Adolescents are digital natives, with the majority now owning their own smartphones and having internet access. Although the internet and smartphone applications (apps) can provide mental health support, little is known about how young adolescents use digital technology for mental health purposes. There are many digital health resources available for young people, but the assumption that they will be open to use them has been largely untested.

We aimed to explore how adolescents with and without raised symptoms of anxiety, depression and problematic eating use the internet on smartphones/tablets and mental health apps.

The Bristol Online Survey tool was used to deliver an online survey to 775 girls aged 11–16 years, attending a state-funded secondary school in the south-west of England. The survey was completed in class during the winter term of 2017.

A total of 98.7 and 97.4% used the internet and apps, respectively, although only 6% had used any mental health apps. Of those with raised mental health symptoms, 15–17% used or were using a mental health app, with 48.5% reporting that they would not use a mental health app.

Young female adolescents are avid users of the internet and apps but are not using digital technology for mental health purposes. Addressing concerns about digital technology are necessary to maximise the effect it can have on child and adolescent mental health.

None.

Psychotherapy can alleviate mental distress and improve quality of life, but little is known about its potential negative effects and how to determine their frequency.

To present a commentary on the current understanding and future research directions of negative effects in psychotherapy.

An anonymous survey was distributed to a select group of researchers, using an analytical framework known as strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

The researchers perceive an increased awareness of negative effects in psychotherapy in recent years, but also discuss some of the unresolved issues in relation to their definition, assessment and reporting. Qualitative methods and naturalistic designs are regarded as important to pursue, although a number of obstacles to using such methods are identified.

Negative effects of psychotherapy are multifaceted, warranting careful considerations in order for them to be monitored and reported in research settings and routine care.

None.

People with severe mental illness (SMI) show significantly shorter life expectancy, mostly due to more prevalent cardiovascular disease. Although age is a prominent contributor to contemporary risk assessment and SMI usually affects younger people, these assessments still do not reveal the actual risk. By assessing advanced glycation end products (AGEs), cardiovascular risk can be assessed independent of age.

To establish whether detection of AGEs with the AGE-reader will give a more accurate cardiovascular risk assessment in people with SMI.

We compared assessment with the AGE-reader with that of the Systematic Coronary Risk Evaluation (SCORE) table in a group of 120 patients with SMI.

The AGE-reader showed an increased cardiovascular risk more often than the SCORE table, especially in the youngest group.

Because of its ease of use and substantiation by studies done on other chronic diseases, we advocate use of the AGE-reader in daily care for patients with SMI to detect cardiovascular risk as early as possible. However, the findings of the current study should be evaluated with caution and should be seen as preliminary findings that require confirmation by a prospective longitudinal cohort study with a substantial follow-up observation period.

None.