Kaiser Health News (5/17, Rosenthal) reports, “In the past few years, 10,000 to 20,000 apps have stampeded into the mental health space, offering to ‘disrupt’ traditional therapy,” and now, “with the frenzy around AI innovations like ChatGPT, the claim that chatbots can provide mental healthcare is on the horizon.” Still, “in the mental health space, evidence of effectiveness is lacking.” In fact, “few of the many apps on the market have independent outcomes research showing they help; most haven’t been scrutinized at all by the FDA.” Even though they are “marketed to treat conditions such as anxiety, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and depression, or to predict suicidal tendencies, many warn users (in small print) that they are ‘not intended to be medical, behavioral health or other healthcare service’ or ‘not an FDA cleared product.’”

Related Links:

— “An AI Chatbot May Be Your Next Therapist. Will It Actually Help Your Mental Health? “Elisabeth Rosenthal, Kaiser Health News, May 17, 2023

CNN (5/17, McPhillips) reports, “Depression is more widespread than ever in the United States, according to” new survey data from Gallup that indicated that “about 18% of adults – more than one in six – say they are depressed or receiving treatment for depression.” Additionally, “nearly three in 10 adults have been clinically diagnosed with depression at some point in their lifetime, according to the survey, which is also a record high.” The findings emphasize the “undeniable toll” taken on mental health by the Covid-19 pandemic. Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD, “president of the American Psychiatric Association, which was not involved in the new research,” stated, “The fact that Americans are more depressed and struggling after this time of incredible stress and isolation is perhaps not surprising.” Dr. Brendel added, “There are lingering effects on our health, especially our mental health, from the past three years that disrupted everything we knew.”

STAT (5/17, Owermohle, Subscription Publication) reports that “the Gallup survey of more than 5,000 adults in late February indicates that depression, already labeled a crisis among children amid Covid-19 shutdowns and social media use, is much more widespread.” In particular, “depression rates have sharply risen among women and Black and Hispanic people.” These “data come as the Biden administration tries to overhaul mental healthcare costs and boost the number of healthcare workers licensed to practice behavioral health care.” In this year’s budget, Congress “also allotted hundreds of millions of dollars to mental health care grants and programs, many of them trained on children or substance misuse.” Also covering the story are The Hill (5/17, Sforza) and Forbes (5/17, Japsen).

Related Links:

— “More than 1 in 6 adults have depression as rates rise to record levels in the US, survey finds “Deidre McPhillips, CNN, May 17, 2023

The New York Times (5/16, Rabin) reports that an “online survey of nearly 1,800 American women found that in the early days of the pandemic, fear of childbirth, “may have affected the majority of American women: 62% of pregnant respondents reported high levels of fear and worry about childbirth.” The survey indicated that “more than 80% of the women said that because of the pandemic, they were worried that they would not have the support person they wanted in the hospital with them while in labor, that their baby might be taken away if they were diagnosed with COVID or that they might infect their baby if they had the virus.” Meanwhile, “Black mothers, who face almost three times the risk of dying from pregnancy-related complications, were” nearly “twice as likely to have a strong fear of childbirth as white mothers.” The findings were published in Evolution, Medicine, and Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Many Women Have an Intense Fear of Childbirth, Survey Suggests “Roni Caryn Rabin, The New York Times, May 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (5/16) reports, “Older adults who use the internet regularly have nearly half the risk of dementia as adults with limited internet use,” according to findingspublished online May 3 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The study, which “included 18,154 adults aged 50 to 64 who did not have dementia at baseline and who responded to at least one survey between 2002 and 2016,” also indicated that “the more years of regular internet use, the more pronounced the anti dementia benefits become.”

Related Links:

— “Regular Internet Use May Lower Dementia Risk in Older Adults, Psychiatric News, May 16, 2023

Healio (5/16, VanDewater) reports, “Among people with depression, the most common reasons for hospitalization were physical conditions rather than psychiatric ones,” investigators concluded in findingspublished online May 3 in JAMA Psychiatry. After analyzing “data from the U.K. Biobank, the Finnish Health and Social Support Study” and “the Finnish Public Sector Study…to identify associations between self-reported or physician-diagnosed depression and reason for hospitalization,” the study team found not only that “people with depression were most likely to be hospitalized for an endocrine, musculoskeletal or vascular disease,” but also that depression was associated “to the progression of heart disease and diabetes.”

