to advance education and research in the science of psychopharmacology for the public benefit

INSIDE 1–3 Antidepressants and Suicide 4 30 Years of Journal of Psychopharmacology 5 BAP Summer Meeting 2017 6 Applied Clinical Science Stream at BAP2017; Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology 7 Part 2 Clinical Certificates; Robert Sommer Award 8 Neuroinflammation on tour! 9–10 Teens reject junk food when healthy eating is framed as rebellion 12 Members’ Activities 13–14 Education Events

www.bap.org.uk

The British Association for Psychopharmacology is registered in England as a Private Company No 5866899.

Registered Charity No 277825.

NEWSLETTERDecember 2016

British Association for Psychopharmacology36 Cambridge Place Hills Road Cambridge CB2 1NS

01223 358 395

Executive Officer Susan Chandler • susan@bap.org.uk

Assistant to the Executive Officer Lynne Harmer • lynne@bap.org.uk

Online Resources and Communications Developer Sarah Channing-Wright • sarah@bap.org.uk

For m @BAPsych

BritishAssociationforPsychopharmacology

/company/britishassociationforpsychopharmacology

+BapOrgUk

Antidepressants and Suicide

Professor Carmine Pariante, a member of the BAP Council, recently attended the House of Commons to give expert input to the Health Select Committee regarding antidepressants and suicide. The video of the proceedings can been viewed at www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/3b12615a-fded-4b6b-bb1f-cbc4e8b5dc74.

The BAP also supplied written evidence summarizing the relevant scientific evidence. The BAP statement on antidepressants and suicide is copied on the next page, and can also be downloaded from the BAP website, www.bap.org.uk.

2 December 2016

BAP Statement on Antidepressants and Suicide for Health Select Committee’s inquiry into suicide preventionThank you for asking for particular advice regarding antidepressants and suicide. We note that our recent BAP Guideline (Cleare et al, J Psychopharmacol. 2015 May;29(5):459-525) reviewed the clinical use of antidepressants comprehensively. A full copy of these guidelines is available on the BAP website and we suggest that close reading of these will inform the reader. We also quote the most relevant passage of these guidelines below:

“Suicidality. There has been considerable concern as to whether antidepressants, particularly SSRIs, may be associated with an increase in suicidal ideation or acts. Two meta-analyses (Fergusson et al., 2005; Gunnell et al., 2005) with 477 and 702 studies, respectively, and a large nested case-control study comparing new prescriptions of SSRIs and TCAs (Martinez et al., 2005) found no evidence of an increase in completed suicide with SSRIs but possible evidence of increased suicidal/selfharm behaviour with SSRIs compared with placebo (NNH 754 and 684 in the two meta-analyses). There was no overall difference between SSRIs and TCAs (Fergusson et al., 2005; Martinez et al., 2005) but Martinez et al. (2005) found some evidence for increased self-harm behaviour on SSRIs compared with TCAs in those under 19 years. A meta-analysis of 27 RCTs of SSRIs in children and adolescents with depression, OCD and other anxiety disorders (Bridge et al., 2007) found no completed suicides but a small significant increase in suicidal ideation/self-harm attempts with SSRIs compared with placebo (NNH 143), not significant for each indication separately. However the inferential and retrospective nature of the ascertainment of ‘suicidality’ in these studies has been criticised (Klein, 2006). An analysis of 61 placebo-controlled trials of paroxetine in adults showed that for all disorders combined there were no significant differences in the incidence of overall suicidality (i.e. suicidal behaviour plus suicidal ideation) between paroxetine and placebo (Carpenter et al., 2011). A higher incidence of suicidal behaviour was seen with paroxetine compared with placebo in all indications in those aged 18–24 years (2.19% vs. 0.92%). In contrast, no increase in suicidality was seen in older age groups. A higher incidence of suicidality was seen with paroxetine versus placebo in an analysis restricted to major depression, though this was largely explained by the

higher incidence in young adults. In order to assess the risk of suicidal behaviour in clinical practice, database linkage methods have been used. The risk of clinically significant suicidal behaviour was found to be highest in the month before starting antidepressants and declined thereafter, with significantly higher rates seen in adolescents compared with adults (Jick et al., 2004; Simon et al., 2006b). No temporal pattern of completed suicide was evident in the 6 months after starting an antidepressant (Simon et al., 2006b) and there was no increase in suicide/suicide attempt seen with SSRIs compared with other antidepressants in adolescents or adults (Jick et al., 2004; Simon et al., 2006b). The highest rates of suicidal behaviour were seen in patients treated by psychiatrists, but the same pattern was also seen with psychological treatments and in primary care (Simon and Savarino, 2007). Ecological data have also failed to find any link between SSRI use and higher completed suicide rates in adults and children/adolescents (Gibbons et al., 2005, 2006; Hall and Lucke, 2006); in fact, the association is generally for increased SSRI use to be linked to lower suicide rates, and recent data from the Netherlands and United States show an inverse relationship between decreases in SSRI use and increase in suicide in adolescents since warnings about SSRI use have been issued (Gibbons et al., 2007); however this inverse relationship was not reported in the UK. Several naturalistic studies have shown that overall suicide rates have decreased as antidepressant prescriptions have increased (e.g. Gusmão et al., 2013), although these ‘association’ studies are not able to make causal links.

