Work characteristics play a crucial role in the mental well-being of physicians. However, limited research in Bangladesh has explored the association between these characteristics and specific mental health outcomes such as depression, anxiety and stress among physicians, particularly in relation to gender differences.

This study aimed to explore the link between various work characteristics and mental health outcomes among male and female physicians in Bangladesh.

We conducted a cross-sectional study among physicians working in various healthcare settings in Bangladesh. The data were collected online between November 2023 and January 2024 using a convenience sampling technique. Work characteristics, including job characteristics, social characteristics and organisational characteristics, were assessed using previously validated scales. Mental health, on the other hand, was measured using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21). We performed logistic regression analyses adjusted for the covariates, and further stratified by gender, to explore potential differences in work characteristics and mental health outcomes between male and female physicians.

In our study, social characteristics were significantly inversely associated with depression (adjusted odds ratio 0.37 (0.20–0.71)), anxiety (adjusted odds ratio 0.53 (0.30–0.92)) and stress (adjusted odds ratio 0.45 (0.26–0.81)). Organisational characteristics showed a significant inverse association only with stress (adjusted odds ratio 0.42 (0.24–0.74)). Among male physicians, organisational characteristics were significantly inversely associated with depression (adjusted odds ratio 0.42 (0.19–0.90)), anxiety (adjusted odds ratio 0.44 (0.21–0.91)) and stress (adjusted odds ratio 0.42 (0.20–0.89)), while social characteristics were significantly inversely linked only to stress (adjusted odds ratio 0.43 (0.19–0.97)). By contrast, among female physicians, only social characteristics demonstrated a significant inverse association with depression (adjusted odds ratio 0.30 (0.12–0.78)).

This study highlights the importance of social characteristics as a protective factor for psychological well-being in the healthcare context. Therefore, fostering a work culture that prioritises peer support and strong interpersonal relationships can be crucial in alleviating mental health challenges among physicians.

Having a child with a psychiatric diagnosis is associated with parents’ greater risk of subsequent mental disorders but no immediate change in their annual labour market metrics. This discrepancy could be explained by shorter absences from work. We examined first-time psychiatric sickness absences in parents whose children have psychiatric diagnoses.

Using several linked nationwide Finnish registers, in this cohort study we examined time to first psychiatric sickness absence in parents whose children were born in 2001–2012 (early-childhood-onset diagnoses) or 2005–2016 (late-childhood-onset diagnoses). Exposure was having a child with a psychiatric diagnosis. Follow-up started when the parent’s eldest turned 1 (early-childhood-onset diagnoses) or 5 (late-childhood-onset diagnoses) and ended at psychiatric sickness absence, emigration, 68th birthday, death, or 31 December 2020, whichever occurred first.

The 2001–2012 and 2005–2016 cohorts included 357 135 and 397 874 parents followed for 3.31 and 3.70 million person-years. Having a diagnosed child was associated with greater risk of psychiatric sickness absence in all except men whose children had substance use or psychotic disorder diagnoses. Time-varying analyses showed the greatest associations for women (HR: 4.92; 95% CI: 3.97–6.10) and men (HR: 2.48; 95% CI: 1.61–3.80) within 6 months of a child’s eating disorder diagnosis.

Parents of children with psychiatric diagnoses may be at a greater risk of a psychiatric sickness absence. Associations differed by child’s diagnosis, parent’s gender and time since diagnosis.

Although the short-term preventive effects of mHealth consultation intervention on postpartum depressive symptoms have been demonstrated, the long-term effects and role of alleviating loneliness on depressive symptoms remain unclear.

This follow-up study extended our previous trial, which ended at three months postpartum, by continuing observation to 12 months. Participants in the original trial were randomized to the mHealth group (n = 365) or the usual care group (n = 369). Women in the mHealth group had access to free, unlimited mHealth consultation services with healthcare professionals from enrollment through four months postpartum. The primary outcome of this study was the risk of elevated postpartum depressive symptoms at 12 months post-delivery (Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale score of ≥9). The mediation effect of alleviating loneliness on the primary outcome was also evaluated, using the UCLA loneliness scale at three months postpartum.

A total of 515 women completed the follow-up questionnaires (mHealth group, 253/365; usual care group, 262/369; 70.2% of the original participants). Compared to the usual care group, the mHealth group had a lower risk of elevated postpartum depressive symptoms at 12 months post-delivery (36/253 [14.2%] vs. 55/262 [21.0%], risk ratio: 0.68 [95% confidence interval: 0.46–0.99]). Mediation analysis showed that reducing loneliness at three months post-delivery mediated approximately 20% of the total effect of the intervention on depressive symptoms 12 months post-delivery.

mHealth consultation services provided during the early perinatal period may help alleviate depressive symptoms at 12 months postpartum.

