Psychiatric News (11/28) reports that APA’s latest Healthy Minds Poll found that “nearly one-third of U.S. adults anticipate that this holiday season will be more stressful than last year, with costs associated with holiday gifts and meals possibly contributing to this stress.” Researchers found “of the holiday stressors respondents were asked to assess, 51% expressed at least some worry about their ability to afford holiday gifts, and 23% reported being very worried about affording gifts.”

Meanwhile, “40% reported worry about finding and securing gifts, and 39% expressed worry about affording holiday meals.” In a news release, APA President Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A., said, “Economic burdens have run high in our polling for the past few years as a source of concern, and that makes sense given the challenges we’ve all shared.”

Dr. Levounis added, “Connecting with supportive family and friends is more meaningful to our mental health than the commercial aspects of the season. The kindness with which you treat yourself and those you love during the holiday season is the very best gift you can give.”

Related Links:

— “APA Poll Finds U.S. Adults Worried About Costs Associated With Holidays,” American Psychiatric Association Psychiatric News Alert, November 28, 2023

The Hill (11/27, Choi) reports, “A new retrospective study of children’s health care coverage found that roughly 1 in 5 children did not have adequate health insurance, meaning coverage that met their needs and was reasonably affordable.”

The study, published in JAMA Health Forum, looked at “children’s health insurance coverage between 2016 and 2021. Of the more than 200,000 children that were included in the study, 34.5% had public health coverage, and 65.5% were commercially insured.” Additionally, “just 4.2% of children with public coverage and 1.4% of children with commercial coverage experienced inconsistent coverage.

Children with public health coverage, however, were less likely to experience inadequate coverage, with 12.2% having this issue, compared to 33% of children with commercial coverage.”

Related Links:

— “1 in 5 children in the US have “inadequate” health insurance coverage: Study,” Joseph Choi, The Hill, November 27, 2023

HealthDay (11/27, Thompson) says, “Whole grains could be the key to Black people protecting their brains against aging and dementia, a…study reports.” In the study published in Neurology, “among Black people, those who ate the most whole grains had brains about 8.5 years younger than those who ate the least.”

Related Links:

— “Whole Grain Foods Could Help Black Seniors Avoid Alzheimer’s,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 27, 2023

Healio (11/27, Monostra) says, “Transgender and gender-expansive young people report worse quality of life mental health scores compared with the general U.S. population, according to study data.”

In the study published in Transgender Health, over the past two years, “those who received multiple gender-confirming treatments had an increase in overall score, from 63.91 at baseline to 77.39 at follow-up. … Those who did not undergo treatment had decreases in family cohesion score from 61.67 at baseline to 30 at follow-up.”

Related Links:

— “Transgender young people report worse mental health than general population,” Michael Monostro, Healio, November 27, 2023

Healio (11/27, Welsh) reports, “About 1% of women who filled an opioid prescription after childbirth had evidence of persistent opioid use in the subsequent postpartum year, researchers reported in Obstetrics & Gynecology.” In the study, “of women who initiated opioid prescriptions after childbirth, 1,282, or 10.8 per 1,000 deliveries, had new persistent opioid use in the subsequent postpartum year

New persistent opioid use rates were higher after vaginal deliveries compared with cesarean deliveries (16 vs. 9.8 per 1,000), and rates decreased from 2013 to 2021 for cesarean (from 14.2 to 7.9 per 1,000) and vaginal (from 30.5 to 6.7 per 1,000) deliveries.”

Related Links:

— “About 1% of mothers had new persistent opioid use in the first postpartum year,” Erin T. Welsh, Healio, November 27, 2023

Medscape (11/22, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reported, “Longer cumulative use of medication to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) is associated with a small, but statistically significant, increased risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), results of a large Swedish nested case-control study suggest.” Published in JAMA Psychiatry, the study found “the increased risk was evident only for hypertension and arterial disease, was dose-dependent, and was higher for stimulant than nonstimulant AD/HD medications.”

MedPage Today (11/22, DePeau-Wilson) reported researchers “found that through the entire follow-up period, each 1-year increase in use of AD/HD drugs was tied to a 4% increased risk of CVD…and the corresponding increase for the first 3 years was 8%. … They said they saw similar results when looking at children or youth and adults separately.”

Cardiovascular Business (11/22, Walter) also reported.

Related Links:

— “ADHD medications associated with heightened CVD risk,” Michael Walter, Cardiovascular Business, November 22, 2023

The Washington Post (11/22, Malhi) said, “Drug overdose deaths among pregnant and postpartum people soared significantly between 2018 and 2021, according to a report published Wednesday.” National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) researchers “collected and analyzed data on more than 17,000 deaths, including people who were pregnant or who had been pregnant within the past year. They found that the ratio of overdose deaths more than tripled in pregnant and postpartum women ages 35 to 44, the team reports in the journal JAMA Psychiatry.”

The Hill (11/22, Robertson) reported the study found “the rate of overdoses increased from 4.9 per 100,000 women between the ages 35-44 to 15.8 in 2021, the NIH said.” The researchers “said the increasing overdose rate could signal that there are still significant barriers to addiction treatment among vulnerable populations.”

Also reporting were HealthDay (11/22, Miller), STAT (11/22, Merelli, Subscription Publication), and Psychiatric News (11/22).

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths in pregnant, postpartum women tripled in as many years: NIH,” Nick Robertson, The Hill, November 22, 2023

The American Journal of Managed Care (11/24, Jeremias) reported a study “clarified the interconnected relationship between functional impairment, quality of life (QOL), and depressive symptoms in patients with psoriasis and PsA [psoriatic arthritis], highlighting the need for…more patient-centered approaches to address the residual burden of disease and improve patient satisfaction with health.”

The study “suggested that depression is often underdiagnosed and undertreated in patients with psoriatic disease, emphasizing the need for improved screening and access to mental health services.”

The findings were published in Rheumatology and Therapy.

Related Links:

— “Study Finds Link Between Depression, Functional Impairment in Psoriasis, Psoriatic Arthritis,” Skylar Jeremias, American Journal of Managed Care, November 24, 2023

RevCycle Intelligence (11/21, LaPointe) reports, “A new analysis of data from over 1,300 hospitals and health systems by Syntellis Performance Solutions and the American Hospital Association…found a nearly 56% increase in Medicare Advantage denials from January 2022 to July 2023.” In “that period, commercial denials also increased for hospitals nationwide.” These denials increased “by about 20%.”

Related Links:

— “Medicare Advantage Denials Jump 56%, Commercial Denials 20%,”Jacqueline LaPointe , RevCycle Intelligence , November 21, 2023

HealthDay (11/21, Miller) says that a study indicated that “teen boys who reported two or more concussions in the past year were two times more likely to report a suicide attempt than those who had one concussion.” Meanwhile, “girls’ odds for suicidal behaviors were similar regardless of concussion history.” The researchwas published in the Journal of Athletic Training.

Related Links:

— “Teens With Multiple Concussions Face Higher Risk of Suicidal Thoughts,”Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay, November 21, 2023