Regius Professor of Psychiatry, King's College London; Dir King’s Centre Military Health Research; FRS; Past President RCPsych & RSM. Chelsea season ticket
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Articles by Simon Wessely
Sarin exposure, mortality and cancer incidence in UK military veterans involved in human experiments at Porton Down: 52-year follow-up
Cox regression proportional hazards models were used to compare mortality rates between sarin-exposed Porton Down veterans and non-Porton Down veterans, with age since start-of-follow-up as the time scale. First, we conducted exploratory analyses examining all-cause mortality rates by sarin exposure (any), number of sarin tests, sarin dose and sarin tests with and without chemical or physical modifiers.
Sarin exposure, mortality and cancer incidence in UK military veterans involved in human experiments at Porton Down: 52-year follow-up
Methods The Porton Down veterans cohort study was established in 2001 in response to concerns about the long-term health of former service personnel involved in chemical experiments between 1941 and 1989 as part of the ‘Service Volunteer Programme’ at the UK government research establishment, Porton Down.7 The Porton Down Veterans Cohort Study is a historical cohort study that comprises two groups of military veterans: the ‘Porton Down veterans’—all those identified from historical records at...
Relative income and its relationship with mental health in UK employees: a conceptual and methodological review.
BC, LEG and DL have no competing interests. SW is a non-executive director at NHS-England. KK is the deputy director and part funded by the NIHR Policy Research Unit in Health and Social Care Workforce. SAMS is supported by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust and the National Institute for Health and Care Research NIHR Advanced Fellowship (Dr Sharon Stevelink NIHR300592).
Public health communicators should stop telling people to rely on their instincts
News & Views Public health...
Old wine in new bottles: neurasthenia and ‘ME’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 July 2009 Synopsis The history of neurasthenia is discussed in the light of current interest in chronic fatigue, and in particular the illness called myalgic encephalomyelitis (‘ ME ’). A comparison is made of the symptoms, presumed aetiologies and treatment of both illnesses, as well as their social setting.
Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022)
Citation: Stevelink SAM, Wessely S, Fear NT, Hotopf M, Greenberg N (2022) Estimating the total prevalence of PTSD among the UK police force: Formal comment on Brewin, Miller and Burchell (2022). PLoS ONE 17(5): e0268400. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0268400 Editor: Joel Msafiri Francis, University of the Witwatersrand, SOUTH AFRICA Received: March 23, 2022; Accepted: April 27, 2022; Published: May 20, 2022 Copyright: © 2022 Stevelink et al.
Contribution of mental ill health during military service to postservice benefit claims in the UK
Contribution of mental ill health during military service to postservice benefit claims in the UK http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8127-8981Howard Burdett1, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5792-2925Nicola T Fear1, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6743-9929Simon Wessely1, Neil Greenberg2, Roberto J Rona1 1 King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, London, UK 2 Academic Department of Military Mental Health, King's College London...
When lockdown ends, euphoria for some, fear for others
The writer is professor of psychological medicine at the Institute of Psychiatry, King’s College London It is said that the initial...
Contribution of mental ill health during military service to postservice benefit claims in the UK
Contribution of mental ill health during military service to postservice benefit claims in the UK http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8127-8981Howard Burdett1, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5792-2925Nicola T Fear1, http://orcid.org/0000-0002-6743-9929Simon Wessely1, Neil Greenberg2, Roberto J Rona1 1King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London Institute of Psychiatry Psychology and Neuroscience, London, UK 2Academic Department of Military Mental Health, King's College London...
Mixed signals about the mental health of the NHS workforce
In the past few months, media headlines regarding the mental health of the UK National Health Service (NHS) workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic have reported or predicted large-scale problems ahead—eg, “Coronavirus is whipping up a mental health storm for NHS workers”, and forecasting a “tsunami” of mental health problems having “catastrophic consequences”.
Cognitive behavioural therapy for chronic fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome: outcomes from a specialist clinic in the UK
Introduction Fatigue is a ubiquitous symptom that is normally distributed in the population.1 For some people, fatigue becomes chronic and starts to affect quality of life.
