Thread by @Mental_Elf, A very warm welcome to @UCLMentalHealth's first international conference! #IoMHconf2020 I’ll be [...]

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A very warm welcome to @UCLMentalHealth's first international conference!

#IoMHconf2020

I’ll be live tweeting for the next 4 hours, covering research on young people’s mental health, cognitive neuroscience of psychosis, applied research & global mental health

We have a star-studded line up today! #IoMHConf2020

Here's the agenda for the afternoon

@UCLMentalHealth @MQMentalHealth @UCLBrainScience @ProfTonyDavid @PascoFearon @ProfIAbubakar @dr_rick_adams @argStringaris @Tamsin_J_Ford @ethelmpungu @thewrittenro @MacAskillAF @jamesmgold

Hello! I’m André Tomlin from the Mental Elf.

Our National Elf Service mission is to:
- Close the gap between mental health research and practice
- Support people to use the latest reliable research in their day-to-day lives

Follow me!
#IoMHconf2020 https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/

The Mental Elf

Keeping you up to date with reliable mental health research, policy & guidance

https://www.nationalelfservice.net/mental-health/

Our Chair today at #IoMHconf2020 is @ProfTonyDavid Director of @UCLMentalHealth, a virtual institute which launched on 16th July 2019. Here’s the launch video from a year ago:

. @ProfTonyDavid welcomes delegates to the #IoMHconf2020 international conference.

Speakers:
Emily Holmes
@argStringaris
@Tamsin_J_Ford
@ethelmpungu
@thewrittenro
@MacAskillAF
@jamesmgold

Chairs:
@PascoFearon
@ProfIAbubakar
@dr_rick_adams https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/institute-mental-health-international-conference

Institute of Mental Health International Conference

UCL Institute of Mental health is excited to announce the first annual international conference on the 9th September 2020 in collaboration with MQ: Transforming mental health

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/mental-health/institute-mental-health-international-conference

There are a few hundred people in the online meeting, which I’ll be live tweeting between now and 5pm UK time (BST). You can follow everything at #IoMHconf2020 and tweet me your comments and questions for the speakers.

In his pre- #IoMHconf2020 blog @ProfTonyDavid asked the speakers: "What is the single most important scientific/clinical question in our field right now?"

Here's what some of them said:

@jamesmgold “When will clinical neuroscience actually impact clinical care at a large scale?”

@ethelmpungu “How interventions work and for whom”

@argStringaris “What is mood and how to influence it?”

#IoMHconf2020

@PascoFearon “How can we make programmatic mental health prevention really work? It’s one of the holy grails of the field, but it’s fraught with difficulties.”
#IoMHconf2020

@Tamsin_J_Ford “The impact of Covid and the recession on the mental health and development of children and young people”
#IoMHconf2020

BUT what do YOU think?

What is the single most important scientific/clinical question in mental health science right now?

Answers in a tweet and don't forget the hashtag?
#IoMHconf2020

Our first speaker is Prof Emily Holmes (not on Twitter) from @UU_University @karolinskainst

Her @MQmentalhealth Lecture on Cognitive Approaches to Trauma is:

Mental Health Science and Trauma - From Curiosity about our “Imaginal World” to Impact in “Real World”

#IoMHconf2020

...expect this over the next 20 mins:

#Cognitive Approaches to #Trauma
Emily Holmes speaking at #IoMHConf2020

- Treatment innovation is needed
- When we think, we can use words or imagine. #MentalImagery is like perception
- Intrusive memories of trauma comprise mental images

Back in 2014, Emily Holmes published a commentary in @nature calling for mental-health clinicians and neuroscientists to work together to understand and improve psychological treatments.

How far have we progressed in the last 6 years?

https://www.nature.com/news/psychological-treatments-a-call-for-mental-health-science-1.15541

#IoMHConf2020

Psychological treatments: A call for mental-health science

Clinicians and neuroscientists must work together to understand and improve psychological treatments, urge Emily A. Holmes, Michelle G. Craske and Ann M.

https://www.nature.com/news/psychological-treatments-a-call-for-mental-health-science-1.15541

Back in 2018, @TheLancetPsych Commission on psychological treatments #SeeingFurther (led by Emily Holmes) set an agenda for how to advance research on psychological treatments.