Related Links:

— “People with depression commonly hospitalized for physical medical conditions “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, May 16, 2023

Reuters (5/16, Heavey) reports, “The Biden administration is seeking to meet with the makers of the life-saving medication naloxone used to reverse opioid overdoses in an effort to increase access and reduce cost, a spokesperson for the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy” (ONDCP) announced. ONDCP Director Dr. Rahul Gupta “‘plans to have conversations with manufacturers to share his key principle moving forward: the easier it is for people to access naloxone, the more lives we can save,’ the spokesperson said.”

Related Links:

— “White House wants to improve access to opioid overdose reversal medication “Susan Heavey, Reuters, May 16, 2023

The New York Times (5/15, Kolata) reports that researchers have discovered a genetic mutation in one patient that appears to delay Alzheimer’s disease from entering the patient’s entorhinal cortex, even though brain scans “revealed severe atrophying and…rough, hard, amyloid plaques and spaghetti-like tangles of tau proteins.” This particular “mutation results in a potent version of a protein, Reelin, in the entorhinal cortex,” and this “super-potent Reelin ultimately prevents tangled strands of tau proteins from sticking together and forming the structures that are a characteristic of Alzheimer’s.” The discovery has prompted researchers to investigate this as a potential target in developing the next generation of Alzheimer’s therapeutics. The findings of the research were published in Nature Medicine.

The Washington Post (5/15, A1, Johnson) reports that “this man is only the second patient identified with the miraculous ability to defy the devastating Alzheimer’s gene.” A previously known patient with a different mutation also had a brain “clogged with the characteristic amyloid plaques of Alzheimer’s, [but] it was relatively free of the tangles of tau that are also associated with the disease.” Investigators “did find an overlap between the two different gene mutations that helped protect these individuals: Both mutations affect proteins that bind to the same receptors on the surfaces of brain cells.”

Related Links:

— “Mutation Protected Man From Alzheimer’s Disease, Hinting at Treatment “Gina Kolata, The New York Times, May 15, 2023

Healio (5/15, VanDewater) reports, “Most self-harm diagnoses occurred within 24 months of a dementia diagnosis, and vice versa, with a greater risk for self-harm within six to 12 months after dementia diagnosis,” researchers concluded in a study that “linked data from” Australia’s “Admitted Patient Data Collection, the ED Data Collection, the Mental Health Ambulatory Data Collection, the New South Wales (NSW) Registry of Births, Death and Marriages and the NSW Cause of Death Unit Record File” to “identify 154,811 people who had no history of self-harm who were diagnosed with dementia between July 2001 and December 2014 – termed the dementia cohort – and 28,972 people who had no history of dementia who were diagnosed with self-harm between January 2005 and December 2014 – termed the self-harm cohort.” The findings were published online May 1 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Related Links:

— “Dementia diagnosis increases self-harm risk in first year “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, May 15, 2023

HealthDay (5/15, Murez) reports, “While people might assume suicide is more common in the darker months of winter, it actually peaks in spring and early summer,” according to findings published online May 12 in the journal Translational Psychiatry. After examining questionnaire data from some “10,000 people in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom…about their moods and thoughts around suicide and self-harm over a six-year period,” investigators also found that “suicidal thoughts peak in December but then take a few months to reach a ‘tipping point,’” and people appear to be “most vulnerable to ending their lives between 4 and 5 a.m.”

Related Links:

— “Study Shows Season, Time of Day When Suicidal Thoughts Most Likely “Cara Murez, HealthDay, May 15, 2023

Psychiatric News (5/15) reports, “Seven in ten American adults reported that they felt anxious or extremely anxious about keeping themselves or their families safe, according to a recent APA Healthy Minds Poll” that sampled 2,201 adults. Even though “this is an improvement over the 80% of adults who expressed anxiety over their safety and that of their loved ones in 2020 (during the early days of the pandemic), the percentage reporting anxiety about keeping safe has increased since 2022.” APA President Rebecca Brendel, MD, JD, said, “Ongoing stress about our basic needs can lead to other negative mental health effects.” Dr. Brendel added, “The impact of this stress means that psychiatrists will need to continue work with the communities they serve, the larger mental health field, and policymakers to ensure those who need care can access it.”

Related Links:

— “Americans Feel Worried About Their Safety, APA Poll Finds, Psychiatric News , May 15, 2023