HealthDay (10/21, Gotkine) reports a study found that “school disengagement (SD) rates were higher during the pandemic years, especially for children with mental health conditions (MHCs).” The researchers “examined temporal changes in SD and SD rates among children with MHCs in a representative sample of U.S. children aged 6 to 17 years from 2018 to 2022.” They found that “the rates of SD were higher during pandemic years versus 2018, especially for children with MHCs. Higher odds of SD were seen in 2020, 2021, and 2022 versus 2018; there were no differences between 2018. “Higher SD odds were observed in boys, those with overall health status lower than very good, those with special ed programs, those who repeated a grade, those with high rates of absenteeism, those who experienced food insecurity, those who had high residential mobility, and those from lone-parent/unmarried households.” The study was published in Pediatrics.

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— “School Disengagement Increased During Pandemic Years,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , October 21, 2025

The New York Times (10/21, Shakin) reports, “A new large-scale analysis found that the short-term cardiovascular and metabolic side effects of antidepressants vary widely by” medication. However, “the ones most commonly prescribed in the United States are linked to relatively mild issues.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “data from more than 58,000 participants across 151 studies and 17 Food and Drug Administration reports.” The findings were published in The Lancet.

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

KFF Health News (10/20, Leys) reports, “Companies running private Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans inaccurately list many mental health professionals as being available to treat the plans’ members, a new federal watchdog report says.” Investigators with the HHS’ Office of Inspector General “allege that some insurers effectively set up ‘ghost networks’ of psychologists, psychiatrists, and other mental health professionals who purportedly have agreed to treat patients covered by the publicly financed Medicare and Medicaid plans.” The report “found that 55% of mental health professionals listed as in-network by Medicare Advantage plans were not providing such care to any of the plans’ members. The figure was 28% for Medicaid managed care plans.” The report “recommends government administrators make more use of medical billing data to confirm whether health professionals listed as in-network are providing care to patients covered by private Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans.”

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— “Private Medicare, Medicaid Plans Exaggerate In-Network Mental Health Options, Watchdogs Say,”Tony Leys, KFF Health News , October 20, 2025

Psychiatric Times (10/19, J. Bender) reports a study found that the “first antipsychotic that is selected for a patient could influence the weight gained in subsequent years.” Researchers observed “that patients receiving either aripiprazole, quetiapine, olanzapine, or risperidone in the first year of treatment are most likely to have experienced weight gain in 5 years from a normal body mass index (BMI) at baseline. No significant weight gain from the normal baseline was found in that period after initial prescriptions of perphenazine, fluphenazine, or amisulpride.” The investigators also “concluded that, in addition to differences between agents in relation to the weight gain measured at 5 years, the interaction between drugs and disposition to weight gain is complex.” The study was published in Neurology and Therapy.

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— “Can the Initial Antipsychotic Influence Years of Weight Gain?,”Kenneth J. Bender, Psychiatric Times , October 19, 2025

HealthDay (10/16, Solomon) reports a study presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress found that “women with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) face delayed diagnosis and worse outcomes than men.” The researchers “analyzed differences in ADHD severity, its comorbidity with other psychiatric disorders, and its impact on psychosocial functioning by sex.” They found that “the combined ADHD subtype was the most common, affecting 48.2 percent of participants. Age of symptom onset was similar for men and women, although women were diagnosed significantly later (28.96 versus 24.13 years). Men more frequently had legal problems than women (18.1 versus 6.6 percent). Women with ADHD had worse outcomes, including higher symptom severity, worse psychosocial functioning, and greater disability, as well as higher rates of depression and anxiety.” The study was also published in European Psychiatry.

