New 13-year study: violence's health effects show little sign of fading. 📊 ELSA data on 6,171 English adults 50+ found violence exposure linked to depression and long-term illness throughout, with no narrowing of the gap. #HealthyAgeing #PublicHealth buff.ly/Pne03Lp

If you're interested in mental health research / young people's mental health, check out these interviews from my @institutemh.org.uk colleagues and @thementalelf.bsky.social ⬇️

Hearing a therapist say "I've been there too" can have a big impact. 🤝 A new experimental study finds that when therapists share that they've had the same condition and come through it, clients see a model of who they could become. buff.ly/cE9OlDm #Therapy #LivedExperience #Disclosure

Endometriosis takes years to diagnose, and the psychological toll rarely features in the care plan. 💛 A prospective study from New Zealand finds self-compassion protects mental health and quality of life over six months. buff.ly/bB8aRxn #Endometriosis #Pain #MentalHealth #SelfCompassion

Great insights from @thementalelf.bsky.social interviews at the Digital Youth X @nihrmindtech.bsky.social conference, exploring how digital innovation, co-production and young people’s lived experience can shape the future of mental health. #MentalHealth www.youtube.com/playlist?lis...

Lithium is our best mood stabiliser. But what is it doing to our kidneys? A 10-year Dutch cohort found most long-term users lost kidney function faster than the general population. 🫘 Whether stopping reverses it is still unknown. #Lithium #KidneyHealth buff.ly/pwnChZR

This is the extraordinary story of a British invention, funded by the taxpayer, that's been widely adopted pretty much everywhere except here. It has huge potential for people whose lives have been blighted by difficult-to-treat #depression. And it will likely save costs in the long term.

Join our FREE Mental Elf webinar next Wednesday 15th at 12 noon. Recovery from #Depression: TMS is ready to go and can save the country money 🎤Lived experience 🔬Clinical evidence 💷Economic evaluation 💼Building the business case www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recovery-f...

New #BAP2026 podcast 🎙️ Prof Brenda Penninx on "immuno-metabolic depression": the 20–30% of depressed patients with inflammation & metabolic dysregulation, why standard antidepressants work less well for them, and what precision psychiatry could offer instead. ▶️ buff.ly/d2KJQ1H

People with social anxiety self-report worse executive functioning than cognitive tests actually show, according to a new meta-analysis of 49 studies. 💭 Perception and performance don't always match. buff.ly/mZXslNP #SocialAnxiety #MentalHealthResearch

Long-term ayahuasca and cannabis users showed no cognitive differences from non-users in a new Spanish study. What set the groups apart was personality, not memory or attention. Causation stays open. buff.ly/unNYitR #Psychedelics #Cannabis

🎙️ New podcast for #BAP2026 BAP presidents current and future - Catherine Harmer & Naomi Fineberg on bridging lab and clinic, getting guidelines to frontline clinicians, the leaky research pipeline, and why the future of mental health science looks "extremely rosy". ▶️ buff.ly/Djj1T7v

Great to see this paper from @bethlgriffin.bsky.social being blogged about by the @thementalelf.bsky.social

Being kept alive is not the same as feeling safe. 🛡️ New UK interview study: former patients define psychological safety as validation, fairness and protection from lasting harm. buff.ly/1xU1JTJ #MentalHealth #InpatientCare

TMS for Depression Webinar 12pm July 15th We’ll hear from people with lived experience of depression and TMS treatment. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work really well for many. 🎟️ Get your webinar ticket now! buff.ly/twm9DuR #TMSforDepression #ElfHelp #Webinar

Immersive VR therapy for children and adolescents: better than waitlist, on a par with active treatments like CBT and roleplay. BUT - only 9 RCTs, high risk of bias, lots of heterogeneity in this review. 🥽 Promising, but early days. buff.ly/bKJQlUs #ChildMentalHealth #VirtualReality

The evidence for TMS is clear, and it was approved by NICE in 2015 RCTs consistently show that TMS can significantly help patients to get their lives back It compares very favourably to other treatment options 🎟️ Get your webinar ticket now! buff.ly/twm9DuR #TMSforDepression #ElfHelp #Webinar

