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Latest News Around the Web

Physicians Should Start Screening All Women And Girls For Anxiety, Guidelines Suggest

NPR (6/11, McCammon) reports that physicians “should start screening all women and girls for anxiety, according” to “guidelines issued by the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.” Those guidelines “advise primary care doctors and other” healthcare professionals “to screen all female patients for anxiety disorders beginning at age 13.” NPR adds, “Dr. Jeanne Conry chairs the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative, a federally funded initiative administered by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.” She “says the group is recommending routine screening because patients who struggle with anxiety often don’t raise the issue with their” physicians. The clinical guideline recommendation was published online June 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “All Women Should Be Screened For Anxiety Disorders, Health Group Says, “Sarah McCammon, NPR, June 11, 2020

The Coronavirus Pandemic And Police Brutality Have Been Particularly Distressing For Young Black Americans

STAT (6/11, Glaser) reports that while the coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of many Americans, it has been particularly distressing for young black people, especially when combined with recent events. STAT adds, “Black adults have been 10% to 26% more likely than white adults to report symptoms of psychological distress in a mental health survey conducted weekly since late April by the” CDC and Census Bureau. STAT interviews four young black Americans who “are navigating far more than a disrupted senior year and a collapsed job market: Covid-19 hit their communities especially hard, and then that was compounded by seemingly limitless videos of police brutalizing people who look like them.”

Related Links:

— “For Black youth, a time of upheaval takes a toll on mental health, “Gabrielle Glaser, STAT, June 11, 2020

Opinion: Congress Can Help Americans By Passing Bill To Improve Mental Health Treatment

In an opinion piece for The Hill (6/11), psychiatrists Brian Barnett and Andrew Carlo, along with American Psychiatric Association immediate past president Bruce Schwartz, write that Americans now must “contend with a deadly virus, the worst unemployment since the Great Depression and isolating lockdown measures, as well as the national trauma of George Floyd’s horrific death at the hands of police.” They continue, “To help overcome the effects of this emotional onslaught on our minds, making high-quality mental health and addiction treatment services available to anyone who needs them is essential. For this to occur, insurers’ longstanding discrimination against those with mental illness and addiction must end. Now, as Congress considers passage of the Mental Health Parity Compliance Act, bipartisan legislation to improve mental health parity law enforcement and transparency, reaching that goal might soon become easier.”

Related Links:

— “America’s mental health is under siege — Congress can help now, “Brian Barnett, Andrew Carlo And Bruce Schwartz, The Hill, June 11, 2020

Compared To Pre-COVID-19 Counterparts, Women Who Are Pregnant During Pandemic Are Two Times As Likely To Meet Criteria For Anxiety Disorder Or Major Depressive Disorder, Study Suggests

Medscape (6/11, Boerner, Subscription Publication) reports, “Women pregnant during the pandemic are twice as likely as their pre-COVID-19 counterparts to meet the criteria for major depressive disorder or anxiety disorder, according to a recent study conducted in Quebec, Canada.” The study published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica “found that women pregnant during the pandemic were more likely to experience symptoms of severe depression and anxiety, more negativity and less positivity, and greater changes in cognition and mood than women who were pregnant before the pandemic, even after they controlled for gestational age, income, history of psychiatric diagnoses, and education.”

Related Links:

Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Some People With Substance Use Disorders Have Increased Usage During Pandemic, Survey Indicates

The Hill (6/9, Hellmann) reports researchers found “some people with substance use disorders have increased their usage during the pandemic, according to a survey” conducted by the Addiction Policy Forum. In the survey, 20 percent of respondents “said they or a family member have increased substance use since COVID-19 began.”

Related Links:

— “Substance use up amid pandemic: survey, “Jessie Hellmann, The Hill, June 9, 2020

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