Prediction of suicidal behaviour is an aspirational goal for clinicians and policy makers; with patients classified as ‘high risk’ to be preferentially allocated treatment. Clinical usefulness requires an adequate positive predictive value (PPV).

To identify studies of predictive instruments and to calculate PPV estimates for suicidal behaviours.

A systematic review identified studies of predictive instruments. A series of meta-analyses produced pooled estimates of PPV for suicidal behaviours.

For all scales combined, the pooled PPVs were: suicide 5.5% (95% CI 3.9–7.9%), self-harm 26.3% (95% CI 21.8–31.3%) and self-harm plus suicide 35.9% (95% CI 25.8–47.4%). Subanalyses on self-harm found pooled PPVs of 16.1% (95% CI 11.3–22.3%) for high-quality studies, 32.5% (95% CI 26.1–39.6%) for hospital-treated self-harm and 26.8% (95% CI 19.5–35.6%) for psychiatric in-patients.

No ‘high-risk’ classification was clinically useful. Prevalence imposes a ceiling on PPV. Treatment should reduce exposure to modifiable risk factors and offer effective interventions for selected subpopulations and unselected clinical populations.

Acute alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for suicide, therefore investigating factors associated with alcohol-related self-harm warrant attention.

To investigate the influence of prescribed psychotropic medications on the odds of co-ingesting alcohol preceding or during intentional efforts to self-poison.

A cross-sectional analysis of consecutive hospital presentations following intentional self-poisoning was conducted. A total of 7270 patients (4363 women) aged 18–96 were included.

The odds of alcohol co-ingestion were increased in those not prescribed any medication (odds ratio (OR) = 1.27, 99% CI 1.10–1.46, P50.001) and in impulsive self-poisonings (OR= 1.39, 99% CI 1.11–1.74, P50.001). Odds were decreased in those prescribed anticonvulsants (OR = 0.69, 99% CI 0.51–0.93), antipsychotics (OR = 0.55, 99% CI 0.45–0.66) and antidepressants (OR = 0.87, 99% CI 0.77–0.99).

Findings indicate that being medicated for a psychiatric illness may reduce the likelihood of alcohol consumption during times of acute distress, hence perhaps may reduce the risk of intentional self-poisoning.

Few randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have shown decreases in suicide.

To identify interventions for preventing suicide.

We searched EMBASE and Medline from inception until 31 December 2015. We included RCTs comparing prevention strategies with control. We pooled odds ratios (ORs) for suicide using the Peto method.

Among 8647 citations, 72 RCTs and 6 pooled analyses met inclusion criteria. Three RCTs (n = 2028) found that the World Health Organization (WHO) brief intervention and contact (BIC) was associated with significantly lower odds of suicide (OR = 0.20, 95% CI 0.09–0.42). Six RCTs (n = 1040) of cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) for suicide prevention and six RCTs of lithium (n = 619) yielded non-significant findings (OR = 0.34, 95% CI 0.12–1.03 and OR = 0.23, 95% CI 0.05–1.02, respectively).

The WHO BIC is a promising suicide prevention strategy. No other intervention showed a statistically significant effect in reducing suicide.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a leading cause of disability worldwide.

To examine the: (a) 12-month prevalence of DSM-IV MDD; (b) proportion aware that they have a problem needing treatment and who want care; (c) proportion of the latter receiving treatment; and (d) proportion of such treatment meeting minimal standards.

Representative community household surveys from 21 countries as part of the World Health Organization World Mental Health Surveys.

Of 51 547 respondents, 4.6% met 12-month criteria for DSM-IV MDD and of these 56.7% reported needing treatment. Among those who recognised their need for treatment, most (71.1%) made at least one visit to a service provider. Among those who received treatment, only 41.0% received treatment that met minimal standards. This resulted in only 16.5% of all individuals with 12-month MDD receiving minimally adequate treatment.

Only a minority of participants with MDD received minimally adequate treatment: 1 in 5 people in high-income and 1 in 27 in low-/lower-middle-income countries. Scaling up care for MDD requires fundamental transformations in community education and outreach, supply of treatment and quality of services.

Sponsorship bias has never been investigated for non-pharmacological treatments like psychotherapy.

We examined industry funding and author financial conflict of interest (COI) in randomised controlled trials directly comparing psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy in depression.

We conducted a meta-analysis with subgroup comparisons for industry v. non-industry-funded trials, and respectively for trial reports with author financial COI v. those without.

In total, 45 studies were included. In most analyses, pharmacotherapy consistently showed significant effectiveness over psychotherapy, g = −0.11 (95% CI −0.21 to −0.02) in industry-funded trials. Differences between industry and non-industry-funded trials were significant, a result only partly confirmed in sensitivity analyses. We identified five instances where authors of the original article had not reported financial COI.

Industry-funded trials for depression appear to subtly favour pharmacotherapy over psychotherapy. Disclosure of all financial ties with the pharmaceutical industry should be encouraged.

Mental disorders create high individual and societal costs and burden, partly because help-seeking is often delayed or completely avoided. Stigma related to mental disorders or mental health services is regarded as a main reason for insufficient help-seeking.

