Pharmacotherapy, acupoint stimulation, and psychotherapy for perimenopausal women with anxiety, depression, and panic disorder: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials
Blood Test Foresees Decline into Alzheimer’s Disease
A blood-based biomarker could predict a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease years before any symptoms arise, research suggests.
Plasma levels of phosphorylated tau 217 (p‑tau217) may one day help identify at-risk individuals before overt signs of dementia, enabling the pre-emptive use of disease-modifying therapies.
Higher plasma p‑tau217 levels were associated with a greater risk of progressing to cognitive impairment in previously unaffected older adults, and they also predicted faster levels of decline.
The research findings appear in JAMA and were simultaneously presented this week at the annual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in London.
“In this longitudinal study of several selected cohorts, plasma p-tau217 provided long-term prognostic information for individuals who were cognitively unimpaired at baseline, laying the groundwork for possible future development of individualized risk prediction scores,” proposed Rachel Buckley, PhD, from Mass General Brigham, and co-workers in their published work.
“By providing absolute risk estimates of progression to cognitive impairment, this article moves the field closer to presymptomatic risk stratification with p-tau217, supporting trial design.”
The large, pooled multicohort study included 2684 cognitively unimpaired older adults from six longitudinal studies, who were followed for a median of 5.4 years. Their median age was just short of 70 years, and 63% were women.
Results showed that higher baseline p-tau217 was significantly associated with an increased risk of progression to cognitive impairment during up to 13.5 years of follow up, with a hazard ratio of 1.38 per standard deviation (SD) increase.
This remained significant after accounting for age, sex, education, apolipoprotein E ε4 status, cohort, as well as amyloid positron emission tomography—known to accurately detect Alzheimer’s disease brain pathology.
The researchers report that the absolute risk of cognitive decline at five years was “meaningfully elevated” in the group with very high p-tau217 levels (≥2.5 SD) at 38%, versus just 12% in group with low levels.
Estimated 10-years risks were substantially higher at between 40% and 78% for the low and high p-tau217 groups, respectively. However, just 139 participants—or one in every 20—were followed up for at least a decade and the researchers say these risk estimates should be treated with caution.
Elevated p-tau217 was also associated with faster decline on the harmonized latent Preclinical Alzheimer Cognitive Composite assessment tool.
In an editorial accompanying the published study, Suzanne Schindler, PhD, from Washington University in St Louis school of medicine, and David Wolk, MD, from the University of Pennsylvania, note that cognitive impairment likely reflected multiple etiologies, not just Alzheimer’s disease.
“Indeed, even the low p-tau217 group, in which Alzheimer disease pathology was minimal or absent, still had a 12% risk of progression to cognitive impairment at five years, suggesting the importance of other drivers of cognitive decline in this population and the likelihood that in the higher p-tau217 groups, some proportion of individuals who declined may have primarily been driven by other processes,” they pointed out.
“Notably, discordance between plasma p-tau217 and amyloid PET (especially at intermediate or low amyloid levels) highlights that biomarkers beyond p-tau217 could further improve risk prediction.”
Nonetheless, overall they summarized: “The study by Buckley et al. represents a significant advance. It demonstrates that plasma p-tau217 can provide a time-specific absolute risk estimate for development of cognitive impairment.”
The post Blood Test Foresees Decline into Alzheimer’s Disease appeared first on Inside Precision Medicine.
Prevalence of pharmacologically treated attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in children, adolescents, and adults: systematic review and meta-analysis
Efficacy of digital interventions in social anxiety disorder: a systematic review and Bayesian network meta-analysis
Birmingham trusts launch InterSystems shared patient portal
Loneliness From the Digital Mental Health Practitioners’ Perspective: Thematic Analysis of Semistructured Interviews
Background: Loneliness is a prevalent concern across the United Kingdom. While validated scales exist to quantify the severity of loneliness across populations, there remains a gap in understanding how loneliness manifests and is addressed within therapeutic practice. Given the associated stigma surrounding loneliness, practitioner perspectives offer crucial insights into how clients express loneliness within digital therapeutic environments. These insights can inform more nuanced conceptualizations of loneliness. Objective: This study aimed to gather the practitioners’ perspectives on loneliness within a digital therapeutic context and were defined as follows: (1) understand how practitioners identify loneliness concerns, (2) identify how loneliness is elicited in digital mental health interventions, and (3) identify co-occurring themes (such as grief, shame, and social disconnection) that signal loneliness concerns in client communications within digital therapeutic environments. Methods: Semistructured interviews were conducted with 9 practitioners. Participants included specialists in grief counseling, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer or questioning plus support; and digital mental health therapists. Interview transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis, using an inductive, data-driven approach to allow themes to emerge from participant accounts rather than fitting data to preexisting theoretical frameworks. Results: The following four themes were identified: (1) Conceptualizing Loneliness: practitioners distinguished between social contact and meaningful connection; (2) Contextual Causes: loneliness emerged from life