MedPage Today (3/6, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Intravenous esketamine given during and after C-section diminished postpartum depression (PPD) symptoms early after birth, a randomized controlled trial in China showed.” Investigators found that “women who received IV esketamine had a significantly lower prevalence of PPD symptoms 7 days after birth compared with those who didn’t get the drug.” But, “there were no differences in PPD symptoms between groups at days 14, 28, or 42 after birth.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (3/6, Thompson ) reports that “a new study says some women are at more risk than others for menopause-linked mental health issues, and many escape them altogether.” Researchers found that “there’s no evidence that menopause causes a universal rise in risk for mental health conditions like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder or psychosis.” Rather, “certain groups of women are more likely to have mental health problems during menopause – those with previous depression or depressive symptoms, those whose sleep is disturbed by nighttime hot flashes, and those who had a stressful life event around the time of menopause.” The findings were published in The Lancet.

Psychiatric News (3/6) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Some Women Escape the Mental Health Effects of Menopause: Study,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, March 6, 2024

Psychiatric News (3/5) reports, “Frequent cannabis use may raise the risk of heart attack and stroke, a study…has found.” Investigators came to this conclusion after examining “data from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS) between 2016 and 2020.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Frequent Cannabis Use Raises Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Psychiatric News, March 5, 2024

Healio (3/5, Weldon) reports, “Mass shootings on school campuses in the United States have become more deadly over the last 25 years, according to a study published in Pediatrics.” Overall, during that time frame “there were 1,453 school shootings. During the most recent 5 school years, there was a substantially higher number of school shootings than the prior 15 years combined, at a total of 794 shootings between 2017 and 2022.” Additionally, “there were an average of 7.6 fatalities in five school mass shooting[s] from 1997-1998 to 2011-2012 compared with 14 in six school mass shootings from 2012-2013 to 2021-2022.”

Related Links:

— “Study: US school shootings more deadly since 1997,”Rose Weldon, Healio, March 5, 2024

The New York Times (3/4, Baumgaertner ) reports, “Toddlers who are exposed to more screen time have fewer conversations with their parents or caregivers by an array of measures. They say less, hear less and have fewer back-and-forth exchanges with adults compared with children who spend less time in front of screens.” These results, “published on Monday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, make up one of the first sets of longitudinal evidence to confirm an intuitive reality: Screens are not just linked to higher rates of obesity, depression and hyperactivity among children; they also curb face-to-face interactions at home – with long-term implications that could be worrisome.”

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