At our TMS webinar on July 15th, we’ll hear from people with lived experience of depression and transcranial magnetic stimulation. It doesn’t work for everyone, but it does work really well for many. 🎟️ Get your webinar ticket now! buff.ly/twm9DuR #TMSforDepression #ElfHelp #Webinar

Difficult-to-treat #depression affects over 2m UK adults It costs the nation billions in care, benefits & lost productivity Yet there’s proven, safe treatment that can help Let’s build the case for TMS in the NHS & shift the dial Sign up for our webinar! www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/recovery-f...

For many ADHD medications, the most effective dose sits below the licensed maximum. A new dose-effect network meta-analysis maps where benefit peaks and harm climbs. 🔍 Eye-opening stuff for those who want to get the dose 'just right'. buff.ly/4Qheuia #ADHD #Psychostimulants

Upcoming webinar Using TMS for recovery from depression: how can we build the case for better provision of TMS? 15 July, Midday-1:15pm Online via MS Teams and free to attend Hosted by: @thementalelf.bsky.social Register to attend: mindtech.org.uk/news-events/...

Clozapine is the gold-standard for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. 💊 A Nordic registry of 500,000+ people asks if its benefits reach other disorders too. buff.ly/f0XQBpd #Clozapine #Schizophrenia

For many autistic people, restrictive eating isn't about weight or shape, it's about surviving sensory overwhelm. 🍽️ A new qualitative synthesis says eating disorder services are missing this. buff.ly/CNzjevq #Autism #EatingDisorders

Want to improve #depression care AND save the NHS money? The answer is #TMS, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. Join our free webinar on 15 July at 12pm noon for lived experiences, clinical evidence and help building the case. 🎟️ buff.ly/yQLLxFH

Higher cardiovascular risk in schizophrenia, but standard calculators miss it. A new Sweden/Denmark model adds psychiatric and social factors. Notably, in this case complex machine learning didn't beat simpler regression. 🩺 buff.ly/AucavMt #Schizophrenia #CVD

New systematic review: 21 studies, 9,620 children held in immigration detention. 🌍 A clear dose-response, the longer and harsher the detention, the worse the mental health. The authors' verdict: no form of it is safe. buff.ly/WPwSgYs #ChildMentalHealth #Detention

PsyMetRiC 2.0 now predicts cardiometabolic risk in young people with psychosis, and it's registered for clinical use. ⚠️ But a model is only as good as its inputs, and UK screening for this group remains patchy. buff.ly/N8BHk2d #Psychosis #PhysicalHealth

New in JAMA Psychiatry: subtle shifts in sleep regularity and day-night activity showed up before depression relapse, captured by a wrist-worn device. ⌚ Can wearables spot the storm coming? buff.ly/5Id5Hog #Depression #Wearables

I’m obviously biased because this is my research team and I think they’re great but if you know any researchers with an interest in qual, even or especially if they’re mostly quant or “hard” science researchers, or clinicians working on QI projects: send them our way for this august summer school!

'Mental health' isn't one category on social media. A new study finds young people with internalising conditions engage very differently online from those with externalising conditions. 🔎 Important context for the UK under-16 social media ban. buff.ly/rkqrYqa #YouthMentalHealth #SocialMedia

Here in the UK, betting ads feel inescapable. Elsewhere in Europe, you might not see one all match. A new review maps gambling advertising rules across 30 countries. 🎲 A patchwork of bans, restrictions and loopholes. buff.ly/6bjyxy2 #GamblingHarms #PublicHealth

Plenty of young people are clearly struggling but don't fit any diagnosis. A new meta-analysis asks whether transdiagnostic support, treating the struggle not the label, can help. 🔍 Small but consistent gains. buff.ly/p5DFLtZ #YouthMentalHealth #CAMHS

We treat teenage hairpulling as a habit to break. New research suggests shame may be what keeps the distress going. 🔍 Cross-sectional, so causation isn't proven, but a useful treatment steer. buff.ly/HlVqnxk #Trichotillomania #YouthMentalHealth

🥺 And now, the time has come...it's nearly the end of #BIGSPD26 @bigspd.bsky.social Co-Presidents Fi Kuhn-Thompson and Gary Lamph are giving a few reflections.

