A scoping review of cardiovascular risk factor screening rates in general or family practice attendees living with severe mental ill-health.

Background: Primary care is essential to address the unmet physical health needs of people with severe mental ill-health. Continued poor cardiovascular health demands improved screening and preventive care. No previous reviews have examined primary care cardiovascular screening rates for people living with severe mental ill-health; termed in the literature "severe mental illness".

Discontinuing cannabis use: Symptomatic and functional outcomes in people with an established psychotic disorder.

For people with psychotic disorders, the negative outcomes associated with continuing cannabis use would suggest that discontinuing such use may be beneficial for their symptomatic and functional recovery. However, existing evidence that discontinuation is associated with better clinical outcomes is inconsistent and it remains unclear whether discontinuing use is associated with improvements in outcomes for people with an established psychotic disorder. In this 3-5-year longitudinal study we examined baseline and follow-up symptomatic and functional profiles of 371 people with an established psychotic disorder, comparing those who continued to use cannabis with those who discontinued use after baseline assessment.

Health-related quality of life in people with psychotic disorders: The role of loneliness and its contributors.

Background: Perception of loneliness has been identified as the strongest predictor of health-related quality of life assessed with the Assessment of Quality of Life-4D in people with psychotic disorders. We aimed to establish contributors to perceived loneliness, and ascertain the mediating role of loneliness in the relationship between identified contributors to loneliness and other known predictors of health-related quality of life with health-related quality of life.

Methods: Data for 1642 people collected as part of the 2010 Australian National Survey of Psychosis were analysed.

Characteristics of people on community treatment orders in Australia: Data from the 2010 National Survey of High Impact Psychosis.

Objective: Existing evidence on factors associated with community treatment order placement is largely restricted to administrative data. We utilised the data from a large nationally representative sample to compare the demographic, clinical, social functioning, substance use and service utilisation profiles of people living with psychosis under community treatment orders with those who were not.

Methods: Participants were grouped based on whether they had been subject to a community treatment order in the past 12 months or not.

Validation of the Korean Version of the Psychosis Screener to Identify Patients With Psychosis.

Objective: This study aimed to validate the Korean version of a short screening tool for psychosis as the first stage in finding undiagnosed psychosis in the community.

Methods: The sample contained 126 consecutive psychiatric outpatients in National Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, between July 20 and July 22, 2020. The Psychosis Screener (PS) comprises 7 items covering psychotic symptoms.

Proposing a causal pathway for health-related quality of life in people with psychotic disorders.

This study aimed to establish independent predictors for health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in people with psychotic disorders, and the mediating role of global functioning in those relationships. Data for 1642 people collected as part of the second Australian National Survey of Psychosis were analyzed. The Assessment of Quality of Life (AQoL)-4D and the Personal and Social Performance scale were used for assessing HRQoL and global functioning respectively.

Characteristics of people on long-acting injectable antipsychotics in Australia: Data from the 2010 National Survey of High Impact Psychosis.

Objective: This study investigates (1) the proportion of people with psychosis who are on long-acting injectable antipsychotics; (2) the difference in the demographic, clinical, substance use and adverse drug reaction profiles of people taking long-acting injectables compared to oral antipsychotics; and (3) the differences in the same profiles of those on first-generation antipsychotic versus second-generation antipsychotic long-acting injectables.

Methods: Data were collected as part of the Survey of High Impact Psychosis. For this study, participants with diagnoses of schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder who were on any antipsychotic medication were included ( = 1049).

Mobilization after joint arthroplasty surgery: who benefits from standing within 12 hours?

Background: Early mobilization following joint arthroplasty surgery has been shown to be beneficial for patients, but it is unclear whether it is associated with a shorter length of stay (LOS) for both hip and knee arthroplasty (KA) patients.

Methods: We undertook a retrospective observational study, reviewing the case notes of 386 patients admitted to an enhanced recovery programme for total hip (THA) or total/unicompartmental KA. We evaluated the influence of early mobilization on LOS, adjusting for possible confounders, stratifying by surgery type.

Mental health recovery and physical health outcomes in psychotic illness: Longitudinal data from the Western Australian survey of high impact psychosis catchments.

Objective: There is a dearth of longitudinal data on outcomes in prevalent cases of psychotic illness across a range of ages and levels of chronicity. Our aim was to describe changes over time in mental and physical health outcomes, as well as patterns of service utilisation that may have influenced outcomes, in a representative prevalence sample of 641 Western Australians with a psychotic illness who, at Wave 1, were part of the National Survey of High Impact Psychosis.

Methods: In Wave 1 (2010, 2012), a two-phase design was employed to ensure representativeness: Phase 1 psychosis screening took place in public mental health and non-government organisation services, while, in Phase 2, a randomised sample was interviewed.

