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Severe mental disorders are associated with a life expectancy that is 10–20 years shorter than the general population's. The prevalence of cigarette smoking in these populations is very high. We examined the effect of smoking on life expectancy and survival in patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar affective disorder from 2007 to 2018 in South East London, UK. Smoking status was determined using unstructured text data extracted from electronic health records. A total of 21,588 patients were identified of which 16,717, (77.4%) were classified as current smokers and 3438 (15.9%) as non-smokers. In female participants, life expectancy at birth was 67.6 years in current smokers (95% CI: 66.4–68.8) and 74.9 years in non-smokers (95% CI: 72.8–77.0), a difference of 7.3 years. In male participants, life expectancy at birth was 63.5 years in current smokers (95% CI: 62.5–64.5) and 68.5 years in non-smokers (95% CI, 64.4–72.6), a difference of 5.0 years. Adjusted survival models found that current smoking status was associated with an increased mortality risk for both females (aHR: 1.42, 95% CI: 1.21–1.66, p

Objective: Although frequently reported in psychosis, obsessive-compulsive symptoms (OCS) are often not recognized and thus undertreated. We aimed to estimate the prevalence of OCS and obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder in clinical records and identify clinical associations of OCS co-occurrence. Methods: Data were retrieved from the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust Biomedical Research Centre case register. The study population was restricted to individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia (ICD F20.x), schizoaffective disorder (ICD F25.x), or bipolar disorder (ICD F31.x) between 2007 and 2015. OCS and OCD were ascertained from structural fields and via Natural Language Processing software applied to free-text records. Clinical characteristics were obtained from Health of the Nation Outcome Scales for the analyses on associations between clinical characteristics and OCS/OCD status using logistic regressions with confounders considered. Results: 22,551 cases of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder were identified in the observation window. Among these, 5,179 (24.0%) were identified as having OCS (including an OCD diagnosis) and 2,574 (11.9%) specifically with comorbid OCD. OCS/OCD was associated with an increased likelihood of recorded aggressive behavior (OR = 1.18; 95% CI, 1.10-1.26), cognitive problems (OR = 1.21; 95% CI, 1.13-1.30), hallucinations and delusions (OR = 1.11; 95% CI, 1.04-1.20), and physical problems (OR = 1.17; 95% CI, 1.09-1.26). Conclusions: OCS and OCD are frequently recorded for patients with schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder and are associated with more severe psychiatric clinical characteristics. Automated information extraction tools hold potential to improve recognition and treatment of co-occurring OCS/OCD for psychosis.

ObjectivesTo compare mental healthcare use and healthcare professional (HCP) contacts for patients before and after initiation of paliperidone palmitate.SettingThe South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLAM) Biomedical Research Centre Clinical Record Interactive Search.ParticipantsWe identified all adults with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (International Classification of Diseases 10th Revision: F20.x), who had received paliperidone palmitate prescription for at least 365 days and had at least 1 year of recorded treatment from SLAM, prior to the first recorded receipt of paliperidone palmitate.Primary and secondary outcome measuresInpatient and community mental healthcare service use, such as inpatient bed days, number of active days in the service, face-to-face and telephone HCP use in the 12 months before and after paliperidone palmitate initiation.ResultsWe identified 664 patients initiated on paliperidone palmitate. Following initiation, inpatient bed days were lower, although patients remained active on the service case load longer for both mirror approach 1 (mean difference of inpatient bed days −10.48 (95% CI −15.75 to −5.22); days active 40.67 (95% CI 33.39 to 47.95)) and mirror approach 2 (mean difference of inpatient bed days −23.96 (95% CI −30.01 to −17.92); mean difference of days active 40.69 (95% CI 33.39 to 47.94)). The postinitiation period was further characterised by fewer face-to-face and telephone contacts with medical and social work HCPs, and an increased contact with clinical psychologists.ConclusionsOur findings indicate a change in the profile of HCP use, consistent with a transition from treatment to possible rehabilitation.

Background We investigated health service use patterns before the first self-poisoning (SP) episodes by age groups and genders using a population-based datasets. Methods We identified 3465 people with a verified discharge diagnosis of SP from 1997 to 2006. Physical disorders, psychiatric diagnoses, psychotropic prescriptions and health service use one year and one month before the episodes were compared by age groups and genders. Results Women younger than 65 years old were found to seek non-psychiatric outpatient services more in the month prior to SP episode (female 61.7% vs. male 50.5%, p Conclusions The current analysis suggested age and gender disparities on health service utilizations and prescriptions of psychotropic agents among patients with first self-poison behaviors. Studies about this gender disparity to generate intervention strategies for the prevention of self-poisoning at early stages are warranted.

