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Research

Social media may play a role in the "contagion" mechanism thought to underpin suicide clusters. Our pilot case-control study presented a novel methodological approach to examining whether Facebook activity following cluster and non-cluster suicides differed.

Research

Pineal volume reductions have been reported in schizophrenia and clinical high-risk states for the development of psychosis, supporting the role of melatonin dysregulation in the pathophysiology of psychosis.

Research

Individuals with borderline personality disorder (BPD) are at a substantial risk of harm to themselves and others, experience high levels of functional impairment and typically are high users of tertiary healthcare to address their mental health concerns. As indicators for BPD typically emerge in adolescence, a day therapy service in Bentley, Western Australia, Touchstone Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS), was developed as an intensive intervention for adolescents with indicators for BPD and its associated symptomology.

Research

Research in psychopharmacology in children and adolescents is an area of growing interest with numerous newer modalities becoming available in recent years. Nevertheless, it still lags significantly behind research in adult psychopharmacology although, in the last decade, the gap is beginning to be bridged with FDA approval for newer agents for the paediatric age group.

Research

There are limited studies on the risk of depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring exposed to parental mental health problems in middle childhood. We investigated the association between parental mental health problems, particularly paternal emotional problems and maternal symptoms of anxiety and depression, and the risk of depressive symptoms in adolescent offspring aged 17.

Research

The prevention of suicide and suicide-related behaviour are key policy priorities in Australia and internationally. The World Health Organization has recommended that member states develop self-harm surveillance systems as part of their suicide prevention efforts. This is also a priority under Australia's Fifth National Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Plan. The aim of this paper is to describe the development of a state-based self-harm monitoring system in Victoria, Australia. In this system, data on all self-harm presentations are collected from eight hospital emergency departments in Victoria. A natural language processing classifier that uses machine learning to identify episodes of self-harm is currently being developed.

Research

No biological treatment has been firmly established for the at-risk stage of psychotic disorder. In this study we aim to test if subthreshold psychotic symptoms can be effectively treated with cannabidiol (CBD), a non-psychoactive compound of the plant Cannabis sativa.

Research

Ultra high-risk (UHR) criteria were introduced to identify people at imminent risk of developing psychosis. To improve prognostic accuracy, additional clinical and biological risk factors have been researched.

Research

School-based social risk processes in the lives of young people with chronic health conditions are likely to contribute to risk of psychological problems

Research

This study describes the peer bullying experiences of young people with CF, and examines associations between school bullying and the psychological well-being of these young people