Journal of Mental Health

Thank you to Reviewers
Bates A
The cascade effect: embrace or combat psychiatric disability?
Martinelli A
Changes in sex differences in mental health over time: the moderating effects of educational status and loneliness
Nigatu YT, Wickens CM and Hamilton HA
Limited evidence exists regarding how sex differences in mental health are changing over time, especially in the context of recent health and economic adversities.
Mental health literacy in secondary school teachers and interventions to improve it - a systematic review and narrative synthesis
Prabhu SG, Mallikarjun PK, Palmer A, Nag R, Khadeparkar P, Arelingaiah M, Lakshman KA, Podiya JK, Navaneetham J and Hugh-Jones S
Adolescent mental health problems have increased in prevalence. Teachers' Mental Health Literacy (MHL) may play an important role in public mental health prevention approaches. This systematic review and narrative synthesis aimed to identify what is known globally about the extent of secondary school teachers' MHL and the types and effectiveness of MHL interventions for secondary school teachers.
Stigmatisation of mental illness in Africa: a systematic review of qualitative and mixed studies
Faleti DD and Akinlotan O
Despite increasing global awareness of mental health and illness, individuals with mental illnesses still experience stigma in many African countries. This stigma can be pervasive and evolving, which can negatively impact care and quality of life.
Videocall delivered psychological interventions for treating depressive symptoms in primary care - a systematic review
Sanftenberg L, Bentrop M, Jung-Sievers C, Dreischulte T and Gensichen J
Depression is a very common disorder and comorbidity. Primary care providers are the first medical contacts to diagnose and treat depression. Video calls are emerging communication tools to deliver psychological interventions.
When I can't help, I suffer: A scoping review of moral distress in service providers working with persons experiencing homelessness
Perez S, Kerman N, Dej E, Forchuk C, George C, Easton C and Marshall CA
Service providers are experiencing mental health decline as they work to meet the needs of persons experiencing homelessness in a system that constrains their ability to help. Although moral distress is widely recognized in health care, the experience of moral distress in service providers working with people experiencing homelessness has not been explored in a scoping review.
Emotional regulation and coping strategies predicted trajectories of anxiety across the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic
Park CL, Kim D, Russell BS and Fendrich M
Adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health have been well-documented, but only a few studies have characterized distinct trajectories of anxiety over time. Further, whether specific emotion regulation and coping efforts to manage pandemic distress predict these distinct trajectories remains unexamined.
The impact of social support on university students living with mental illness: a systematic review and narrative synthesis
Vicary E, Kapadia D, Bee P, Bennion M and Brooks H
Limited reviews address the role of social support for university students with mental health issues, despite its proven significance for other vulnerable groups.
Statement of Retraction: Evaluation of the impact of a self-stigma reduction programme on psychosocial outcomes among people with schizophrenia spectrum disorder
The effects of a teacher-led online mental health literacy program for high school students: a pilot cluster randomized controlled trial
Yamaguchi S, Foo JC and Sasaki T
Adolescents are vulnerable to mental health problems, and this vulnerability may be enhanced in situations such as the present COVID-19 pandemic. Online mental health literacy (MHL) education may help adolescents maintain/improve their mental health, especially in situations where face-to-face education is difficult.
"I thought that crying was weakness": a thematic analysis of emotional experience in an online self-harm forum
Rymer LJ, Dodd A and Bell BT
This study aimed to investigate the emotional experiences and beliefs of individuals who engage in self-harm by analyzing data from an online self-harm forum. Emphasis was placed on understanding how these individuals describe and evaluate their emotions (emotion beliefs) and the role these beliefs play in their emotion regulation and self-harming behaviors.
Editorial: can the retraction of articles endanger the mental health of researchers?
SeyedAlinaghi S, Gholami S and Mehraeen E
Anxiety management strategies on TikTok: a discourse analysis of collective coping mechanisms
Balcıoğlu YS
This study investigates the discourse on anxiety management strategies within the TikTok platform, analyzing a substantial dataset of 45,639 comments collected over a year.
What over the counter (OTC) products have been evaluated for anxiety in adults aged 18-60? A scoping review
Frost R, Uddin S, Mathew S, Thomas V, Salame A, Bhamra SK, Bazo-Alvarez JC, Bhanu C, Heinrich M and Walters K
Anxiety symptoms and disorders are common in the UK. Whilst waiting for, or alongside, treatments such as anxiolytics or psychological therapies, people often self-manage anxiety symptoms with products purchased over-the-counter (OTC), such as herbal medicines or dietary supplements. However, the evidence for these products is often presented across different reviews and is not easy for patients or healthcare professionals to compare and understand.
Personal relationships during and after an initial psychotic episode. First-person experiences
Hurtado MM, Villena A, Quemada C and Morales-Asencio JM
Psychosis is often associated with loneliness, the absence of a confidant and a perceived lack of social support. In addition, the social isolation and solitude experienced can aggravate internalised stigma, depressive symptoms and/or suicidal tendencies, and worsen the course of the disorder.
Socio-demographic predictors of the time interval between successive hospitalizations among patients with borderline personality disorder
Yaniv-Rosenfeld A, Savchenko E, Elalouf A and Nitzan U
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) affects 0.7 to 2.7% of the adult population and higher rates are reported in inpatient care. Hospitalizations of BPD patients are a complex and controversial challenge for mental health professionals. Recurrent hospitalizations are common and it is essential to identify risk factors that characterize patients who benefit from their hospitalization and those who return to the ward shortly after discharge. To investigate the potential link between BPD patients' socio-demographic factors and the expected time interval between their successive hospitalizations. A retrospective analysis of 1051 hospitalization records from 174 BPD patients. Through univariate, bivariate, and multivariate analyses, we investigated the possible relationship between patients' primary socio-demographic factors and the time between their successive hospitalizations. Patients' age, marital status, and living arrangement were found to be statistically connected with the time interval between successive hospitalizations. Specifically, being older, married and/or patients to live with one's spouse/partner seem to be linked with a longer time interval between successive hospitalizations compared to patients who are young, single/divorced and/or those who live with their parents. The expected time interval between successive hospitalization of BPD patients can be partly explained by their socio-demographic characteristics.