To estimate the impact of four stigma types (help-seeking attitudes and personal, self and perceived public stigma) on active help-seeking in the general population.

A systematic review of three electronic databases was followed by random effect meta-analyses according to the stigma types.

Twenty-seven studies fulfilled eligibility criteria. Participants' own negative attitudes towards mental health help-seeking (OR = 0.80, 95% CI 0.73–0.88) and their stigmatising attitudes towards people with a mental illness (OR = 0.82, 95% CI 0.69–0.98) were associated with less active help-seeking. Self-stigma showed insignificant association (OR = 0.88, 95% CI 0.76–1.03), whereas perceived public stigma was not associated.

Personal attitudes towards mental illness or help-seeking are associated with active help-seeking for mental problems. Campaigns promoting help-seeking and fighting mental illness-related stigma should target these personal attitudes rather than broad public opinion.

Auditory verbal hallucinations (AVHs) have been associated with deficits in auditory and speech-related networks. However, the resting-state cerebral blood flow (CBF) alterations specific to AVHs in schizophrenia remain unknown.

To explore AVH-related CBF alterations in individuals with schizophrenia.

In total, 35 individuals with schizophrenia with AVHs, 41 individuals with schizophrenia without AVHs and 50 controls underwent arterial spin labelling magnetic resonance imaging. The CBF differences were voxel-wise compared across the three groups.

We found AVH-specific CBF increase in the right superior temporal gyrus and caudate, and AVH-specific CBF decrease in the bilateral occipital and left parietal cortices. We also observed consistent CBF changes in both schizophrenia subgroups (i.e. those with and without AVHs) including decreased CBF in the bilateral occipital regions, the left lateral prefrontal and insular cortices, and the right anterior cingulate cortex and increased CBF in the bilateral lateral temporal regions and putamen, the left middle cingulate cortex and the right thalamus.

The AVH-specific CBF increases in the auditory and striatal areas and CBF reductions in the visual and parietal areas suggest that there exists a CBF redistribution associated with AVHs.

Except for dementia and depression, little is known about common mental disorders in elderly people.

To estimate current, 12-month and lifetime prevalence rates of mental disorders in different European and associated countries using a standardised diagnostic interview adapted to measure the cognitive needs of elderly people.

The MentDis_ICF65+ study is based on an age-stratified, random sample of 3142 older men and women (65–84 years) living in selected catchment community areas of participating countries.

One in two individuals had experienced a mental disorder in their lifetime, one in three within the past year and nearly one in four currently had a mental disorder. The most prevalent disorders were anxiety disorders, followed by affective and substance-related disorders.

Compared with previous studies we found substantially higher prevalence rates for most mental disorders. These findings underscore the need for improving diagnostic assessments adapted to the cognitive capacity of elderly people. There is a need to raise awareness of psychosocial problems in elderly people and to deliver high-quality mental health services to these individuals.

The GET UP multi-element psychosocial intervention proved to be superior to treatment as usual in improving outcomes in patients with first-episode psychosis (FEP). However, to guide treatment decisions, information on which patients may benefit more from the intervention is warranted.

To identify patients' characteristics associated with (a) a better treatment response regardless of treatment type (non-specific predictors), and (b) a better response to the specific treatment provided (moderators).

Some demographic and clinical variables were selected a priori as potential predictors/moderators of outcomes at 9 months. Outcomes were analysed in mixed-effects random regression models. (Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT01436331.)

Analyses were performed on 444 patients. Education, duration of untreated psychosis, premorbid adjustment and insight predicted outcomes regardless of treatment. Only age at first contact with the services proved to be a moderator of treatment outcome (patients aged ≥35 years had greater improvement in psychopathology), thus suggesting that the intervention is beneficial to a broad array of patients with FEP.

Except for patients aged over 35 years, no specific subgroups benefit more from the multi-element psychosocial intervention, suggesting that this intervention should be recommended to all those with FEP seeking treatment in mental health services.

Clinical practice guidelines are not easily implemented, leading to a gap between research synthesis and their use in routine care.

To summarise the evidence relating to the impact of guideline implementation on provider performance and patient outcomes in mental healthcare settings, and to explore the performance of different strategies for guideline implementation.

A systematic review of randomised controlled trials, controlled clinical trials and before-and-after studies comparing guideline implementation strategies v. usual care, and different guideline implementation strategies, in patients with severe mental illness.

In total, 19 studies met our inclusion criteria. The studies did not show a consistent positive effect of guideline implementation on provider performance, but a more consistent small to modest positive effect on patient outcomes.

Guideline implementation does not seem to have an impact on provider performance, nonetheless it may influence patient outcomes positively.

Ketamine has emerged as a novel therapeutic agent for major depressive episodes, spurring interest in its potential to augment electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).

We sought to update our preliminary systematic review and meta-analysis, focusing on randomised controlled trials (RCTs) involving an index course of ECT, and testing the hypothesis that lack of efficacy is due to barbiturate anaesthetic co-administration.

