Debt income and mental disorder in the general population

Background The association between poor mental health and poverty is well known but its mechanism is not fully understood. This study tests the hypothesis that the association between low income and mental disorder is mediated by debt and its attendant financial hardship. Method The study is a cross-sectional nationally representative survey of private households in England, Scotland and Wales, which assessed 8580 participants aged 16–74 years living in general households. Psychosis, neurosis, alcohol abuse and drug abuse were identified by the Clinical Interview Schedule – Revised, the Schedule for Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (SCAN), the Alcohol Use Disorder Identification Test (AUDIT) and other measures. Detailed questions were asked about income, debt and financial hardship. Results Those with low income were more likely to have mental disorder [odds ratio (OR) 2.09, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.68–2.59] but this relationship was attenuated after adjustment for debt (OR 1.58, 95% CI 1.25–1.97) and vanished when other sociodemographic variables were also controlled (OR 1.07, 95% CI 0.77–1.48). Of those with mental disorder, 23% were in debt (compared with 8% of those without disorder), and 10% had had a utility disconnected (compared with 3%). The more debts people had, the more likely they were to have some form of mental disorder, even after adjustment for income and other sociodemographic variables. People with six or more separate debts had a six-fold increase in mental disorder after adjustment for income (OR 6.0, 95% CI 3.5–10.3). Conclusions Both low income and debt are associated with mental illness, but the effect of income appears to be mediated largely by debt

Positive and negative symptoms in schizophrenia: A longitudinal analysis using latent variable structural equation modelling

BACKGROUND: Recent network models of schizophrenia propose it is the consequence of mutual interaction between its symptoms. While cross-sectional associations between negative and positive symptoms are consistent with this idea, they may merely reflect their involvement in the diagnostic process. Longitudinal analyses however may allow the identification of possible causal relationships. The European Schizophrenia Cohort (EuroSC) provides data suitable for this purpose. METHODS: EuroSC includes 1208 patients randomly sampled from outpatient services in France, Germany and the UK. Initial measures were repeated after 12 and 24 months. Latent variable structural equation modelling was used to investigate the direction of effect between positive and negative symptoms assessed with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, controlling for the effects of depressed mood and antipsychotic medication. RESULTS: The structural model provided acceptable overall fit [χ2 (953) = 2444.32, P < 0.001; CFI = 0.909; RMSEA = 0.046 (90% CI: 0.043, 0.048); SRMR = 0.052]. Both positive and negative symptoms were persistent, and strongly auto-correlated. There were also persistent cross-sectional associations between positive and negative symptoms. While the path from latent positive to negative symptoms from T1 to T2 approached conventional levels of statistical significance (P = 0.051), that from T2 to T3 did not (P = 0.546). Pathways in the reverse direction were uniformly non-significant. CONCLUSIONS: There was no evidence that negative symptoms predict later positive symptoms. The prediction of negative symptoms by positive symptoms was ambiguous. We discuss implications for conceptualization of schizophrenic processes

Common Mental Disorders

Common mental disorders (CMDs) comprise different types of depression and anxiety. They cause marked emotional distress and interfere with daily function,but do not usually affect insight or cognition. Although usually less disabling than major psychiatric disorders, their higher prevalence means the cumulative cost of CMDs to society is great. The revised Clinical Interview Schedule (CIS-R) has been used on each Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey (APMS) in the series to assess six types of CMD: depression, generalised anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, phobias, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and CMD not otherwise specified (CMD-NOS). Many people meet the criteria for more than one CMD. The CIS-R is also used to produce a score that reflects overall severity of CMD symptoms. • Since 2000, there has been a slight but steady increase in the proportion of women with CMD symptoms (as indicated by a CIS-R score of 12 or more), but overall stability at this level among men. The increase in prevalence was evident mostly at the more severe end of the scale (CIS-R score 18 or more). • Since the last survey (2007), increases in CMD have also been evident among late midlife men and women (aged 55 to 64), and approached significance in young women (aged 16 to 24). • The gap in rates of CMD symptoms between young men and women appears to have grown. In 1993, 16 to 24 year old women (19.2%) were twice as likely as 16 to 24 year old men (8.4%) to have symptoms of CMD (CIS-R score 12 or more). In 2014, CMD symptoms were about three times more common in women of that age (26.0%) than men (9.1%). • CMDs were more prevalent in certain groups of the population. These included Black women, adults under the age of 60 who lived alone, women who lived in large households, adults not in employment, those in receipt of benefits and those who smoked cigarettes. These associations are in keeping with increased social disadvantage and poverty being associated with higher risk of CMD. Most people identified by the CIS-R with a CMD also perceived themselves to have a CMD. This was not the case for most of the other disorders assessed in the APMS. • While most of these people had been diagnosed with a mental disorder by a professional, the disorders they reported having been diagnosed with tended to be ‘depression’ or ‘panic attacks’. However, the disorder most commonly identified by the CIS-R was GAD. This difference may reflect the language and terminology used by people when discussing their mental health with a professional