We blogged it: https://elfi.sh/2G4covR & podcasted it: https://soundcloud.com/national-elf-service/sets/seeingfurther-psychological

#IoMHconf2020

#MentalImagery

Emily Holmes speaking at #IoMHconf2020

At #IoMHconf2020 Emily Holmes is highlighting the multidisciplinary research priorities COVID-19 call for action that she led, which was published in @TheLancetPsych back in April https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30168-1

You can read the summary of this paper we published on The Mental Elf by @DrAPitman @soniajohnson and @DocBloomfield here https://elfi.sh/3bIRvmG #IoMHconf2020

Mental health COVID-19: research priorities

Alexandra Pitman, Sonia Johnson and Michael Bloomfield respond to the mental health COVID-19 research priorities published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

https://elfi.sh/3bIRvmG

Developing thinking around mental health science: the example of intrusive, emotional mental imagery after psychological trauma https://doi.org/10.1080/13546805.2020.1804845

Cited by Emily Holmes at #IoMHconf2020

Emily Holmes is citing about the Tetris/PTSD RCT she worked on recently: Preventing intrusive memories after trauma..., which we blogged about here - thanks again @IoanaA_Cristea! https://elfi.sh/2u8vo7d #IoMHconf2020

Tetris for PTSD: intervention unlikely to vaccinate against intrusions

Ioana Cristea disputes RCT that claims to prevent intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris for PTSD in emergency dept.

https://elfi.sh/2u8vo7d

Really brilliant talk from Emily Holmes at #IoMHconf2020

Do you have any questions about #MentalImagery or anything else related to her work in mental health science?

@UCLMentalHealth @MQmentalhealth

Now we're moving on to the Child and Adolescent Mental Health section of the programme, chaired by @PascoFearon

Talks coming up from @argStringaris and @Tamsin_J_Ford
#IoMHconf2020

Check out our Youth Mental Elf blogs if this is your bag: https://www.nationalelfservice.net/tag/youth-mental-health/

youth mental health - National Elf Service

https://www.nationalelfservice.net/tag/youth-mental-health/

Next up is a child psychiatrist, Prof Argyris Stringaris @argStringaris who is based at the Section of Clinical & Computational Psychiatry at @NIMHgov

His talk is entitled: The challenge of defining and changing mood (disorders): a neurocomputational perspective #IoMHconf2020

. @argStringaris is speaking now at #IoMHconf2020

He will cover:
-Think of intra-individual change rather than group differences
-Examine 3 key phenomena of mood: integration, rest dysphoria, stability
-Consider implications of mood characteristics for depression & its treatment

Mood disorders are the source of great disability, personal burden and premature death worldwide. Yet, we lack a definition of mood, says @argStringaris at #IoMHconf2020

. @argStringaris argues that our standard accounts of mood disorders, based on "arbitrary dichotomies between disease and normality", are an obstacle to our understanding #IoMHconf2020

“Is depression one disorder that comes in different shades of severity or is it best thought of as heterogeneous mix of problems that we have given one common name to?"

What is depression? An editorial in @TheJCPP by @argStringaris #IoMHconf2020 https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12844

Editorial: What is depression?

‘Depression is a common, debilitating, and potentially lethal disorder.’ This is a standard opening to many a scientific paper on depression. And it is often followed by some very grim statistics....

https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12844

. @argStringaris proposes a different approach to understanding mood disorders that "prioritises intra-individual change over group or individual differences” #IoMHconf2020

Mood has distinct characteristics:
-integration over time (past info incorporated into how we feel)
-resting state dysphoria (low levels of stimulation impact on mood)
-mood stability (we regularly return to same baseline mood)
@argStringaris at #IoMHconf2020

The temporal representation of experience in subjective mood reports, by Hanna Keren et al
Cited by @argStringaris at #IoMHconf2020 https://doi.org/10.1101/815944

Timing matters: The temporal representation of experience in subjective mood reports

Humans refer to their own mood state regularly in day-to-day as well as in clinical interactions. Theoretical accounts suggest that when reporting on our mood we integrate over the history of our...

https://doi.org/10.1101/815944

Great Expectations: A Critical Review of and Suggestions for the Study of Reward Processing as a Cause and Predictor of Depression, by @shotgunosine et al
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopsych.2020.06.012

Cited by @argStringaris at #IoMHconf2020

Our next speaker is Prof @Tamsin_J_Ford Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at @psychiatry_ucam and @CPFT_Research

Her talk is entitled: Is there a mental health #crisis in young people?

Spoiler alert: her short answer is “almost certainly”.
#IoMHconf2020

. @Tamsin_J_Ford starts at #IoMHconf2020 by talking about the history of the mental health and well-being trends among children and young people in the UK, 1995–2014: analysis of repeated cross-sectional national health surveys https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001757

Mental health and well-being trends among children and young people in the UK, 1995–2014: analysis...

