@thementalelf.bsky.social
🌤️ Hello, I’m the Mental Elf! 🌳 Follow me to keep up to date with the latest reliable #MentalHealthResearch. 👩🏽💻 #WorldBipolarDay webinar on March 30th 🍄 Do you need some #ElfHelp? https://elfi.sh/help 🔗 https://linktr.ee/thementalelf
🏥 First NHS evaluation: embedded psychologists improve patient engagement, emotional adjustment, and recovery in new Bristol Major Trauma Centre.
Clinicians also valued support for themselves: "quite difficult emotionally for us day in, day out."
buff.ly/FvDWUu0
#MajorTrauma #Psychology #NHS
🍽️ About 1 in 4 children in the ALSPAC cohort experienced food insecurity in early childhood.
Even when it resolved by age 5, elevated risk of binge eating and compensatory behaviours remained in adolescence.
buff.ly/w5N7iZ0
#FoodInsecurity #EatingDisorders #ChildHealth
Appearing back on bluesky to say: new blog post! 🧬
Eimear, André and team provided stellar support with this⭐️
💔 Boys and men take 15-20 years on average to disclose sexual trauma.
New review found masculine norms, shame & fear of disbelief create unique barriers.
Disclosure less likely when perpetrator was someone close.
Gender-sensitive support needed.
buff.ly/ELBKXzx
#SexualTrauma #MensMentalHealth
🧬 Study of 1,056,201 cases found genetic variants shared across 14 psychiatric disorders, clustered into 5 main factors.
Understanding shared biology could improve treatment, but more diverse genetic datasets urgently needed.
buff.ly/EMh5UJW
#PsychiatricGenetics #MentalHealth #HealthEquity
How do people with lived experience vs professionals define anorexia recovery?
Lived experience: absence of disordered thoughts
Staff: living well despite residual symptoms
Both agreed psychological markers (not just weight) should define recovery.
buff.ly/J6wj4m8
#AnorexiaNervosa #Recovery
It is really cool to see the #MentalElf pick up and explain a study on computerized adaptive testing!
Psychometricians, what is your favourite application or study in the field of computerized adaptive testing with health-related constructs?
#Psychometrics
📊 Simulation study suggests computerised adaptive testing could reduce paranoia assessment from 10 items to 4 tailored questions, while maintaining accuracy (r = 0.87 to 0.95).
Real-world clinical feasibility now needed.
buff.ly/79dVoo6
#Paranoia #Psychosis #MentalHealth
What are the experiences of young people (& their caregivers) waiting for mental health services in the UK?
Check out this new spotlight on research from our team: Emeline Han, Alexandra Burton, Alexandra Bradbury, Daniel Hayes, Joely Wright, Lou Sticpewich, Joanna Page, & Daisy Fancourt 🔍
🏥 People in prison experience disproportionate disease burden, yet healthcare provision is inadequate.
Most prevalent conditions:
‣ 40% antisocial personality disorder
‣ 39% drug use disorder
‣ 18% hepatitis C
‣ 11% major depression
buff.ly/2S7hrAS
#PrisonHealth #PublicHealth #MentalHealth
💔 Young people waiting for CAMHS support (average 359 days vs 4-week target) report:
Deteriorating mental health
Worsening suicidal thoughts
Feeling alone & dismissed
Poor communication increases anxiety
Interim support urgently needed
buff.ly/CLEe5GU
#CAMHS #WaitingTimes #YouthMentalHealth
Fantastic to see our member @bipolaruk.bsky.social featured in this speaker lineup! #WorldBipolarDay #Webinar
Lots more very relevant policy-ready reports on the @centreformh.bsky.social website!
buff.ly/bDSvp79
Read the full blog on The Mental Elf 🌳🌤️🍄
buff.ly/FFjAR12
#ChildPoverty #YouthViolence #MentalHealth
👨👩👧👦 Support parents, protect children
Supporting parents with mental ill health or problem substance use benefits both them and their children.