Taken together, the evidence indicates a lack of a specific link between antidepressant/SSRI use and suicide/suicidal behaviour in adults. There is some evidence for a small increase in non-fatal suicidal ideation/self-harm behaviour in adolescents treated with SSRIs but not for completed suicide; indeed, indirect evidence suggests that SSRI use may reduce suicide rates. The risk–benefit analysis therefore needs to take into account the reality that suicidal behaviour is relatively high in depressed adolescents before treatment, and that the increased chance of successful treatment following an SSRI (NNT 10) outweighs the increased risk of non-fatal self-harm (NNH >100) by more than 10 times. Suicidality requires careful monitoring during antidepressant therapy, particularly early on in treatment in younger adults.”

Since the publication of the BAP guidelines a number of relevant papers have been published. Although we have not systematically reviewed the relevant literature we highlight two papers of note.

December 2016 3

Bschor et al (Psychother Psychosom 2016;85:171–179) recently published a paper entitled “Suicides and Suicide Attempts during Long-Term Treatment with Antidepressants: A Meta-Analysis of 29 Placebo-Controlled Studies Including 6,934 Patients with Major Depressive Disorder”

Again we quote directly from the text: “Out of 807 studies screened 29 were included, covering 6,934 patients (5,529 patient-years). In total, 1.45 suicides and 2.76 suicide attempts per 1,000 patient-years were reported. Seven out of 8 suicides and 13 out of 14 suicide attempts occurred in antidepressant arms, resulting in incidence rate ratios of 5.03 (0.78–114.1; p = 0.102) for suicides and of 9.02 (1.58–193.6; p = 0.007) for suicide attempts. Peto ORs were 2.6 (0.6–11.2; nonsignificant) and 3.4 (1.1–11.0; p = 0.04), respectively. Dropouts due to unknown reasons were similar in the anti-depressant and placebo arms (9.6 vs. 9.9%). The majority of suicides and suicide attempts originated from 1 study, accounting for a fifth of all patient-years in this meta-analysis. Leaving out this study resulted in a nonsignificant incidence rate ratio for suicide attempts of 3.83 (0.53–91.01). Conclusions: Therapists should be aware of the lack of proof from RCTs that antidepressants prevent suicides and suicide attempts. We cannot conclude with certainty whether antidepressants increase the risk for suicide or suicide attempts. Researchers must report all suicides and suicide attempts in RCTs.”

Another recent paper on this topic has attracted some attention (Bielefeldt AØ, Danborg PB, Gøtzsche PC. J R Soc Med. 2016 Oct;109(10):381-392. Precursors to suicidality and violence on antidepressants: systematic review of trials in adult healthy volunteers. However, it should be noted that academics have suggested that the data do not support the conclusions drawn by the authors. Profesor Phil Cowen, a professor of psychopharmacology at the University of Oxford, contends, for instance, that the results show no direct reports of violence or suicidal behaviour.

“What one sees are known adverse effects of serotonergic antidepressants such as anxiety, nervousness, tremor and abnormal dreams,” Cowen writes. “These side-effects are clinically significant, frequently distressing and an important topic for discussion between patient and clinician. However, the notion that they are necessarily indicative of violence and suicide seems to me rather like arguing that transient annoyance with a colleague is much the same thing as attempted murder.”

For any consideration of suicide to be complete it

should be noted that there is very good evidence that lithium (widely used to treat Mood Disorders, including depression) has evidence of benefits. A recent review of the literature (Cipriani A, Hawton K, Stockton S, Geddes JR. BMJ. 2013 Jun 27;346:f3646. Lithium in the prevention of suicide in mood disorders: updated systematic review and meta-analysis). This review concludes: “Lithium is an effective treatment for reducing the risk of suicide in people with mood disorders.” We note that this evidence was included in out BAP Guidelines for Bipolar Disorders (J Psychopharmacol. 2016 Jun;30(6):495-553). Furthermore, the role of SSRIs in reducing suicide has been advocated strongly (see Nutt, 2005).

Answers to specific questions:Q: How good is the evidence base on the use of these medicines and the increased risk of suicidal ideation, both in adults, young people, and children?

