Damodar Chari, Tamara Chithiramohan, Ina Sawhney, Elizabeta B Mukaetova-Ladinska, Lucy Beishon, Hari Subramaniam
{"title":"Risk of venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in older in-patients with mental illness: systematic review.","authors":"Damodar Chari, Tamara Chithiramohan, Ina Sawhney, Elizabeta B Mukaetova-Ladinska, Lucy Beishon, Hari Subramaniam","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.9","DOIUrl":"10.1192/bjb.2025.9","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims and method: </strong>Venous thromboembolism (VTE) is a fatal condition affecting older people. This study aims to identify specific risk factors for VTE in older psychiatric in-patients within mental hospital settings. Using predefined search terms, we searched five databases to capture studies evaluating risk factors associated with the occurrence of deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in older psychiatric in-patients.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Thirteen studies were identified, and a narrative synthesis performed. Increasing age was a consistent risk factor for VTE. Diagnosis and psychotropic medication use were inconsistent. Depression, catatonia and use of restraint in people with dementia were associated with higher risks.</p><p><strong>Clinical implications: </strong>Older psychiatric in-patients differ from medical and surgical in-patients in their risk profiles. Screening tools used in general hospital patients are of limited use among older adults in psychiatric hospital settings. An exclusive screening tool to identify VTE risk factors in older psychiatric in-patients is needed.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"36-48"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13150511/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143596031","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-26DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10210
Howard Ryland, Rahul Bhattacharya, Jonathan Richardson
{"title":"Use of outcome measures in psychiatry: Royal College of Psychiatrists' survey of members.","authors":"Howard Ryland, Rahul Bhattacharya, Jonathan Richardson","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10210","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10210","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims and method: </strong>This study sought to obtain the views of doctors associated with the Royal College of Psychiatrists on the use of outcome measures in mental health services. An online survey was developed by the College's working group on outcome measures and widely disseminated to psychiatrists through College channels.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>In total, 339 completed responses were received. Respondents were mostly consultant psychiatrists; based in England; and working in the National Health Service with working-age adults. Almost half said they used outcome measures routinely, with almost half finding outcome measures clinically useful. Lack of time and inadequate information technology systems were identified as the top barriers to using outcome measures.</p><p><strong>Clinical implications: </strong>Based on our results, psychiatrists are generally keen to use outcome measures, but are often prevented from doing so effectively by pressures on services and lack of appropriate support. The Royal College of Psychiatrists and other relevant organisations could enhance the use of outcome measures in mental health services through improved guidance, providing additional resources and integration of measures into electronic patient records.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-8"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146045900","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10205
Bharadwaj V Chada, Robert Stewart, James Lai
{"title":"Development and validation of a predictive model for high-intensity mental health service use using electronic health record data.","authors":"Bharadwaj V Chada, Robert Stewart, James Lai","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10205","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10205","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims and method: </strong>This study aimed to develop and evaluate a predictive model using electronic health record (EHR) data from a large south London mental health service, in order to identify patients 3 months following first referral who are at risk of subsequent high-intensity service use over the subsequent 12 months. Early identification of such patients may support proactive and personalised care planning, reducing the need for high-cost episodes of care. Predictive models were developed using information from 18 869 patients newly referred between 2007 and 2011. High-intensity use was defined as the top 10% of estimated mental healthcare expenditure. The model was developed using demographic, clinical and service use variables, and was validated on data from the periods 2012-2017 and 2018-2023.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>A logistic regression model achieved an area under the receiver operating characteristic (AUROC) of 0.79 in development (sensitivity 0.82, specificity 0.54), with robust performance in validation sets (AUROC 0.81, 0.83, respectively). Key predictors included first 3 months service use, schizophrenia or eating disorder diagnoses and living alone. Natural language processing-derived features did not improve performance.</p><p><strong>Clinical implications: </strong>Routine EHR data performed well in predicting the risk of high-cost care, potentially enabling targeted interventions and more efficient resource allocation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-7"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146002924","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-20DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10206
Mark L Ruffalo
{"title":"The validity of borderline personality disorder: Robins and Guze applied.","authors":"Mark L Ruffalo","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10206","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10206","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Debate about borderline personality disorder (BPD) has intensified, with some proposing its absorption into complex post-traumatic stress disorder and others questioning whether the diagnosis is harmful. These debates often obscure the central issue of construct validity. This paper evaluates whether BPD constitutes a coherent clinical entity. Drawing on Robins and Guze's classic diagnostic validators - symptom specificity, heritability, course of illness, biological markers and treatment response - the evidence demonstrates that BPD is a robustly validated psychiatric disorder that should be retained in future classification systems. Concerns about stigma and dimensional models are considered but do not undermine its empirical grounding.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146002965","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10209
Stanley Lyndon, Vineeth P John
