Does social disadvantage over the life-course account for alcohol and tobacco use in Irish people? Birth cohort study

Medical Research Council (MRC) training fellowship awarded to J.D-M; Grant number: G0701595/

Unequal effects of climate change and pre-existing inequalities on the mental health of global populations

Climate change is already having unequal effects on the mental health of individuals and communities and will increasingly compound pre-existing mental health inequalities globally. Psychiatrists have a vital part to play in improving both awareness and scientific understanding of structural mechanisms that perpetuate these inequalities, and in responding to global calls for action to promote climate justice and resilience, which are central foundations for good mental and physical health

Infoveillance of Mucormycosis in India: A Google™ Trends Based Study

India reported highest incidence of Mucormycosis in the past and during the second wave of COVID-19. Google Trends is a potential tool for infoveillance of infectious disease like Mucormycosis. Relative Search Volume (RSV) for term Mucormycosis (+ Black fungus), diabetes, steroid, oxygen, D-dimer (+ferritin) had been extracted from Google Trends for three months (March to May 2021) and state-wise prevalence for Mucormycosis released by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare was used for the analysis. India reported highest RSV for Mucormycosis among the top five countries with COVID-19 cases. RSV peak for oxygen preceded the Mucormycosis spike. Correlation between state-wise prevalence of Mucormycosis and their corresponding RSV was not significant. While a positive correlation was observed between Mucormycosis, diabetes and steroid, it was not statistically significant. Infoveillance using Google trends can serve as a proxy marker for the public health needs and priorities much before actual field surveys

Born into adversity: psychological distress in two birth cohorts of second-generation Irish children growing up in Britain

This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC), in the form of a fellowship awarded to J.D.-M. (grant no. G0701595/1).

Anxiety: An Evolutionary Approach

Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental illnesses, with huge attendant suffering. Current treatments are not universally effective, suggesting that a deeper understanding of the causes of anxiety is needed. To understand anxiety disorders better, it is first necessary to understand the normal anxiety response. This entails considering its evolutionary function as well as the mechanisms underlying it. We argue that the function of the human anxiety response, and homologues in other species, is to prepare the individual to detect and deal with threats. We use a signal detection framework to show that the threshold for expressing the anxiety response ought to vary with the probability of threats occurring, and the individual's vulnerability to them if they do occur. These predictions are consistent with major patterns in the epidemiology of anxiety. Implications for research and treatment are discussed