Brief communication: SWM – stochastic weather model for precipitation-related hazard assessments using ERA5-Land data

Long-term multi-hazard and risk assessments are produced by combining many hazard-model simulations, each using a slightly different set of inputs to cover the uncertainty space. While most input parameters for these models are relatively well constrained, atmospheric parameters remain problematic unless working on very short timescales (hours to days). Precipitation is a key trigger for many natural hazards including floods, landslides, and lahars. This work presents a stochastic weather model that takes openly available ERA5-Land data and produces long-term, spatially varying precipitation data that mimic the statistical dimensions of real data. This allows precipitation to be robustly included in hazard-model simulations. A working example is provided using 1981–2020 ERA5-Land data for the Rangitāiki–Tarawera catchment, Te Moana-a-Toi / Bay of Plenty, New Zealand.</p

Assessing needs for psychiatric treatment in prisoners: 1. Prevalence of disorder

BACKGROUND: High levels of psychiatric morbidity in prisoners have important implications for services. Assessing Needs for Psychiatric Treatment in Prisoners is an evaluation of representative samples of prisoners in a male and a female prison in London. This paper reports on the prevalence of mental disorders. In a companion paper, we describe how this translates into mental health treatment needs and the extent to which they have been met. METHODS: Prisoners were randomly sampled in a sequential procedure based on the Local Inmate Data System. We interviewed roughly equal numbers from the following groups: male remand; male sentenced prisoners (Pentonville prison); and female remand; female sentenced prisoners (Holloway prison). Structured assessments were made of psychosis, common mental disorders, PTSD, personality disorder and substance abuse. RESULTS: We interviewed 197 male and 171 female prisoners. Psychiatric morbidity in male and female, sentenced and remand prisoners far exceeded in prevalence and severity than in equivalent general population surveys. In particular, 12% met criteria for psychosis; 53.8% for depressive disorders; 26.8% for anxiety disorders; 33.1% were dependent on alcohol and 57.1% on illegal drugs; 34.2% had some form of personality disorder; and 69.1% had two disorders or more. Moreover, in the year before imprisonment, 25.3% had used mental health services. CONCLUSIONS: These rates of mental ill-health and their similarity in remand and sentenced prisoners indicate that diversion of people with mental health problems from the prison arm of the criminal justice system remains inadequate, with serious consequences for well-being and recidivism

Institutional Care and Poverty: Evidence and Policy Review

This report contains evidence and policy analysis which is summarised in Findings published online by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation (www.jrf.org.uk). The body of the report is structured in chapters which are devoted to different forms of institutional care. Readers interested in particular forms of care should focus on those chapters which are referenced separately. The general aim of the study was to conduct an international evidence and policy review of ‘institutional care’ and poverty in order to identify effective and costed strategies for reducing the risks in the four countries of the UK

