Homelessness and mental illness in children and young people

This study explores the prevalence of psychiatric disorder and comorbidity among a UK sample of young people with experience of homelessness. It finds an extremely high prevalence of mental illness, combined with low levels of mental health service use.

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Antidepressants, safety warnings and suicide risk in young people

Andrew Shepherd reviews the recent controversial BMJ study that suggests the FDA black box warning about antidepressant use in young people, may have inadvertently caused an increase in suicidal behaviour. He finds it’s not quite that clear cut.

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Bullying and cyberbullying increase the risk of suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in adolescents

Bullying is just not good for you.  Here on Mental Elf, we’ve already picked some great examples of studies demonstrating this.  André blogged about how bullied children are more likely to develop psychosis, and how bullies are at higher risk for teen pregnancy, and not so long ago, I told you how Wolke et al demonstrated that [read the full story…]

New evidence on antidepressants and suicide risk in children and young people

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is unfortunately a relatively common condition in children and adolescents.  Depression is estimated to affect 2% of pre-pubertal children and 5-8% of adolescents (Son et al, 2000). As you might expect, depression has a significant negative impact on the development, functioning and risk for suicide in individuals affected, as well as [read the full story…]

Bereavement during childhood, but not before birth, is associated with an increased risk of psychosis

Psychotic disorders, such as schizophrenia, are often conceptualised as arising from a complex interplay of genetic and environmental influences (Tandon 2008). The impact of social influences on the risk of psychotic experience is undeniable. Recent reviews of this topic have called for a focus on maternal wellbeing as a means of primary prevention for mental [read the full story…]