The future of mental health in the UK: an election manifesto
Alastair Campbell recently told The Sunday Times that 100% of British politicians would benefit from seeing a psychiatrist. 1 Shipman T Every MP should see a shrink. The Sunday Times. Feb 15, 2015; We would not go so far, but believe that every politician would benefit from thinking more about mental health care and how to improve it. To help them with this, the Royal College of Psychiatrists has already published Making Parity a Reality, a mental health manifesto for the next UK Government.
Health-protective behaviour, social media usage and conspiracy belief during the COVID-19 public health emergency
Crossref Citations This article has been cited by the following publications. This list is generated based on data provided by CrossRef. Hantrais, Linda Allin, Paul Kritikos, Mihalis Sogomonjan, Melita Anand, Prathivadi B. Livingstone, Sonia Williams, Mark and Innes, Martin 2020. Covid-19 and the digital revolution. Contemporary Social Science, p. 1. CrossRef Google Scholar Nguyen, Hung Nguyen, Thin and Nguyen, Duc Thanh 2020.
How might the NHS protect the mental health of health-care workers after the COVID-19 crisis?
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis, many health-care workers have worked long hours in high-pressured novel circumstances characterised by trauma and moral dilemmas. Health-care workers have contended with the risk of infection, and by extension infecting their families, with outcomes seemingly worse for some, including black, Asian, and minority ethnic staff. Additionally, remote working is likely to have had its own challenges.
Why reassuring the public may not be the best way to end lockdown
With the Prime Minister set to announce changes to the UK's lockdown measures this evening, Professor Sir Simon Wessely and Dr Jo Daniels look at how the messaging is shifting. So far, the rationale for most of the decisions taken on our behalf in the coronavirus crisis has been simple – to save lives. But recent comments from political leaders and officials have introduced a new dimension – that of reassurance.
Volume 11 Issue 2 Mar/Apr 2020 Archives - Trends in Urology & Men's Health
Identifying and calling out ‘rogue doctors’ In this editorial, Roger Kirby, Editor-in-Chief on Trends in Urology and Men’s Health, discusses the impact to the medical profession from the growing list of infamous clinicians whose misdeeds have entered public consciousness Coronavirus: reducing the impact of quarantine On the 26th February 2020, a meeting was held at the Royal Society of Medicine between key advisers in UK healthcare and law enforcement to discuss quarantine measures in...
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This is not ‘panic’, it is a reasonable response to a crisis
The writer is director of the NIHR Health Protection Research Unit for Emergency Preparedness and Response at King’s College London A lot...
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The psychological effects of quarantining a city
News & Views The psychological...
Emergency preparedness and response
Emergency preparedness and response Statistics from Altmetric.com Request Permissions If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways. Copyright information: © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2020. All rights reserved.
Who is a ‘Veteran’?
There are currently an estimated 2.8–3.8 million people in the UK who fulfil the UK Ministry of Defence definition of a military veteran (a minimum of one day’s military service). Despite these numbers, there is little research on who the public views as a veteran and how this differs across society.
Understanding Definitions of the Term Among the British Public: A Research Note
There are currently an estimated 2.8–3.8 million people in the UK who fulfil the UK Ministry of Defence definition of a military veteran (a minimum of one day’s military service). Despite these numbers, there is little research on who the public views as a veteran and how this differs across society.
Mental health is front and centre at this election, but are the parties' promises deliverable?
The Policy Institute is producing a series of comment pieces analysing election manifesto pledges from the different parties across a range of policy areas. Read the full series here. It is hardly surprising, given the recent attention, that mental health would appear prominently in the manifesto of any self-respecting political party. It is hard to remember that it was not always the case.
Unemployment and benefit claims by UK veterans in the new millennium: results from a record linkage study
Unemployment and benefit claims by UK veterans in the new millennium: results from a record linkage study Howard Burdett1, Nicola T Fear2, Deirdre MacManus1, Simon Wessely1, Roberto J Rona1, Neil Greenberg1 1 King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London, UK 2 ADMMH, King's College London, London, UK Correspondence to Dr Howard Burdett, King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London SE5 9RJ, UK; howard.burdett{at}kcl.ac.uk Abstract...
