We need timely access to mental health data: implications of the Goldacre review

The Goldacre review, published in April, 2022, 1 is a landmark evaluation of the use, availability, and safety of National Health Service (NHS) data across all four nations of the UK. The review underscores the necessary role of data in driving health-care improvement and innovation, and the potential risks inherent in using data routinely contributed by health service users. The review recommends a radical overhaul in NHS data curation, access, and analysis, and, crucially, argues that substantial new resources must be marshalled to make this aspiration a reality

Face Emotion Processing in Depressed Children and Adolescents with and without Comorbid Conduct Disorder

Studies of adults with depression point to characteristic neurocognitive deficits, including differences in processing facial expressions. Few studies have examined face processing in juvenile depression, or taken account of other comorbid disorders. Three groups were compared: depressed children and adolescents with conduct disorder (n = 23), depressed children and adolescents without conduct disorder (n = 29) and children and adolescents without disorder (n = 37). A novel face emotion processing experiment presented faces with ‘happy’, ‘sad’, ‘angry’, or ‘fearful’ expressions of varying emotional intensity using morphed stimuli. Those with depression showed no overall or specific deficits in facial expression recognition accuracy. Instead, they showed biases affecting processing of low-intensity expressions, more often perceiving these as sad. In contrast, non-depressed controls more often misperceived low intensity negative emotions as happy. There were no differences between depressed children and adolescents with and without conduct disorder, or between children with comorbid depression/conduct disorder and controls. Face emotion processing biases rather than deficits appear to distinguish depressed from non-depressed children and adolescents

We need timely access to mental health data: implications of the Goldacre review

The Goldacre review, published in April, 2022, 1 is a landmark evaluation of the use, availability, and safety of National Health Service (NHS) data across all four nations of the UK. The review underscores the necessary role of data in driving health-care improvement and innovation, and the potential risks inherent in using data routinely contributed by health service users. The review recommends a radical overhaul in NHS data curation, access, and analysis, and, crucially, argues that substantial new resources must be marshalled to make this aspiration a reality