A: As described above the current evidence base across all age ranges is in favour of offering patients the choice of treating depression (particularly moderate to severe depression), a condition associated with high levels of mortality (including by suicide) using appropriate psychopharmacological agents.

Q: Are there clear guidelines for health professionals explaining the risks and benefits of these medicines and their association with increased risk of suicidal ideation? If so, are health professionals who prescribe these medicines aware of the guidelines, and are they following them?

A: We have cited BAP guidelines above that are recent. Health professionals should be aware of them. We cannot answer whether they are following the guidelines and this should be studied.

Q: Are medicines which have an association with increased risk of suicidal ideation being prescribed appropriately? Are patients taking these medicines being adequately monitored?

A: More often than not, medications prescribed are done so appropriately and potential risks explained to the patient and/or carer (particularly when the patient is under 18 years). The need for adequate monitoring is important and whether this is being done adequately, requires evaluation.

Q: Is there a need for further research and/ or enhanced monitoring of ADRs in relation to suicide prevention?

A: Yes.

4 December 2016

30 Years of Journal of Psychopharmacology David Nutt

Thirty years is a long time in most of our lives – if not in publishing – and so it is right we celebrate this anniversary for Journal of Psychopharmacology. Reflecting on the origins of the Journal, it was developed by its founding organisation, the British Association for Psychopharmacology (BAP) to provide a vehicle for spreading scientific discoveries in our discipline and also providing an alternative financial income stream for the association. On both counts the Journal of Psychopharmacology has succeeded. It has become one of the leading journals in our discipline with an impact factor that puts it in the top quartile of the Clinical Neurology, Psychiatry and Pharmacology & Pharmacy JCR disciplines and second quartile for Neurosciences. This is a remarkable success and one which emphasises the broad content that we encourage: ranging from preclinical research on receptor and behavioural pharmacology through to clinical trials, neuroimaging studies and even policy positions and consensus statements. The Journal of Psychopharmacology also has rewarded the investment of the BAP by providing a significant and growing income stream that has helped the Association develop a financially secure infrastructure with its own offices and full-time staff.

The BAP committee and the Journal team of myself, my co-editor Pierre Blier and the managing editor Pallab Seth considered for some time the best way to celebrate the Journal of Psychopharmacology’s third decade. From a number of suggestions we decided that the best option would be to reprint some of the most cited papers that the Journal of Psychopharmacology had ever published. To add value we would publish along with this a commentary by the original author(s) giving an update on the impact that their paper had made and emphasising the significance of the work to the emerging field. We approached the senior or lead authors of the top 15 most cited research papers ever, with the exception of Deakin and Graeff (1991) whose classic “5-HT and mechanisms of defence” had been the lead in a special issue in 2013 (Deakin, 2013).

We were delighted that ten of those approached agreed to write commentaries and even more pleased when they came in on time for this issue! So here you see the results of this exercise, ten excellent papers updated and in some cases expanded by the original authors. They cover a wide range of clinical and preclinical topics by leaders in their fields and also span the whole world with authors from the Americas, through Europe to the Antipodes.

I have had the pleasure of reading and [lightly] editing each which was a particularly fun and educational thing to do. I would highly recommend that all of you read those commentaries most closely aligned to your own research interests and if you have time read a few of the others to broaden your knowledge of this broad field of psychopharmacology. I think they justify our view that Journal of Psychopharmacology is a leading voice for the publication of the very highest quality research in psychopharmacology and as a collection they provide an impressive celebration of our journal’s legacy over the past 30 years.

ReferencesDeakin JF, Graeff FG. 5-HT and mechanisms of defence. J Psychopharmacol. 1991 Jan;5(4):305-15. doi: 10.1177/026988119100500414. PubMed PMID: 22282829.

Deakin J. The origins of ‘5-HT and mechanisms of defence’ by Deakin andGraeff: a personal perspective. J Psychopharmacol. 2013 Dec;27(12):1084-9. doi:10.1177/0269881113503508. Epub 2013 Sep 24. PubMed PMID: 24067790.

Highlights

9 invited symposia covering cutting-edge clinical and non-clinical psychopharmacology:

ʍ Personalized pharmacological treatments for depression: Will big data achieve what clinicians can’t?

ʍ The psychopharmacology of emerging calcium channel targets

ʍ Behavioural and substance addictions: Similarities and differences

ʍ Adverse and beneficial effects of cannabinoids - new insights from genetics and clinical trials

ʍ The role of brain connectivity in brain disorders and their treatment

ʍ Psychopharmacology of the older and, almost certainly, degenerating brain

ʍ Treatment of dysfunction in hot and cold cognition in mood disorders

ʍ The brain-gut axis: Breaking the dichotomy between physical and mental health

ʍ Biomarkers of treatment response for schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder: Latest updates

PLUS

Guest Lecture presented by Professor Sir Robin Murray

Preclinical Workshop How can we refine preclinical psychopharmacology?