BackgroundComorbidities and stages may influence the prognosis of melanoma patients in Taiwan and need to be determined.MethodsWe performed a retrospective cohort study by using the national health insurance research database in Taiwan. Patients with a primary diagnosis of melanoma by the Taiwan Cancer Registry from 2009 to 2017 were recruited as the study population. The comparison group was never diagnosed with melanoma from 2000 to 2018. The Charlson comorbidity index was conducted to calculate the subjects’ disease severity. The Cox proportional hazards model analysis was used to estimate the hazard ratio of death.ResultsWe selected 476 patients, 55.5% of whom had comorbidity. A higher prevalence of comorbidity was associated with a more advanced cancer stage. The mortality rate increased with an increasing level of comorbidity in both cohorts and was higher among melanoma patients. The interaction between melanoma and comorbidity resulted in an increased mortality rate.ConclusionAn association between poorer survival and comorbidity was verified in this study. We found that the level of comorbidity was strongly associated with mortality. A higher risk of mortality was found in patients who had localized tumors, regional metastases, or distant metastases with more comorbidity scores. Advanced stage of melanoma patients with more comorbidities was significantly associated with the higher risk of mortality rate.

In order to improve the image quality of BLADE magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) using the index tensor solvers and to evaluate MRI image quality in a clinical setting, we implemented BLADE MRI reconstructions using two tensor solvers (the least-squares solver and the L1 total-variation regularized least absolute deviation (L1TV-LAD) solver) on a graphics processing unit (GPU). The BLADE raw data were prospectively acquired and presented in random order before being assessed by two independent radiologists. Evaluation scores were examined for consistency and then by repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) to identify the superior algorithm. The simulation showed the structural similarity index (SSIM) of various tensor solvers ranged between 0.995 and 0.999. Inter-reader reliability was high (Intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) = 0.845, 95% confidence interval: 0.817, 0.87). The image score of L1TV-LAD was significantly higher than that of vendor-provided image and the least-squares method. The image score of the least-squares method was significantly lower than that of the vendor-provided image. No significance was identified in L1TV-LAD with a regularization strength of λ= 0.4–1.0. The L1TV-LAD with a regularization strength of λ= 0.4–0.7 was found consistently better than least-squares and vendor-provided reconstruction in BLADE MRI with a SENSitivity Encoding (SENSE) factor of 2. This warrants further development of the integrated computing system with the scanner.

Introduction: Maintaining a better physical and mental health status is an important issue for older adults in their later life. Thus, the study’s purpose was to evaluate the association between body mass index (BMI) and mental health status in older adults aged 65 years old or above residing in communities of Taipei City, Taiwan. Methods: We carried out secondary data analysis with data from a volunteer-based health examination project for older adults >65 years old residing in Taipei City from 2006 to 2010 with a retrospective study design. BMI, calculated by standardized measuring procedures for height and weight, and mental health status, evaluated by 5-item Brief Symptom Rating Scale (BSRS-5), were collected at their first visits of health examination. A BSRS-5 score ≥6 was considered an inferior mental health status for the outcome. In statistical analysis, univariable and multivariable logistic regressions were adopted to estimate the relative risk of inferior mental health status, treating BMI as the major exposure of interest. Results: A total of 90,576 subjects were involved, with a mean age of 73.38 years old (SD = 6.64 years) and 49.21% females. With confounders controlled, compared to normal or overweight (23 ≤ BMI Conclusion: Keeping an appropriate weight or even being overweighted might be beneficial for older adults dwelling in the community, especially for males.

Background Although no drugs are licensed for the treatment of personality disorder, pharmacological treatment in clinical practice remains common. Aims This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of psychotropic drug use and associations with psychological service use among people with personality disorder. Method Using data from a large, anonymised mental healthcare database, we identified all adult patients with a diagnosis of personality disorder and ascertained psychotropic medication use between 1 August 2015 and 1 February 2016. Multivariable logistic regression models were constructed, adjusting for sociodemographic, clinical and service use factors, to examine the association between psychological services use and psychotropic medication prescribing. Results Of 3366 identified patients, 2029 (60.3%) were prescribed some form of psychotropic medication. Patients using psychological services were significantly less likely to be prescribed psychotropic medication (adjusted odds ratio 0.48, 95% CI 0.39–0.59, PP = 0.169) and multi-class psychotropic use (adjusted odds ratio 0.80, 95% CI 0.60–1.07, P = 0.133) between patients who did and did not use psychological services. Conclusions Psychotropic medication prescribing is common in patients with personality disorder, but significantly less likely in those who have used psychological services. This does not appear to be explained by differences in demographic, clinical and service use characteristics. There is a need to develop clear prescribing guidelines and conduct research in clinical settings to examine medication effectiveness for this population.