transitions, stigmatized identities, and resource reduction (eg, youth services closures and social support); (3) Expressions and Language: clients rarely expressed loneliness directly, instead using proxy terms, with disclosure patterns varying by age; and (4) Mental Health Co-occurrence: severe mental health conditions created bidirectional cycles of loneliness, exacerbated by symptoms of mental health difficulties. Practitioners reported that many clients experienced loneliness concerns, yet direct disclosure was absent across all participants’ experiences. Conclusions: Practitioners identified multiple stigmatizing experiences as contextual drivers of loneliness, particularly demonstrating how loneliness emerges not only from individual experiences but from broader patterns of social exclusion and marginalization. For therapeutic practice, these insights suggest that practitioners can use awareness of stigmatizing experiences as potential indicators when assessing loneliness risk. The presence of contextual patterns was consistent across practitioners’ experiences, providing a foundation for developing more targeted interventions to address both the emotional experience of loneliness and the underlying social drivers.
<img src="https://jmir-production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/thumbs/49f9659143e30c484fef04019fa3e953" />
Exercise interventions are most consistently supported for depressive disorders: an umbrella review of diagnosed depressive and anxiety disorders
Prediction of Clinically Significant Depressive Symptoms at 2-Year Follow-Up in Older Adults: Machine Learning Study Using the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing
Background: Depression in older adults is often underdiagnosed due to atypical symptom presentation and generational stigma, leading to delayed intervention. Early identification of individuals at risk of developing elevated depressive symptoms is therefore critical, but traditional approaches show limited predictive accuracy. To date, no study has applied machine learning (ML) models to predict clinically significant depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up in older adults in the United Kingdom using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA). Moreover, the impact of encoding strategies for categorical health care variables has not been examined. Objective: This study aimed to develop and evaluate ML models to predict the clinically significant depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up in older adults using ELSA data. We further compared ordinal and one-hot encoding strategies across different ML architectures and identified key predictors of depressive symptoms at follow-up. Methods: Data were drawn from 4 consecutive waves of ELSA, including participants aged ≥50 years without significant depressive symptoms at the baseline wave (waves 6‐9). Clinically significant depressive symptoms were defined as 8-item Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D 8) scores of ≥4 at the subsequent wave (waves 7‐10). Over 120 features spanning sociodemographic, psychological, and health-related domains were analyzed. Eight ML models were applied, including tree-based ensembles, deep learning architectures for tabular data, distance-based methods, probabilistic methods, and linear methods. Model performance was assessed using the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUROC) and -score. Model interpretability was examined using Shapley additive explanations (SHAP). Sensitivity analyses assessed the robustness of results across alternative CES-D 8 thresholds (≥3, ≥4, and ≥5) and encoding strategies. Results: Across waves, the best-performing models achieved mean AUROC scores of 0.72‐0.73, with a peak of 0.75 in the highest-performing wave. Ordinal encoding consistently outperformed one-hot encoding across all ML models, yielding improvements in AUROCs and -scores, with the greatest increase in tree-based methods. SHAP consistently identified loneliness, sleep disturbances, and low social engagement as strong predictors of elevated depressive symptoms at follow-up. Sensitivity analyses across CES-D 8 thresholds demonstrated robust feature importance, with AUROCs ranging from 0.67 to 0.82. Traditional ML models (random forest, extreme gradient boosting, and support vector machines) generally achieved higher performance than the deep learning models for this task. Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of predicting clinically significant depressive symptoms at 2-year follow-up in UK older adults, with moderate accuracy. Ordinal encoding demonstrates superior performance for health care datasets with inherently ordered categorical features. The identification of consistent risk factors highlights opportunities for developing targeted clinical screening tools and preventive interventions. This study provides new evidence on depressive symptom prediction in the UK context, leveraging longitudinal data from ELSA, and contributes to advancing digital mental health research for aging populations.
<img src="https://jmir-production.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/thumbs/9a8688496d2b5e1d0eaa69410b4ab2dc" />
A Recap of the Inaugural Youth Mental Health Hub at SXSW London
In early June, SXSW London returned for its second year, gathering thousands of creatives, enthusiasts, entrepreneurs, and investors into the city to celebrate film, music, tech, and culture. As part of this year’s festival, the Child Mind Institute, in partnership with Wellcome, proudly presented the inaugural Youth Mental Health Hub – a week of programming dedicated to advancing solutions to one of the defining challenges of our time: the global youth mental health crisis. Through six thought-provoking sessions, leaders in clinical care, science, technology, policy, and media came together to explore how to strengthen prevention, improve early identification, reduce stigma, and build systems that meet young people where they are.
Here’s a look back at the inspiring conversations that took place throughout the week.
Beyond the Average: Understanding Vulnerability in the Digital Childhood Era