Assessing needs for psychiatric treatment in prisoners: 2. Met and unmet need

BACKGROUND: In a companion paper, we established high levels of psychiatric morbidity in prisoners (Bebbington et al. Soc Psychiatry Psychiatr Epidemiol, 2016). In the current report, we evaluate how this morbidity translates into specific needs for treatment and the consequent implications for services. Mental health treatment needs and the extent to which they had been met were assessed in a representative sample of prisoners in a male and a female prison in London (Pentonville and Holloway). METHODS: Prisoners were sampled at random in a sequential procedure based on the Local Inmate Data System. We targeted equal numbers of male remand, male sentenced, female remand, and female sentenced prisoners. Following structured assessment of psychosis, common mental disorders, PTSD, personality disorders and disorders of abuse, we used the MRC Needs for Care Assessment (NFCAS) to establish whether potential needs for care in ten areas of mental health functioning were met, unmet, or incapable of being met by services. RESULTS: Data on treatment experience were provided by 360 inmates. Eighty percent of females and 70% of males had at least one need for treatment. Over half (53.7%) of the needs of female prisoners were met, but only one third (36.5%) in males. Needs for medication were unmet in 32% of cases, while those for psychological treatment were unmet in 51%. CONCLUSIONS: Unmet needs for mental health treatment and care were common in the two prisons. This has adverse consequences both for individual prisoners and for the effective functioning of the criminal justice system

Mental health: Future challenges [Mental Capital and Wellbeing: Making the most of ourselves in the 21st century]

The aim of the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing (www.foresight.gov.uk) is to advise the Government on how to achieve the best possible mental development and mental wellbeing for everyone in the UK in the future. The starting point of the Project was to generate an understanding of the science of mental capital and wellbeing (MCW) and to develop a vision for how the size and nature of the challenges exposed by the Project could evolve over the next 20 years. To make this analysis tractable, the work was divided into five broad areas: Mental capital through life; Learning through life; Mental health; Wellbeing and work; and Learning difficulties. This report presents the findings for Mental health and draws upon a comprehensive assessment of the scientific state-of-the art: overall, around 80 reviews have been commissioned across the five areas

John Erskine (1721-1803) : disseminator of enlightened evangelical Calvinism

John Erskine was the leading Evangelical in the Church of Scotland in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Educated in an enlightened setting at Edinburgh University, he learned to appreciate the epistemology of John Locke and other empiricists alongside key Scottish Enlightenment figures such as his ecclesiastical rival, William Robertson. Although groomed to follow in his father’s footsteps as a lawyer, Erskine changed career paths in order to become a minister of the Kirk. He was deeply moved by the endemic revivals in the west of Scotland and determined that his contribution to the burgeoning Evangelical movement on both sides of the Atlantic would be much greater as a clergyman than a lawyer. Yet Erskine was no ‘enthusiast’. He integrated the style and moral teachings of the Enlightenment into his discourses and posited new theories on traditional views of Calvinism in his theological treatises. Erskine’s thought, however, never transgressed the boundaries of orthodoxy. His goal was to update Evangelical Calvinism with the new style and techniques of the Enlightenment without sacrificing the gospel message. While Erskine was widely recognised as an able preacher and theologian, his primary contribution to Evangelicalism was as a disseminator. He sent correspondents like the New England pastor Jonathan Edwards countless religious and philosophical works so that he and others could learn about current ideas, update their writings to conform to the Age of Reason and provide an apologetic against perceived heretical authors. Erskine also was crucial in the publishing of books and pamphlets by some of the best Evangelical theologians in America and Britain. Within his lifetime, Erskine’s main contribution to Evangelicalism was as a propagator of an enlightened form of Calvinism.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Changing women's roles, changing environmental knowledges: evidence from Upper Egypt

The aim of this paper is to investigate the ways in which changing gender roles in a Bedouin community in Upper Egypt, brought about by settlement over the last 20 years on the shores of Lake Nasser, have impacted on the accumulation and development of indigenous environmental knowledges by Bedouin women. The research was carried out among four groups of Ababda Bedouin in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and involved in-depth monthly conversations carried out over a period of 12 months. The main conclusions of the study are that the women of the study area have had to develop new knowledges which, in some cases, are now different from those held by men because of the different economic circumstances in which many find themselves; that these knowledges are fluid, dynamic and ever-changing with their own internal dynamism; and that socially constructed notions of gender are vital in the development process, notions that are sensitive to both men's and women's interests and their interrelationships