Post-Doc Symposium, Short Orals, Satellite Symposia and Special Sessions, Poster Sessions (posters also included on large interactive screens)

Welcome Reception and Disco

Conference Dinner at The Royal Hall

An app will be available with full details of the programme and abstract book.

www.bap.org.uk/BAP2017

Harrogate International Centre King’s Road, Harrogate Sunday 23rd to Wednesday 26th July 2017

December 2016 5

Highlights

9 invited symposia covering cutting-edge clinical and non-clinical psychopharmacology:

ʍ Personalized pharmacological treatments for depression: Will big data achieve what clinicians can’t?

ʍ The psychopharmacology of emerging calcium channel targets

ʍ Behavioural and substance addictions: Similarities and differences

ʍ Adverse and beneficial effects of cannabinoids - new insights from genetics and clinical trials

ʍ The role of brain connectivity in brain disorders and their treatment

ʍ Psychopharmacology of the older and, almost certainly, degenerating brain

ʍ Treatment of dysfunction in hot and cold cognition in mood disorders

ʍ The brain-gut axis: Breaking the dichotomy between physical and mental health

ʍ Biomarkers of treatment response for schizophrenia and bipolar affective disorder: Latest updates

PLUS

Guest Lecture presented by Professor Sir Robin Murray

Preclinical Workshop How can we refine preclinical psychopharmacology?

Post-Doc Symposium, Short Orals, Satellite Symposia and Special Sessions, Poster Sessions (posters also included on large interactive screens)

Welcome Reception and Disco

Conference Dinner at The Royal Hall

An app will be available with full details of the programme and abstract book.

www.bap.org.uk/BAP2017

Harrogate International Centre King’s Road, Harrogate Sunday 23rd to Wednesday 26th July 2017

6 December 2016

Applied Clinical Science Stream at BAP2017

Depression: Which treatment and for whomBAP is pleased to announce that from 2017, our annual summer meeting will include an “Applied Clinical Science” stream. This stream is of particular relevance to trainees, staff grade and consultant psychiatrists and mental health pharmacists. In addition to providing high quality up-to-date psychopharmacology CPD for clinicians, the stream will highlight insights into future developments in our understanding of mental illness and its treatment.

Highlights of the 2017 Applied Clinical Science stream will include:

ʍ How to identify when treatments beyond guidelines should be considered for patients with treatment resistant depression

ʍ Using medication targeting dopaminergic neurotransmission in treatment resistant depression

ʍ Review of neuromodulatory treatments for depression

ʍ A symposium on the topic of “Personalized pharmacological treatments for depression: Will big data achieve what clinicians can’t?” discussing research in genetics, neuroinflammation and imaging

ʍ A plenary mental health session discussing some of the key challenges to managing depression now and in the future

ʍ Ample opportunities for Q&A and informal discussion with speakers

ʍ The meeting will include a large range of posters with multiple prizes awarded, including two sponsored by the Royal College of Psychiatrists and one for the best poster in the area of Clinical Audit or a case series illustrating an important psychopharmacological observation.

The Applied Clinical Science stream will run on the afternoon of Sunday 23rd July and throughout the day on Monday 24th July. The stream will provide 10 hours of CPD subject to Peer Group approval. The stream is an integral part of the BAP Summer meeting, which continues on the 25th with the Gala dinner that evening, finishing at lunchtime on 26th July.

Registration will be available for Sunday and Monday only or for the full meeting, with preferential rates for BAP members.

Full details will be on the BAP website soon.

Therapeutic Advances in PsychopharmacologyProfessor David Taylor BSc MSc PhD FFRPS FRPharmS Editor

I often hear Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology referred to as the BAP’s “new” journal. In fact, TAP has now been in publication for nearly six years. During this time we have published a variety of primary research papers, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and case studies. All papers are indexed on Pubmed and some have been cited more than 30 times. The journal has not yet been given an official ISI Impact Factor but the calculated impact factor for 2015 was 2.770. As the journal increases its influence, it attracts better

quality submissions which in turn should prove to be more frequently cited. Much of the success of TAP is a direct consequence of the hard work of Associate Editors past and present. In recent months, with the help of editors at SAGE, we have managed to clear a minor backlog of part refereed papers and reduce waiting times for review and publication. We now look forward to receiving high quality reports for rapid publication in this increasingly influential journal.

December 2016 7

Part 2 Clinical Certificates

Dr Yuen Cheng LooiCongratulations to Dr Yuen Cheng Looi, Consultant Geriatrician at Doncaster Royal Infirmary, who achieved Part 2 of the BAP Clinical Certificate recently. Cheng’s Part 2 submission comprised a logbook of three structured case reports with an emphasis on their drug treatment and with reference to the published literature.

