The Washington Post (7/13, Zakharenko, Gilbert, Ovalle) reports that recently released federal data show “U.S. consumption of alcohol, which had already been increasing for years, accelerated during the pandemic as Americans grappled with stress and isolation.” Meanwhile, “the number of deaths caused by alcohol skyrocketed nationwide, rising more than 45 percent.” According to CDC data, “in 2021, alcohol was the primary cause of death for more than 54,000 Americans, causing nearly 17,000 more deaths than just a few years before.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

CNN (7/13, Viswanathan) reports, “Over the past few years, marijuana use has been landing more young people in the hospital, according to a new study, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Released “on Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the report analyzed nearly 540,000 cases nationwide where people under 25 years old wound up in a hospital due to complications from cannabis use.” Between 2019 and 2022, “researchers found that cannabis-related emergency department [ED] visits increased overall among kids, teens, and young adults.” Over the course of “the study period, the researchers also noted large increases in cannabis-related ED visits among kids less than ten years old.”

ABC News (7/13, Kekatos) reports, “Researchers found the largest increases in visits were among children aged 10 and younger as well as adolescents between ages 11 and 14.”

The Hill (7/13, Choi) also reports.

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— “Cannabis use landing more young people in emergency departments, study finds,”Giri Viswanathan, CNN, July 13, 2023

MedPage Today (7/13, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “When added to stable selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) treatment, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was not superior to sham stimulation for major depressive disorder (MDD),” investigators concluded in a 150-patient study that randomized 77 patients “to the active tDCS group and 73 to sham stimulation.” The findings were published online July 3 in The Lancet.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (7/12, Grossi) reports, “Sleep disturbances have a significant impact on individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” investigators concluded in the findings of a 16-study systematic review published online July 1 in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Additionally, “despite the association with higher overall PTSD severity, the effectiveness of trauma-focused psychotherapy was not inhibited when treating sleep disorder symptoms, with the exception of sleep-disordered breathing,” the review concluded.

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— “Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy Effective in Adults with PTSD Despite Sleep Disturbances,”Giuliana Grossi, HCPlive, July 12, 2023

Healio (7/12, Young) reports, “In the year since its launch, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has provided millions of Americans with timely, lifesaving care, according to a” July 11 press release from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Going forward, “the National Council for Mental Wellbeing plans to further establish the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model to ensure comprehensive crisis services are available to those in need of them, according to the release.” Additionally, “the mental health and substance use care workforce will require increases and diversification to keep up with the current increase in 988 calls, texts and chats.”

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— “‘988’ suicide hotline sees growth in first year,”Kate Young, Healio, July 12, 2023

The New York Times (7/12, Barry) reports, “As the coronavirus pandemic dragged through its second year, an increasing number of American families were so desperate to get help for depressed or suicidal children that they brought them to emergency” departments (EDs), and now, “a large-scale analysis of private insurance claims shows that this surge in acute mental health crises was driven largely by a single group – girls aged 13 to 17,” according to findings published online July 12 in JAMA Psychiatry. The study revealed that “during the second year of the pandemic, there was a 22 percent increase in teenage girls who visited” EDs “with a mental health emergency compared with a prepandemic baseline, with rises in patients with suicidal behavior and eating disorders, according to the study of 4.1 million patients.” The “proportion of teen boys visiting declined,” however.

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— “https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/health/teen-girls-depression-suicide.html,”Ellen Barry, The New York Times, July 12, 2023

USA Today (7/11, Weintraub) reports, “Racism contributes to childhood obesity, according to” findings published online in JAMA Network Open, revealing that “children as young as nine were more likely to meet the definition of obesity if they faced racism a year earlier.” The study revealed “large racial differences in the obesity rates of more than 6,000 children ages 9-11.” For example, “less than 7% of children who identified as white met the medical definition for having obesity, compared to 9% of Asian Americans, 18% of Hispanics of any race, 21% of Native Americans or Alaskan natives and more than 24% of Black Americans.”

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— “A catalyst for childhood obesity: How racism has ‘huge implications’ for health trajectory,”Karen Weintraub, USA Today, July 11, 2023

HealthDay (7/11, Gotkine) reports, “Deaths due to opioid toxicity increased during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study.” Results show “that there was a 289 percent increase in the number of unintentional deaths due to opioid toxicity, from 19,395 to 75,477.” Between 2011 and 2021, “the percentage of all deaths that were attributed to opioid toxicity increased from 1.8 to 4.5 percent.” Additionally, “by 2021, opioid toxicity was responsible for 10.2, 21.7, and 21.0 percent of deaths among those aged 15 to 19, 20 to 29, and 30 to 39 years, respectively.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Deaths Due to Opioid Toxicity Up in U.S. During COVID-19,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, July 11, 2023

Psychiatric News (7/11) reports, “Between 2007 and 2016, psychiatrists who were accepting new patients participated in insurance networks at lower rates than physicians who were not psychiatrists,” according to findings published online July 10 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. The report “also revealed that the gap in insurance acceptance between psychiatrists and nonpsychiatrists was wider for Medicare and Medicaid than for private insurance.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after analyzing “10 years of data (January 2007 to December 2016) from the National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey.”

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— “Study Highlights Gaps in Insurance Acceptance Between Psychiatrists, Other Physicians, Psychiatric News, July 11, 2023

Healio (7/11, Bascom) reports, “The prevalence of suicide ideation is comparable across people of all racial and ethnic groups who have alcohol use disorder” (AUD), “but those from underrepresented groups are less likely to be diagnosed,” according to findings published online June 19 ahead of print in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Utilizing “National Emergency Department Sample data from 2019, the researchers learned that patients from underrepresented racial and ethnic populations had significantly fewer suicide ideation diagnoses, which they wrote is ‘a key step in” emergency department “‘suicide prevention care,’ than white patients.”

Related Links:

— “Study reveals ‘concerning’ racial, ethnic disparities for suicide ideation diagnoses,”Emma Bascom, Healio, July 11, 2023