This means: perinatal mental health services, health visiting, parent-infant services, parenting programmes, alongside tackling poverty and housing crisis.
⚖️ Systemic action could prevent substantial harm
Nearly 1 in 3 cases of weapon involvement and 1 in 4 cases of police contact at age 17 were linked to persistent poverty and family adversity throughout childhood.
If these adversities didn't exist, violence could be reduced substantially.
Poverty & adversity combine to increase risk of police involvement & weapon-carrying.
Young people who experienced both persistent poverty & parental mental illness during childhood showed the highest rates at age 17.
New blog today by @andybell-centremh.bsky.social from @centreformh.bsky.social
Really looking forward to joining fellow speakers for the #WorldBipolarDay webinar.
🌍 "We cannot achieve health for all if we continue to treat mental health as an afterthought."
Great work from @sarahekline.bsky.social and colleagues at @unitedgmh.bsky.social
⚠️ Let's work together to modernise the Global Health Architecture.
unitedgmh.org/the-global-a...
Self-harm presentations decline steadily across midlife in women, yet suicide mortality more than doubles in older midlife women.
Self-harm and suicide are distinct phenomena requiring different responses.
buff.ly/YlZjzyW
#MidlifeWomen #SelfHarm #SuicidePrevention #MentalHealth
This is such a wonderful research finding. Ocytocin is the baby cuddles hormone known as the love hormone. You can get sprays of it. This finds that the hormone plus loving touch and words help wounds heal faster. Love for the win
I enjoyed writing this post for The Mental Elf about my favourite topic: the effects of social connection on physical health! I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you, dear @eimearfoley.bsky.social , for the opportunity.
🔴 People using mental health services experience sexual violence at substantially higher rates than the general population.
Review suggests that 13% of women, 3% of men (using MH services) experienced sexual violence in the last year.
Yet clinicians don't routinely screen.
buff.ly/ZKHuefe
Current legislation targeting single-use vapes won't address this threat. Selling any vaping products to children is already illegal. Enforcement and harm reduction are the gaps.
buff.ly/SIDJhLR
#YouthHealth #DrugPolicy #HarmReduction #SyntheticCannabinoids
⚠️ 13% of vapes confiscated from English schools contained synthetic cannabinoids, illegally mis-sold as THC.
Researchers tested 1,933 products: 251 positive, mainly refillable vapes. SCs carry 30x greater risk of emergency treatment than THC. Both are illegal in the UK
#Vaping #Schools
🧵 THREAD
💕 Does oxytocin help wounds heal faster? Not on its own.
In 80 healthy couples, intranasal oxytocin accelerated wound healing only when paired with affectionate touch and partner appreciation.
Oxytocin acts as a "social amplifier".
buff.ly/IvuBcTq
#Oxytocin #SocialHealth #RelationshipScience
💔 Suicide risk after involuntary psychiatric care remains elevated for years, not just weeks.
Swedish study: risk nearly 200x higher in first month post-discharge, still 50x elevated at five years.
Personality disorder patients faced greatest vulnerability.
buff.ly/ruJXTOE
#SuicidePrevention
🍊 Vitamin C supplementation improved attention & work absorption in 40 young adults with low vitamin C levels, alongside changes in gut bacteria and inflammation markers.
Early evidence for gut-brain-immune connections, but limited sample.
buff.ly/NawjZIq
#MentalHealth #Nutrition #GutHealth
💔 South Asian adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse face multiple barriers to trauma care: long NHS waits, cultural stigma around shame & honour, confidentiality fears, and Western therapy models that don't fit their cultural context.
buff.ly/gWhJVqZ
#TraumaCare #ChildhoodAbuse #MentalHealth
Excellent speaker lineup confirmed for our #WorldBipolarDay webinar:
• Prof Tania Gergel @drtgergel.bsky.social
• Prof Steven Marwaha
• Prof Kim Wright
• Prof Daniel Smith @dsmith2025.bsky.social
• Plus lived experience voices
30 March, 11am-12:30pm, Free