Loneliness and its association with health service utilization in people with a psychotic disorder.

Background: Loneliness is common in people with psychotic disorders and associated with reduced health and well-being. The relationship between loneliness in psychosis and health service use is unclear. This study examined whether loneliness predicts increased health care utilization in this population, independently of sociodemographics, health and functioning.

Assessing physical activity in people with mental illness: 23-country reliability and validity of the simple physical activity questionnaire (SIMPAQ).

Background: Physical inactivity is a key contributor to the global burden of disease and disproportionately impacts the wellbeing of people experiencing mental illness. Increases in physical activity are associated with improvements in symptoms of mental illness and reduction in cardiometabolic risk. Reliable and valid clinical tools that assess physical activity would improve evaluation of intervention studies that aim to increase physical activity and reduce sedentary behaviour in people living with mental illness.

The 2019 Schizophrenia International Research Society Conference, 10-14 April, Orlando, Florida: A summary of topics and trends.

The Schizophrenia International Research Society (SIRS) recently held its first North American congress, which took place in Orlando, Florida from 10-14 April 2019. The overall theme of this year's congress was United in Progress - with the aim of cultivating a collaborative effort towards advancing the field of schizophrenia research. Student travel awardees provided reports of the oral sessions and concurrent symposia that took place during the congress.

Sex differences in the cardiometabolic health of cannabis users with a psychotic illness.

Background: Growing evidence shows cannabis use is associated with lower rates of metabolic dysregulation. Despite cannabis impacting each sex differently, few studies have examined the metabolic profile of male and female cannabis users separately. Our aim was to investigate sex differences in the impact of cannabis use on metabolic syndrome in adults with psychotic illness.

Loneliness in psychotic illness and its association with cardiometabolic disorders.

Loneliness is an established risk factor for poor cardiometabolic health. People with psychotic disorders experience high rates of both cardiometabolic disease and loneliness, but how these factors are associated is poorly understood. Thus, using data from the second Australian National Survey of Psychosis we examined whether loneliness is associated with the likelihood of cardiometabolic disorder in psychotic illness.

Treating body, treating mind: The experiences of people with psychotic disorders and their general practitioners - Findings from the Australian National Survey of High Impact Psychosis.

Objectives: To describe from the perspective of people living with psychotic illness their use of general practitioner services over a 12-month period and the experiences, attitudes and challenges general practitioners face providing health care to this population.

Methods: A two-phase design was used. Phase 1, screening for psychosis, occurred in public specialised mental health services and non-government organisations within seven catchment sites across Australia.

The impact of current cannabis use on general cognitive function in people with psychotic illness.

Background: Despite growing research, it remains unclear if cannabis use is associated with additive cognitive impairment in people with psychotic illness and whether exposure in early adolescence is associated with poorer cognitive performance in adulthood.

Methods: This cross-sectional study of a nationally representative sample of 1199 adults with psychotic illness compared current cognition (digit symbol coding) of 297 current users of cannabis (used in the past year), 460 past users (used previously but not in the past year) and 442 non-users (never used). Multiple logistic regression was used to examine whether cognitive performance of cannabis-user groups varied by exposure age and diagnosis (non-affective/affective psychoses).

The role of arterial elasticity and cardiovascular peripheral resistance as clinically relevant indices of health status in people with psychosis.

Objective: Hypertension is one of the most important risk factors for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP) are higher in people with psychosis compared to the general population, but there is little research into measures of the elasticity of the arterial wall (pulse pressure; PP) and peripheral resistance (mean arterial pressure; MAP). PP and MAP can provide an additional perspective on the functioning of the circulatory system.

Responding to challenges for people with psychotic illness: Updated evidence from the Survey of High Impact Psychosis.

Objective: The objective is to summarise recent findings from the 2010 Australian Survey of High Impact Psychosis (SHIP) and examine their implications for future policy and planning to improve mental health, physical health and other circumstances of people with a psychotic disorder.

Methods: Survey of High Impact Psychosis collected nationally representative data on 1825 people with psychotic illness. Over 60 papers have been published covering key challenges reported by participants: financial problems, loneliness and social isolation, unemployment, poor physical health, uncontrolled symptoms of mental illness, and lack of stable, suitable housing.

Comorbid Diabetes and Depression in a National Sample of Adults With Psychosis.

Objective: People with psychosis have an elevated risk of depression and diabetes but no large-scale study has characterized their relationship. We aimed to assess this association and to evaluate possible explanatory factors.

Methods: Analysis of cross-sectional data from a national sample of 1155 people with psychosis who gave a fasting blood sample and could be tested for diabetes mellitus.