Diagnosis of common health conditions among autistic adults in the UK: evidence from a matched cohort study.

Background: Autistic people are disproportionately likely to experience premature mortality and most mental and physical health conditions. We measured the incidence of diagnosed conditions accounting for the most disability-adjusted life years in the UK population according to the Global Burden of Disease study (anxiety, depression, self-harm, harmful alcohol use, substance use, migraine, neck or back pain, and gynaecological conditions).

Methods: Participants were aged 18 years or above and had an autism diagnosis recorded in the IQVIA Medical Research Database between 01/01/2000 and 16/01/2019.

Association between a selective 5-HT receptor agonist and incidence of major depressive disorder: emulated target trial.

Background: The serotonin 4 receptor (5-HTR) is a promising target for the treatment of depression. Highly selective 5-HTR agonists, such as prucalopride, have antidepressant-like and procognitive effects in preclinical models, but their clinical effects are not yet established.

Aims: To determine whether prucalopride (a 5-HTR agonist and licensed treatment for constipation) is associated with reduced incidence of depression in individuals with no past history of mental illness, compared with anti-constipation agents with no effect on the central nervous system.

Happy times, careers and happenstance in UK psychiatry: time, timeliness, timelessness, eternity and contemporality.

To address some challenges facing psychiatrists today we discuss issues of happenstance and fulfilment in psychiatric careers through some of the record and reflections of four psychiatrists since the 1950s. We trace the changes in psychiatry attendant to the transition from the welfare to the neoliberal state and=its contemporary postmodern culture. We highlight the crucial importance of political-cultural as well as technological developments in determining psychiatric service management and provision, and clinical practice and career outcomes.

Exploring the Quality-of-Care Dynamics of Inpatient Psychosocial Rehabilitation in Community-Based Mental Health Services: A Comprehensive Analysis.

This study aims to investigate the intricacies of inpatient psychosocial rehabilitation by examining a community-based mental health inpatient rehabilitation service in Nova Scotia, Canada. It provides a comparative analysis with national standards using the Quality Indicator for Rehabilitative Care (QuIRC) and offers recommendations for improvement. The study will link findings to research on enhancing specific domains, focusing on strategies to address identified challenges and leverage opportunities to meet or exceed national benchmarks in promoting recovery and social inclusion.

Quality of melatonin use in children and adolescents: findings from a UK clinical audit.

Background: Melatonin is commonly used to treat sleep disturbance in children and adolescents, although uncertainties about its optimal use remain.

Objective: To determine to what extent prescribing of melatonin complies with evidence-based clinical practice standards.

Methods: As part of a quality improvement programme, the Prescribing Observatory for Mental Health conducted a retrospective clinical audit in UK services for children and adolescents.

Approaches to improving mental healthcare for autistic people: systematic review.

Background: Autistic people have a high likelihood of developing mental health difficulties but a low chance of receiving effective mental healthcare. Therefore, there is a need to identify and examine strategies to improve mental healthcare for autistic people.

Aims: To identify strategies that have been implemented to improve access, experiences of care and mental health outcomes for autistic adults, and to examine evidence on their acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness.

Effects of an 8-week high-dose vitamin D supplementation on fatigue and neuropsychiatric manifestations in post-COVID syndrome: A randomized controlled trial.

Aim: This study evaluated the effectiveness of high-dose vitamin D supplementation in alleviating fatigue and neuropsychiatric symptoms in post-COVID syndrome.

Methods: In an 8-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial, 80 patients with post-COVID fatigue or neuropsychiatric symptoms were enrolled. Participants were randomly assigned to receive either 60,000 IU of vitamin D weekly (n = 40) or a placebo (n = 40) for 8 weeks.

Behind the curtain of : The practice of a medical journal and a call for reviewers.

The process of medical scientific journal publishing merits further explanation for authors and readers. Prospective authors need to understand the scope of the journal and the article types that are published. We give an overview of the editorial process, including selection of reviewers, peer review and decisions regarding revision, acceptance and rejection of papers for .

A feasibility randomized controlled trial of culturally adapted Getting Better Bite-by-Bite (Ca-GBBB) intervention for individuals with eating disorders in Pakistan.

Background: Eating disorders (EDs) are serious mental health conditions that affect a person physically and psychologically. In the past, EDs were only recognized as a cultural phenomenon/societal by-product of the West. However, research evidence marks its presence in non-western countries also, including South Asia.

Life is better but not without challenges: experiences following discharge from community-based residential mental health rehabilitation-a qualitative content analysis.

Purpose: Community-based residential mental health rehabilitation units for people experiencing severe and persistent mental illness are increasingly available in Australia. Research completed 20 years ago suggested that people leaving these services often experienced impoverished social lives and other challenges in the community. It is unclear whether contemporary consumers experience similar difficulties.

Neuroanatomical dimensions in medication-free individuals with major depressive disorder and treatment response to SSRI antidepressant medications or placebo.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a heterogeneous clinical syndrome with widespread subtle neuroanatomical correlates. Our objective was to identify the neuroanatomical dimensions that characterize MDD and predict treatment response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants or placebo. In the COORDINATE-MDD consortium, raw MRI data were shared from international samples ( = 1,384) of medication-free individuals with first-episode and recurrent MDD ( = 685) in a current depressive episode of at least moderate severity, but not treatment-resistant depression, as well as healthy controls ( = 699).

Effectiveness of Learning through Play Plus (LTP Plus) Parenting Intervention on Behaviours of Young Children of Depressed Mothers: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

Evidence has shown that parenting intervention programmes improve parental knowledge, attitudes, and practices, which helps in promoting child development. This study aims to examine the effectiveness of parenting intervention in improving child behaviours. This is a secondary analysis of data from a cluster-randomised controlled trial with depressed mothers aged 18-44 years with a child aged 0 to 36 months.

Survey on barriers to psychiatrists' use of clozapine for young people in Scotland and suggestions for reducing these.

Introduction: The Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland published a report into the death of a young person, with recommendations for the Royal College of Psychiatry in Scotland Child and Adolescent Faculty; to explore if there were barriers to the use of Clozapine in young people in Scotland.

Methods: A mixed-methods study was performed using a cross-sectional survey of clinicians working in child and adolescent psychiatry across Scotland, to determine attitudes towards clozapine use and the perceived barriers and facilitators to clozapine treatment.

Results: Results suggest that there may be a lack of clearly defined pathways within and between services, as well as a lack of resources provided for the necessary monitoring of a young person started on clozapine.

International Consensus on Standard Outcome Measures for Neurodevelopmental Disorders: A Consensus Statement.

Importance: The use of evidence-based standardized outcome measures is increasingly recognized as key to guiding clinical decision-making in mental health. Implementation of these measures into clinical practice has been hampered by lack of clarity on what to measure and how to do this in a reliable and standardized way.

Objective: To develop a core set of outcome measures for specific neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), communication disorders, specific learning disorders, and motor disorders, that may be used across a range of geographic and cultural settings.

Why choose ?

was first established as the in 1977. Since then, it has extended its influence within the field, and it is now the go-to journal for practical clinical considerations in psychiatry, and mental health more widely. It stands together with the wider family of RCPsych journals - , , and - and offers a number of distinct advantages for readers and authors.

Aberrant Cardiac Interoception in Psychosis.

Background And Hypothesis: There is mounting evidence that cardiac interoception, the perception of one's heartbeat, is central to affective experiences. It has been proposed that symptoms of psychosis could arise from interoceptive dysfunction. Here we hypothesized that people with psychotic disorders would have a specific impairment in cardiac interoception, over and above broader perceptual deficits.