Thanks to Professor Peter Haddad at Manchester for supervising Cheng’s work and commenting “This is a thorough and excellent piece of work. I enjoyed reading it. It is clearly laid out and there is a very good discussion of the clinical and theoretical issues related to the psychopharmacological treatment of the cases.”

www.bap.org.uk/certificate

Dr Aneeba AnwarCongratulations to Dr Aneeba Anwar, Senior Registrar in Old Age Psychiatry at Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, for completing Part 2 of the Clinical Certificate. Anneba’s Part 2 submission comprised a logbook of three cases.

Professor Phil Cowen at Oxford supervised Aneeba’s submission and commented: “It was a pleasure to supervise Aneeba. I was particularly impressed by the way that she integrated her psychopharmacological training and expertise into the clinical management of severely ill patients with complex disorders. I think this shows the tremendous value of the BAP certificate in that it does enable practitioners to become expert, evidence-based clinical prescribers.”

Robert Sommer Award Professors Trevor Robbins and Barbara Sahakian collected the Robert Sommer Award for their research into schizophrenia on November the 4th at the biennial symposium hosted by the Centre for Psychiatry at Justus Liebig University School of Medicine, Giessen, Germany. Robert Sommer was a close friend of Wilhelm Wundt who established the first laboratory for Experimental Psychology at Leipzig. Previous recipients of the Award have included Professors Tim Crow, Sir Robin Murray, and Dr D. Weinberger (NIMH), as well as the only other psychologists to have been so honoured, Profs. Uta. and Chris D. Frith. As well as receiving a medal, the awardees were required to conduct a brass band (the current Deutschland National Champions) at an evening concert prior to the celebration banquet.

8 December 2016

Neuroinflammation on tour! Brighton in 2016 to Birmingham and Hiroshima in 2017 and beyondJo Neill, BAP President

The 42nd BAP 2016 annual summer meeting in Brighton was a resounding success, from the scorching weather to fish & chips at the welcome reception onto some excellent symposia incorporating the very latest developments in science and practice throughout the meeting. The Wednesday morning sessions can be difficult slots, especially if the Gala dinner and disco run into the early hours of the same morning. However, 3 first-rate symposia rounded off the summer meeting, carrying on the scientific excellence until the very last talk had finished. One of these, titled “Dysfunctional neuro-immune system interactions in psychiatric disorders and their relevance for novel treatment strategies” chaired by BAP members, Paola Dazzan and Valeria Mondelli was one such session. Speakers included several BAP members: Eric Prinssen from Roche in Basle, Anthony Vernon and Paola Dazzan from London and Charissa van Kesteren from Utrecht.

The panel presented a well-balanced mix of preclinical and clinical aspects of this topic. The session was very well attended with a lively and well informed audience who posed several tough questions for the speakers. This is certainly a topical area of research and the symposium received attention from Lancet Psychiatry who sent Joan Marsh, their Deputy Director along to observe. Several ideas emerged following this session. These included putting on a special event to align the methodological approach of the many laboratories now working on maternal immune activation models in animals; preparing a review on the topic from a translational perspective, and going on tour with this session. This last idea has already been acted upon and BAP President Jo Neill submitted a follow on symposium with the same title, to the 26th IBNS-International Behavioural Neuroscience meeting to be held in Hiroshima, Japan from 26-30th June 2017. This has now been accepted and will be badged as a BAP symposium. Another BAP sponsored symposium on neuroinflammation will be held at the BNA-British Neuroscience Association Festival of Neuroscience in Birmingham from 10-13th April 2017. This symposium is titled “Microglia, neuroinflammation and psychiatric disease: biomarkers and therapeutic potential”. Panels and chairs vary between these 3 symposia but BAP’s very own Anthony Vernon will be

a speaker in all 3 symposia, maintaining continuity. Where will this symposium appear next? Watch this space to find out, but in the meantime, we do hope you will be able to catch the latest developments on neuroinflammation with BAP either in Birmingham or Hiroshima, or both!

Eric Prinssen (Basle)

Anthony Vernon (London)

Paola Dazzan (London)

Charissa van Kesteren (Utrecht)

December 2016 9

Teens reject junk food when healthy eating is framed as rebellionJulia Gottwald

Crisps, coke, and chocolate bars. What might be a special treat for some of us, is now a multi-billion pound industry and a staple of many people’s diets. Advertising campaigns from the snack food companies, often starring sports stars, send the message that we can offset any adverse effects of consuming their products simply by getting more physical exercise. But you can’t really “run off” a burger – recent studies show a lack of exercise is not to blame for rising obesity rates, bad diets are the real driver.