For personality disorder (PD), it is unknown whether additional psychiatric conditions increases their risk of self-harm. We thus performed a retrospective cohort study, using data from secondary mental healthcare in South London, linked to Hospital Episodes Statistics in England to identify self-harm admissions. Adults with diagnosed PD, followed up in a 6-year period, were involved (N=7,475). Cox regression was used to model the risk of self-harm admissions, with comorbid depression, substance use disorders (SUD), severe mental illness (SMI), anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN) as primary exposures, with sociodemographics considered as confounders. In multivariable analyses, comorbid SUD (adjusted HR=1.66; 95%CI: 1.45, 1.90), depressive disorder (1.25; 1.09, 1.44), AN (1.63; 1.10, 2.39) and BN (1.65; 1.09, 2.51) were positively associated with increased risks of hospitalisation due to self-harm. However, negative association was found for comorbid SMI. The findings highlight the importance of assessing and treating comorbid psychiatric disorders in PD.

Aims Given the concerns of health inequality associated with mental illnesses, we aimed to reveal the extent of which general mortality and life expectancy at birth in people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depressive disorder varied in the 2005 and 2010 nationally representative cohorts in Taiwan. Methods Two nationally representative samples of individuals with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depressive disorder were identified from Taiwan's national health insurance database in 2005 and 2010, respectively, and followed-up for consecutive 3 years. The database was linked to nationwide mortality registry to identify causes and date of death. Age-, gender- and cause-specific mortality rates were generated, with the average follow-up period of each age- and gender-band applied as ‘weighting’ for the calculation of expected number of deaths. Age- and gender-standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) were calculated for these 3-year observation periods with Taiwanese general population in 2011/2012 as the standard population. The SMR calculations were then stratified by natural/unnatural causes and major groups of death. Corresponding life expectancies at birth were also calculated by gender, diagnosis of mental disorders and year of cohorts for further elucidation. Results The general differential in mortality rates for people with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder remained wide, revealing an SMR of 3.65 (95% confidence interval (CI): 3.55–3.76) for cohort 2005 and 3.27 (3.18-3.36) for cohort 2010 in schizophrenia, and 2.65 (95% CI: 2.55–2.76) for cohort 2005 and 2.39 (2.31-2.48) for cohort 2010 in bipolar disorder, respectively. The SMRs in people with depression were 1.83 (95% CI: 1.81–1.86) for cohort 2005 and 1.59 (1.57-1.61) for cohort 2010. SMRs due to unnatural causes tended to decrease in people with major mental illnesses over the years, but those due to natural causes remained relatively stable. The life expectancies at birth for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression were all significantly lower than the national norms, specifically showing 14.97–15.50 years of life lost for men and 15.15–15.48 years for women in people with schizophrenia. Conclusions Compared to general population, the differential in mortality rates for people with major mental illnesses persisted substantial. The differential in mortality for unnatural causes of death seemed decreasing over the years, but that due to natural causes remained relatively steady. Regardless of gender, people with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression were shown to have shortened life expectancies compared to general population.

Background: Home care case management (CM) is the main intervention for patients with severe mental disorders (SMDs) requiring outreach care. The present study investigated the long-term mortality outcome and associated risk factors in patients who received home care CM. Methods: In this nationwide study, we enrolled patients who received home care CM (n=10255) between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2010; data of these patients were derived from a Taiwan health insurance database. We calculated the standardized mortality ratio (SMR) as the ratio of observed deaths in the study cohort to expected deaths in the general population and presented by diagnosis. Multivariate regression was performed to assess independent risk factors for mortality. Results: Among 10255 patients who received home care CM, 1409 died during the study period; the overall SMR was 3.13. Specifically, patients with organic mental disorder had the highest SMR (4.98), followed by those with schizophrenia (3.89), major depression (2.98), and bipolar disorder (1.97). After adjustment for confounding factors in the multivariate analysis, patients with organic mental disorder or dementia had the highest risk of mortality, whereas the mortality risk in patients with schizophrenia was comparable to that in patients with bipolar disorder or major depression. Deceased patients had a significantly higher proportion of acute or chronic physical illnesses, including cancer, chronic hepatic disease, and pneumonia. Conclusion: This study presented the gap of mortality in patients with SMDs receiving home care CM in Taiwan. We highlight the need for more effective strategies to improve medical care for this specified population.