We searched EMBASE, CENTRAL and Medline to identify RCTs examining the efficacy of ketamine during a course of ECT. Data were synthesised from ten trials (ketamine group n = 333, comparator group n = 269) using pooled random effects models.

Electroconvulsive therapy with ketamine was not associated with greater improvements in depressive symptoms or higher rates of clinical response or remission, nor did it result in pro-cognitive effects. This held true when limiting analysis to trials without barbiturate anaesthetic co-administration. Increased rates of confusion were reported.

Overall, our analyses do not support using ketamine over other induction agents in ECT.

There is limited information on the presentation and characteristics of psychotic illness experienced by people with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

To describe autistic and psychotic phenomenology in a group of individuals with comorbid ASD and psychosis (ASD–P) and compare this group with populations affected by either, alone.

We studied 116 individuals with ASD–P. We compared features of their ASD with people with ASD and no comorbid psychosis (ASD–NP), and clinical characteristics of psychosis in ASD–P with people with psychosis only.

Individuals with ASD–P had more diagnoses of atypical psychosis and fewer of schizophrenia compared with individuals with psychosis only. People with ASD–P had fewer stereotyped interests/behaviours compared with those with ASD–NP.

Our data show there may be a specific subtype of ASD linked to comorbid psychosis. The results support findings that psychosis in people with ASD is often atypical, particularly regarding affective disturbance.

Weight-related peer-teasing is considered a potent prospective risk factor for development of disordered eating and clinical eating disorders. Currently, the interplay between genetic and environmental influences has yet to be elucidated.

To determine whether peer-teasing moderates latent genetic and/or environmental risk for disordered eating among female adolescent twins.

Full quantitative gene–environment interplay modelling of longitudinal trajectory of disordered eating in 685 female twins from the Australian Twin Registry.

A model permitting moderation of disordered eating by peer-teasing involving genetic and non-shared environment effects fit these data best. As levels of peer-teasing increased, both genetic and environmental influences on disordered eating strengthened; however, genetic sources increased proportionally more than environmental sources.

Weight-related peer-teasing represents a particularly powerful trigger for disordered eating. Nevertheless, it is amenable to intervention/prevention activities spanning individual to universal levels of endeavour.

It has been suggested that offspring of parents with bipolar disorder are at increased risk for disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), but the specificity of this association has not been established.

We examined the specificity of DMDD to family history by comparing offspring of parents with (a) bipolar disorder, (b) major depressive disorder and (c) a control group with no mood disorders.

We established lifetime diagnosis of DMDD using the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Aged Children for DSM-5 in 180 youth aged 6–18 years, including 58 offspring of parents with bipolar disorder, 82 offspring of parents with major depressive disorder and 40 control offspring.

Diagnostic criteria for DMDD were met in none of the offspring of parents with bipolar disorder, 6 of the offspring of parents with major depressive disorder and none of the control offspring. DMDD diagnosis was significantly associated with family history of major depressive disorder.

Our results suggest that DMDD is not specifically associated with a family history of bipolar disorder and may be associated with parental depression.

People with social anxiety disorder (SAD) fear social interactions and may be reluctant to seek treatments involving exposure to social situations. Social exposure conducted in virtual reality (VR), embedded in individual cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT), could be an answer.

To show that conducting VR exposure in CBT for SAD is effective and is more practical for therapists than conducting exposure in vivo.

Participants were randomly assigned to either VR exposure (n = 17), in vivo exposure (n = 22) or waiting list (n = 20). Participants in the active arms received individual CBT for 14 weekly sessions and outcome was assessed with questionnaires and a behaviour avoidance test. (Trial registration number ISRCTN99747069.)

Improvements were found on the primary (Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale) and all five secondary outcome measures in both CBT groups compared with the waiting list. Conducting exposure in VR was more effective at post-treatment than in vivo on the primary outcome measure and on one secondary measure. Improvements were maintained at the 6-month follow-up. VR was significantly more practical for therapists than in vivo exposure.

Using VR can be advantageous over standard CBT as a potential solution for treatment avoidance and as an efficient, cost-effective and practical medium of exposure.

Patients with schizophrenia have shown cognitive improvements following cognitive remediation, but the neuroplastic changes that support these processes are not fully understood.

To use a triple-blind, placebo-controlled trial to examine neural activation before and after cognitive remediation or a computer skills training (CST) placebo (trial registration: NCT00995553)).

Twenty-seven participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging before and after being randomised to either cognitive remediation intervention or CST. Participants completed two variants of the N-back task during scanning and were assessed on measures of cognition, functional capacity, community functioning and symptoms.

We observed a group × time interaction in the left prefrontal cortex, wherein the cognitive remediation group showed increased activation. These changes correlated with improved task accuracy within the cognitive remediation group, whereas there was no relationship between changes in activation in untrained cognitive measures. Significant changes were not observed in other hypothesised areas for the cognitive remediation group.

We replicated the finding that cognitive remediation increases left lateral prefrontal activation during a working memory task in patients with schizophrenia, suggesting this may be an important neural target for these types of interventions.