Eating disorders and psychotic disorders represent two of the most serious psychiatric conditions. Emerging lines of evidence from genetic and epidemiological studies suggest that these disorders may commonly co-occur. This systematic review investigated the association between these disorders across community and clinical populations.

A systematic review was preregistered (CRD42021231771) and conducted according to PRISMA guidelines. Web of Science, PsycINFO and Medline were searched for articles on the association and comorbidity between psychosis and eating disorders up to the 26th February 2024. A random effects meta-analysis was conducted for studies reporting comorbidity of eating disorders and psychotic disorders based on clinical diagnosis or interview measures, to estimate prevalence of the comorbidity between these disorders. A narrative synthesis was conducted for all other studies and grouped by sample (general population, eating disorders or psychotic disorders).

In total 43 studies met inclusion criteria for the systematic review and 16 were included in the meta-analysis. Findings suggest substantial comorbidity between eating disorders and psychotic disorders, with a pooled comorbidity prevalence of 8% (CI: 3, 14) based on clinical diagnosis or interview measures. Studies using self-report questionnaires also highlight the association between eating disorders and psychosis across clinical and community populations.

Eating disorders and psychotic disorders frequently co-occur. Further research should investigate the temporal order of symptom development and consider the need for novel interventions targeted at overlapping psychotic and eating disorder symptoms and associated phenomena.

Racial and ethnic variations in antibiotic utilization are well-reported in outpatient settings but little is known about inpatient settings. Our objective was to describe national inpatient antibiotic utilization among children by race and ethnicity.

This study included hospital visit data from the Pediatric Health Information System between 01/01/2022 and 12/31/2022 for patients <20 years. Primary outcomes were the percentage of hospitalization encounters that received an antibiotic and antibiotic days of therapy (DOT) per 1000 patient days. Mixed-effect regression models were used to determine the association of race-ethnicity with outcomes, adjusting for covariates.

There were 846,530 hospitalizations. 45.2% of children were Non-Hispanic (NH) White, 27.1% were Hispanic, 19.2% were NH Black, 4.5% were NH Other, 3.5% were NH Asian, 0.3% were NH Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander (NHPI) and 0.2% were NH American Indian. Adjusting for covariates, NH Black children had lower odds of receiving antibiotics compared to NH White children (aOR 0.96, 95%CI 0.94–0.97), while NH NHPI had higher odds of receiving antibiotics (aOR 1.16, 95%CI 1.05–1.29). Children who were Hispanic, NH Asian, NH American Indian, and children who were NH Other received antibiotic DOT compared to NH White children, while NH NHPI children received more antibiotic DOT.

Antibiotic utilization in children’s hospitals differs by race and ethnicity. Hospitals should assess policies and practices that may contribute to disparities in treatment; antibiotic stewardship programs may play an important role in promoting inpatient pharmacoequity. Additional research is needed to examine individual diagnoses, clinical outcomes, and drivers of variation.

UK guidelines advocate ‘one-stop’ neck lump assessment for cancer referrals. This paper reports the pilot of a novel pre-clinic ultrasound pathway, presents outcomes, and discusses strengths and limitations in the context of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic.

Two-week-wait cancer referral patients with a neck lump were allocated a pre-clinic ultrasound scan followed by a clinic appointment. Demographic, patient journey and outcome data were collected and analysed.

Ninety-nine patients underwent ultrasound assessment with or without biopsy on average 8 days following referral. Patients were followed up on average 14.1 days (range, 2–26 days) after initial referral. At the first clinic appointment, 45 patients were discharged, 10 were scheduled for surgery, 12 were diagnosed with cancer, 6 were referred to another specialty and cancer was excluded in 19 patients. Retrospectively, four ultrasounds were performed unnecessarily.

Pre-clinic ultrasound scanning is an alternative to the one-stop neck lump pathway. This study demonstrates fewer clinic visits, faster diagnosis and a low proportion of unnecessary scans, whilst minimising face-to-face consultations and aerosol-generating procedures.