Summary Trends in detention under the Mental Health Act 1983 in two major London secondary mental healthcare providers were explored using patient-level data in a historical cohort study between 2007–2008 and 2016–2017. An increase in the number of detention episodes initiated per fiscal year was observed at both sites. The rise was accompanied by an increase in the number of active patients; the proportion of active patients detained per year remained relatively stable. Findings suggest that the rise in the number of detentions reflects the rise of the number of people receiving secondary mental healthcare.

ObjectivesTo investigate the association between long‐term antipsychotic polypharmacy use and mortality; and determine whether this risk varies by cause of death and antipsychotic dose.MethodsUsing data from a large anonymised mental healthcare database, we identified all adult patients with serious mental illness (SMI) who had been prescribed a single antipsychotic or polypharmacy, for six or more months between 2007 and 2014. Multivariable Cox regression models were constructed, adjusting for sociodemographic, socioeconomic, clinical factors and smoking, to examine the association between APP use and the risk of death.ResultsWe identified 10 945 adults with SMI who had been prescribed long‐term antipsychotic monotherapy (76.9%) or APP (23.1%). Patients on long‐term APP had a small elevated risk of mortality, which was significant in some but not all models. The adjusted hazard ratios for death from natural and unnatural causes associated with APP were 1.2 (0.9–1.4, P = 0.111) and 1.1 (0.7–1.9, P = 0.619) respectively. The strengths of the associations between APP and mortality outcomes were similar after further adjusting for % BNF antipsychotic dose (P = 0.031) or olanzapine equivalence (P = 0.088).ConclusionThe findings suggest that the effect of long‐term APP on mortality is not clear‐cut, with limited evidence to indicate an association, even after controlling for the effect of dose.

BackgroundSerious mental illness (SMI, including schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar disorder) is associated with worse general health. However, admissions to general hospitals have received little investigation. We sought to delineate frequencies of and causes for non-psychiatric hospital admissions in SMI and compare with the general population in the same area.MethodsRecords of 18 380 individuals with SMI aged ⩾20 years in southeast London were linked to hospitalisation data. Age- and gender-standardised admission ratios (SARs) were calculated by primary discharge diagnoses in the 10th edition of the World Health Organization International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) codes, referencing geographic catchment data.ResultsCommonest discharge diagnosis categories in the SMI cohort were urinary conditions, digestive conditions, unclassified symptoms, neoplasms, and respiratory conditions. SARs were raised for most major categories, except neoplasms for a significantly lower risk. Hospitalisation risks were specifically higher for poisoning and external causes, injury, endocrine/metabolic conditions, haematological, neurological, dermatological, infectious and non-specific (‘Z-code’) causes. The five commonest specific ICD-10 diagnoses at discharge were ‘chronic renal failure’ (N18), a non-specific code (Z04), ‘dental caries’ (K02), ‘other disorders of the urinary system’ (N39), and ‘pain in throat and chest’ (R07), all of which were higher than expected (SARs ranging 1.57–6.66).ConclusionA range of reasons for non-psychiatric hospitalisation in SMI is apparent, with self-harm, self-neglect and/or reduced healthcare access, and medically unexplained symptoms as potential underlying explanations.

