Category Archives: Mental health

Australian teenagers’ mental health problems linked to vaping, study finds

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High school students with depression or poor wellbeing are twice as likely to have vaped at some time, survey of 5,000 shows

Australian high school students with symptoms of severe depression or poor wellbeing are twice as likely to have tried vaping, a new study has found.

The study also found one-fifth of students in years 7 and 8 had moderate to severe depression symptoms and demonstrated the need for early intervention targeting both mental health and vaping, experts said.

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Dangerous play: how online gaming purchases led an Australian youth into a secret gambling addiction

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Matthew’s* father had no idea his son was even gambling, let alone deep in debt, until he got a terrifying phone call

Vincent* didn’t know his 20-year-old son Matthew* was gambling until he took a phone call from him as he stood on a cliff’s edge after racking up thousands of dollars of debt.

Matthew was crying and revealed a gambling problem which had begun years earlier with online gaming, causing increasing debt. Matthew had opened up to another family member earlier that evening, who made him feel more ashamed, calling him an idiot.

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Suicide rates in England and Wales reach highest level since 1999

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Samaritans charity calls on government to invest in suicide prevention as it has with smoking reduction

Ministers have been urged to treat suicide as a public health crisis after the rate at which people killed themselves in England and Wales reached the highest level in more than two decades.

The official figures, described by the suicide prevention charity Samaritans as “worse than expected”, showed 6,069 suicides were registered in the two nations in 2023, up from 5,642 in 2022 and the highest rate since 1999.

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Sale of chemical used in suicides of three transgender women should be restricted, Victorian inquest finds

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Sodium nitrite has been used in dozens of deaths in the state and federal government should take action, coroner says

The sale of a chemical used by three transgender women who took their own lives should be restricted by the federal government, the Victorian coroner says, after an inquest heard it has been used in dozens of suicides in the state.

Victoria’s coroners court last year held an inquest into the suicides of five transgender women who died between 2020 and 2021, including that of Matt Byrne, 25, who took her life after a botched back yard surgery.

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‘Happiness recession’: UK 15-year-olds at bottom of European satisfaction league

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Quarter of British teenagers in age group report low life satisfaction, compared with 7% of their Dutch peers

More 15-year-olds are reporting low life satisfaction in the UK than anywhere else in Europe, amid what experts are describing as a “happiness recession” for British teenagers.

The group is at the bottom of European rankings in terms of life satisfaction across 27 nations, analysis by the Children’s Society reveals. In the UK 25% of 15-year-olds reported low life satisfaction, compared with 7% of Dutch children of the same age – the lowest level among any of the countries surveyed.

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‘Alarming’ surge in mental ill health among young people in face of ‘unprecedented’ challenges, experts warn

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Insecure employment, climate crisis and social media are driving ‘dangerous’ decline, research finds

Intergenerational inequality, unregulated social media, wage theft, insecure employment and the climate crisis are driving a “dangerous” and “alarming” global surge in mental ill health among youth, a consortium of health experts has warned.

There is an urgent need to address these driving factors and improve mental health treatments to stymie rates of premature death, disability and lost potential, all of which have escalated over the past two decades, the research from The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on youth mental health found.

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Nottingham attack preventable if NHS had ‘done its job’, health secretary says

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Wes Streeting says victims ‘might still be alive’ if health service had recognised Valdo Calocane’s risk to others

The health secretary said “three innocent people might still be alive” if the NHS had “done its job” in treating Valdo Calocane in the years running up to the Nottingham attacks.

Wes Streeting said the deaths of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian Coates were “preventable if the NHS had been there when it should have been”.

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Nottingham attacks: series of errors led to Valdo Calocane being discharged, review finds

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CQC finds risk he presented to public was ‘not managed well’ before he killed three people in Nottingham last year

A “series of errors and misjudgments” in Valdo Calocane’s mental health care led to him being discharged, despite repeatedly not taking medication and showing signs of aggression, months before he killed three people in Nottingham, a report says.

A review by the Care Quality Commission (CQC) of the treatment that Calocane received from Nottinghamshire healthcare NHS foundation trust over two years between May 2020 and September 2022 found that “the risk he presented to the public was not managed well”.

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Doctor warned Valdo Calocane could kill, three years before Nottingham stabbings

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Family share medical records of Calocane’s mental illness with BBC that they say show missed opportunities to prevent attacks

A doctor warned that Valdo Calocane’s mental illness was so severe he could kill someone, three years before he stabbed three people to death in Nottingham, his medical records reveal.

Calocane’s family, who were shown the records only after he was sentenced to indefinite detention in a high-security hospital for the attacks, have criticised the missed opportunities they believe could have prevented the killings.

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Teen mental health in US has improved post-pandemic, new CDC data says

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Schools’ investment in social-emotional support appears to pay off, especially for girls, but work is ‘far from complete’

A recently released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows levels of sadness and hopelessness are improving in some US teenagers, and notably among girls.

However,, the survey and experts said, challenges remain, as some metrics worsened in the most recent report. Of particular concern is a growing group of students who missed school because they did not feel safe.

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‘Feels quite cruel’: Australians with ADHD scrambling to find medication amid shortage

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Patient says pharmacists she went to were suspicious because Vyvanse is a stimulant, causing her the ‘most dehumanising medical experience’ of her life

Emma* says she was made to feel “like a drug addict” for simply trying to access medication for her ADHD.

When she was prescribed Vyvanse in June, she was relieved to realise she had found a treatment that would make it easier to live with the developmental disorder that affects the brain’s executive functioning.

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Challenges to deprivation of liberty orders in England soar by a third

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Campaigners say vulnerable people receiving care are being deprived of their freedom in order to save money

Growing numbers of vulnerable people receiving care are challenging deprivation of liberty (Dol) orders that can mean they are locked up or kept under restrictive supervision.

Dol orders are meant as a last resort but campaigners say the increase shows that too often people’s freedoms are restricted as a cheaper option.

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Cost of England’s four biggest killer diseases could hit £86bn by 2050

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Study predicts overall economic cost of cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke will rise by 61%

The cost of England’s four biggest killer diseases could rise to £86bn a year by 2050, prompting calls for a crackdown on alcohol, junk food and smoking.

The ageing population means the annual cost of cancer, heart disease, dementia and stroke combined will go from the £51.9bn recorded in 2018 to £85.6bn in 2050 – a rise of 61%.

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Overhaul UK benefits to tackle child poverty, charities urge

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Report warns of crisis of poverty and mental health which ‘casts a shadow’ over young people’s wellbeing

Ministers have been urged to reform the benefits system to tackle child poverty, after a report found it to be a major cause of mental illness that “casts a shadow” over young people’s wellbeing.

The report, by the Centre for Mental Health, Save the Children UK and the Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition, found that the number of children living in poverty in the UK had increased to 4.3 million, while one in five children and young people aged between eight and 24 had a diagnosable mental health problem.

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Up to 100,000 may have undiagnosed forms of dementia in England

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NHS figures show underdiagnosis of Lewy bodies and frontotemporal dementias

Up to 100,000 people in England may be living with undiagnosed forms of dementia that present with symptoms such as depression and hallucinations, according to government figures.

Dementia is an umbrella term for many different conditions, affecting more than 55 million people worldwide. In England, about 7,000 people are diagnosed every month. While the health service has made progress in headline diagnosis rates, latest figures show that underdiagnosis of specific dementias remain a problem.

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Review dismisses claims youth suicides rose after NHS curbed puberty blockers

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UK government adviser’s report says claims not supported by data and could prompt under-18s to take own life

A government-ordered review has dismissed claims that suicide rates in young people with gender dysphoria have risen sharply since the NHS restricted access to puberty-blocking drugs.

A report by the government’s adviser on suicide prevention also found that the claims – made by the campaign group the Good Law Project – were not supported by data and could prompt children under the age of 18 to take their own life.

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Doomscrolling linked to existential anxiety, distrust, suspicion and despair, study finds

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Expert compares doomscrolling to being in a room where people are constantly yelling at you and says media needs to rethink news

Does scrolling your phone give you an existential crisis? That’s the question a team of international experts have sought to answer in a study published in the Journal of Computers in Human Behavior Reports.

Researchers surveyed 800 university students from the US and Iran and found that doomscrolling – or spending excessive time consuming negative news – was linked to feelings of existential anxiety, distrust and suspicion of others, and despair.

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Call for action on UK men’s health as 133,000 die early every year

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Movember says British men have worse health than comparable countries and suffer stark regional inequalities

More than 133,000 men die early every year in the UK, equating to 15 every hour, according to a report calling for urgent action to improve men’s health.

Two in five men are dying prematurely, before the age of 75 and often from entirely avoidable health conditions, research by the charity Movember found.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org

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Teenagers ‘crying out’ for return of youth clubs in England, study finds

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Steep cuts left three-quarters of 16- to 19-year-olds unable to get support, youth agency says

Young people are “crying out” for a return of youth clubs after swingeing cuts left three-quarters of 16- to 19-year-olds in England lacking ways to connect with youth workers, according to research shared with the Guardian.

More than half of people in their late teens are specifically calling for more youth work that offers “fun”, with older teenagers particularly hankering for more jollity, according to a study by the National Youth Agency (NYA). One in 10 said they have zero options to access youth work.

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California dad who drove family off cliff sentenced to mental health care instead of trial

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Judge rules Dharmesh Patel, whose car dove off cliff in 2023, will be monitored by GPS and check in with court weekly

A California radiologist accused of trying to kill his family by driving off a cliff along the northern California coast will receive mental health treatment instead of standing trial, a judge ruled.

Prosecutors charged Dharmesh A Patel, 43, with attempted murder after the Tesla he was driving plunged off a 250ft (76 meters) cliff along the Pacific Coast Highway in San Mateo county, injuring his wife and two young children. All four survived the 2 January 2023 crash in what one official called an “absolute miracle”.

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