HealthDay (2/19, Thompson ) reports, “Increased access to prescription opioids has driven up U.S. suicide rates by making it easier to women to end their lives, a new study claims.” The research “also blames a shrinking federal safety net during tough economic times for rising suicide rates.” This study, in which researchers analyzed “nearly 600,000 suicide deaths in the United States between 1990 and 2017,” was published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior.

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— “Access to Opioids Could Be Boosting Suicide Rates,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, February 19, 2024

Healio (2/16, Feller ) reports, “More than three-quarters of people with mild COVID-19 reported experiencing insomnia after recovery, and it was more common among those with anxiety or depression, according to the results of a survey.” Investigators came to this conclusion after conducting “a cross-sectional online survey of 1,056 people in Vietnam who had lab-confirmed COVID-19 in the previous 6 months and were not hospitalized.” The findings were published in Frontiers in Public Health.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 increases insomnia risk in people with anxiety, depression,”Stephen Feller, Healio , February 20, 2024

The New York Times (2/19, Caron ) reports on the negative impact that sleep difficulties can have on a person’s mood. According to the Times, “Conditions like anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and bipolar disorder can make it harder to sleep, which can then exacerbate the symptoms of mental illness, which in turn makes it harder to sleep well.” Meanwhile, “certain medications, including psychiatric drugs like antidepressants, can also cause insomnia. If a medication is to blame, talk to your doctor about switching to a different one, taking it earlier in the day or lowering the dose, said Dr. Ramaswamy Viswanathan, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at State University of New York Downstate Health Sciences University and the incoming president of the American Psychiatric Association.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (2/16, Richtel ) reported “growing numbers of children and adolescents are being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs to take simultaneously, according to a” study published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open that “looked at the prescribing patterns among patients 17 or younger enrolled in Medicaid in Maryland from 2015 to 2020.” The study “found that in 2015, 4.2 percent of Medicaid enrollees under the age of 17 in Maryland had overlapping prescriptions of three or more different classes of psychiatric medications.” The “figure rose to 4.6 percent in 2020.” The data reveal that psychotropic polypharmacy “‘was significantly more likely among youths who were disabled or in foster care,’ the new study noted.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (2/16, Richtel ) reported “growing numbers of children and adolescents are being prescribed multiple psychiatric drugs to take simultaneously, according to a” study published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open that “looked at the prescribing patterns among patients 17 or younger enrolled in Medicaid in Maryland from 2015 to 2020.” The study “found that in 2015, 4.2% of Medicaid enrollees under the age of 17 in Maryland had overlapping prescriptions of three or more different classes of psychiatric medications.” The “figure rose to 4.6% in 2020.” The data reveal that psychotropic polypharmacy “‘was significantly more likely among youths who were disabled or in foster care,’ the new study noted.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

According to USA Today (2/15, Alltucker), a report from the Commonwealth Fund and the African American Research Collaborative found that “47% of U.S. health care workers” surveyed “said they witnessed discrimination against patients, and 52% said that racism against patients was a major problem.” Researchers found that “employees at health facilities with a higher percentage of Black or Latino patients witnessed higher rates of discrimination.” The survey found that “at hospitals with a majority of Black patients, 70% of workers said they witnessed discrimination against patients based on their race or ethnicity.” Meanwhile, “for hospitals with mostly Latino patients, that figure was 61%.”

Related Links:

— “Nearly half of health care workers have witnessed racism, discrimination, report shows,”Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY, February 15, 2024

HealthDay (2/15, Miller) reports that research indicates “walking, jogging, yoga,” and “strength training…are the most effective exercises for easing depression.” Those “activities can be used on their own or combined with medication and psychotherapy, according to an evidence review.” Although “low-intensity activities like walking and yoga are OK, the more vigorous the activity, the bigger the benefits, the Australian-led team found.” The findings were published in the BMJ.

Related Links:

— “Walking, Jogging, Yoga Are All Good Medicine for Depression,”Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay, February 15, 2024

CNN (2/15, Christensen ) reports, “The percentage of overdose deaths linked to smoking drugs rose sharply in recent years, overtaking injection as the leading route of drug use involved in such deaths, according to a new report from the” CDC. Investigators “compared data on drug deaths from January to June 2020 with data from July to December 2022.” The data indicated that “the percentage of overdose deaths that involved smoking increased almost 74% – from 13.3% to 23.1% – between 2020 and 2022.” Over that “same time period, the percentage of overdose deaths involving injections fell from 22.7% to 16.1%.”

The AP (2/15, Stobbe ) reports, “The number and percentage of deaths with evidence of snorting also increased, though not as dramatically as smoking-related deaths, the study found.”

Related Links:

— “Smoking drugs now linked to more overdose deaths than injecting drugs, report finds,”Jen Christensen, CNN, February 15, 2024

The New York Times (2/14, Jewett ) reports, “The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that they would examine the causes of generic drug shortages and the practices of ‘powerful middlemen’ that are involved in the supply chain.” The investigation “is aimed at the group purchasing organizations and drug distributors that have been in the spotlight in recent months as drug shortages reached a 10-year peak.” FTC and HHS “want to examine the companies’ influence on how the drugs are sold to hospitals and other health facilities, assessing whether the middlemen put pressure on pricing and manufacturing that led to breakdowns.”

Reuters (2/14, Leo) reports, “The FTC will seek information about drug distributors and hospital purchasing groups and their contracting practices, market concentration and compensation.” The agency “will examine if these companies have misused their market power to push down prices of generic drugs so much that some manufacturers cannot profit and have stopped production, in turn causing the shortages.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (2/14, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Patients hospitalized for depression had a very high risk of suicide in the first few days after discharge, a longitudinal Finnish registry study showed.” The “analysis of nearly 200,000 hospitalizations for depression from 1996 to 2017 revealed a suicide incidence rate of 6,062 per 100,000 person-years during days 0-3 following discharge.” The data indicated that “suicide incidence remained high but fell to 3,884 per 100,000 person-years in the 4-7 days after discharge…and continued to fall thereafter.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)