It’s our final day and the last keynote talk of our conference is underway. Peter Coventry talks us through his research exploring the importance of nature based inventions building social connectedness, skills acquisition & health benefits including increased vitality and strength #BIGSPD26

Good morning all! Welcome to the final day of #BIGSPD26 here in Blackpool. Prof Peter Coventry (Manchester Met) is giving the final keynote this morning: 🌳🌊🐾 Nature-based Interventions, Mental Health & Complex Need: Extending the Evidence to Personality Disorder. 🧵 THREAD below.

This has been on my mind a lot to day. I hear “duty of care” being used as a justification for interventions that are demonstrably more harmful than not doing them, but the pressure to DO SOMETHING is so powerful it often overrides our conscience, ethics and morals. #bigspd26

Do domestic abuse and sexual violence services work? A recent UK review offers cautious optimism, but finds 426 different outcomes across 80 studies. buff.ly/3mOmZba #DomesticAbuse #SexualViolence #SystematicReview #FragmentedEvidence

On the eve of #BIGSPD26, I'm delighted to announce the publication of a 2nd paper from my PhD, exploring the mental health crisis encounter from dual perspectives of those delivering & receiving care This paper describes the novel concept: the Reciprocal Insecurity Paradox doi.org/10.1111/nin....

Proud to display the poster about our experience of implementing lived experience researchers in the NHS at #BIGSPD26. We learnt loads during this process - come see our poster and learn something too! @damianeh.bsky.social @emilyfwood.bsky.social

Our closing keynote this Wednesday at #BIGSPD26 is from Prof Alison Liebling (Cambridge). A Chance to Change and Grow? 'Deserts' and 'Oases' in services for offenders with complex emotional needs. 🧵 THREAD below

Our next keynote here at #BIGSPD26 is from Dr Rachel Gibbons and Dr Mary Ryan. The Clinician-Patient Relationship: Helpful Illusion or Harmful Delusion? 🧵 THREAD below.

👋 Good morning! Wednesday opens now at #BIGSPD26 with Raf Hamaizia, Expert by Experience Lead at Cygnet. Lived Experience and Co-production: A bridge of mutual understanding. 🧵 THREAD below.

Morning all at #BIGSPD26 in Blackpool! 🥱 I highly recommend a refreshing stroll along the prom before the conference begins today. Have a good day everyone. ⛅️

Around 40% of mental health professionals experience emotional exhaustion. But some of the programmes designed to help them are making burnout worse, not better. New systematic review on The Mental Elf 👇 buff.ly/nHUera7 #MentalHealth #NHS #Research #EvidenceBasedPractice

Our next keynote speaker at #BIGSPD26 is Prof Ad de Jongh @adjongh.bsky.social on: The effectiveness of brief trauma-focused treatment for personality disorders. Can short, trauma-focused therapy really shift a PD diagnosis? Here's what he's planning to cover. THREAD below 👇🏽

Were awaiting our opening address to kick off #BIGSPD26 Our live reporting elves will be helping to disseminate conference content and open up discussion to get stuff #BeyondTheRoom alongside @thementalelf.bsky.social in the almost sunny Blackpool!

It’s @hoppypelican.bsky.social and @thementalelf.bsky.social talking about getting the #bigspd26 conference #beyondtheroom Lots being talked about on the topic of “personality disorder” over the next few days on all different forms of social media. Do join in. Ask questions. Comment. #bigspd26

Our first keynote speaker here at #BIGSPD26 is Dr Annette Jones, Clinical Lead Complex Emotional Needs Pathway / Consultant Clinical Psychologist at Lancashire & South Cumbria NHS FT. Her talk is: More than a seaside story: Building consistency & trust in CEN care in Lancashire & South Cumbria