Interventions to help reduce junk food consumption are especially important for children and adolescents – prevention is better than cure in this context because obesity is so difficult to treat. Unfortunately, while health education in the classroom has shown some success among young children, adolescents have been notoriously hard to reach.

But now a large-scale study published in PNAS has tried an innovative approach to change teenagers’ attitudes towards healthy eating, and the results are promising. The researchers, led by Christopher Bryan at the University of Chicago and David Yeager at the University of Texas at Austin, argued that previous interventions have probably been unsuccessful because of a major flaw: they focused on a future, healthier you and assumed that this would be enough motivation for adolescents. In contrast, the new intervention cleverly exploits teenagers’ instinct for rebelliousness and autonomy, and the value they place on social justice.

Bryan, Yeager and their colleagues recruited over 500 teenagers (aged 13 to 14; they were the entire eighth grade at a suburban middle school in Texas) and randomly assigned some to a traditional public health appeal, others to a no-treatment control, and the remainder to receive the innovative intervention. This last group read an exposé article on the food industry. It spilled the beans about the manipulative and deceptive strategies used to make junk food more addictive and to portray the products as healthy. It also included pictures of four executives and consultants of the food industry, described as stereotypical “controlling, hypocritical adult[s]”. The hope was that these adolescents would now see choosing healthy foods as an act of autonomy and independence.

The article also explained how advertising campaigns specifically target very young and poor people, causing harm for these vulnerable groups. The researchers hoped that healthy eating could be perceived as a rebellion against social injustice.

Afterwards, the participants in this condition read a (fictitious) survey of older adolescents who wanted to “fight back against the companies by buying and eating less processed food”. Finally, these participants wrote an essay summarising why they thought people were outraged and how to rebel against the food industry – the idea was to make sure that the teenagers internalised the message.

After the exposé intervention, but not the control conditions, participants associated healthy eating with autonomy and social justice. They also rated healthy eating as being more appealing. Importantly, there were also some promising effects of the new intervention on actual behaviour. A day later the students were offered a choice of snacks and drinks in a seemingly unrelated context (announced as a reward for their hard work during the recent exam period). The teens in the exposé condition, but not the control groups, chose healthy snacks and drinks (such as fruit or water) more often over unhealthy options (like biscuits and coke). As a consequence, the exposé group consumed on average 3.6g less sugar than the controls, which corresponds to almost one teaspoon and more than 10 per cent of the daily recommended intake. Two days later, the teenagers in the exposé intervention condition were also angrier in response to sugary drink ads and less tempted to drink the sodas.

This simple classroom intervention influenced real-life choices and attitudes for at least two days whereas traditional educational approaches have struggled to have any influence at all. In this study, the researchers also did not find a significant difference between the traditional health appeal and no-treatment condition – simply educating adolescents about the effects of junk food on the body was just as (in)effective as doing nothing.

These results highlight the promise of finding new, creative approaches to reduce unhealthy eating among teenagers. But while the study shows encouraging results, it has important limitations. First, it largely relies on self-report measures. The teenagers reported on questionnaires how appealing they find healthy eating, which snacks and drinks

10 December 2016

#YearOfStress

Let us help promote your research; collaborate with us by joining our media, policy and public engagement activities.

Get involved with 2017: The Physiology of Stress

Email outreach@physoc.org for funding opportunities and more.

they want, and how angry they were about soda ads. These responses might not accurately reflect their true beliefs – they may have just responded in a way they thought was expected of them. After all, the participants were cued to be angry at the food industry: they were asked to write an essay explaining why a lot of people are outraged – not being outraged did not appear to be an option.

To avoid this bias, the researchers did not disclose the real aim of the study to their participants. Rather, the intervention was disguised as an opportunity to provide feedback on a new school curriculum. Also the snack choice on day two was masked as a reward for their hard work throughout the preceding months, but it’s still possible that the teenagers may have guessed what the study was really about and the researchers did not control for this. Future studies could use more implicit measures, such as skin conductance or the Implicit Association Test, to test for subconscious attitudes. Alternatively, neuroimaging could be used to check if junk food is perceived as less rewarding in terms of brain response, which would arguably provide a more objective measure than self-report.

Also, while the effects lasted for two days, successful interventions need to be beneficial in the long-term. It is important to check if teenagers still make healthy food choices months after the experiment or if it was just a fleeting effect. And would they still be motivated by autonomy and social justice as adults? Or would we need to appeal to different values when they are older, requiring a new intervention?

Associating a healthy diet with adolescents’ own values seems to be a promising avenue to prevent obesity. But future studies will need to evaluate and develop these interventions further to ensure that teenagers make healthy choices and are not “buttered up” by the food industry.

Original article published in the BPS Research Digest:

https://digest.bps.org.uk/2016/10/20/teens-reject-junk-food-when-healthy-eating-is-framed-as-rebellion/

20th October 2016

December 2016 11

News from CMHP

For further details please visit: http://www.cmhp.org.uk/education

Annual ConferenceOctober was the highlight of the CMHP calendar with our annual conference. We had a range of fascinating talks and workshops under the theme ‘Cradle to Grave’, including a session by BAP’s own President Professor Paul Harrison. We are very grateful for him coming to guide us through the latest insight in genetics in Mental Health.

For a flavor of the conference, and to access a selection of the presentations, please visit our conference web page:

http://www.cmhp.org.uk/annual-conference/2016-annual-conference

Save the date! Next year’s conference will be held from 13-15 October 2017 at the Midland Hotel in Manchester. The theme will be ‘A Wider Perspective’ - how mental health can be affected by outside influences such as physical health. Look out for our new conference website which will be live imminently.

Education

Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate EducationWe continue our work with a range of education partners, including the Centre for Pharmacy Postgraduate Education. We were delighted to endorse their new distance learning programme Learning disabilities which was launched recently.

The programme has been designed to enable pharmacists working in mainstream settings to respond more effectively to the needs of people with a learning disability, their carers and their support workers, to optimise their medicines and improve their health outcomes.

To read more about the programme, please visit the CPPE website: https://www.cppe.ac.uk/news/a/615/learning-disabilities-distance-learning

RPS FacultyAs an affiliated partner in the RPS Faculty we are taking a keen interest in the National Training Programme announced by RPS in November. We look forward to working closely with the RPS and others to ensure that there is a strong mental health component. For further details please see: http://www.rpharms.com/pressreleases/pr_show.asp?id=4150

CMHP EducationBookings are open for our own short courses Psych 1 and Psych 2. These are suitable for pharmacists, technicians and non-medical prescribers wishing to extend their knowledge of mental health conditions and their treatment.

12 December 2016

Hip Hop Psych (Akeem Sule and Becky Inkster) 16th October 2016

In The Battle Against Depression, Hip-Hop Has Healing Powers

Hip Hop Psych was mentioned in Vibe, a well known hiphop magazine

Stephen Lawrie 11th September 2016

Call for action over student smart drugs

Stephen is quoted in an article in the Times regarding smart drugs

Hip Hop Psych (Akeem Sule and Becky Inkster) 25th November 2016

Kanye West’s travails help hip-hop open up on mental health

HipHopPsych was interviewed in guardian following Kanye West’s hospitalisation

Julia Gottwald 20th October 2016

Teens Reject Junk Food When Healthy Eating is Framed as Rebellion

Julia wrote an article for the British Psychological Society Research Digest about a new health intervention to make teenagers eat less junk food (the article is also included on pages 9 and 10 of this newsletter.

Members’ ActivitiesA showcase for the media and public engagement activities of BAP members.

Following are some of the latest members’ activities over the past few months. All members’ activities, with links, can be found at www.bap.org.uk/members

Have you recently engaged with the public in science via the media or public events?

As you may be aware, both the Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust advocate engagement with the public regarding scientific and medical research, and BAP is keen for members to engage with the media, so that we can share our important research findings with the public, including enthusiastic students and trainees.

We would like to invite you to share your most recent media activities with us, so that we can disseminate them to the public through our website and social media.

In particular we are looking for media articles, video interviews, podcasts, websites and blogs.

Please send any links or other engagement with the media to Sarah Channing-Wright (sarah@bap.org.uk).

December 2016 13

Education Events

Certificate in Clinical Psychopharmacology

OverviewPsychopharmacology is the single most commonly used treatment modality in psychiatry. It is vital we use drugs to their optimal effect – matching our choices and regimes to the needs and symptoms of patients whilst minimising side effects and avoiding adverse interactions with other drugs. New drugs and new ways of using old ones regularly appear. With ever increasing demands on our professional time it is difficult to keep up to date. This programme for CPD in state-of-the-art psychopharmacology is tailored to emphasise practical everyday problems encountered by all prescribing psychiatrists.

Content includes: ʍ lectures

ʍ workshops

ʍ discussion sessions

Masterclasses in Clinical Psychopharmacology

OverviewThe Masterclasses are held over three consecutive days, twice a year. You can register for one, two or all three days, depending on your needs and interests. The full three day package is intended to provide a state-of-the-art update in psychopharmacology for clinicians.