The concept partnership has developed since Sherry Arnstein first created the ladder of citizen participation. Within mental health discourse, this was first acknowledged by “A Vision for Change” (2006) and later, through adopting co-production (2017). In 2011, the College of Psychiatrists of Ireland, created a collective called Recovery Experience Forum of Carers and Users of Services (REFOCUS) which became a leading example of partnership between stakeholders in the organisation. However, REFOCUS’s impact on stakeholders needs to be examined.

A qualitative investigation using an autoethnography methodology is proposed. The approach allows for the interweaving of personal experiences with culture to create new knowledge. A focus group was conducted, and transcripts were subject to reflexive thematic analysis.

Seven out of fourteen participants, representing all three stakeholders, were available at time of interview. From the process of reflexive thematic analysis, five themes were constructed. Each with a number of sub-themes attached, which in turn represented stakeholder perspectives regarding REFOCUS.

This paper highlights several issues that need addressing in future research on REFOCUS. The paper demonstrates the continuous presence of stigma within Irish mental health services. However, it also highlights a number of beneficial aspects to REFOCUS including informal peer support, service users, and family member involvement in college activities as well as increasing meaning and purpose in one’s life along with a renewed identity different to that of the service user or family member.

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading cause of death worldwide. Research suggests people with Mental Health Disorders (MHDs) have increased CVD risk. However, knowledge gaps exist regarding CVD risk management for general practice patients with MHD, and interventions that might improve CVD prevention. This study examined the perspectives of general practice professionals in Ireland on cardiovascular risk assessment for patients already diagnosed with MHD and to describe current approaches to identifying this population using the Mental Health Finder (MHF) tool.

An embedded mixed-methods design was adopted, guided by constructivist grounded theory and the Social Ecological Model. Aggregated anonymised data, including availability and use of the MHF tool, were collected from five practices and analysed in SPSS. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 general practitioners and three practice nurses. Qualitative data were analysed using Braun and Clarke’s Reflexive Thematic Analysis.

Of the five practices, two had access to the MHF tool. These reported combined prevalence of 18.7% for MHD compared with 0.5–11.5% in practices without the tool, highlighting the importance of systematic identification. Qualitative analysis generated four themes: (1) prevalence of MHD in general practice, (2) association between MHD and CVD risk, (3) CVD risk management in patients with MHD, and (4) holistic care.

CVD risk assessment for patients with MHD in general practice is largely opportunistic and unstructured. Participants highlighted the need for structured frameworks, protocols, and enhanced supports to enable systematic cardiovascular assessment and management in this population.

There is ample evidence that women do not progress in mental health publishing as quickly as men. The movement from first to last (senior) author is one indicator of progression.

To understand whether there are changes in women’s authorship position following our academic institution’s introduction of support mechanisms to reduce the gender gap in career development.

Data from publicly held databases in three cohorts (2016, 2018 and 2020) were assessed for gender and authorship position at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience. Regression analyses included authorship gender and change over time in authorship roles, by school and topic.

We found substantial, statistically significant differences in gender between author roles (χ2(2) = 29.18, P < 0.0001), with women being mainly first authors (marginal mean 62.2:40.1%, respectively, odds ratio 2.463, 95% CI 1.807 to 3.357). The three schools differed (χ2(2) = 14.06, P < 0.001) and, although men were predominant as last authors in all topics in both 2016 and 2020, women did show a modest increase. The trend for an interaction between gender and first-author publications on the likelihood of last-author publications in 2018 (incidence rate ratio 1.839, 95% CI 0.914 to 3.698) had disappeared by 2020.

Although women were represented as first and corresponding authors, there was still a gender gap for last-author positions. Over time, women have increased their representation in many of the topic areas. The disappearance of any gender-moderating effect suggests that institutional policies may have had an effect, in addition to sector-wide changes.

Self-harm among UK prisoners has risen over the past decade.

To explore self-harm risk factors and mental health conditions in prisoners, pre- and during imprisonment, compared with the general population.

This retrospective cohort study linked electronic health records and Ministry of Justice data for Welsh male prisoners (2019), and a comparison general population cohort. We examined imprisonment likelihood based on prior self-harm and mental health conditions using logistic regression. We also studied self-harm risk up to three years during imprisonment through Generalised Estimating Equations and time-stratified Cox regression, using a pre-imprisonment comparator (3 years before).

