A syndemic approach to the study of Covid-19-related death: a cohort study using UK Biobank data.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic showed higher infection, severity and death rates among those living in poorer socioeconomic conditions. We use syndemic theory to guide the analyses to investigate the impact of social adversity and multiple long-term conditions (MLTC) on Covid-19 mortality.

Methods: The study sample comprised 154 725 UK Biobank participants.

Experience-based Investigation and Co-design of Psychosis Centred Integrated Care Services for Ethnically Diverse People with Multimorbidity (CoPICS): study protocol.

Introduction: Ethnic minorities (also called racialised groups) are more likely to experience severe mental illness (SMI). People with SMI are more likely to experience multimorbidity (MM), making psychosis among racialised groups more likely to lead to MM, poor outcomes, disability and premature mortality.

Methods And Analysis: This National Institute for Health and Care Research-funded study (151887) seeks to use innovative participatory methods including photovoice and biographical narrative interviews in urban and rural areas of England to assemble experience data.

Ethnic inequality, multimorbidity and psychosis: can a syndemic framework resolve disputed evidence?

Syndemic theory is described as population-level clustering or co-occurrence of health conditions in the context of shared aetiologies that interact and can act synergistically. These influences appear to act within specific places of high disadvantage. We suggest ethnic inequality in experiences and outcomes of multimorbidity, including psychosis, may be explained through a syndemic framework.

Analysing multimodal data that have been collected using photovoice as a research method.

Background: Creative arts practice can enhance the depth and quality of mental health research by capturing and foregrounding participants' lived experience. Creative methods are emotionally activating and promote multiple perspectives, tolerating ambiguities and uncertainties, which are shared and even celebrated.

Key Arguments: Methods such as photovoice use imagery to elucidate narratives that are not easily captured by more traditional interview-based research techniques.

The use of culturally adapted and translated depression screening questionnaires with South Asian haemodialysis patients in England.

Background: Depression is common amongst patients receiving haemodialysis (HD). Assessment and intervention when faced with language and cultural barriers is challenging. To support clinician decisions, we conducted a cross-sectional study to assess the use of culturally adapted and translated versions of commonly-used depression screening questionnaires with South Asian patients receiving HD in England.

Using participatory action research methods to address epistemic injustice within mental health research and the mental health system.

In this paper, we describe a model of research practise that addresses epistemic injustice as a central objective, by valuing lived experience and addressing structural disadvantages. We set out here the processes we undertook, and the experiences of those involved in an attempt to transform research practise within a study known as Co-pact. We do not discuss the findings of the research.

Experience-based investigation and codesign of approaches to prevent and reduce Mental Health Act use (CO-PACT): a protocol.

Introduction: The Independent Review of the Mental Health Act (MHA) in England and Wales confirmed increasing levels of compulsory detentions, especially for racialised communities. This research aims to: (a) understand the causes of and propose preventive opportunities to reduce the disproportionate use of the MHA, (b) use an adapted form of experience-based codesign (EBCD) to facilitate system-wide changes and (c) foreground the voices of service users at risk of detention to radically reform policy and implement new legislation to ensure the principles of equity are retained.

Methods And Analysis: This is a qualitative study, using a comparative case study design.

Is psychosis a syndemic manifestation of historical and contemporary adversity? Findings from UK Biobank.

Background: Psychosis is associated with many forms of adversity, deprivation and living in urban areas.

Aims: To investigate whether psychosis is part of a syndemic of multiple adversities.

Method: Drawing on UK Biobank (UKBB) data (Project ID: 57601), we sought to understand mechanisms by which childhood, recent/contemporary and place-based adversities might cluster and interact to be implicated in pathways by which psychoses evolve.

Feasibility and acceptability of transcranial stimulation in obsessive-compulsive symptoms (FEATSOCS): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Background: Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a neuropsychiatric disorder which often proves refractory to current treatment approaches. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a noninvasive form of neurostimulation, with potential for development as a self-administered intervention, has shown potential as a safe and efficacious treatment for OCD in a small number of trials. The two most promising stimulation sites are located above the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the supplementary motor area (SMA).

Identifying evidence of the effectiveness of photovoice: a systematic review and meta-analysis of the international healthcare literature.

Background: Photovoice (PV) was conceptualized in the early 1990s to engage community members in capturing/communicating their lived experience narratives through photography. However, no meta-analyses in health research have assessed whether PV achieves its purported effects.

Methods: We carried forward any relevant references from a previous review identifying PV studies before 2008 and searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 2008 up until October 2019.

Exercise and Use of Enhancement Drugs at the Time of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Multicultural Study on Coping Strategies During Self-Isolation and Related Risks.

Little is known about the impact of restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic on self-image and engagement in exercise and other coping strategies alongside the use of image and performance-enhancing drugs (IPEDs) to boost performance and appearance. To assess the role of anxiety about appearance and self-compassion on the practice of physical exercise and use of IPEDs during lockdown. An international online questionnaire was carried out using the Exercise Addiction Inventory (EAI), the Appearance Anxiety Inventory (AAI), and the Self-Compassion Scale (SCS) in addition to questions on the use of IPEDs.

How do patients from South Asian backgrounds experience life on haemodialysis in the UK? A multicentre qualitative study.

Objectives: End-stage kidney disease disproportionately affects people of South Asian origin. This study aimed to uncover the lived experiences of this group of patients on centre-based haemodialysis (HD), the most prevalent dialysis modality.

Design: The study utilised a qualitative focus group methodology.

The emergence of Exercise Addiction, Body Dysmorphic Disorder, and other image-related psychopathological correlates in fitness settings: A cross sectional study.

Introduction: In a society that perpetuates the strive for a perfect appearance, a fit body has become synonymous with success, but simultaneously hard to achieve. This represents a fertile ground for the development of Exercise Addiction (EA) alongside other disorders, such as Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD). This study aims to explore the diffusion of EA in fitness settings in the United Kingdom, Italy, Netherlands, Hungary and the previously unexplored association with appearance anxiety, BDD, self-esteem and the use of fitness supplements.

The use of supplements and performance and image enhancing drugs in fitness settings: A exploratory cross-sectional investigation in the United Kingdom.

Objective: The strive for perfection is prevalent in the fitness industry. This study aimed to explore the use of products to enhance performance alongside exposure to exercise addiction, appearance anxiety and self-esteem in fitness settings.

Methods: An online survey was prepared and piloted before wider dissemination in fitness clubs via snowballing and selected mailing lists.

How do people of South Asian origin understand and experience depression? A protocol for a systematic review of qualitative literature.

Introduction: Individuals from Black and Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) groups are less likely to receive a diagnosis and to engage with treatment for depression. This review aims to draw on international literature to summarise what is known about how people specifically of South Asian origin, migrants and non-migrants, understand and experience depressive symptoms. The resulting evidence base will further inform practices aimed at encouraging help-seeking behaviour and treatment uptake.