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Claire Murray

Mental Health & Dementia Research Open Day

Are you interested in mental health and dementia research? Join our open day to find out about our current work!

  • When: Monday 20 May 2019, 10am – 2pm
  • Where: St Anne’s College, Oxford
  • Book your free ticket by visiting our Eventbrite webpage

This free event will showcase mental health and dementia research taking place at the Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) and Oxford cognitive health Clinical Research Facility (CRF).

Come along to find out how the BRC and CRF bring the best science to the complex problems of mental disorders and dementia and how this translates into benefits for patients.

The day is open to all and will be of interest to members of the public, as well healthcare and research staff. The programme will include:

  • Presentations on new and ongoing research projects
  • Insights into how the BRC and CRF work together to deliver research
  • Information about how our work with patients, carers and the public shapes research
  • An exhibition of current research activities and posters
  • Opportunities to find out more about participating in research studies

Presentations will run from 10am – 1pm, with lunch provided from 1pm, when there will be a chance to look at stalls and talk to researchers.

You can register to attend this free event by visiting Eventbrite. Spaces are limited so if you would like to attend please book your ticket ASAP.

Patient and carer involvement in early psychosis research

The Early Psychosis Research Group is looking for patient and carer members to join their group!

We are a research group from the University of Oxford Department of Psychiatry who study the causes and course of illness and the treatments for people who are experiencing or who have recently experienced a first episode of a psychotic illness.

Our group are interested in many different topics related to psychotic illnesses, such as investigating the role of immune system or gut bacteria in psychotic symptoms, investigating ways to improve the physical health for people with psychosis, and looking into how best we can provide early treatment and organise community mental health services for people with psychosis.

We are looking for patient and carer representatives to help us develop and run our research studies by giving us your views on them. We are particularly interested in recruiting people who have experienced psychosis or who care for someone who has.

In joining the group we ask people:

  • To attend an initial welcome meeting in Oxford to decide on terms of reference for the PPI group.
  • To be available to contribute to at least one research study a year by reading and commenting on funding applications, study designs and materials, and study dissemination.
  • To be comfortable discussing a range of topics related to mental health and mental health treatments (including biological, psychological, and social treatments).
  • To be available to travel to Oxford to attend occasional meetings.

We will work with each group member, to identify and provide the support that you would like to help you to carry out the role. For example, this might be an introductory meeting, a named contact, or time to discuss topics to enable you to contribute in the meetings.

We will reimburse group members for expenses and offer a payment for your time.

Download the PPI Representative Role Description for further information including how to send us an Expression of Interest to join the group. Or email Stephen.puntis@psych.ox.ac.uk to be sent this document by email.

The deadline for sending us your Expression of Interest is 5 April 2019 but we encourage you to get in touch as soon as possible if you are interested.

Cannabis use in teens raises risk of depression in young adults

Cannabis is the most commonly used recreational drug by teenagers worldwide. In Canada, among youth aged 15 to 19 years, the rate of past-year cannabis use is 20.6%, while in England, 4% of adolescents aged 11 to 15 years used cannabis in the last month.

While there has been a lot of focus on the role of cannabis use in psychosis, there has been less attention on whether cannabis use is associated with an increased risk of common mental health disorders, such as depression and anxiety.

Researchers from McGill University and the University of Oxford carried out a systematic review and meta-analysis of the best existing evidence and analysed 23,317 individuals (from 11 international studies) to see whether use of cannabis in young people is associated with depression, anxiety and suicidality in early adulthood.

They found that cannabis use among adolescents is associated with a significant increased risk of depression and suicidality in adulthood (not anxiety). While the individual-level risk was found to be modest, the widespread use of the drug by young people makes the scale of the risk much more serious.

In this study, the estimated population attributable risk (i.e. proportion of cases that would not occur in a population if the factor were eliminated) is around 7%. So, among people 18 to 34 years old, this translates to more than 400,000 cases of depression that are potentially attributable to adolescent cannabis exposure in the US, 25,000 in Canada and about 60,000 in the UK (these figures are calculated assuming that the prevalence of depression in this age group is 8.1%).

Dr. Gabriella Gobbi, Professor, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University and a scientist at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre, states: “While the link between cannabis and mood regulation has been largely studied in preclinical studies, there was still a gap in clinical studies regarding the systematic evaluation of the link between adolescent cannabis consumption and the risk of depression and suicidal behaviour in young adulthood. This study aimed to fill this gap, helping mental health professionals and parents to better address this problem”.

Professor Andrea Cipriani, NIHR Research Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Oxford, said: ‘We looked at the effects of cannabis because its use among young people is so common, but the long-term effects are still poorly understood. We carefully selected the best studies carried out since 1993 and included only the methodologically sound ones to rule out important confounding factors, such us premorbid depression.‘

‘Our findings about depression and suicidality are very relevant for clinical practice and public health. Although the size of the negative effects of cannabis can vary between individual adolescents and it is not possible to predict the exact risk for each teenager, the widespread use of cannabis among the young generations makes it an important public health issue.

‘Regular use during adolescence is associated with lower achievement at school, addiction, psychosis and neuropsychological decline, increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, as well as the respiratory problems that are associated with smoking.’

The active ingredient in cannabis,THC, mediates most of psychoactive and mood-related effects of cannabis and also has addictive properties. Preclinical studies in laboratory animals reported an association between pubertal exposure to cannabinoids and adult-onset depressive symptoms. It is thought that cannabis may alter the physiological neurodevelopment (frontal cortex and limbic system) of adolescent brains.

While the review of observational studies was the first to look at the effects of cannabis use in adolescents only, it was not possible to predict the risk at the individual level, nor was it possible to discern information about the dose-dependent risk of cannabis use.

The full paper, ‘Association of cannabis use in adolescence and risk of depression, anxiety and suicidality in young adulthood: A systematic review and meta-analysis,’ can be read in JAMA Psychiatry.

Global coverage of the paper has been included in: