“Social Media, Young People & Mental Health” AND More on Best 5 Friday Reads

Hello and welcome to another edition of Best 5 Reads. Lets begin!

1) Social media, young people and mental health

The rise of social media, and its impact upon young people’s mental health, has become a hotly debated topic over the past few years. Combined with a fear about cyber bullying and an increase in young people self-harming, social media has become the latest focus of public concern for mental health.

This briefing paper offers a brief scan of the latest evidence on the impact of social media on young people’s wellbeing, both negative and positive. It seeks to understand what constitutes ‘problematic’ social media use, including addiction, jealousy and ‘fear of missing out’, as well as looking at how social media can positively impact on wellbeing.

2) Integrated approaches to mental health care

Developing integrated approaches to mental health is a key priority in England. Mental health care is often disconnected from the wider health and care system, and as a result, people do not always receive co-ordinated support for their physical health, mental health and wider social needs. Our work on this topic explores what a more joined-up approach would look like, and supports organisations seeking to put this vision into practice.

3) Is Computer-Assisted CBT Effective for Treating Depression?

Dr Peter Yellowlees discusses the potential for improving the efficiency of psychotherapy for depression with the use of computer-assisted CBT.

4) The inner voice

From a very early age, children learn to talk to themselves. That voice in your head is the thing that makes you, you.

5) To All Of The Opioid Epidemic Deniers……..

I encountered an absolutely stunning piece the other day about how there really was no opioid epidemic. The author’s various arguments all centered on the basic idea that law enforcement and other special interest groups spread the lie about opioid use being epidemic so that they could increase law enforcement measures and make it more difficult for chronic pain patients to get access to opioids. There are a lot of these conspiracy theories going around. There are active posters on Twitter who continue to beat the drum that this is a heroin or fentanyl problem and not a problem with prescription opioids. The same group will suggest that the problem is now benzodiazepine prescriptions – maybe even gabapentinoids! They make the false claim that “anti-opioid zealots” want to stop opioids for chronic non-cancer pain, even if it means that some of those pain patients will commit suicide. They continue to post debunked information about how a trivial number of pain patients become addicted to opioids if they are properly prescribed.

Thank you and see you tomorrow for Weekend Quotes!

Best Regards,

Vikram

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