{"title":"Serendipity in psychiatric discoveries: historical lessons and future imperatives for clinical observation.","authors":"Stanley Lyndon, Vineeth P John","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10209","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10209","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Aims and method: </strong>Serendipity has driven many of psychiatry's most important treatments, yet contemporary systems may undermine clinicians' ability to notice and develop unexpected therapeutic effects. This selective narrative review synthesises landmark discovery stories, conceptual accounts of serendipity and contemporary case examples to clarify how chance observations become robust advances.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Across historical and modern examples, serendipitous discoveries consistently reflected the interaction of unexpected events with prepared observers working in supportive institutional and research systems. We identify current barriers created by standardised care, funding and trial structures, and professional fragmentation, and outline a multi-level framework for cultivating serendipity through phenomenological training, technology-enabled detection of anomalous responses, flexible funding and innovative designs such as adaptive platform and rapid-fail proof-of-concept trials.</p><p><strong>Clinical implications: </strong>Deliberately creating pathways that move rare, surprising responses from bedside observation to formal evaluation could accelerate more precise, personalised treatments while preserving rigor in psychiatric care.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145970527","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-15DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10211
Carlos De Las Cuevas
{"title":"Psychiatry is not the science of unhappiness.","authors":"Carlos De Las Cuevas","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10211","DOIUrl":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10211","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Psychiatry risks losing its conceptual boundaries as the scope of its concern expands to include all forms of human unhappiness. This editorial argues that the discipline must distinguish clearly between illness and adversity, recognising that not all suffering is pathological. Drawing on historical and contemporary debates - from Jaspers' foundational dualism to Engel's biopsychosocial model, and from diagnostic inflation to the medicalisation of social distress - the paper contends that integration without limits leads to dissolution. Psychiatry's legitimacy depends not on the eradication of unhappiness but on the understanding of illness and the protection of those whose suffering has crossed the threshold of disease.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2026-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13386281/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145970517","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-08DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10197
Peter Tyrer
{"title":"Personality pathology needs adaptation, not treatment.","authors":"Peter Tyrer","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10197","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10197","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The diagnosis and treatment of personality disorder are both highly contentious subjects. It is argued in this article that we have misunderstood personality pathology as yet another form of mental illness that should require treatment for its alleviation or removal. But it is not a typical mental illness; personality is a stable persistent component of the self and needs a different treatment approach based on adaptation.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-2"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145917139","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2026-01-07DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10198
Valentin Skryabin
{"title":"The price of brilliance: vulnerability triad and systemic failures in the '27 Club' mortality phenomenon.","authors":"Valentin Skryabin","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10198","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjb.2025.10198","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The '27 Club' myth masks a public health problem: systems that amplify musicians' psychological vulnerability. This multiple-case study uses reflexive thematic analysis of Janis Joplin, Kurt Cobain and Amy Winehouse, triangulating biographies, archives and documentaries. Across cases we identify a vulnerability triad - emotional dysregulation, chronic distress and substance-mediated coping - and show how 'tortured genius' narratives, industry pressures and fragmented care normalise risk. Cohort evidence indicates musicians face 1.7-3 times excess mortality for decades post-fame, especially solo artists and trauma survivors. We propose integrated risk assessments in contracts, mobile dual-diagnosis support and narrative interventions.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-5"},"PeriodicalIF":2.0,"publicationDate":"2026-01-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145910118","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2025-12-23DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10193
Promise U Okereke, Chukwuemeka V Umeh, Wisdom O Okereke, Egide Ndayambaje, Christian C Obetta, Onyedikachi F Uzor, Olanrewaju J Oduola
{"title":"High-functioning depression: a hidden burden demanding clinical recognition.","authors":"Promise U Okereke, Chukwuemeka V Umeh, Wisdom O Okereke, Egide Ndayambaje, Christian C Obetta, Onyedikachi F Uzor, Olanrewaju J Oduola","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10193","DOIUrl":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10193","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>High-functioning depression (HFD) describes individuals experiencing persistent depressive symptoms, such as low mood and emotional exhaustion, while maintaining outward success. Owing to preserved functionality, the underlying distress is often unnoticed, misattributed or suppressed. HFD challenges existing psychiatric frameworks, delays diagnosis and increases the risk of progression to major depressive disorder and suicidality. Current screening tools may lack sensitivity, and stigma can lead to disengagement from therapy. Expanded diagnostic awareness, improved clinician training and culturally attuned care are essential for recognising and validating internal suffering in this overlooked population.</p>","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13150555/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145809256","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych BulletinPub Date : 2025-12-19DOI: 10.1192/bjb.2025.10167
Abdi Sanati
{"title":"Interview with Dr Alastair Santhouse.","authors":"Abdi Sanati","doi":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10167","DOIUrl":"10.1192/bjb.2025.10167","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":8883,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Bulletin","volume":" ","pages":"1-3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.9,"publicationDate":"2025-12-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC13150519/pdf/","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145793193","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}