As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the experience of childhood, experts explored how AI can both support and challenge young people’s mental health. The panelists discussed when and under what conditions young people may be most vulnerable as well as what systems we need to support them.
Moderator
Gary Wilson, Director of Research, Huo Family Foundation
Speakers
Catherine Sebastian, PhD, Head of Evidence for Mental Health, Wellcome
John Pickavance, PhD, Principal Data Scientist, Born in Bradford
Georgia Turner, Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Cambridge
Michael Milham, MD, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Child Mind Institute
AI Is Already Shaping Childhood. Who Is Shaping AI? Balancing Innovation, Evidence, and Safety in Youth Mental Health

Youth are experiencing the impacts of AI earlier and more intensely than any previous generation has. This session explored the role of public leadership in anticipating harm before it becomes systemic — establishing guardrails, fostering digital resilience, and ensuring that innovation advances hand in hand with youth mental health and well-being.
Moderator
Sarah Aguiar-Borges, PhD, University of Cambridge
Speakers
Julia Gillard, former Prime Minister of Australia; Chair, Wellcome
Kanishka Narayan, UK Minister for AI and Online Safety
Giovanni Salum, MD, PhD, SVP, Global Programs, Child Mind Institute.
Youth Mental Health After Conflict: Healing, Resilience, and Rebuilding Systems

Experts shared insights on the unique mental health challenges facing children affected by war, displacement, and humanitarian crises. This session explored how societies can implement youth-centered systems grounded in prevention and use early identification to position youth mental health as a cornerstone of long-term recovery and resilience.
Moderator
Krupa Padhy, BBC Radio 4
Speakers
Dr. Mark Jordans, professor, Centre for Global Mental Health, King’s College London; Director of Research & Development, War Child
Emma Ferguson, mental health policy and advocacy specialist, UNICEF
Mohamed Ali, Director, Iftin Global
Dyslexia: Changing the Story

In a timely discussion, experts explored how dyslexia is currently understood in society, challenging current language and misperceptions that can impact a child’s confidence and mental health. Through a blend of personal experience and clinical expertise, the conversation focused on the need for evidence-based support and strengths-based approaches to help children and their families thrive.
Moderator
Kate Griggs, Founder, Made By Dyslexia
Speakers
Maggie Aderin, PhD, space scientist & educator; dyslexia advocate
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, President and Medical Director, Child Mind Institute
Connection Continuum: Preventing Suicide and Combating Loneliness

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among young people globally. This session gathered community, clinical, and digital leaders to explore what a more connected system of support looks like in practice. The panelists also discussed the important of recognizing warning signs, expanding access to evidence-based care, and prioritizing early intervention to help prevent youth suicide.
Moderator
Krupa Padhy, BBC Radio 4
Speakers
Victoria Hornby, CEO, Mental Health Innovations
Dean Perryman, Empty Chairs
Michael Milham, MD, PhD, Chief Science Officer, Child Mind Institute
Does Mental Health Science Funding Need a New Paradigm in the Age of AI?

With technology evolving faster than the science designed to understand it, experts examined how research, philanthropy, and clinical leaders can work together to build the evidence, safeguards, and infrastructure needed to protect children’s mental health in the digital age.
Moderator
Chelsea Clinton, Vice Chair, Clinton Global Initiative
Speakers
Miranda Wolpert, Director of Mental Health, Wellcome
Margaret Laws, President & CEO, HopeLab
Daria Bukhman, Co-Founder and Chair, Bukhman Philanthropies
Harold S. Koplewicz, MD, President & Medical Director, Child Mind Institute
The post A Recap of the Inaugural Youth Mental Health Hub at SXSW London appeared first on Child Mind Institute.

