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Too far from care? A descriptive analysis of young Australian mental health aeromedical retrievalsYoung Australians living in rural and remote locations have poorer mental health outcomes and higher rates of self-harm and suicide than their major city counterparts. Significant service gaps and barriers exist in accessing general and youth-specific mental health services. With a lack of access, comes delays in treatment and associated poorer outcomes. This paper describes the characteristics of young people requiring an aeromedical retrieval (AR) for acute inpatient psychiatric care.
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Development of a Self-Harm Monitoring System for VictoriaThe 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.
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A Pilot Case-Control Study of the Social Media Activity Following Cluster and Non-Cluster Suicides in AustraliaSocial 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.
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Maternal and paternal mental health problems and the risk of offspring depression in late adolescence: findings from the Raine studyThere 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.
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Cannabidiol for at risk for psychosis youth: A randomized controlled trialNo 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.
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Toxoplasma gondii, Herpesviridae and long-term risk of transition to first-episode psychosis in an ultra high-risk sampleUltra 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.
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“Shame, Doubt and Sadness”: A Qualitative Investigation of the Experience of Self-Stigma in Adolescents with Diverse Sexual OrientationsMany adolescents with diverse sexual orientations lead happy and fulfilled lives. However, evidence consistently suggests elevated rates of mental health difficulties in this population relative to heterosexual peers, and internalization of stigma (i.e., self-stigma) is implicated in these elevated rates. This study aimed to understand and describe the lived experience of self-stigma with respect to participants’ sexual orientations.
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The anticipatory response to stress and symptoms of depression and anxiety in early adulthoodWhilst cortisol reactivity has been associated with depression and anxiety disorders, research examining cortisol reactivity with early symptoms of these conditions in males and females is limited.
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Cohort profile: A population-based record linkage platform to address critical epidemiological evidence gaps in respiratory syncytial virus and other respiratory infectionsThe Western Australia (WA) Respiratory Infections Linked Data Platform is a population-based cohort established to investigate the epidemiology of RSV and other respiratory infections in children aged 0-10 years, incorporating microbiological testing patterns, hospital admissions, emergency department presentations, and socio-demographic data.
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Australian researchers join international project to curb unhealthy lifetime trajectoriesAustralian researchers join global effort to better understand how events during pregnancy and childhood influence the development of disease later in life.