Life-course socioeconomic factors may have a role in dementia aetiology but there is a current paucity of studies. Meta-analyses of individual participant data would considerably strengthen this evidence base.

To examine the association between socioeconomic status in early life and adulthood with later dementia death.

Individual participant meta-analysis of 11 prospective cohort studies (1994–2004, n = 86508).

Leaving full-time education at an earlier age was associated with an increased risk of dementia death in women (fully adjusted hazard ratio (HR) for age ⩽14 v. age ⩾16: HR = 1.76, 95% Cl 1.23–2.53) but not men. Occupational social class was not statistically significantly associated with dementia death in men or women.

Lower educational attainment in women was associated with an increased risk of dementia-related death independently of common risk behaviours and comorbidities.

Depression is associated with increased risk of several general medical conditions, including diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The nature of the association is complex and may involve bidirectional causation or a common pathophysiology.

To determine whether young people without depression but at increased familial risk have altered metabolic and blood pressure markers relative to matched controls.

We studied young people (n = 85), who had a parent with depression but no personal history of depressive illness (FH+) and healthy controls (n = 69). Cardiovascular risk profile was assessed by a fasting blood sample to measure insulin, glucose, lipids and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP) and blood pressure was measured centrally and peripherally. Arterial stiffness and waking cortisol concentration were also measured.

Compared with controls, the FH+ group demonstrated increased peripheral and central systolic blood pressure, increased arterial stiffness and diminished insulin sensitivity but they did not differ from controls in measures of lipids, CRP or waking cortisol.

Our data suggest that young people at increased familial risk of depression show evidence of altered cardiovascular risk profile in young adulthood even in the absence of depressive symptoms. It is possible therefore that vulnerability to conditions such as hypertension and diabetes may precede the onset of major depression and may share common risk factors.

A significant association between attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and obesity has been reported. This study addresses unexplored aspects of this relationship.

To evaluate the association between adult obesity and: (a) persistent, remitted or lifetime ADHD; (b) number of childhood ADHD symptoms, controlling for socioeconomic status and mood, anxiety and substance use disorders.

Face-to-face psychiatric interviews in 34653 US adults from the National Epidemiologic Study on Alcohol and Related Conditions. Obesity was defined as a body mass index ⩾30.

Persistent, lifetime or remitted ADHD were not associated with obesity after controlling for confounders. The number of childhood ADHD symptoms was significantly associated with adult obesity, even after adjustment, in women.

Childhood ADHD symptoms are associated with obesity in women even after comorbid psychiatric disorders are accounted for. This provides a rationale for longitudinal studies assessing the impact of the treatment of childhood ADHD symptoms on obesity in women.

Dependent cocaine users consistently display cognitive deficits but cognitive performance of recreational cocaine users has rarely been investigated.

To examine whether cognitive performance is impaired in relatively pure recreational and dependent cocaine users.

The cognitive performance of recreational (n = 68) and dependent cocaine users (n = 30) was compared with the performance of stimulant-naive controls (n = 68) employing an extensive neuropsychological test battery. Moreover, the impact of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms, craving and early age at onset was analysed.

Dependent cocaine users display broad cognitive impairments in the domains of attention, working memory, declarative memory and executive functions. The performance of recreational cocaine users in all four domains was intermediate between that of controls and dependent users and they displayed significant deficits foremost in the domains of attention and working memory. In addition, ADHD symptoms, craving and age at onset were important modulators of cognitive function in cocaine users.

Cognitive deficits occur at a recreational and non-dependent level of cocaine use. Cocaine use and ADHD seem to have mutually aggravating effects on cognitive impairment.

Sampling techniques for national surveys have constrained the statistical power in estimating prevalence rates of child mental health problems in minority ethnic groups.

To establish the prevalence rates of mental health problems in ethnic Indian adolescents in England and compare these with matched White adolescents living in the same areas.

A cross-sectional survey with oversampling of Indian adolescents aged 13–15 years of age.