Aims: To investigate clustering of all-cause and overdose deaths after a transfer of patients and their care to alternative treatment provider and after the end of opioid substitution therapy (OST) in opioid-dependent individuals in specialist addiction treatment. Design, Setting and Participants: Mortality data were identified within a sample of 5,445 patients with opioid use disorder who had received OST treatment between 1st April 2008 and 31st December 2013 from a large mental healthcare provider in United Kingdom. We investigated the circumstances and distribution of the 332 deaths identified within the observation window with a specific focus on overdose deaths (n=103) after a planned discharge, drop-out and transfer between services. Measurements: Crude mortality rates for overdose mortality 7/14/28/180 days after the end of treatment/transfer for overdose mortality. Findings: Of 47 individuals who died from overdose after having been transferred between services, 9 died in the first 2 weeks (crude mortality rate [CMR] 136.4, 64.3 – 243.1 95% CI) and a further 5 died in the first month post-transfer (CMR 79.5, 44.2 – 129.7 95% CI). Of the 32 individuals who died from overdose after planned OST cessation, 5 died in the first 2 weeks (CMR 151.5, 51.1 – 319.0 95% CI) and a further 4 died in the first month post discharge (CMR 82.6, 38.4 – 151.0 95% CI). Conclusions: In the UK, opioid-dependent people who are transferred to an alternative treatment provider for continuation of their opioid substitution therapy experience high overdose mortality rates, with substantially higher rates in the first month (especially first 14 days) following transfer.

BACKGROUND People with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities experience excess mortality compared with the general population. The impact of COVID-19 on exacerbating this, and in widening ethnic inequalities, is unclear. METHODS Prospective data (N=167,122) from a large mental healthcare provider in London, UK, with deaths from 2019 to 2020, used to assess age- and gender-standardised mortality ratios (SMRs) across nine psychiatric conditions (schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, affective disorders, somatoform/ neurotic disorders, personality disorders, learning disabilities, eating disorders, substance use disorders, pervasive developmental disorders, dementia) and by ethnicity. FINDINGS Prior to the World Health Organization (WHO) declaring COVID-19 a public health emergency on 30th January 2020, all-cause SMRs across all psychiatric cohorts were more than double the general population. By the second quarter of 2020, when the UK experienced substantial peaks in COVID-19 deaths, all-cause SMRs increased further, with COVID-19 SMRs elevated across all conditions (notably: learning disabilities: SMR: 9.24 (95% CI: 5.98-13.64), pervasive developmental disorders: 5.01 (95% CI: 2.40-9.20), eating disorders: 4.81 (95% CI: 1.56-11.22), schizophrenia-spectrum disorders: 3.26 (95% CI: 2.55-4.10), dementia: 3.82 (95% CI: 3.42, 4.25) personality disorders 4.58 (95% CI: 3.09-6.53)). Deaths from other causes remained at least double the population average over the whole year. Increased SMRs were similar across ethnic groups. INTERPRETATION People with mental disorders and intellectual disabilities were at a greater risk of deaths relative to the general population before, during and after the first peak of COVID-19 deaths, with similar risks by ethnicity. Mortality from non-COVID-19/ other causes was elevated before/ during the pandemic, with higher COVID-19 mortality during the pandemic. FUNDING ESRC (JD, CM), NIHR (JD, RS, MH), Health Foundation (JD), GSK, Janssen, Takeda (RS).

Objectives The aim of this study was to determine if there was an association between being discharged on antipsychotic polypharmacy (APP) and risk of readmission into secondary mental health care. Methods Using data from the South London and Maudsley (SLAM) case register, service users with serious mental illness (SMI), discharged between 1st January 2007 and 31th December 2014, were followed up for 6 months. Patients were classified as receiving either monotherapy or polypharmacy at index discharge. Multivariable Cox regression models were constructed, adjusting for sociodemographic, socioeconomic, clinical and service use factors. Results We identified 5523 adults who had been admitted at least once to SLAM, of whom 1355 (24.5%) were readmitted into secondary mental health care. In total, 15% (n = 826) of patients were discharged on APP and 85% (n = 4697) on monotherapy. Of these, 30.9% (n = 255) and 23.4% (n = 1100) were readmitted respectively. Being discharged on APP was associated with a significantly increased risk of readmission, in comparison to patients discharged on monotherapy (HR = 1.4, 1.2–1.7, p

