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Background: This paper examined whether distinct life-course trajectories of psychological distress from adolescence to midlife were associated with poorer mental health outcomes during the pandemic. Methods: We present a secondary analysis of two nationally representative British birth cohorts, the 1958 National Child Development Study (NCDS) and 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70). We used latent variable mixture models to identify pre-pandemic longitudinal trajectories of psychological distress and a modified Poisson model with robust standard errors to estimate associations with psychological distress, life satisfaction and loneliness at different points during the pandemic. Results: Our analysis identified five distinct pre-pandemic trajectories of psychological distress in both cohorts. All trajectories with prior symptoms of psychological distress irrespective of age of onset, severity and chronicity were associated with a greater relative risk of poorer mental health outcomes during the pandemic and the probability of poorer mental health associated with psychological distress trajectories remained fairly constant. The relationship was not fully attenuated when most recent pre-pandemic psychological distress and other midlife factors were controlled for. Conclusions: Whilst life-course trajectories with any prior symptoms of psychological distress put individuals at greater risk of poor mental health outcomes during the pandemic, those with chronic and more recent occurrences were at highest risk. In addition, prior poor mental health during the adult life-course may mean individuals are less resilient to shocks, such as pandemics. Our findings show the importance of considering heterogeneous mental health trajectories across the life-course in the general population in addition to population average trends. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundThis paper addresses the levels of psychological distress experienced at age 42 years by men and women born in 1958 and 1970. Comparing these cohorts born 12 years apart, we ask whether psychological distress has increased, and, if so, whether this increase can be explained by differences in their childhood conditions.MethodData were utilized from two well-known population-based birth cohorts, the National Child Development Study and the 1970 British Cohort Study. Latent variable models and causal mediation methods were employed.ResultsAfter establishing the measurement equivalence of psychological distress in the two cohorts we found that men and women born in 1970 reported higher levels of psychological distress compared with those born in 1958. These differences were more pronounced in men (b = 0.314, 95% confidence interval 0.252–0.375), with the magnitude of the effect being twice as strong compared with women (b = 0.147, 95% confidence interval 0.076–0.218). The effect of all hypothesized early-life mediators in explaining these differences was modest.ConclusionsOur findings have implications for public health policy, indicating a higher average level of psychological distress among a cohort born in 1970 compared with a generation born 12 years earlier. Due to increases in life expectancy, more recently born cohorts are expected to live longer, which implies – if such differences persist – that they are likely to spend more years with mental health-related morbidity compared with earlier-born cohorts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BackgroundWhile the media may significantly influence public attitudes and government policies affecting the research agenda, how mental health research is reported in the media has been virtually unstudied. The aim of this study was to examine stories concerning mental health research published on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website between 1999 and 2008 and in New Scientist between 2008 and 2010.MethodStories were retrieved from on-line archives. Story content was coded and assessed against: ‘disease burden’ of mental disorders; the general corpus of research papers in mental health and the countries from which they originated; the journals in which cited papers were published; and funding sources.ResultsA total of 1015 BBC stories reporting mental health research and 133 New Scientist stories were found. The distribution of stories did not reflect ‘disease burden’; research on dementia was over-represented, while depression and alcohol were under-represented. There was an emphasis on biological research while stories on psychological interventions were rare. UK research was over-represented. Research funded by government and private non-profit sources was over-represented. Commentators from Alzheimer's Disease charities were prominent.ConclusionsConsideration of reported stories may suggest approaches to working with the media to improve the public understanding of, and support for, mental health research. The role of commentators may be especially important. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BackgroundPeople with psychoses often report fixed, delusional beliefs that are sustained even in the presence of unequivocal contrary evidence. Such delusional beliefs are the result of integrating new and old evidence inappropriately in forming a cognitive model. We propose and test a cognitive model of belief formation using experimental data from an interactive ‘Rock Paper Scissors’ (RPS) game.MethodParticipants (33 controls and 27 people with schizophrenia) played a competitive, time-pressured interactive two-player game (RPS). Participants' behavior was modeled by a generative computational model using leaky integrator and temporal difference methods. This model describes how new and old evidence is integrated to form a playing strategy to beat the opponent and to provide a mechanism for reporting confidence in one's playing strategy to win against the opponent.ResultsPeople with schizophrenia fail to appropriately model their opponent's play despite consistent (rather than random) patterns that can be exploited in the simulated opponent's play. This is manifest as a failure to weigh existing evidence appropriately against new evidence. Furthermore, participants with schizophrenia show a ‘jumping to conclusions’ (JTC) bias, reporting successful discovery of a winning strategy with insufficient evidence.ConclusionsThe model presented suggests two tentative mechanisms in delusional belief formation: (i) one for modeling patterns in other's behavior, where people with schizophrenia fail to use old evidence appropriately, and (ii) a metacognitive mechanism for ‘confidence’ in such beliefs, where people with schizophrenia overweight recent reward history in deciding on the value of beliefs about the opponent. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

BackgroundMedical patients are often screened for distress in the clinic using a questionnaire such as the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) while awaiting their consultation. However, might the context of the clinic artificially inflate the distress score? To address this question we aimed to determine whether those who scored high on the HADS in the clinic remained high scorers when reassessed later at home.MethodWe analysed data collected by a distress and depression screening service for cancer out-patients. All patients had completed the HADS in the clinic (on computer or on paper) prior to their consultation. For a period, patients with a high score (total of ⩾15) also completed the HADS again at home (over the telephone) 1 week later. We used these data to determine what proportion remained high scorers and the mean change in their scores. We estimated the effect of ‘regression to the mean’ on the observed change.ResultsOf the 218 high scorers in the clinic, most [158 (72.5%), 95% confidence interval (CI) 66.6–78.4] scored high at reassessment. The mean fall in the HADS total score was 1.74 (95% CI 1.09–2.39), much of which could be attributed to the estimated change over time (regression to the mean) rather than the context.ConclusionsPre-consultation distress screening in clinic is widely used. Reassuringly, it only modestly overestimates distress measured later at home and consequently would result in a small proportion of unnecessary further assessments. We conclude it is a reasonable and convenient strategy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Brugha, T. S., Morgan, Z., Bebbington, P., Jenkins, R., Lewis, G., Farrell, M. & Meltzer, H. (2003). Social support networks and type of neurotic symptom among adults in British households. Psychological Medicine33, 307–318.The authors have informed us that in this paper the 95% confidence interval for each odds ratio was miscalculated in analyses, the published estimates being wider than they should be. The terms Perceived Social Support and Primary Support Group 3 or Less, were reversed in Table 5 and in the Results section text. The main conclusion is substantially unaltered, which is that there is a higher risk of depression, depressive ideas and panic symptoms, than of any other neurotic symptom, in subjects with a Primary Support Group of three or less and in subjects with low perceived social support in all six logistic models. The revised Table 5 is published overleaf. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]