BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-15DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.27
Katherine Newman-Taylor, Tess Maguire, Tanya Smart, Emma Bayford, Emily Gosden, Grace Addyman, Jessica Grange, Pete Bullard, Miriam Simmons-Dauvin, Morad Margoum, Ben Smart, Keith Das, Sophie Hardy, Catherine Hiscutt, Charlotte Hodges, Adam Holleyman, Hettie Jones, Kate Spurr, Jessica Trickett, Elizabeth Graves
{"title":"CBT for depression and anxiety adapted for psychosis risk in primary care: controlled trial to assess feasibility, acceptability and signals of efficacy.","authors":"Katherine Newman-Taylor, Tess Maguire, Tanya Smart, Emma Bayford, Emily Gosden, Grace Addyman, Jessica Grange, Pete Bullard, Miriam Simmons-Dauvin, Morad Margoum, Ben Smart, Keith Das, Sophie Hardy, Catherine Hiscutt, Charlotte Hodges, Adam Holleyman, Hettie Jones, Kate Spurr, Jessica Trickett, Elizabeth Graves","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.27","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.27","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>People at high risk for psychosis access primary care mental health services for depression and anxiety and are unlikely to recover from these affective symptoms. We report the first controlled trial of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for depression and anxiety, minimally adapted for psychosis risk, in primary care.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>To evaluate feasibility, acceptability and signals of efficacy for CBT for depression and anxiety adapted for psychosis risk, designed in collaboration with people with psychosis.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A longitudinal controlled trial comparing best practice CBT for depression and anxiety (CBT-BP) with CBT adapted for psychosis risk (CBT-PR), in patients meeting criteria for UK primary care services and who are also clinically high risk for psychosis (trial registration no. ISRCTN40678).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Rates of recruitment (55 to CBT-BP, 44 to CBT-PR), completion of measures (90% CBT-BP, 94% CBT-PR) and retention in therapy (75% CBT-BP, 95% CBT-PR) demonstrate the feasibility and acceptability of the adapted therapy. Routine measures of depression and anxiety signal improved clinical and recovery outcomes for CBT-PR. Psychosis and relational measures signal sustained improvement (at 3 months) in the CBT-PR group. No serious adverse events were reported.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Primary care mental health services present a unique opportunity to identify and treat people at risk of psychosis at a time when they are help-seeking. CBT for depression and anxiety, minimally adapted for psychosis risk, can be delivered in routine services, and is likely to improve clinical and recovery outcomes and reduce psychosis risk. A definitive trial is needed to estimate clinical and cost-effectiveness.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e101"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144075897","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-15DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.69
Luke Manietta, William Drake
{"title":"Beyond all-or-nothing: why binary thinking undermines harm reduction in addiction medicine.","authors":"Luke Manietta, William Drake","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.69","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In modern healthcare, decision-making favours neatly delineated, categorical imperatives. We prefer to say: 'This practice is good' and 'That one is bad', believing that each decision has a straightforward yes-or-no resolution. However, medicine thrives in uncertainty, partial improvements and small steps that can lead to life-altering gains. Harm reduction, whether for tobacco use, opioid dependence or beyond, embodies the acceptance of imperfect solutions. It is precisely in these areas that black-or-white thinking can be most destructive. Insisting on total cessation or complete eradication of risk, rather than supporting incremental progress, alienates many patients and perpetuates preventable morbidity and mortality. Recognising this pattern and transcending 'all-or-nothing' mindsets is crucial for compassionate, evidence-based care. Accordingly, we ask: 'How does binary thinking in medical decision-making impact the effectiveness of harm reduction strategies?' Such an inquiry addresses how well we can truly meet patient needs in real-world practice, especially amid complexity.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e109"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144075891","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Mental and somatic health burdens of hypochondriacal disorder in higher education: national study among Norwegian students.","authors":"Kari-Elise Frøystad Veddegjærde, Jens Christoffer Skogen, Ingvard Wilhelmsen, Børge Sivertsen","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.68","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.68","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Hypochondriacal disorder involves persistent anxiety about suffering from an undetected serious medical condition, despite medical reassurance. Hypochondriacal disorder significantly affects social relationships, occupational functioning and personal well-being. In university settings, where mental health concerns are prevalent, insights into prevalence of hypochondriacal disorder and associations with depression and other health challenges are essential.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>This study examines the prevalence and correlates of hypochondriacal disorder among Norwegian university students, focusing on its associations with depression, mental distress and somatic symptom burden.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The 2022 Students' Health and Wellbeing Study, a national survey of Norwegian higher education students, included 59 536 participants aged 18-35. Participants were categorised based on a pre-defined diagnostic list of mental and somatic concerns, and participants were grouped as follows: hypochondriacal disorder only, depression only, comorbid hypochondriacal disorder and depression and controls. Validated instruments included the Somatic Symptom Scale-8, the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist, the Satisfaction With Life Scale, an abbreviated version of the University of California, Los Angeles, Three-Item Loneliness Scale and four items on suicidal ideation.