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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Despite reports that people with learning disabilities (PWLD) are more vulnerable to being bullied than the non-LD population, there is a paucity of research into bullying of PWLD. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 adults with LD, using bullying vignettes, to explore how PWLD understand bullying; their knowledge of coping strategies for dealing with bullying; and what PWLD understand the consequences of bullying to be. Interview data was analysed using thematic analysis and categorised into four super-ordinate themes; Bullying is a bad thing; Reasons for the bullying; Coping strategies; and Consequences of own bullying experiences. The findings are discussed in relation to attribution theory (Heider, 1958) and socio-moral reasoning theory (Gibbs, 1979; 2003). Recommendations for clinicians working with PWLD involved in bullying are made; including considering the application of the concept of the “provocative-victim” (Sheard, Clegg, Standen, & Cromby, 2001); exploring how individual’s understanding of bullying experiences in terms of attributions made and socio-moral reasoning; exploring coping strategies and addressing aggressive or avoidance-based strategies, and consequences of bullying such as social and psychological problems. Recommendations are made for future research with larger, more representative samples.

Aim: Previous systematic reviews have addressed and synthesised the relationship between trauma, PTSD and the positive symptoms of psychosis. The relationship between trauma, PTSD and the negative symptoms of psychosis however has yet to be systematically reviewed. Gaining a greater psychological understanding of negative symptoms is a priority as they impair functioning and tend to be treatment resistant. This review therefore aims to review the evidence on the relationship between trauma, PTSD and negative symptoms, and to evaluate this evidence in relation to key quality factors: the assessment of trauma, PTSD, negative symptoms and depression, as well as the design and statistical analysis employed to assess the relationship. Method: Searches of electronic databases Pubmed and PsycINFO were conducted and 41 studies were identified after inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied. Findings: Included studies appeared to yield equivocal findings with limited variability in study quality, as most studies were low or medium in quality and demonstrated multiple key methodological issues. The synthesis suggests higher quality studies that formally assess both trauma and PTSD, whilst employing a symptom specific assessment of negative symptoms, indicate more complex differential relationships are likely to exist between PTSD clusters and individual negative symptoms. Conclusions: Recommendations are made to improve the methodological quality of future studies in order to reduce the level of equivocal findings reported and to encourage consistency in research aims and methods. It is a priority to employ higher quality studies to identify whether trauma and PTSD are associated with negative symptoms, and to establish the mechanisms accounting for this association as they may provide a promising new direction for developing innovative psychosocial interventions for people affected by these difficulties.

Background. Chronic exposure to stressors in childhood has been linked with heightened risk of developing symptoms of psychosis in both clinical and non-clinical populations. The association has been explicated with reference to developmental alterations in biological and psychological systems. One such stressor, being bullied in childhood, has been the focus of recent investigations. The current study endeavoured to systematically review the available evidence from studies purporting to investigate the association between childhood bullying and psychosis symptomatology. Method. A search of PubMed, Medline, PsycInfo, Embase, Scopus and Web of Science electronic databases, alongside manual searching and cross-referencing, was carried out. The quality of available evidence for and against the association was assessed using quality assessment tools found in the literature. Results. Meeting the study’s inclusion criteria were 30 studies (eighteen cross-sectional, twelve cohort). Longitudinal studies, by design, provided higher quality evidence - particularly those which examined specifically the association between the variables of interest. However, preselected key confounding variables were not always taken into account, highlighting that the association is not unequivocal and that further research is warranted. Cross-sectional studies provide lower quality of evidence (of greater variability) where severe limitations regarding the validity and generalisability of findings must be taken into account. Conclusions. Evidence suggests that the association between experience of bullying in childhood and onset of psychotic or psychotic-like symptoms of clinical and non-clinical severity is tenable. However, future research needs to re-examine the association while minimising methodological limitations including confounding variables and definitional issues. Establishment of an association warrants investigation of the mechanisms which potentially underlie it; the pre-existing, small research base on mediators and moderators of the relationships requires further attention.

Background : People from Nepal who have migrated to and settled in the UK are forming a fast growing ethnic minority group. A small number of studies have highlighted concerns about the lack of understanding of mental health problems and awareness of mental health services amongst groups of Nepalese people living in the UK. However there have not been any investigations into how they conceptualise mental health and respond to their mental health needs. Moreover, there have not been any studies on the younger Nepalese population. Aims: The purpose of this study was to explore the subjective perspectives of young adults from the Nepalese community on mental health. Method : The study adopted a qualitative research methodology. Five young Nepalese adults (average age of 25.2) were recruited using purposive sampling strategy and interviewed using semi-structured interviews. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Results: One master theme was developed to demonstrate participants’ perception and experience of psychological distress and/or mental health issues: ‘viewing mental health differently’. Three themes were further developed to explain the master theme, which included ‘understanding mental health’, ‘recognising and solving problems: focus on self and others’; and, ‘closeness and escapism: focus on family and the community’. Conclusions: The findings were discussed in terms of existing literature on other ethnic minority groups and theories on somatisation of mental illness and biculturism. The implications of the findings are also discussed.

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No description available.