Summary Background Crisis resolution and home treatment teams (CRTs) offer an alternative to hospital admission for patients undergoing mental health crises in the UK. Few studies have been done to examine predictors of relapse and readmission after contact with CRTs. Methods We used the Clinical Record Interactive Search to identify all patients receiving care from CRTs in two National Health Service (NHS) mental health trusts in London: Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. We used Cox regression models to examine rates and predictors of admission to acute mental health services within 1 year of contact with CRTs. Sex, age, ethnicity, marital status, social deprivation, severity of psychopathology, duration of index CRT episode, first contact with services, and diagnosis were extracted and examined as predictors of admission. Findings Between Jan 1, 2008, and Aug 31, 2014, 17 666 patients were treated by CRTs—8759 patients in the Camden and Islington trust and 8907 patients in the South London and Maudsley trust. 53·9 patients per 100 person-years (95% CI 52·1–55·8) in Camden and Islington and 51·3 patients per 100 person-years (95% CI 49·6–53·1) in South London and Maudsley were admitted to acute services within 1 year of seeing the CRT. In both cohorts, non-affective psychotic disorders (adjusted hazard ratio [HR] 1·25, 95% CI 1·09–1·44 in Camden and Islington; 1·27, 1·17–1·38 in South London and Maudsley) and age older than 65 years (1·18, 1·01–1·37 in Camden and Islington; 1·32, 1·12–1·56 in South London and Maudsley) were associated with increased risk of admission, whereas first contact with services (0·57, 0·52–0·62 in Camden and Islington; 0·69, 0·63–0·75 in South London and Maudsley), anxiety disorders (0·81, 0·69–0·96 in Camden and Islington; 0·77, 0·67–0·87 in South London and Maudsley), and longer index CRT episodes (adjusted HR per day 0·996, 0·994–0·998 in Camden and Islington; 0·989, 0·987–0·991 in South London and Maudsley) were associated with reduced risk of admission. Interpretation Past use of mental health services and a diagnosis of non-affective psychosis, which are markers of severity of mental illness, and older age, which is a marker of chronicity, are all risk factors for future relapse after interactions with CRTs. These findings might help clinicians and policy makers to offer more targeted and cost-effective services to reduce relapse rates. Funding None.

Obsessive and Compulsive Symptoms (OCS) or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in the context of schizophrenia or related disorders are of clinical importance as these are associated with a range of adverse outcomes. Natural Language Processing (NLP) applied to Electronic Health Records (EHRs) presents an opportunity to create large datasets to facilitate research in this area. This is a challenging endeavour however, because of the wide range of ways in which these symptoms are recorded, and the overlap of terms used to describe OCS with those used to describe other conditions. We developed an NLP algorithm to extract OCS information from a large mental healthcare EHR data resource at the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust using its Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) facility. We extracted documents from individuals who had received a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder. These text documents, annotated by human coders, were used for developing and refining the NLP algorithm (600 documents) with an additional set reserved for final validation (300 documents). The developed NLP algorithm utilized a rules-based approach to identify each of symptoms associated with OCS, and then combined them to determine the overall number of instances of OCS. After its implementation, the algorithm was shown to identify OCS with a precision and recall (with 95% confidence intervals) of 0.77 (0.65–0.86) and 0.67 (0.55–0.77) respectively. The development of this application demonstrated the potential to extract complex symptomatic data from mental healthcare EHRs using NLP to facilitate further analyses of these clinical symptoms and their relevance for prognosis and intervention response.

BackgroundDepression is associated with increased mortality, however, little is known about its variation by ethnicity.MethodsWe conducted a cohort study of individuals with ICD-10 unipolar depression from secondary mental healthcare, from an ethnically diverse location in southeast London, followed for 8 years (2007–2014) linked to death certificates. Age- and sex- standardised mortality ratios (SMRs), with the population of England and Wales as a standard population were derived. Hazard ratios (HRs) for mortality were derived through multivariable regression procedures.ResultsData from 20 320 individuals contributing 91 635 person-years at risk with 2366 deaths were used for analyses. SMR for all-cause mortality in depression was 2.55(95% CI 2.45–2.65), with similar trends by ethnicity. Within the cohort with unipolar depression, adjusted HR (aHRs) for all-cause mortality in ethnic minority groups relative to the White British group were 0.62(95% CI 0.53–0.74) (Black Caribbean), 0.53(95% CI 0.39–0.72) (Black African) and 0.69(95% CI 0.52–0.90) (South Asian). Male sex and alcohol/substance misuse were associated with an increased all-cause mortality risk [aHR:1.94 (95% CI 1.68–2.24) and aHR:1.18 (95% CI 1.01–1.37) respectively], whereas comorbid anxiety was associated with a decreased risk [aHR: 0.72(95% CI 0.58–0.89)]. Similar associations were noted for natural-cause mortality. Alcohol/substance misuse and male sex were associated with a near-doubling in unnatural-cause mortality risk, whereas Black Caribbean individuals with depression had a reduced unnatural-cause mortality risk, relative to White British people with depression.ConclusionsAlthough individuals with depression experience an increased mortality risk, marked heterogeneity exists by ethnicity. Research and practice should focus on addressing tractable causes underlying increased mortality in depression.