Unemployment and benefit claims by UK veterans in the new millennium: results from a record linkage study
Unemployment and benefit claims by UK veterans in the new millennium: results from a record linkage study Howard Burdett1, Nicola T Fear2, Deirdre MacManus1, Simon Wessely1, Roberto J Rona1, Neil Greenberg1 1King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London, UK 2ADMMH, King's College London, London, UK Correspondence to Dr Howard Burdett, King's Centre for Military Health Research, King's College London, London SE5 9RJ, UK; howard.burdett{at}kcl.ac.uk Abstract...
Reviewing the Mental Health Act: delivering evidence-informed policy
The UK Prime Minister, Theresa May, caused some surprise when she announced, in 2017, an Independent Review of the Mental Health Act for England and Wales (MHA review). Unlike the previous review, which led to the 2007 Act, this new initiative was not driven by concerns around public safety.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome-Trials and Tribulations
Systematic reviews have 2 aims. The first is to produce an unbiased, detailed, and comprehensive synthesis of a particular subject. The second is to permit the emergence of consensus, informing but not mandating clinicians as to which interventions work for which patients. In this issue of THE JOURNAL, Whiting and colleagues1 report a major systematic qualitative review of the interventions used for treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
New Liberty Protection Safeguards
The Mental Capacity (Amendment) Bill reached parliament last week. New legislation can complement revisions to the Mental Health Act, writes Professor Sir Simon Wessely. Your father has dementia. He is in a care home. You get distressed because he no longer recognises you. But as far as you can judge he seems content. Occasionally he has been known to wander out towards a busy main road. When that happens a care worker will chase after him and guide him back into the home.
The function of ‘functional’: a mixed methods investigation
The impeccable history of ‘functional’ meant that the psychiatric use could be accepted as a ‘place holder’ for the expected physiological explication, 6 but the psychiatric soon obscured the other meanings, with associated stigma.
Emergency preparedness and response
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Choice at the End of Life
“Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass.
Different shell, same shock
In both war and illness, we tell stories to frame our suffering. We create cultural narratives of national ideology or neurophysiology to cope with adversity.
NHS England should learn a lesson from Ofsted and get tough over STPs
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Not such friendly banter? GPs and psychiatrists against the systematic denigration of their specialties
It’s just banter. That’s how people justify denigration of one medical specialty by another, and that’s what the majority of medical students believe; all specialties go through it and all specialties do it; it’s character building; it’s just a bit of fun.1But one consequence is that medical students are being put off entering certain specialties because of the stigma attached to them.1This is dangerous.
Exercise and the Prevention of Depression: Results of the HUNT Cohort Study
The purpose of the present study was to address 1) whether exercise provides protection against new-onset depression and anxiety and 2) if so, the intensity and amount of exercise required to gain protection and, lastly, 3) the mechanisms that underlie any association. A “healthy” cohort of 33,908 adults, selected on the basis of having no symptoms of common mental disorder or limiting physical health conditions, was prospectively followed for 11 years.
Mental illness and terrorism
Terrorism is a politically defined act of attack against a state by non-state actors. It is thus not just criminal behaviour but given special status as a threat to the citizens of the national state and assumed to be politically motivated. Terrorist acts are often justified as responses to oppression, discrimination, inequality, persecution, and adversity or, as in the case of Islamist extremist movements, a desire to impose an alternative religious, cultural, and legal framework on society.
Terrorism is not a symptom of mental illness
Early media reports of the killing in Russell Square last night once again saw mental illness linked to events described as "terror" or "terrorism", before there was clear information. This association was swiftly debunked when it became apparent that there was no suggestion of radicalism, but the underlying assumption that drove the initial stories was unfortunately unsurprising.
Chilcot: physical and mental legacy of Iraq war on UK service personnel
The much awaited Chilcot report focused on the legitimacy of the UK going to war in Iraq.1 But the UK citizens most directly affected by the war were members of the armed forces and their families. A total of 179 British service personnel were killed in the conflict, and many more received life changing physical and mental injuries.
Should psychiatric hospitals completely ban smoking?
The harm caused by smoking justifies prohibiting smoking throughout psychiatric hospital premises.
Public Attitudes to Mental Illness: The Influence of the Hungerford Massacre
Cite article Cite article If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice Select your citation manager software: Information, rights and permissions Information Published In Article first published: October 1988 Issue published: October 1988 Rights and permissions © 1988 The British Academy of Forensic Sciences. Request permissions for this article.
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