Mental health and well-being trends among children and young people in the UK, 1995–2014: analysis of repeated cross-sectional national health surveys - Volume 49 Issue 8 - Jacqueline Pitchforth,...

https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033291718001757

Pre-COVID, young people’s mental health was deteriorating, particularly among teenage girls, says @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020
See:
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.12372
https://doi.org/10.1111/jcpp.13029
https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)32329-7
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/mental-health-of-children-and-young-people-in-england/2017/2017
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30188-9

There's worrying evidence that the impact of poor mental health is worse for those born after the millennium, says @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

It's not just about mental health though, says @Tamsin_J_Ford The millennium cohort have also been hit by significant social changes #IoMHconf2020

At #IoMHconf2020 @Tamsin_J_Ford highlights this "amazing living systematic review"
https://www.depressd.ca/covid-19-mental-health

https://osf.io/v7f3q/ You can read the preprint of the child study only with pre-covid data

Longitudinal increases in childhood depression during the COVID-19 lockdown in a UK cohort

Background There has been widespread concern that so-called ‘lockdown’ measures, including social distancing and school closures, could negatively impact children’s mental health. However, there has...

https://www.depressd.ca/covid-19-mental-health

Says who? The significance of sampling in mental health surveys during COVID-19
@Tamsin_J_Ford #IoMHconf2020

https://www.thelancet.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2215-0366%2820%2930237-6

Mental health before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: a longitudinal probability sample survey of the UK population https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(20)30308-4

Cited by @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

"There are a lot of worried teenagers out there"
#Pandemic #YouthMentalHealth

@EmilyWidnall’s recent survey (NIHR school for public health and University of Bristol)

https://sphr.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Young-Peoples-Mental-Health-during-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-Report.pdf

Cited by @Tamsin_J_Ford #IoMHconf2020

We've seen conflicting reports about size & type of mental health impact, which may be because family situations amplify their initial situation. This may a virtuous circle in some & a vicious circle in others (shout out to @ProfMinnis) @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

The Co-Space study (COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics) led by @Cathy_Creswell @EmergingMindsUK @topic_group is cited by @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

Check out the new website (built by elves

)

https://cospaceoxford.org

The Co-Space study (COVID-19: Supporting Parents, Adolescents and Children during Epidemics) led by @Cathy_Creswell @EmergingMindsUK @topic_group is cited by @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020Check out the new website (built by elves ) https://cospaceoxford.org

At population level, children & young people’s mental health is likely to suffer firstly due to the COVID-19 lockdown and secondly due to the resulting economic recession @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

Safe Model for School Return during the COVID-19 Pandemic https://www.gla.ac.uk/media/Media_736441_smxx.pdf

Cited by @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHconf2020

Great talk at #IoMHconf2020 from @Tamsin_J_Ford:
-Young adults experiencing acceleration in deterioration of mental health
-Parents of young children badly affected, which will influence kids' MH
-There’ll be a variety of experiences, with disadvantage amplified & intersecting

" #Bullying is a tractable public mental health problem."

It's great to be reminded of this by @Tamsin_J_Ford at #IoMHConf2020

Time to implement the ample evidence we now have! https://elfi.sh/2mbX3h0

Bullying in childhood and adolescence: we need to do better

Tamsin Ford on the persistent and pervasive impact of bullying in childhood and adolescence: implications for policy and practice.

https://elfi.sh/2mbX3h0

Welcome back to #IoMHConf2020 after our short break. We now have a session on Global Mental Health chaired by @ProfIAbubakar

Talks coming up by @ethelmpungu and Rochelle Burgess @thewrittenro

First up is Dr Ethel Mpungu @ethelmpungu, @MQmentalhealth from Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda
"Group Support Psychotherapy for Depression Treatment in Vulnerable Populations Before and During the Covid-19 Pandemic."
#IoMHconf2020

"8 out of 10 of the 350 million people worldwide who suffer from depression live in resource-poor areas without access to treatment" says @ethelmpungu speaking at #IoMHconf2020

Can HIV health workers tackle depression in rural Uganda? @ethelmpungu speaking in a recent @MQmentalhealth video. MQ funded her project looking at how we can train people to treat the mental health of their patients as well as the physical #IoMHconf2020

"We can train health workers to deliver group therapy for people with depression."

