Authors of psychiatry articles could serve their readers better by making their work more readable, the results from new research suggest. Barbic and colleagues assessed the readability of 63 randomly selected articles from each of the eight high ranking psychiatry journals. Over 90% (460 of 504) of articles scored less than 30 on the Flesch Reading Ease Score— equivalent to a “very difficult” rating. By comparison, almost 70% of general medical articles were rated as ‘very difficult’, with articles from general medical publications being more readable than those from psychiatry journals (p<0·001). There was a trend for readability of articles to decrease as the impact factor of the journal increased (β −0·38, p<0·01). The authors concluded, “Psychiatry journals may benefit from adopting readability guidelines or minimums to ensure that the work they publish can be read, understood, and implemented.” Results from a meta-analysis highlight the increased risk of mortality in people with psychiatric illness. A meta-analysis of 148 studies suggested that there was an increased risk of mortality in people with mental disorders compared with the general population (pooled relative risk 2·22, 95% CI 2·12–2·33), with the authors estimating that mental disorders accounted for around 8 million deaths per year. Analysis of 22 studies suggested people with mental disorders had a shorter life expectancy than the general population (median 10·1 years shorter for all cause mortality, range 1·4–32 years). New research from Cartier and colleagues identifies two autism-associated genetic variants that affect dopamine regulation. With samples from two cohorts, using sequencing analysis researchers identified two different variants from two families which not were present in control samples. Both were single nucleotide variants: one in the SLC6A3 gene (dopamine transporter, hDAT R51W), and one in the STX1A gene (syntaxin 1, STX1 R26Q). Cell studies showed that induction of dopamine efflux in hDAT cells expressing STX1 R26Q was lower than in cells that expressed STX1, and the maximum uptake rate of dopamine was higher (p<0·05 for both comparisons). A similar reduction in dopamine efflux was evident in cells that expressed hDAT R51W compared with cells expressing hDAT. Results from additional studies suggested that reduced STX1 phosphorylation and interaction with DAT had a role in dopamine regulation. Researchers for the Pittsburgh Bipolar Offspring Study shed light on the antecedents of bipolar disorder in offspring of individuals affected by the condition. In their longitudinal study, researchers compared offspring of parents with bipolar disorder (n=391; 236 parents) followed up for almost 7 years, with matched control offspring (n=248; 141 parents). Participants were aged 18 years at their last assessment. Compared with their counterparts from unaffected parents, the offspring from bipolar affected parents had higher rates of many of the assessed lifetime diagnoses, including subthreshold manic or hypomanic episodes (13·3% vs 1·2%, p<0·0001) and any depressive episode (46·3% vs 21·8%, p<0·0001). Limiting analysis to only prospectively obtained data, subthreshold manic or hyopmanic occurrences were precursors to the onset of mania or hypomania (hazard ratio=7·57; 95% CI 3·09–18·6). Results from a cohort study provide insight into some of the long-term hippocampal structural changes after anti-NMDAR encephalitis. Researchers used multimodal structural imaging in 40 patients, 26·6 (SD 3·3) months after the onset of anti-NMDAR encephalitis, and compared images with those obtained from healthy control participants (n=25). Volumetric analysis showed reduced left and right hippocampal volumes in cases compared with controls, and a correlation between verbal memory performance and left hippocampal volume was evident in patients (r=0·450, p=0·005). Changes in the microstructure of the hippocampus were suggested by increased mean diffusivity in patients with anti-NMDAR encephalitis compared with controls (left, p=0·004; right, p=0·019); in patients, these indices also correlated with severity and duration and lower memory performance. The associations between blood pressure and cognitive decline in people aged 65 years or older with dementia or mild cognitive impairment are examined in an Italian cohort study by Mossello and colleagues. Over the 9 month median follow-up study period, scores on the MMSE reduced from 22·1 (SD 4·4) at baseline to 20·7 (5·8) at follow-up (p<0·001). Cognitive decline was associated with tertiles of daytime systolic blood pressure (SBP) at baseline (change in MMSE score: lowest SBP tertile −2·8 [3·8] vs highest SBP tertile (−0·7 [3·7]; p=0.003). Further analysis suggested that the association between low daytime SBP and deterioration in MMSE scores was only present in people taking blood pressure lowering medication.