HealthDay (6/26, Thompson ) reports a study found that “children who’ve experienced only a single traumatic event are more than twice as likely to be chronically absent from school due to health problems.” The researchers “analyzed data from parents of more than 10,000 children 6 to 17 collected by the 2021-2022 National Health Interview Survey.” They found that children exposed to traumas such as racial or ethnic discrimination, verbal or emotional abuse, or having a parent who is incarcerated, mentally ill, or has a substance use disorder “were 2.4 times more likely to be chronically absent from school, missing at least 10% of school days due to health reasons.” Furthermore, “for each additional traumatic event they endured, their risk of health-related chronic absenteeism rose by 25%, researchers found.” Notably, exposure to violence “was associated with 2.6 times higher odds of chronic absenteeism.” The study was published in Academic Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Education Suffers After Even A Single Brush With Childhood Trauma,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, June 26, 2025

STAT (6/26, Facher, Subscription Publication) reports a study found that “compared to white patients, Black and Hispanic patients were 17.1% and 16.2% less likely, respectively, to receive either buprenorphine or naltrexone within 180 days of a health care event related to their substance use, like a nonfatal overdose or addiction-related infection.” The study is the first to “analyze data from multiple payers at once,” as it includes “data from roughly 176,000 health events related to substance use, and tracks receipt of medication based on claims data from Medicaid programs, Medicare Advantage, and private commercial insurers.” In addition, researchers found that “patients using either of the government-backed insurance options – Medicaid or Medicare Advantage – were substantially more likely to receive buprenorphine or naltrexone than those with commercial insurance.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Black, Hispanic patients significantly less likely to receive key addiction medications, study finds,” Lev Facher, STAT, June 26, 2025

HealthDay (6/25, Gotkine ) reports a systematic review and meta-analysis found that “paternal mental distress is associated with poorer child development.” The researchers “conducted a meta-analytic synthesis of the literature on the association between paternal perinatal depression, anxiety, and stress and offspring development during the first 18 years of life. Of the studies identified, 48 cohorts (from 84 studies) with 674 effect sizes met criteria for quantitative synthesis.” They observed “associations for paternal perinatal mental distress with poorer global, social-emotional, cognitive, language, and physical development in offspring. There was no evidence for adaptive and motor outcomes.” Further, they noted that “generally stronger associations were seen for postnatal than antenatal mental distress, suggesting that a more direct influence on the developing child may be exerted by the father’s mental state after birth.” The review was published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Paternal Mental Distress Linked to Poorer Offspring Development,” Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, June 25, 2025

HealthDay (6/25, Thompson ) reports a study found that “people living with an autoimmune disease are nearly twice as likely to suffer from mood problems like depression, anxiety or bipolar disorder.” According to researchers, “the risk of mood disorders is 87% to 97% higher in people suffering from rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and Graves’ syndrome,” and the “risk remains higher even after accounting for other factors like age, income and family history of psychiatric disorders.” They observed that about 29% of more than 37,800 study participants “with an autoimmune illness said they’d been previously diagnosed with a mood disorder, compared with 18% of the general population.” This figure “included more than 25% versus 15% diagnosed with depression, and 21% versus nearly 13% diagnosed with anxiety. Women with autoimmune diseases were particularly vulnerable to mood disorders, affecting 32% compared with 21% among men, results show.” The study was published in BMJ Mental Health.

Related Links:

— “Autoimmune Diseases Increase Risk Of Mood Disorders,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, June 25, 2025

HealthDay (6/23, Thompson ) reports a study found that fewer than one in five children with autism or intellectual disability covered by Medicaid “are receiving recommended genetic testing, even though guidelines urge such tests.” The researchers “analyzed claims data for more than 240,000 children 7 to 17 enrolled in either Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program from 2008 to 2016.” They observed that “genetic testing rates were highest among children with both autism and intellectual disabilities, reaching 26%. But they were just 17% for kids with autism and 13% for those with intellectual disability, results show.” Researchers noted that “rates remained low even as newer and less expensive genetic testing methods gained traction after 2013.” In addition, the study “found that Black children were less likely to receive genetic testing compared with white kids.” The study was published in Genetics in Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Genetic Tests For Autism, Intellectual Disability Not Being Done On Medicaid Kids,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, June 23, 2025

Psychiatric News (6/23) reports a new APA Health Minds poll found that 55% of adults “believe climate change is impacting Americans’ mental health, while four in 10 adults say they have personally experienced effects on their mental health.” According to the poll, 35% of respondents “worry about climate change on a weekly basis, indicating that for many, this is a persistent source of stress.” Meanwhile, 18% of respondents “said climate change was having a significant impact on their mental health, with 26% saying it was having somewhat of an impact.” The data also “highlighted generational and parental divides in perceptions of climate change’s mental health impact. Younger adults ages 18 to 34 were significantly more likely than those 65 or older to report that climate change is affecting their personal mental health (65% versus 30%). Parents (52%) were significantly more likely than non-parents (42%) to report climate change is currently impacting their mental health.”