Prisoners (N = 6095) had higher rates of self-harm and mental health conditions pre-imprisonment compared with non-prisoners (e.g. self-harm odds ratio: 2.1 (1.9, 2.2)). Self-harm risk was 5.25–6.47 times higher in prisoners than non-prisoners, both pre- and during imprisonment. Risk was highest shortly after incarceration, then declined, becoming lower than pre-imprisonment after 7 months. While most conditions correlated with higher self-harm risk during imprisonment (e.g. drug use, hazard ratios: 1.5–3.0), some (e.g. depression and alcohol use) showed weaker links in prisoners than non-prisoners, particularly from 7 months after imprisonment. Self-harm risk was seemingly higher in prisoners on remand compared with those sentenced.

Pre-imprisonment, self-harm in male prisoners is already high compared with the general population, potentially driving a saturation effect, where known general population risk factors have a weaker effect in prisoners. Self-harm prevention should target people in contact with criminal justice, irrespective of imprisonment. In prisons, prevention efforts deployed at inception should target those with prior self-harm, drug use, learning difficulties, bipolar disorder and those on remand.

Early in the SARS–CoV-2 pandemic, most jurisdictions implemented mandatory face covering policies across healthcare settings. This intervention, which lasted multiple years, was unprecedented in psychiatry. Masks may affect the delivery of mental healthcare, given its reliance on nuanced communication and establishing a therapeutic alliance.

This scoping review aimed to provide an overview of the current literature concerning the impact of face masks in mental health settings beyond infection control and identify research gaps to guide future research and policy.

Systematic searches were completed in the MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Scopus and CINAHL databases on 14 August 2024. Articles were eligible if they described peer-reviewed empirical studies involving people with mental disorders or mental health clinicians that reported on impacts of face coverings.

Twenty-eight studies were selected for inclusion, involving 5385 participants. There was considerable heterogeneity among studies. Negative effects of face masks were reported in 26 studies in at least one domain. Themes from the survey-based literature included face masks negatively affecting communication, the therapeutic relationship and overall assessment quality. Experimental studies using emotion recognition tasks showed that people with mental disorders were disadvantaged by masks when interpreting emotions from facial expressions. The most commonly studied population was people with autism spectrum disorder. Children and people with severe or acute mental illness were underrepresented. Only two studies expressly recruited psychiatrists.

Policy makers should be aware of adverse impacts of mask-wearing in mental health settings and consider these in evolving risk–benefit analyses. Further research is needed to establish the extent of impacts on population subgroups.

In England, psychological therapies provided in primary care are recommended as first-line treatment for people living with mild-to-moderate dementia experiencing depression or anxiety. It is known that people living with dementia experience more barriers to accessing therapy than people without dementia, but such inequalities in terms of rates of access to primary care services are yet to be characterised.

In this retrospective, observational study of linked electronic healthcare records, the national database of the National Health Service (NHS) Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression programme was used to compare pathways to accessing therapy between 6623 people living with dementia and 4 825 489 without dementia between 2012 and 2019. Outcomes included access to an assessment, to therapy and reasons for discharge. Primary analyses used a propensity-score matched cohort to compare outcomes. Exact matching was used for the NHS service entity.

The prevalence of dementia in the study cohort was lower than the prevalence of dementia in a representative population, based on an estimation of prevalence in people with mild-to-moderate age over 35 (0.23% in our study vs 3.82% in previous research). Compared to people without dementia, people living with dementia were less likely to access an assessment (odds ratio [OR] = 0.60; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.55–0.65), to subsequently receive therapy (OR = 0.67; 95% CI: 0.61–0.73) and more likely to be discharged because services were deemed not suitable before having an assessment (relative rate ratio [RRR] = 4.90; 95% CI: 4.20–5.72) and starting therapy (RRR = 2.74; 95% CI: 2.24–3.35). Female gender, social deprivation, Asian ethnicity and less common dementia subtypes (such as frontotemporal dementia) were also associated with poorer access rates and a higher likelihood of services being deemed not suitable. Involvement of care partners in the referral process was associated with better access rates.

Pathways to accessing primary care psychological therapy services must be made more accessible for people living with dementia. Better access could be achieved by increasing referrer awareness and training for staff within services to promote access for people living with dementia (especially for groups under-represented in services), better understanding how to involve care partners in the process, as well as when specialist support might be more suited in secondary care. More granularity in the medical coding of rarer dementia diagnoses in electronic health records would also allow for better statistically powered research for these groups.