Here are pictures of lay health workers delivering group therapy in the villages in Uganda, from the presentation by @ethelmpungu at #IoMHconf2020

Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of group support psychotherapy delivered by trained lay health workers for depression treatment among people with HIV in Uganda: a cluster-randomised trial
@ethelmpungu in @LancetGH
#IoMHconf2020
https://doi.org/10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30548-0

Group support psychotherapy improves depression outcomes AND also HIV outcomes, says @ethelmpungu presenting the latest results of her Ugandan research at #IoMHconf2020

The is how group therapy works, says @ethelmpungu at #IoMHconf2020
#Depression #HIV #Uganda #RCT #GroupTherapy
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5664415/

Our next #IoMHconf2020 speaker is Dr Rochelle Burgess @thewrittenro from @UCL_NCD @UCLGlobalHealth:

"The COURRAGE to hope? Impact and feasibility of a collective narrative therapy and social intervention as treatment for depression in women with complex trauma”

This presentation by @thewrittenro at #IoMHconf2020 presents the findings of a pilot evaluation of a novel intervention that delivers a strengths-based collective narrative therapy counselling intervention to women facing complex trauma

What's the point of treating someone and then sending them straight back to the same environment that contributed to making them ill in the first place?

@thewrittenro speaking at #IoMHconf2020

The 13-week group intervention was delivered to 47 women in Johannesburg and combined collective narrative therapy with sessions on economic planning @thewrittenro #IoMHconf2020

Collective Narrative therapy is a promising approach to manage depression symptoms for women facing adversity, says @thewrittenro at #IoMHconf2020

Collective Narrative therapy can be delivered in a community setting, by lay workers and/or allied health workers, says @thewrittenro at #IoMHconf2020

It’s important to use #StrengthsBased approaches as a route to reducing mental distress and the impacts of related social determinants, says @thewrittenro at #IoMHconf2020
#SouthAfrica #MentalHealth #Trauma #Women

. @thewrittenro rounds up her talk at #IoMHconf2020 focusing on the "ability of the collective community to overcome the fatalism experienced by women"

#SouthAfrica #Poverty #Adversity #MentalHealth #Depression

This commentary by @thewrittenro in @TheLancetPsych is a good brief introduction for people wanting to find out more:

Social interventions - a new era for global mental health? https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(19)30397-9

#IoMHconf2020

Welcome back to #IoMHconf2020 & our final session of the day on Neuroscience/Schizophrenia Cognition, chaired by @ProfTonyDavid

Talks coming up from @MacAskillAF and @jamesmgold

Plus poster competition results!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkQEm9JKhI0ON1MuLS1LxE_y8fjcMaD6C

🅇 Vote here: https://app.sli.do/event/qxuzqh7q/embed/polls/92d9a69c-3add-4e9e-8e02-84b2df0ab17c

UCL Institute of Mental Health Conference 2020 Poster Presentations

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkQEm9JKhI0ON1MuLS1LxE_y8fjcMaD6C

Great to hear from @ProfTonyDavid that the #IoMHconf2020 tweeting is "going like the clappers". We'll definitely be including that in our elf marketing materials Tony! Many thanks

Our first speaker in this session is Dr Andrew MacAskill @MacAskillAF, Wellcome Trust Sir Henry Dale Fellow @uclnpp

His talk is entitled: "Early life stress, hippocampal circuitry and value-based decision making in mice” #IoMHconf2020

http://www.macaskilllab.com

Long periods of stress during adolescence result in profound changes to the brain that increase susceptibility to almost all of the most common mental health disorders, says @MacAskillAF at #IoMHconf2020

Despite this, exactly how chronic stress early in life alters neurons in the brain, and how these alterations result in changes to behaviour is not well understood, says @MacAskillAF at #IoMHconf2020

At #IoMHconf2020 @MacAskillAF promises to describe his lab work focussing on understanding the consequences of such stress-induced alterations.

. @MacAskillAF trains mice to "perform versions of the same tasks used to study stress-induced behaviour in humans, and uses computational modelling to understand how the mice are carrying out these tasks" #IoMHconf2020

"my lab is interested in the ventral hippocampal circuit"

. @MacAskillAF uses "state-of-the-art techniques available in mice to study detailed neuronal circuitry & investigate exactly which neurons in the brain are altered by early life stress, exactly how they are altered, and how these alterations contribute to behaviour #IoMHconf2020

The overall aim of this research led by @MacAskillAF is to understand the neural basis for the long-term consequences of adolescent stress. In the future he hopes to use this knowledge to develop more specific treatments for these disorders #IoMHconf2020

. @MacAskillAF uses reversal learning in mice #IoMHconf2020

And has shown that early life isolation in mice impairs their reversal learning @MacAskillAF #IoMHconf2020

Early life isolation in mice impairs activity of only one type of neuron in the hippocampus @MacAskillAF #IoMHconf2020

. @MacAskillAF #IoMHconf2020
-social isolation results in specific deficits in learning rate during probabilistic reversal
-hippocampal neurons the project to prefrontal cortex are specifically inhibited by adolescent social isolation

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