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Hypochondriacal disorder was reported by 0.86% (<i>n</i> = 457) of participants, with 52% also reporting depression. Those with hypochondriacal disorder had significantly worse mental and somatic health outcomes, especially when comorbid with depression, including elevated distress, suicidality, insomnia and poor quality of life.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Although uncommon, hypochondriacal disorder is linked to severe mental and somatic health burdens, particularly when co-occurring with depression. These findings highlight the need for integrated mental health strategies in academic settings to address hypochondriacal disorder and its frequent comorbidities.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e108"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144075847","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-14DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.30
Laura Sambrook, Anna Balmer, Jackie Tait, Peter Ashley-Mudie, Jason C McIntyre, Amrith Shetty, Rajan Nathan, Pooja Saini
{"title":"'I would have killed myself had it not been for this service': qualitative experiences of NHS and third sector crisis care in the UK.","authors":"Laura Sambrook, Anna Balmer, Jackie Tait, Peter Ashley-Mudie, Jason C McIntyre, Amrith Shetty, Rajan Nathan, Pooja Saini","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.30","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.30","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>More people than ever are receiving support for mental health crises, and instances of suicide continue to grow. Mental health funding has recently increased, focusing on improving services that provide an alternative to emergency departments, such as urgent helplines and crisis cafés. However, there is a lack of literature examining the efficacy of these services, despite research suggesting they may be associated with lower hospital admission rates.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>We aimed to evaluate the perspectives of people with lived experience of accessing a variety of mental health crisis services in the UK.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>One-to-one interviews were conducted with 25 individuals as part of a qualitative grounded theory analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The following themes were identified as important for recovery: more than a diagnosis (a need for person-centred care); instilling hope for the future (access to creative spaces and community); and a safe space for recovery (out-of-hours crisis cafés). Many have credited crisis cafés with saving their lives and felt there should be increased funding provided for collaboration between the National Health Service (NHS) and the third sector. Participants highlighted the need for interim support for those awaiting therapy via the NHS and continuity of care as key areas for improvement.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>NHS services are struggling to meet the mental health needs of the population, resulting in lengthy waiting times for therapy and an over-reliance on the third sector. While crisis cafés are currently provided at a low cost and appear to result in satisfaction, policymakers must ensure they receive adequate funding and do not become overburdened.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e107"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143972700","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.36
Laura-Louise Arundell, Rob Saunders, Phoebe Barnett, Judy Leibowitz, Joshua E J Buckman, Felicity Woodcock, Stephen Pilling
{"title":"Exploring perspectives on how to improve psychological treatment for women from minoritised ethnic communities: qualitative study with psychological therapists.","authors":"Laura-Louise Arundell, Rob Saunders, Phoebe Barnett, Judy Leibowitz, Joshua E J Buckman, Felicity Woodcock, Stephen Pilling","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.36","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.36","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Women from minoritised ethnic communities experience inequalities in access, experience and outcomes of psychological therapy. Understanding the factors associated with these inequalities could inform improvements to mental health services.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>To explore therapists' experiences of providing treatment to women from minoritised ethnic communities, including insights on adaptations made at the delivery, content and wider organisation levels, and to gather suggestions about potential treatment improvements.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 therapists working in two National Health Service Talking Therapies for anxiety and depression services and who had experience of treating women from minoritised ethnic communities. Data were analysed using thematic analysis.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Three high-order themes were identified: incorporating ethnicity and culture in the delivery of psychological therapies, challenges associated with delivering therapeutic interventions to women from minoritised ethnic groups and improvements to services that could support better access, engagement and outcomes for women from minoritised ethnic groups.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>Findings indicate that therapists viewed cultural adaptation and cultural sensitivity as important to the delivery of appropriate care for minoritised ethnic women. Challenges to appropriate care included limited service resources, communication and language barriers, stigma and existing access and engagement inequalities. Therapists suggested that, to deliver high-quality care and optimise outcomes, improvements are required in cultural sensitivity training, flexibility of service delivery, outreach work with communities to encourage uptake and reduce stigma, support for staff and workforce diversity.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e104"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143978304","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.49
