Dr Patsy Irizar (she/her)

Are we all leaving this horrible app and joining Blue Sky instead? Follow me bsky.app/profile/patsyi…

NEW PUBLICATION! A meta-analysis of the relationship between racial discrimination and substance use in minoritised racial/ethnic groups. The analysis found strong associations between racial discrimination and hazardous alcohol use and cannabis use. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ad…

Today, we launch a co-produced resource to help parents spot signs of jaundice in babies with dark skin tones. It will be shared with every maternity & neonatal service across the country and across primary care. You can download it here: nhsrho.org/resources/a-pa…

@gmhales As well as structural racism which is very difficult to empirically measure!

@patsy_irizar I may be wrong, but my suspicion is that racism may be increasingly less often overt and blatant, such as racist language, and more often inferred as perceptions of unfair/biased/differential treatment.

New report on the impact of racial discrimination on mental health!

@gmhales I see what you mean, it would be an interesting follow up study that would likely need to be explored qualitatively - I think for mental health as an outcome, it would make sense that perceived experiences of racism would be related to mental health

@patsy_irizar Eg I wonder to what degree rates of perceived unfairness of treatment (of any cause) differ between ethnic groups, and how understandings of the reasons for that unfairness differ?

@gmhales Though the survey asked about experiences of racism within the past year, within past 5 years, over 5 years ago and over 10 years ago, whereas it asked about symptoms of mental health in the past 2 weeks - assuming temporal ordering

@gmhales Thanks Gavin! Wider research has shown that people tend to under-report or under-estimate experiences of racism, but this study was cross-sectional so it is difficult to truly determine causal associations (i.e. it wasn’t possible to control for pre-existing mental health)

REPORT: The impact of racial discrimination on mental health 📌 'dose-response' relationship 📌 impact is cumulative, recency counts 📌 impact is direct & indirect (racism -> poorer housing -> worse mental health) manchester.ac.uk/about/news/new…

We are still recruiting veterans to share their experiences of seeking treatment for co-occurring alcohol and mental health problems! facebook.com/share/p/1E4tZA…

I'll be talking about this research at the @britsoci conference tomorrow at 11am in Lecture Theatre A!

I wrote a blog for Data Science for Health Equity, summarising the findings from my recent research. Using data science to understand how racial discrimination impacts mental health: datascienceforhealthequity.com/post/using-dat…

New article! Associations between experiences of racial discrimination and mental health, through direct and indirect pathways onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/14…

New pre-print! Ethnic inequalities in loneliness during COVID-19. Most ethnic minority groups had higher odds of loneliness, compared to white British - partly explained by socioeconomic inequalities for some ethnic groups medrxiv.org/content/10.110…

Analysis of data from the Evidence for Equality National Survey (N ~ 9000 people from minoritised ethnic groups)

Racial discrimination indirectly impacted mental health, through an increased likelihood of testing positive for Covid, financial insecurity, feelings of loneliness and a reduced sense of belonging

The increase in ethnic minority doctors bodes well for patient outcomes, but these doctors are less likely to be promoted, more likely to face disciplinary action, and more likely to report bullying. Diversity is not always a precursor to inclusion: theguardian.com/society/2025/m…

We've released a resource to help healthcare professionals spot jaundice in babies with dark skin tones. Together we can improve assessment of jaundice, prevent treatment delays, and tackle ethnic inequalities in healthcare. Download the resource here: nhsrho.org/resources/ten-…