Clinical trials that fail prematurely due to poor design are a waste of resources and deprives us of data for evaluating potentially effective interventions. This study used machine learning modelling to predict clinical trials’ success or failure and to understand feature contributions driving this result. Features to power the modelling were engineered using data collected from the National Institute for Health and Care Research Innovation Observatory’s ScanMedicine database.

Using ScanMedicine, a large dataset containing 641,079 clinical trial records from 11 global clinical trial registries, was extracted. Sixteen features were generated from the data based on fields relating to trial design and eligibility. Trials were labeled positive if they were completed (or target recruitment was achieved) or negative if terminated/withdrawn (or target recruitment was not achieved). To achieve optimal performance, phase-specific datasets were generated, and we focused on a subsample of Phase 2 trials (n=70,167). Ensemble models using bagging and boosting algorithms, including balanced random forest and extreme gradient boosting classifiers were used for training and evaluating predictive performance. Shapley Additive Explanations was used to explain the output of the best performing model and calculate feature contributions for individual studies.

We achieved a weighted F1-score of 0.88, Receiver Operator Characteristic Area under the Curve score of 0.75, and balanced accuracy of 0.75 on the test set with the xgBoost model. This result shows that the model can successfully distinguish between classes to predict if a trial will succeed or fail and subsequently output the features driving this outcome. The number of primary outcomes, whether the study was randomized, target sample size and number of exclusion criteria were the most important features affecting the model’s prediction.

This study is the first to use predictive modelling on a large sample of clinical trial data obtained from 11 international trial registries. The prediction outcomes achieved by our novel approach, which uses phase-specific trained models, outperforms previous modelling in this space.

Methylphenidate and amphetamine are the two most widely used stimulants in managing Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)1. Reynaud’s phenomenon (RP) is a reversible distal vasoconstriction presenting with various dermatological symptoms. RP can secondarily develop after certain medications as well2.

The review was undertaken to synthesize the incidence of RP within ADHD population treated with stimulants, and any causal relation of RP and stimulant-use.

PubMed, Psych-Info and Google Scholar were searched using these keywords: skin change, Raynaud, stimulants and methylphenidate. All relevant study types were included. Results were synthesized narratively.

Initial search yielded 240 articles with 5 articles fulfilling our inclusion criteria. One was retrospective case-controlled study while remaining 4 were case reports. Six cases were identified with an age of 12-19 years, who presented with RP after being treated with methylphenidate-or-dextroamphetamine. In one case, multiple clinical signs of RP were seen with cold distal fingers, transient color changes and even frank ulceration3–6. In two cases, it was seen that RP was dose-dependent with stimulant use and got resolved after decreasing the dosage respectively. In case-control study, 32 cases with RP and 32 controls were enrolled. The results showed a statistically significant association (χ2 =5, p=0.01) between RP and past-or-current stimulant usage.7

The literature review suggests weak evidence of the association between RP and stimulant use but no evidence of any causal link. Further studies are needed to identify characters that can predict this adverse effect in vulnerable ADHD individuals.

No significant relationships.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted numerous fundamental systems ranging from businesses to education system. The long-term consequences of the Pandemic, namely virtual learning and prolonged social isolation are coming to fruition in Child/Adolescent-Psychiatric Emergency-Rooms (CAP-ER). Discontinuity of in-person attendance of schools has poorly impacted the mental health of children and adolescents (C&A) of low-socioeconomic areas, who often rely on schools for meals, physical activity, and mental-health support. An increase in agitation, suicidal ideation, and a declining school performance has been observed in such situations.

The primary objective of this study is to explore the increase in these symptoms as the presenting complaint in the psychiatric ER.

Between April to June 2021 a cross-sectional quality improvement (QI) study was done on children presenting to CAP-ER BronxCare-Hospital NY with psychiatric complaints. Concomitant substance use disorder was determined using CRAFT questionnaire.

