Psychiatric News (3/27) reported that on March 27, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) “praised Congress for approving a $2 trillion stimulus aid package to provide fiscal relief for Americans and businesses in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the bill “includes many provisions supported by APA that will enable psychiatrists and mental health care professionals to better respond to the pandemic.” Trump signed the measure. APA President Bruce Schwartz, MD, said, “This stimulus bill will strengthen our ability to help the millions of Americans with existing mental illnesses or substance use disorders, and more with emerging mental health issues as the pandemic unfolds.” APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, stated, “As we respond to one of the largest public health threats facing our country in decades, funding for behavioral health initiatives and expanding telemedicine is critical.”

Related Links:

— “APA Praises Mental Health Provisions in COVID-19 Stimulus Aid Package, Psychiatric News, March 27, 2020

Reuters (3/26, Bernstein, Becker) reports, “The global coronavirus pandemic has infected at least 73,000 people and killed more than 1,000 in the United States as of Thursday afternoon.” As US authorities “have told residents to remain at home and limited all but essential healthcare, the directives aimed at saving lives have hit women particularly hard, healthcare [professionals] and patients said.” Maureen Sayres Van Niel, “a psychiatrist in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and president of the American Psychiatric Association’s women’s caucus,” said: “We’re just hearing from a lot of women who are hitting a tipping point trying to do all of this. You just can’t get all the help that you normally would.”

Related Links:

— “Solo childbirth, halted fertility treatments: women’s healthcare takes hit from coronavirus, “Sharon Bernstein, Amanda Becker, Reuters, March 26, 2020

HealthDay (3/25, Preidt) reports, “Rates of anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts are all on the rise among U.S. teens,” investigators found after analyzing “data on more than 230,000 teens collected between January 2005 and December 2018 in annual U.S. federal government health surveys.” The study also revealed “a significant rise in the rates of teen girls seeking mental health care and their use of outpatient mental health services.” The findings were published online March 25 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Adolescent Students With Psychiatric Disorders May Be Less Likely To Complete Final Exams In Compulsory Schooling Relative To Peers Without Such Diagnoses, Study Indicates. MedPage Today(3/25, Hlavinka) reports, “Adolescent students with psychiatric conditions such as schizophrenia, substance use disorder, and attachment disorders were less likely to complete final exams in compulsory schooling relative to peers without such diagnoses,” researchers concluded. In the “Danish registry study” that included “629,622 school-age teens,” investigators found that “52% with mental disorders completed final exams at the end of the ninth grade, compared with 88% of students without mental disorders.” The findings were published online March 25 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “American Teens Struggling With Mental Health Issues, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay , March 25, 2020

Medscape (3/25, Brauser, Subscription Publication) reports that “with a growing number of state and regional directives to shelter in place because of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s important clinicians pay close attention to the mental health of all patients, but particularly the elderly.” The article says that while “physical distancing during this public health crisis is essential in preventing the spread of the virus,…it can come at a high cost to seniors’ mental health and well-being, resulting in loneliness, anxiety, depression, and cognitive problems.” Dr. Brent Forester, vice chair of the APA’s Council on Geriatric Psychiatry, said, “Everyone in the healthcare system is now under siege. We’re at war with this virus, and we need to approach it like that while making sure we attend to the mental health needs of our older patients.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (3/25) reports, “Nearly half of Americans are anxious about the possibility of getting COVID-19, and nearly 40% are anxious about dying or becoming seriously ill due to the virus, according to results of a national poll released” March 25 “by the American Psychiatric Association.” What’s more, “a significant majority of Americans (62%) are anxious about the possibility of family and loved ones getting COVID-19.” Poll data were collected “between March 18 and 19 through an online survey with a nationally representative sample of 1,004 adults.” In a press release, APA president Bruce Schwartz, MD, said, “During this time, it is important to do what we can to maintain self-care and manage the stress.”

Psychiatric News (3/25) provides more “takeaways from the poll,” including that “more than a third of respondents (36%) reported that coronavirus is having a serious impact on their mental health, and more than half (59%) feel that coronavirus is having a serious impact on their day-to-day lives.” In the press release, Saul Levin, MD, MPA, APA CEO and Medical director, said, “In the disruption COVID-19 is causing, everyone needs to make sure they are taking the time to take care of their own physical and mental health, [along with that of] their families, friends and work colleagues.”

Related Links:

— “APA poll shows high anxiety among Americans during COVID-19 pandemic, Healio, March 25, 2020