The sample size was 2900 (71% response rate) with 1087 (37%) Indian and 414 (14%) White adolescents. Ethnically Indian adolescents had lower rates of all types of mental

health problems (5% v. 13% and 21% v. 30% for abnormal Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire and Short Mood and Feelings Questionnaire scores, respectively) and substance misuse (18% v. 57%, 5% v. 15% and 6% v. 9% for regular alcohol, smoking and drug use, respectively), with the exception of eating disorders, compared with their White counterparts. The odds of an abnormal score on the mental health questionnaires were worse for White compared with Indian children irrespective of sociodemographic variables.

Factors relating to how Indian adolescents are parented or their social support networks may be influencing their mental health and may warrant further investigation.

The pathological basis of tardive dyskinesia is unknown. Although its clinical features implicate the basal ganglia, imaging studies have not found clear evidence that it is associated with volume changes in these or other brain structures.

To determine, using voxel-based structural imaging, whether there are regions of grey matter volume change in people with schizophrenia who also have tardive dyskinesia compared with those without tardive dyskinesia.

A total of 81 people with chronic schizophrenia, 32 with tardive dyskinesia and 49 without, were examined using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and whole-brain, optimised voxel-based morphometry. A comparison group of 61 healthy controls was also examined.

Compared with those without tardive dyskinesia, patients with tardive dyskinesia showed a pattern of volume reductions in predominantly subcortical regions, including the basal ganglia and the thalamus. Within the basal ganglia, volume reductions were seen in the caudate nucleus, to a lesser extent in the putamen, and only marginally in the globus pallidus. The patients with tardive dyskinesia, but not those without, showed significant volume reductions in the basal ganglia compared with the healthy controls but both groups had smaller volumes than controls in other affected areas.

The pathological process or processes that underlie the development of tardive dyskinesia are not just neurochemical in nature, but affect brain structure.

Interventions to reduce treatment delay in first-episode psychosis have met with mixed results. Systematic reviews highlight the need for greater understanding of delays within the care pathway if successful strategies are to be developed.

To document the care-pathway components of duration of untreated psychosis (DUP) and their link with delays in accessing specialised early intervention services (EIS). To model the likely impact on efforts to reduce DUP of targeted changes in the care pathway.

Data for 343 individuals from the Birmingham, UK, lead site of the National EDEN cohort study were analysed.

A third of the cohort had a DUP exceeding 6 months. The greatest contribution to DUP for the whole cohort came from delays within mental health services, followed by help-seeking delays. It was found that delay in reaching EIS was strongly correlated with longer DUP.

Community education and awareness campaigns to reduce DUP may be constrained by later delays within mental health services, especially access to EIS. Our methodology, based on analysis of care pathways, will have international application when devising strategies to reduce DUP.

None.

Some data suggest that older adults with anxiety disorders do not respond as well to treatment as do younger adults.

We examined age differences in outcomes from the Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management (CALM) study, an effectiveness trial comparing usual care to a computer-assisted collaborative care intervention for primary care patients with panic disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and/or social anxiety disorder. This is the first study to examine the efficacy of a collaborative care intervention in a sample that included both younger and older adults with anxiety disorders. We hypothesised that older adults would show a poorer response to the intervention than younger adults.

We examined findings for the overall sample, as well as within each diagnostic category (clinicaltrials.gov identifier: NCT00347269).

The CALM intervention was more effective than usual care among younger adults overall and for those with generalised anxiety disorder, panic disorder and social anxiety disorder. Among older adults, the intervention was effective overall and for those with social anxiety disorder and PTSD but not for those with panic disorder or generalised anxiety disorder. The effects of the intervention also appeared to erode by the 18-month follow-up, and there were no significant effects on remission among the older adults.

These results are consistent with the findings of other investigators suggesting that medications and psychotherapy for anxiety disorders may not be as effective for older individuals as they are for younger people.