Our data comprised 209 patients (84 M/125 F) with 79 children and 130 adolescents. Ethnicity: 116 Hispanics (56%), 84 African Americans (40%), and 9 others. The most common presenting complaints were aggression (111, 53%), suicidal ideation/suicide attempt (50, 24%), acute exacerbation of chronic illness (7, 3.3%), accidental overdosage (5, 2.3%) and others (36, 17.4). Marijuana was the most used substance (34 patients).

There has been a surge in severity of presentation of psychiatric disorders among children and adolescents, aggression so far, the most prevalent. Further studies are needed to delineate the social links with this high emergent load and pandemic.

No significant relationships.

Despite the fact that adolescents have been at higher risk of distress during the COVID-19 pandemic, the effect of pandemic on psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) is not well described.

The study’s objective is to evaluate if PLEs are induced in young individuals aged 18-24 during the pandemic.

A total of 201 college students from Pakistan (ages 18-24) were recruited for a cross-sectional research. We investigated the incidence of PLEs in Pakistan during the pandemic, their links to socio-demographic factors, COVID-19-related characteristics, depression, anxiety, and sleep difficulties. Community Assessment of Psychic Experience’s positive symptom component (CAPE), Patient Health Questionnaire, Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale, and IBM SPSS 25 were used.

CAPE-Frequency and CAPE-stress were positively associated with PHQ total (p<0.0010); GAD total (p<0.001); time spent indoors due to COVID-19 (p<0.001). Psychiatric disorder other than bipolar disorder or psychosis (p<0.001 for CAPE-frequency and stress), family history of psychiatric disorders (p<0.001 for CAPE-frequency and stress), chronic medical disease (p=0.021 CAPE-frequency and p=0.026 CAPE-stress), illegal drug usage (p<0.001 for CAPE-frequency and stress) were associated with CAPE-Frequency and CAPE-stress. In linear stepwise regression analysis, the best model predicted CAPE-Frequency explained 77.4% of variance with the following variables: PHQ total (B=0.552, SE= 0.08, t=6.909, p<0.001), GAD total (p<0.001), duration at home (p<0.001), and psychiatric disorder in family (p<0.001).

PLEs have been linked with anxiety and depression during the pandemic. Individuals with a mental condition, family history of psychiatric disorder, chronic medical illness, illicit drug use, and increased time spent at home experienced more PLEs and stress.

No significant relationships.

Medical-education is associated with high overall stress and it is important to identify relevant factors.

The study was aimed to discern the differences in perceived stress among the students of public and private medical colleges of Pakistan and to identify factors subservient to any hypothesized difference.

This cross-sectional study was conducted at different private and public medical colleges of Pakistan using validated tools: PSS-14 (Perceived Stress Scale) to find out the levels of stress faced by each sector and MSSQ (Medical Student Stressor Questionnaire) to determine the factors associated with increased stress.

Total of 424 medical students from various public and private medical colleges of Pakistan (212 each) filled the questionnaires. The mean score +/- SD of PSS-14 was 36.17 ± 6.096 for the public sector and 36.29 ±5.732 for the private sector. Hence, there was no difference between the two comparative means of PSS score, t(422)=-0.213,p=0.831.The results for both sectors were classified as high perceived stress (27-40 score is high perceived stress). Out of 40 individual stress-causing factors in MSSQ, the students from private-sector scored higher as compared to public-sector: Quota System in examination t(422)=-3.951,p=0.000, stress caused by lack of time for friends and family t(422)=-3.225,p=0.001, stress caused by Tests/Examination t(422)=-2.131,p=0.034, stress caused by the parental wish for them to study medicine t(422)=-2.346,p=0.019 and stress caused by fear of getting poor marks t(422)=-2.183,p=0.030.

There exists no overall difference in the perceived-stress among the medical students of public and private medical colleges despite private-sectors having significantly more operational financial resources.

No significant relationships.