BACKGROUND: Treatment with paliperidone palmitate (PP) has been shown to reduce hospitalisation, however its effect on broader service use remains unknown. Our objectives were to describe and compare the health care professional (HCP) use of patients treated with 1-monthly PP before and after its initiation. METHODS: Data were sourced from South London and Maudsley (SLAM) electronic health records on patients diagnosed with schizophrenia, who had received 1-monthly PP for at least 365 days. We employed two mirrored image analyses to determine the number and frequency of HCP contacts in the 12 months before and after PP initiation: 1) excluding all inpatient days at the time of initiation; 2) excluding only the post-initiation days for that stay. More specifically, we looked at face-to-face, telephone contacts, days spent as an inpatient and number of active days in the service. RESULTS: Of 664 patients who had received PP (mean age 42 years), 60.1% were male, 60.1% of black ethnicity, 78.5% single, and 82.7% unemployed; 56.5% of initiations occurred during inpatient episodes. The two mirror image analyses yielded similar RESULTS: following PP initiation, inpatient bed-days were lower (mean (SD)) with the number of bed-days before and after initiation respectively: 31.6 (52.0) and 21.1 (52.9) in model 1; 45.1 (64.0) and 21.1 (52.9) in model 2; both p

Summary Background Neighbourhood social context might play a role in modifying mortality outcomes in severe mental illness, but has received little attention to date. Therefore, we aimed to assess in an ethnically diverse and urban location the association of neighbourhood-level characteristics and individual-level factors for all-cause, natural-cause, and unnatural-cause mortality in those with severe mental illness. Methods We did a retrospective cohort study using a case-registry from a large secondary mental health-care Trust in an ethnically diverse and urban location in south London, UK. Linked data for deaths and areas of residence were identified from the case-registry. We included all individuals aged 15 years or more at the time of diagnosis for a severe mental illness from Jan 1, 2007, to Dec 31, 2014. We used individual-level information in our analyses, such as gender, marital status, and the presence of current or previous substance use disorders. We assessed neighbourhood or area-level indicators at the Lower Super Output Area level. Association of neighbourhood-level characteristics, which included the interaction between ethnicity and own ethnic density, deprivation, urbanicity, and social fragmentation, alongside individual-level factors for all-cause, natural-cause, and unnatural-cause mortality in those with severe mental illness was assessed. Findings A total of 18 201 individuals were included in this cohort for analyses, with a median follow-up of 6·36 years. There were 1767 (9·7%) deaths from all causes, 1417 (7·8%) from natural causes, and 192 (1·1%) from unnatural causes. In the least ethnically dense areas, the adjusted rate ratio (aRR) for all-cause mortality in ethnic minority groups with severe mental illness compared with white British people with severe mental illness were similar (aRR 0·96, 95% CI 0·71–1·29); however in the highest ethnic density areas, ethnic minority groups with severe mental illness had a lower risk of death (aRR 0·52, 95% CI 0·38–0·71; p

Introduction Severe Mental Illness (SMI) encompasses schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, and bipolar affective disorder. SMI is associated with increased physical morbidity and mortality. Acute pancreatitis is the leading cause of gastroenterological hospitalisation. This study investigates the relationship between SMI and acute pancreatitis and determines the risk factors for development of pancreatitis. Material and Methods The first study phase was a retrospective cohort analysis. Acute admissions for pancreatitis were determined for people with an SMI diagnosis between January 2007 and March 2016 from a secondary care mental health register. Standardised admission ratio (SAR) for acute pancreatitis was determined for SMI patients. The second phase was a case-control study to compare exposures between SMI subjects admitted for acute pancreatitis (“cases”) and the age-, gender-, and diagnosis-matched SMI subjects without admission for acute pancreatitis (“controls”), with a ratio of 1:4. Univariate and multivariate conditional logistic regression estimated the effect of exposures including diagnosis of alcohol use disorder (AUD). Results A total of 22,337 SMI subjects were identified during the observation period. The SAR for acute pancreatitis was significant (2•33 (95% Ci: 1•97, 2•74; n = 148)). In the nested case-control study, SMI patients with co-morbid AUD elevated the risk of acute pancreatitis dramatically with an adjusted odds ratio 16•10 (5•92, 43•79). Limitations Diagnosis of co-morbid AUD may be under represented in population Conclusions SMI is associated with a significantly elevated risk of acute pancreatitis. Co-morbid AUD is a risk factor in development of pancreatitis in this group.