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— “Women With ADHD Face Later Diagnosis, Worse Outcomes Than Men,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, October 16, 2025

USA Today (10/16, Alltucker) reports a new survey of LGBTQ+ teens and young adults issued by the Trevor Project found that “68% had anxiety and 54% had symptoms of depression. Those were both increases over 57% who reported anxiety and 48% who had depression when the survey launched in September 2023.” The survey, comprising nearly 1,700 youths between the ages of 13 to 24 and “focused on suicide prevention, also found suicide ideation grew from 41% to 47% over the one-year period while suicide attempts decreased from 11% to 7%.” The results also indicated that “suicide attempts were higher than estimates for cisgender heterosexual peers. Transgender, nonbinary, and gender-questioning youth and survey participants aged 13 to 17 had the poorest mental health and highest risk for suicide, the survey said.”

Psychiatric News (10/16) also provides coverage.

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— “Mental health worsens over one year for LGBTQ+ youth, survey finds,”Ken Alltucker, USA TODAY, October 16, 2025

MedPage Today (10/15, George) reports a study found that “older adults with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia who were newly prescribed benzodiazepines or antipsychotic drugs in hospice had higher mortality than those who didn’t get the drugs.” Researchers observed that “starting either benzodiazepines or antipsychotic drugs in hospice was tied to a higher 180-day mortality compared with nonuse.” The findings “were consistent across propensity score-weighted models and as cumulative exposure increased,” which highlight the “need for careful prescribing decisions and dementia-specific hospice prescribing guidelines, the researchers noted.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Psychiatric News (10/15) adds that “researchers found that patients who had begun taking benzodiazepines and antipsychotics had a 41% and a 16% increased risk of dying within 180 days, respectively, compared with their matched peers who did not start the medications. The increased mortality risk remained significant when only including adults with a primary diagnosis of ADRD or only including those taking neither medication upon entering hospice.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (10/15, A1, Sima) reports a new study “suggests that even light alcohol consumption can increase dementia risk. The finding comes from data of more than 550,000 adults ages 56 to 72, as well as genetics information from 2.4 million study participants.” Specifically, researchers found that “every threefold increase in drinking prevalence upped lifetime dementia risk by 15 percent. That is, increasing intake from one drink to three drinks per week or from three drinks to nine drinks per week was associated with a 15 percent increased risk of dementia. The study also countered previous research that found that alcohol was ‘protective’ or that light to moderate drinkers had the lowest dementia risk, even when compared with nondrinkers.” Overall, it “adds to evidence that even small amounts of alcohol can be harmful to our health, including increasing the risk of cancer or disrupting sleep.” The study was published in BMJ Evidence-Based Medicine.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (10/14, Leiser) reports, “Depression may affect a person’s likelihood of achieving optimal recovery after cancer surgery, according to retrospective study results.” The “analysis of more than 32,000 adults with abdominal cancer showed those with comorbid depression had significantly worse postoperative outcomes.” The findings were published in Psycho-Oncology.

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— “Depression linked to poorer outcomes after cancer surgery,”Mark Leiser, Healio, October 14, 2025

Healio (10/14, Rhoades) reports a study found that “alcohol-induced deaths nearly doubled in the United States from 1999 to 2024.” The researchers analyzed “yearly and monthly data, taken from the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System and the U.S. Census, to determine changes in alcohol-induced deaths from 1999 to 2024. They found that alcohol-induced deaths overall rose by 89% during the study period, with fatalities peaking at 54,258 in 2021. Deaths from alcohol in 2024 dropped to 13.2 fatalities per 100,000 but were still 11% higher vs. those in 2019.” They found that “most of these deaths were attributable to alcoholic liver disease, followed by alcohol-related mental and behavioral disorders.” While more men were impacted across all age and racial groups, researchers highlighted that the “greatest rise in alcohol-induced deaths overall between 1999 and 2024 was 255% among women aged 25 to 34 years, followed by 188% among men aged 25 to 34 years.” The study was published in PLOS Global Public.

Related Links:

— “New data reveal ‘striking’ rise in alcohol-induced deaths, “Lori Solomon, HealthDay , October 14, 2025