Kelly J Fleetwood, Raied Alotaibi, Stine H Scheuer, Daniel J Smith, Sarah H Wild, Caroline A Jackson
{"title":"Time trends in life expectancy of people with severe mental illness in Scotland, 2000-2019: population-based study.","authors":"Kelly J Fleetwood, Raied Alotaibi, Stine H Scheuer, Daniel J Smith, Sarah H Wild, Caroline A Jackson","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.49","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.49","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>People with severe mental illness (SMI) have a higher risk of premature mortality than the general population.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>To investigate whether the life expectancy gap for people with SMI is widening, by determining time trends in excess life-years lost.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This population-based study included people with SMI (schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression) alive on 1 January 2000. We ascertained SMI from psychiatric hospital admission records (1981-2019), and deaths via linkage to the national death register (2000-2019). We used the Life Years Lost (LYL) method to estimate LYL by SMI and sex, compared LYL to the Scottish population and assessed trends over 18 3-year rolling periods.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We included 28 797 people with schizophrenia, 16 657 with bipolar disorder and 72 504 with major depression. Between 2000 and 2019, life expectancy increased in the Scottish population but the gap widened for people with schizophrenia. For 2000-2002, men and women with schizophrenia lost an excess 9.4 (95% CI 8.5-10.3) and 8.2 (95% CI 7.4-9.0) life-years, respectively, compared with the general population. In 2017-2019, this increased to 11.8 (95% CI 10.9-12.7) and 11.1 (95% CI 10.0-12.1). The life expectancy gap was lower for bipolar disorder and depression and unchanged over time.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The life expectancy gap in people with SMI persisted or widened from 2000 to 2019. Addressing this entrenched disparity requires equitable social, economic and health policies, healthcare re-structure and improved resourcing, and investment in interventions for primary and secondary prevention of SMI and associated comorbidities.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e103"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143972642","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.26
Sarah Leonard, Jana Bowden, Matilda Minchin, Ruth McDonald, Neil Allen, Jane Senior, Jennifer Shaw
{"title":"A national survey of current discharge planning and aftercare arrangement practices for those returned to prison from secure psychiatric services in England and Wales.","authors":"Sarah Leonard, Jana Bowden, Matilda Minchin, Ruth McDonald, Neil Allen, Jane Senior, Jennifer Shaw","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.26","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.26","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Little is known about the transition process for those returned to prison following treatment in secure psychiatric services. This study is the first internationally to explore the process of discharge/aftercare planning for this population.</p><p><strong>Aim: </strong>To identify the current national discharge and aftercare planning procedures for people returned to prison in England and Wales.</p><p><strong>Methods: </strong>A national survey of current service discharge planning and aftercare arrangement practices in low- and medium-secure psychiatric services and prison mental health teams in England and Wales.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>We had a 72% response rate across prison-based and secure mental health services. A summative contents analysis highlighted that outstanding priority areas for improvement, include (a) relationship building to improve communication and understanding between secure psychiatric services, prison mental health services, and the prison estate and (b) significant reform and additional resources to achieve the expected standard of care and to provide people returned to prison with a care package tailored to meet their specific needs.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>Effective care planning and management of return to prison from secure psychiatric services has the potential to improve patient health and well-being in prison and up to and beyond their subsequent prison release, with far-reaching effects on prevention of relapse, hospital readmission, reoffending and other adverse events.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e105"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144062126","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.46
Vishal Bhavsar, Anne M Doherty
{"title":"The assessment of self-harm as a window of opportunity for addressing domestic abuse: invited editorial on Knipe et al.","authors":"Vishal Bhavsar, Anne M Doherty","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.46","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.46","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Domestic abuse harms children and families. Self-harm is associated with exposure to and perpetration of domestic abuse, but research on health service responses to self-harm in the context of domestic abuse is limited. We discuss recent work examining the response of mental health professionals to domestic abuse in the emergency department by Knipe and colleagues. Thematic analysis of interviews with 15 mental health professionals working in consultation and liaison settings helped to construct themes including a fear of deeper exploration and tensions between identification and response ('between knowing and acting'). The paper raises important issues for quality improvement in responses to self-harm in liaison settings, including balancing time and resources across different management needs (including domestic abuse response) and professional perceptions of their own actions in clinical settings, such as acknowledging harmful behaviour. The paper demonstrates opportunities for strengthening responses to domestic abuse in professional training.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e102"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143969855","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-13DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.44