Related Links:

— “Climate Change Significantly Affects Mental Health, Especially Among Younger Adults,” Psychiatric News, June 23, 2025

HealthDay (6/20, Solomon) reported a study found that “there are substantial racial and ethnic differences in U.S. adolescents’ use of mental health services.” The researchers analyzed “data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (2022 to 2023) to estimate racial and ethnic differences in mental health service.” They found that “the percentage of adolescents receiving any mental health visit was 31.7 percent among non-Hispanic White adolescents but was significantly lower among participants of racial and ethnic minority groups, ranging from 21.9 percent for non-Hispanic Black adolescents to 25.6 percent for Hispanic adolescents. There were also significant differences seen in prescription medication use and receipt of care in outpatient, school, and telemental health settings.” Furthermore, researchers noted “few to no racial or ethnic differences for receipt of mental health services from support groups, peer support specialists or recovery coaches, inpatient or residential settings, or emergency departments.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Racial, Ethnic Differences Seen in Teens’ Use of Mental Health Services,” Lori Solomon, HealthDay, June 20, 2025

The AP (6/18, Shastri ) reports the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline will no longer provide “tailored support options to LGBTQ+ youth and young adults on July 17, according to a statement on a federal agency’s website.” The action “preempts the Trump administration’s 2026 budget proposal to cut funding for 988’s LGBTQ+ youth and young adult services, and is raising alarm bells among LGBTQ+ advocates.” SAMHSA said in a Tuesday statement on its website that the decision was made to “no longer silo” the services and “to focus on serving all help seekers, including those previously served through the Press 3 option.” Federal data indicate “the LGBTQ+ youth program has served nearly 1.3 million callers since it started in September 2022.”

Reuters (6/18) adds that the Trevor Project, “a non-profit that provides free, specialized support to LGBT youth, said on Wednesday that its hotline would soon close as a result of the funding not being renewed.” A spokesman for the White House Office of Management and Budget “said funding would continue for 988 Lifeline, a wider suicide prevention hotline.”

Related Links:

— “Trump administration removing 988 hotline service tailored to LGBTQ+ youth in July,” Devi Shastri, Associated Press, June 18, 2025

The New York Times (6/18, Barry ) reports that a study published in JAMA found that “longer screen time at age 10 was not associated with higher rates of suicidal behavior four years later.” Instead, researchers observed that “children at higher risk for suicidal behaviors were those who told researchers their use of technology had become ‘addictive’ – that they had trouble putting it down, or felt the need to use it more and more.” They found that “by age 14, children with high or increasing addictive behavior were two to three times as likely as other children to have thoughts of suicide or to harm themselves.” It also “found higher levels of addictive use of social media, video games and mobile phones among Black and Hispanic adolescents,” and that “for nearly half of the children in the study, addictive phone use was consistently high from age 11; another 25 percent began with low addictive use, which increased steeply.”

Psychiatric News (6/18) reports the researchers used “data from 4,285 youth enrolled in the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study.” They found that “nearly half of the participants had high addictive use scores for mobile phones throughout the follow-up, and more than 40% had a high addictive use trajectory for video games. Only 10% of participants had a high addictive use trajectory for social media, but another 31% had addictive use scores that increased over time; 25% of participants also reported an increasing addictive use trajectory for mobile phones.”

Related Links:

— “Screentime Addictive Behaviors in Children Common, Tied to Later Suicidality,” Psychiatric News, June 18, 2025

HCPlive (6/17, Brooks ) reports a study found that among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and psoriatic arthritis (PsA), “depression and anxiety had reduced odds of achieving remission, although anxiety lost significance in adjusted analyses.” The study highlights “the negative impact of depressive symptoms during the first 2 years after disease diagnosis.” Researchers noted that “remission was less frequently achieved after 1 and 2 years of follow-up in both RA and PsA patients with depression or anxiety at baseline. Further analysis revealed depression and anxiety were associated with reduced odds of achieving remission in both RA and PsA. Of note, after adjustment for depression in the analyses of anxiety and vice versa, only depression remained associated with a lower likelihood of achieving remission.” The study was published in Rheumatology

Related Links:

— “Depression Reduces Remission Likelihood in Rheumatoid, Psoriatic Arthritis,” Abigail Brooks, MA, HCPLive, June 17, 2025