort comparison design to test the role of maternal smoking in pregnancy in child mental health and learning: evidence from two UK cohorts born four decades apart.

Background: Maternal smoking in pregnancy is associated with low birth weight (LBW), child conduct problems, hyperactivity and lower cognitive attainment, but associations may reflect measured and unmeasured confounding. Cross-cohort designs can aid causal inference through comparison of associations across populations with different confounding structures. We compared associations between maternal smoking in pregnancy and child conduct and hyperactivity problems, cognition and LBW across two cohorts born four decades apart.

Symptom profile of postpartum and non-postpartum manic episodes in bipolar I disorder: a within-subjects study.

The relationship of postpartum mania to episodes of mania occurring outside the perinatal period among women with bipolar disorder remains controversial. Previous studies have used between-subjects designs to compare the clinical presentations of these episodes meaning the differences, in part, may reflect between-group differences. To overcome this we have undertaken within-subject comparisons of the symptom profile of postpartum and non-postpartum manic episodes in 50 women with DSM-IV bipolar I disorder.

Cross-cohort change in adolescent outcomes for children with mental health problems.

Background: Child mental health problems are common. Previous studies have examined secular changes in their prevalence but have not assessed whether later outcomes have changed. We therefore aimed to test whether outcomes of child mental health problems have changed over a 40-year period.

Examining the relationship between stressful life events and overgeneral autobiographical memory in adolescents at high familial risk of depression.

Difficulty remembering specific events from the personal past, known as overgeneral autobiographical memory (AM), may be a marker of vulnerability to adolescent depression but little is known about how overgeneral AM arises in this age group. Stressful life events (SLEs) are strongly implicated in the onset of depression and are considered important in theoretical work on AM. We investigated whether exposure to lifetime and recent SLEs contributed to the development of overgeneral AM in a sample of adolescents at high familial risk of depression (n = 257) and examined the effects of gender and memory valence.

Distinct contributions of the fornix and inferior longitudinal fasciculus to episodic and semantic autobiographical memory.

Autobiographical memory (AM) is multifaceted, incorporating the vivid retrieval of contextual detail (episodic AM), together with semantic knowledge that infuses meaning and coherence into past events (semantic AM). While neuropsychological evidence highlights a role for the hippocampus and anterior temporal lobe (ATL) in episodic and semantic AM, respectively, it is unclear whether these constitute dissociable large-scale AM networks. We used high angular resolution diffusion-weighted imaging and constrained spherical deconvolution-based tractography to assess white matter microstructure in 27 healthy young adult participants who were asked to recall past experiences using word cues.