Experience of choice of treatment for adults with depression: a systematic review and meta-synthesis of qualitative research
Megnin-Viggars O, O'Donoghue K, Pilling S and Chew-Graham C
Treatment choices for depression are preference-sensitive (no "single best option"). However, factors or attributes that can enhance or inhibit patient choice have not been fully explored.
Symptoms of the suicide crisis syndrome and therapist emotional responses: associations to self-harm and death by suicide within 18-months post-discharge among patients at an acute psychiatric department
Høyen KS, Prestmo A, Simpson MR, Cohen LJ, Solem S, Medås K, Hjemdal O, Vaaler AE and Torgersen T
This study explored the associations between symptoms of the Suicide Crisis Syndrome (SCS) at admission and self-harm and death by suicide post-discharge. The association between clinicians' emotional responses toward inpatients at admission and post-discharge self-harm and suicide death was also explored.
Factors associated with mental health and quality of life among Brazilian medical students: a three-year longitudinal study
Castro Pecci Maddalena N, Lamas Granero Lucchetti A, da Silva Ezequiel O and Lucchetti G
Despite several studies on the mental health of medical students, there is insufficient research on long-term follow-ups.
Mental health and wellbeing of international students in Australia: a systematic review
Maharaj R, Ndwiga D and Chutiyami M
Concerns have been raised that international students are at high risk of poor mental health and wellbeing.
Nurse-led physical health interventions for people with mental illness: an integrative review of international literature
Happell B, Jacob A, Furness T, Stimson A, Curtis J, Watkins A, Platania-Phung C, Scholz B and Stanton R
People experiencing mental illness receive physical healthcare from nurses in a variety of settings including acute inpatient, secure extended care, forensic, and community services. While nurse-led clinical practice addressing sub-optimal consumer physical health is salient, a detailed understanding and description of the contribution by nurses to physical health interventions in people experiencing mental illness is not clearly articulated in the literature.
Trust, entrusting and the role of trustworthiness for adult survivors of child sexual abuse
Alyce S, Taggart D and Turton J
Survivors of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) are reported to have difficulties in trusting. Yet no previous study investigating CSA survivors' subjective experiences of trust exists and there is a paucity of clinical research into constructs and definitions of "trust."
Engagement strategies in an assertive outreach context: a mixed-methods systematic review
Berghmans E, Vliegen N, Destoop M and Luyten P
Assertive outreach (AO) is a systematic approach to engage vulnerable patients with serious mental illness.
Digital phenotyping: how it could change mental health care and why we should all keep up
Jilka S and Giacco D
Stigmatizing intimate relationships in schizophrenia: a study comparing mental health professionals, health students and the general population
Caiada M, Valery KM, Felix S, Guionnet S, Tison E, Gonin M, Bonilla-Guerrero J, Destaillats JM, Pillaud N and Prouteau A
Discrimination in intimate relationships (IR) is frequently reported among persons with schizophrenia. Despite ongoing effort of international organizations to combat mental illness stigma, there remain a limited understanding of specific IR-related stereotypes.
A study investigating the implementation of NICE recommended psychological interventions for people with psychosis following a psychiatric inpatient admission
Burgess-Barr S, Teale A and Jacobsen P
The period of time following discharge from an inpatient setting presents a unique window of opportunity for people with psychosis to engage in psychological treatment. In England, The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines outline that every person with a schizophrenia diagnosis should be offered individual Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for psychosis (CBTp) and Family Intervention (FI). This study aimed to explore rates of offer and receipt of NICE recommended therapies for adults with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder diagnosis in the year following discharge from an inpatient unit. We then investigated possible predictors of therapy offer and receipt. We used a large electronic healthcare records database to perform a secondary data analysis. A generalised linear regression model was used to explore possible predictors. Overall, our results showed low rates of offer and receipt of recommended therapies (Any recommended therapy (CBT only, FI only or CBT + FI) received = 39(8%), offered = 70(15%)). Predictor variable results were identified and discussed. The low level of offer and receipt of recommended therapies is concerning given the recommendations in the NICE guidelines for people with psychosis. Our study highlighted the need for more consistent and reliable procedures for recording this information. Further investigation into the reasons for low levels of implementation overall is important to aid the development of recommendations for how this can be improved.
Economic evaluations of eHealth interventions targeting mental health problems in the workplace: a systematic review
Peeters SB, Hilgersom M, van Krugten FCW, Olaya B, Haro JM, Feltz-Cornelis CMV and Hakkaart-van Roijen L
Work-related mental health problems impose significant economic and personal burdens. eHealth interventions may offer low-cost, practical solutions, but guidance on their cost-effectiveness in workplace mental health is limited.
Evaluating interventions that have improved access to community mental health care for Black men: A systematic review
Stockwell DW, Roche M and Billings J
Black men are one of the most disadvantaged groups when accessing mental health services in the UK. There is extensive guidance from qualitative research on how to bring equity, but it is unclear how this evidence is being implemented.
Safewards: 10 years on and what have we got?
Simpson A and Brennan G