Aisha Al Maqbali, Omar Al Omari, Loai Abu Sharour, Zakariya Al-Naamani, Mahmood Al Khatri, Hala Mohamed Sanad, Iman Al Hashmi, Abdullah Alkhawaldeh, Mohammad Al Qadire, Domam Al Omari
{"title":"The perceived levels of stress, anxiety and depression among family caregivers of patients undergoing haemodialysis and their association with quality of life.","authors":"Aisha Al Maqbali, Omar Al Omari, Loai Abu Sharour, Zakariya Al-Naamani, Mahmood Al Khatri, Hala Mohamed Sanad, Iman Al Hashmi, Abdullah Alkhawaldeh, Mohammad Al Qadire, Domam Al Omari","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.44","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.44","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Acknowledging the impact of chronic kidney disease on caregivers' quality of life (QoL) and psychological well-being has become a global priority, highlighting the need for supportive interventions specifically aimed at caregivers.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>This study aimed to assess the prevalence of stress, anxiety and depression among family caregivers of Omani patients undergoing haemodialysis and to explore its association with QoL.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>The study employed a cross-sectional design. A sample of 326 participants completed the study's surveys, including the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale, WHOQOL-BREF scale and a demographic scale.</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>The survey indicated that 68.4% of the participant caregivers experienced varying degrees of depression. In addition, 48.4% of caregivers reported experiencing stress levels ranging from mild to extremely severe. For anxiety, 65.6% (<i>n</i> = 214) of caregivers noted varying levels, from mild to extremely severe anxiety. Significant negative associations were found among caregiver age, number of chronic illnesses, number of medications, daily hours spent on caregiving, physical health, stress, anxiety and depression, on the one hand, and the physical domain of QoL, on the other hand. Regarding the psychological domain of QoL, significant negative associations were observed with daily caregiving hours, physical health, stress, anxiety and depression.</p><p><strong>Conclusion: </strong>This study highlights the significant psychological burden faced by caregivers of patients undergoing haemodialysis. Systematic screening and practical interventions, such as support groups and mental health programmes, are essential to improve caregiver well-being. Future research should explore the effectiveness of these interventions and the long-term impact of caregiving.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e100"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143968602","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
BJPsych OpenPub Date : 2025-05-12DOI: 10.1192/bjo.2025.47
Firoj Al-Mamun, Mohammed A Mamun, Md Emran Hasan, Moneerah Mohammad ALmerab, Johurul Islam, Mohammad Muhit
{"title":"Association of risk factors with mental illness in a rural community: insights from machine learning models.","authors":"Firoj Al-Mamun, Mohammed A Mamun, Md Emran Hasan, Moneerah Mohammad ALmerab, Johurul Islam, Mohammad Muhit","doi":"10.1192/bjo.2025.47","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1192/bjo.2025.47","url":null,"abstract":"<p><strong>Background: </strong>Mental health conditions, particularly depression and anxiety, are highly prevalent and impose substantial health burdens globally. Despite advancements in machine learning, there is limited application of these methods in predicting common mental illnesses within community populations in low-resource settings.</p><p><strong>Aims: </strong>This study aims to examine the prevalence and associated risk factors of common mental illnesses collectively (depression and anxiety) in a rural Bangladeshi community using machine learning models.</p><p><strong>Method: </strong>This cross-sectional study surveyed 490 adults aged 18-59 in a rural Bangladeshi community. Depression and anxiety were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2) and Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-2) scales. Machine learning models, including Categorical Boosting, the support vector machine, the random forest and XGBoost (eXtreme Gradient Boosting), were trained on 80% of the data-set and tested on 20% to evaluate predictive accuracy, precision, F1 score, log-loss and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC-ROC).</p><p><strong>Results: </strong>Some 20.4% of participants experienced at least one common mental illness. Feature importance analysis identified house type, age group and educational status as the most significant predictors. SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlanations) values highlighted their influence on model outputs, and the XGBoost gain metric confirmed the importance of marital status and house type, with gains of 0.76 and 0.73, respectively. XGBoost delivered the best performance, achieving an F1 score of 71.01%, precision of 71.58%, accuracy of 71.15% and the lowest log-loss value of 0.56. The random forest had an accuracy of 78.21% and an AUC-ROC of 0.90.</p><p><strong>Conclusions: </strong>The findings of this study suggest targeted interventions addressing housing and social determinants could improve mental health outcomes in similar rural settings. Further studies should consider longitudinal data to explore causal relationships.</p>","PeriodicalId":9038,"journal":{"name":"BJPsych Open","volume":"11 3","pages":"e96"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9,"publicationDate":"2025-05-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143971594","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}