Content includes: ʍ a review of the basic pharmacology

of the relevant drugs

ʍ the clinical use of those drugs

ʍ discussions around relevant BAP and NICE guidelines

ʍ questions and discussion with the speakers

Forthcoming Modules

Anxiety Disorders26th January 2017 – 27th January 2017

Bristol

Schizophrenia4th May 2017 –5th May 2017

Manchester

Drug Treatments in Affective Disorders

28th September 2017 – 29th September 2017

Newcastle

Drug Treatments in Old Age Psychiatry

19th October 2017 – 20th October 2017

Newcastle

Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology

November 2017 Newcastle

Substance Misuse7th December 2017 – 8th December 2017

Manchester

Registration fees£390 per 1.5 day module

To book a place go to www.bap.org.uk/certificate

Forthcoming modules

Day ASchizophreniaSubstance Misuse

26th April 201722 November 201725 April 201821 November 2018

Hallam Conference Centre44 Hallam StreetLondon W1W 6JJ

Day B

BipolarPerinatalADHD

27th April 201723 November 201726 April 201822 November 2018

Day C

DepressionAnxiety Sleep

28th April 201724 November 201727 April 201823 November 2018

Registration fees£330 per day, £890 for all three days

To book a place go to www.bap.org.uk/masterclasses

14 December 2016

ONLINE CPD RESOURCEA high quality, up-to-date resource taught by top experts in their field

Reviews of recent psychopharmacology papers, regularly updated

PLUS

Multiple Choice Questions, printable certificate on completion and reading lists

Schizophrenia Substance Misuse Including Comorbidity

Bipolar Disorder Perinatal Disorders

ADHD Focussing On Adult Depression

Anxiety Disorders Sleep

Old AgeChild and Adolescent

General Psychopharmacology

For more information and to subscribe go to

www.bap.org.uk/onlinecpd

£120 per year

non-members

£60

per year

members and those who have registered or attended recent

BAP meetings/courses

£45per year

multiple users (10+)

Also available on iPad

£30per year

RCPsych CPD subscribers

12 scientific themes

Partner societies from all neuroscience-related areas of interest

A major trade exhibition with up to 60 exhibitors

Student-focused sessions including the popular ‘speed-dating for careers in science’ event

Exciting programme of public engagement opportunities and events

The national celebration of neuroscience

6 plenary lectures by internationally recog-nised speakers

Discounts for BAP members

1500 delegates

40 symposia, workshops and special events

700+ posters

** REGISTER TODAY **

Professor May-Britt Moser (2014 Nobel prize winner for Physiology and Medicine) Norwegian University of Science and Technology Brain mechanisms for representing space

Professor Masud Husain University of Oxford Mechanisms underlying attention, memory and motivation, and how these are disrupted in disease

Professor Alon Chen Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry The neurobiology of stress and stress-related disorders

Professor Sarah Jayne Blakemore UCL Development of social cognition and decision making in adolescence

Professor Graham Collingridge (winner of the 2016 Brain Prize) University of Bristol/ University of Toronto Synaptic plasticity, memory, and molecules

Professor Andrea Brand University of Cambridge Genetics of stem cells in nervous system development, and how to induce neurons to regenerate

Introducing our plenary speakers….

BNA2017 key features

Poster abstract deadline = 16TH DECEMBER

Early bird registration deadline = 31ST DECEMBER

BAP member discount code

BAP-BNA2017

December 2016 15

12 scientific themes

Partner societies from all neuroscience-related areas of interest

A major trade exhibition with up to 60 exhibitors

Student-focused sessions including the popular ‘speed-dating for careers in science’ event

Exciting programme of public engagement opportunities and events

The national celebration of neuroscience

6 plenary lectures by internationally recog-nised speakers

Discounts for BAP members

1500 delegates

40 symposia, workshops and special events

700+ posters

** REGISTER TODAY **

Professor May-Britt Moser (2014 Nobel prize winner for Physiology and Medicine) Norwegian University of Science and Technology Brain mechanisms for representing space

Professor Masud Husain University of Oxford Mechanisms underlying attention, memory and motivation, and how these are disrupted in disease

Professor Alon Chen Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry The neurobiology of stress and stress-related disorders

Professor Sarah Jayne Blakemore UCL Development of social cognition and decision making in adolescence

Professor Graham Collingridge (winner of the 2016 Brain Prize) University of Bristol/ University of Toronto Synaptic plasticity, memory, and molecules

Professor Andrea Brand University of Cambridge Genetics of stem cells in nervous system development, and how to induce neurons to regenerate

Introducing our plenary speakers….

BNA2017 key features

Poster abstract deadline = 16TH DECEMBER

Early bird registration deadline = 31ST DECEMBER

BAP member discount code

BAP-BNA2017

16 December 2016

Call for SymposiaCelebrate our

31st World Congress

Neuropsychopharmacology: Meeting Global Challenges with Global Innovation

www.cinp.orgEmail us at:

cinp@cinp2018.orgRegistered Scottish Charity No SC042462

Full details of this conference can be found on