Politico (2/20, Ehley) reports, “The Trump administration’s war on addiction has left behind an oft forgotten piece of the problem: alcoholism and the lifelong damage it can do to children.” The Administration “has boosted treatment, research and prevention, including directing millions to help babies exposed to narcotics in the womb.” But, there has “been no similar help or attention from Washington to pregnant women who abuse alcohol, or to the children impacted by fetal alcohol syndrome.”

Related Links:

— “Harmed before birth, America’s ‘lost children’ overshadowed by opioid crisis, “Brianna Ehley, Politico, February 20, 2020

Psychiatric News (2/20) reports research indicates that patients with schizophrenia “who participate in a 12-week aerobic exercise program may continue to experience cognitive benefits months after the program ends.” For the study, investigators randomized 40 “participants with schizophrenia and other schizoaffective disorders aged 20 to 65” to “treatment as usual, which consisted of meetings with a psychiatrist, medication, case management, and rehabilitation programs over a 12-week period” or to “a 12-week aerobic exercise program in addition to receiving treatment as usual.” A year after the study ended, researchers found that “compared with the group that received treatment as usual only, those who also participated in aerobic exercise classes ‘showed significant, sustained improvements in several cognitive domains [including working memory, verbal fluency, attention, and executive function].’” The findings were published online ahead of print in the April issue of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive Benefits of Exercise in Patients With Schizophrenia Sustained Over One Year, Study Shows, Psychiatric News, February 20, 2020

Psychiatric News (2/19) reports, “Two-thirds of children and adolescents who had to stay in an emergency department (ED) for at least 24 hours with a mental health complaint had suicidal thoughts or behaviors, yet many did not receive a formal psychiatric evaluation by a psychiatrist with treatment recommendations,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data on 573 children and adolescents (average age of 14) who stayed at least 24 hours with a mental health complaint at one urban pediatric ED.” The findings were published online Feb. 17 in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Youth Who Stay in ED Overnight for Mental Health Problems Often Discharged Without Psychiatric Evaluation, Psychiatric News, February 19, 2020

Healio (2/19, Michael) reports, “Women with anxiety, depression and trauma were more likely to use cannabis during pregnancy,” researchers concluded after comparing “demographic and mental health characteristics in women with and without cannabis use during pregnancy who gave birth at centers in the Kaiser Permanente Northern California system between 2012 and 2017.” To do so, the investigative team used electronic health records. The study revealed that of six percent “of 196,022 pregnancies evaluated in the study…screened positive for prenatal cannabis.” Investigators then “determined that the odds of cannabis use during pregnancy were greater among women with anxiety disorders…depressive disorders” or both when “compared with women without those disorders.” The findings were published online Feb. 19 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Depression, anxiety, trauma linked to cannabis use in pregnancy, “Erin Michael, Healio, February 19, 2020

According to HealthDay (2/18, Preidt), investigators “analyzed nearly 4,000 firearm suicides and found that long guns, not handguns, are more often the method of choice for youths and people in rural areas.” Specifically, the “analysis of Maryland data for 2003 to 2018 revealed that about 45% of children and teens used long guns such as rifles and shotguns to kill themselves, compared to 20% of seniors.” The study’s lead author said, “Many of the safety protections that we have in place around the country typically don’t apply to long guns, and the data suggest that our strategy needs to be modified.” The findings were published online Feb. 3 in the journal Injury Epidemiology.

Related Links:

— “Shotguns Often Play Tragic Role in Rural Teens’ Suicides: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/18, Gramigna) reports, “Early improvements of individual symptoms might contribute to later treatment response among patients with Alzheimer’s disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness-Alzheimer’s Disease,” which “included data from 421 patients with DSM-IV Alzheimer’s Disease receiving antipsychotics for neuropsychiatric symptoms.” The findings of the “re-analysis study” were published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Early individual symptom response to antipsychotics impacts later response in patients with Alzheimer’s
, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 18, 2020

Healio (2/17, Gramigna) reported, “Memory suppression is vital to positive adaptation following traumatic experiences,” investigators concluded in a “brain imaging study conducted in survivors of a terrorist attack.” For the study, researchers “implemented neutral and inoffensive intrusive memories in a lab setting among a group of 102 individuals exposed to the 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, as well as 73 nonexposed individuals who were not in Paris during the attacks.” Of these people, “a total of 55 exposed individuals had been diagnosed with PTSD.” The study revealed that “upon reexperiencing intrusive memories, nonexposed individuals and exposed individuals without PTSD could adaptively suppress memory activity; however, exposed individuals with PTSD could not.” The findings were published online Feb. 14 in the journal Science.

Related Links:

— “PTSD brain mechanisms revealed using data from survivors of 2015 Paris terrorist attacks, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/17, Mozes) reports, “More than a quarter of all opioid overdoses in the United States involve teenagers, and a full fifth of those cases were likely suicide attempts,” researchers concluded after performing “an in-depth analysis of nearly 754,000 American opioid poisoning cases that occurred between 2005 and 2018,” all of which “had been reported to the U.S. National Poison Data System.” Nearly “208,000 of those cases involved children 18 years old or younger.”

MedPage Today (2/17, Boyles) reports that one “particularly troubling finding in the adolescent data was the high percentage of teens who were using opioids to attempt suicide.” The findings are scheduled for presentation this week at a meeting of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 4 Opioid ODs Involves Kids and Teens, “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, February 17, 2020

HealthDay (2/14, Preidt) reported, “U.S. soldiers who suffer a moderate or severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) are more likely to suffer” from a mental illness “than those with other serious injuries,” researchers concluded after analyzing “the records of nearly 5,000 U.S. military members – mostly from the Army or Marines – who were severely injured during combat in Iraq and Afghanistan between 2002 and 2011.” The study revealed that “71% of the severely injured soldiers in the study were later diagnosed with at least one of five mental [illnesses]: post-traumatic stress disorder…anxiety and mood disorders, adjustment reactions, schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders, and cognitive disorders.” Investigators also found that “the rate of mental [illnesses] among seriously injured soldiers is much higher than previously reported.” The findings were published online Dec. 31 in the journal Military Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Traumatic Brain Injuries Raise Risk of Psychiatric Ills in Soldiers, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 14, 2020

HealthDay (2/13) reports, “Ketamine use among electronic dance music party-goers is much higher than previously thought,” with “unintentional use” appearing “to play a role,” investigators concluded after surveying “hundreds of adults entering electronic dance music parties in New York City about their past-year drug use.” Some 200 people “provided hair samples that were analyzed to detect drug use in the past 12 months.” These hair analyses showed that even though nearly “15 percent of the party-goers said they’d used ketamine in the past year, the hair analyses showed that about 37% tested positive for ketamine,” indicating that “when both self-reported use and hair testing are taken into consideration, actual ketamine use among these party-goers is closer to 41%.” The findings were published online Jan. 29 in a research letter in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Use of Club Drug ‘Special K’ Could Be Underreported, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 13, 2020