Objective: To determine the frequency of all-cause general hospital admissions for individuals with personality disorder (PD) in a large clinical population using linked secondary mental healthcare and hospitalisation data.Method: A retrospective cohort study, using anonymised electronic mental health records from South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust (SLaM), linked to Hospital Episodes Statistics in England. People with PD aged 15 years or older, receiving care within SLaM between April 2007 and March 2013, were identified and compared to residents from the local catchment area. Standardised admission ratios (SARs) were calculated for all major categories of causes of general hospital admission for this defined group, with local residents in 2011 UK Census as the standard population.Results: For the 7,677 people identified with PD, SAR for all causes of admission was 2.75 (95% CI: 2.70, 2.81). Both men and women with PD had increased SARs across multiple ICD-10 categories, including circulatory, respiratory, digestive, nervous, and musculoskeletal system disorders, and endocrine, blood and infectious disorders. Sensitivity analysis (removing the impact of repeated admissions by same individual for same diagnosis in the same year) yielded similar findings.Conclusions: By comparison with members of the general population, individuals with a diagnosis of personality disorder are at significantly higher risk of hospital admission resulting from a wide range of physical health problems.

Background Schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder and bipolar affective disorder are associated with a life expectancy at birth that is 10–20 years shorter than in the general population. The prevalence of cigarette smoking in people with these disorders is very high, but the extent to which this accounts for differences in mortality is unclear. We addressed this issue by examining the effect of smoking on life expectancy and survival in a large electronic healthcare database of patients receiving secondary mental healthcare in South East London. Methods Data on all patients with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder or bipolar affective disorder from 1st January 2007 to 31st December 2018 was obtained. Smoking status was determined using unstructured text data extracted from electronic health records. Chiang’s method of abridged life tables was used to calculate estimates of life expectancy at birth according to gender and most commonly recorded smoking status. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate mortality risk and adjusted for a broad range of demographic and clinical variables. Results 21,588 patients were included in the study of which 20,155 (93.4%) were classified as either smokers (16,717 [77.4%]) or non-smokers (3,438 (15.9%]). 2,434 (11.3%) participants died by the end of the observation period. In female patients, life expectancy at birth was 67.6 years in current smokers (95% CI: 66.4 to 68.8) and 74.9 years in non-smokers (95% CI: 72.8 to 77.0). In male patients, life expectancy at birth was 63.5 years in current smokers (95% CI: 62.5 to 64.5) and 68.5 years in non-smokers (95% CI: 64.4 to 72.6). Adjusted survival models showed that current smoking was associated with an increased risk of death, in both females (aHR = 1.42; 95% CI: 1.21–1.66) and males (aHR = 1.49; 95% CI: 1.25–1.79). Discussion Smoking may account for a substantial proportion of the reduced life expectancy in patients with psychotic disorders. Interventions to reduce tobacco smoking in patients with psychosis may therefore improve life expectancy in this group.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is found associated with increased mortality. Frequent comorbidities of AN include substance use disorders (SUD), affective disorders (AD) and personality disorders (PD).We investigated the influence of these psychiatric comorbidities on all-cause mortality with demographic and socioeconomic factors considered as confounders in the observation window between January 2007 and March 2016 for 1,970 people with AN, using data from the case register of the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) NHS Foundation Trust, an almost monopoly secondary mental healthcare service provider in southeast London. We retrieved data from its Clinical Records Interactive Search (CRIS) system as data source. Mortality was ascertained through nationwide tracing by the UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) linked to CRIS database on a monthly basis.A total of 43 people with AN died during the observation period. Standardized Mortality Ratio (SMR) with England and Wales population in 2012 as standard population for our study cohort was 5.21 (95% CI: 3.77, 7.02). In univariate analyses, the comorbidity of SUD or PD was found to significantly increase the relative risks of mortality (HRs=3.10, 95% CI: 1.21, 7.92; and 2.58, 95% CI: 1.23, 5.40, respectively). After adjustment for demographic and socioeconomic covariates as confounders, moderately but not significantly elevated risks were identified for SUD (adjusted HR=1.39, 95% CI: 0.53, 3.65) and PD (adjusted HR=1.58, 95% CI: 0.70, 3.56).These results suggest an elevated mortality in people with AN, which might be, at least partially, explained by the existence of the comorbidities SUD or PD.