HCPlive (3/16, Walter) reports “new research from Scandinavia” suggests “pregnant women treated with antidepressants do benefit more from the continued use of the treatment.” In their “cohort study, the investigators” looked at “nationwide registers in Denmark and Norway involving 41,475 live-born singleton pregnancies in Denmark between 1997-2016 and 16,459 live-born singleton pregnancies in Norway between 2009-2018 for women who filled at least 1 antidepressant prescription within 6 months prior to pregnancy.” Investigators “obtained data on antidepressant prescription fills from the prescription registers and modeled antidepressant treatment during pregnancy using the k-means longitudinal method.” The findings were published online March 8 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Pregnant Women With Severe Mental Illness Benefit From Continued Antidepressant Use “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, March 16, 2023

The AP (3/15, Seitz, Miller) reports that on Wednesday, President Biden “said his administration was focused ‘intensely’ on lowering health care costs.” Speaking in Las Vegas, Biden discussed how the Administration is rolling out provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act “that cap the price of insulin, make most vaccines free and allow the federal government to negotiate deals on a handful of pharmaceutical drugs for Medicare enrollees.”

Related Links:

— “Biden says he’s focused ‘intensely’ on lowering drug costs “Amanda Seitz and Zeke Miller, AP , March 15, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/15) reports, “Individuals with gender dysphoria who lived in California were significantly more likely to undergo gender-affirming surgery following the 2013 implementation of a state law prohibiting insurance discrimination against gender-affirming care compared with those living in Arizona and Washington, where no such law exists,” according to new research examining 25,252 transgender and gender-diverse patients in California, Washington, and Arizona. The findings were published online March 14 in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “California Insurance Law Linked to Increase in Gender-Affirming Surgery, Psychiatric News, March 15, 2023

Healio (3/14, Burba) reports, “Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 during the first 3 months of the pandemic had a twofold higher risk for developing alcohol use disorder, likely driven by anxiety and fear surrounding the pandemic, according to new research.” The findingswere published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “New-onset alcohol use disorder spiked in first 3 months of COVID-19 pandemic “Kate Burba, Healio, March 14, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/14) provides coverage of new research comprising 318 women highlighting “some of the impact that worries about COVID-19 may have had on the mental health of women and their offspring.” Researchers observed that “COVID-19-related stress was significantly associated with maternal postpartum distress, depression, and GAD [general anxiety disorder] as well as infant negative affectivity, even when controlling for COVID-19 risk reported during the pandemic.” The findings were published online March 14 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 Stress During Pregnancy Associated With Worse Postpartum Outcomes, Psychiatric News, March 14, 2023

mHealth Intelligence (3/14, Vaidya) reports “telehealth-delivered behavioral health services spiked 45-fold since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from market research firm Trilliant Health.” The data show that “by the second quarter of 2022, behavioral health visit volumes were 18 percent higher than pre-pandemic levels.” Furthermore, “demand for these services grew faster than the national average in nine of the 10 largest metropolitan core-based statistical areas.”

Related Links:

— “Virtual Behavioral Health Use Increases 45-Fold During Pandemic “Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence, March 14, 2023

CNN (3/13, LaMotte) reports “sleeping less than six hours the night before you get” a vaccine “may limit your body’s response to the vaccine, reducing protection against the virus or bacteria, according to a…study.” Notably, “the impact of poor sleep on immune response to a vaccine was only scientifically relevant in men.” In terms of “why would a man’s immunity be affected when a woman’s was not,” researchers said, “The evidence is that these differences reflect hormonal, genetic and environmental differences, which can change over the lifespan, so these differences may be less prominent among older adults.” The findings were published in Current Biology.

Related Links:

— “Sleep affects your immunity after vaccination. Here’s how “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, March 13, 2023

Modern Healthcare (3/13, Devereaux, Subscription Publication) reports, “Pediatric mental health, violence against clinicians and uncertainty around reproductive care are among the most pressing issues for health system leadership to address this year, according to ECRI’s 2023 list of top 10 patient safety concerns” that “stems from recent studies, patient safety databases and in-depth conversations with industry stakeholders.” In addition, the report (PDF) “advises systems on how to solve industrywide problems such as delayed sepsis treatment, medication errors and preventable harm due to missed care.”

Related Links:

— “Modern Healthcare, Requires subscription

Psychiatric News (3/13) reports a study published online March 7 “in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has found that children who together with their families participated in a bereavement program within 2.5 years of the death were less likely to experience depression up to 15 years later.” The researchers “enrolled 244 youth aged 8 to 16 who had experienced the death of a parent 3 to 30 months prior to the study and their caregivers for a randomized, controlled trial.”

Related Links:

— “Family Bereavement Program Offers Long-Term Protection Against Depression, Psychiatric News, March 13, 2023

Kaiser Health News (3/10, Sausser) reported, “Originally focused on the costliest types of care, such as cancer treatment, insurers now commonly require prior authorization for many mundane medical encounters, including basic imaging and prescription refills.” In a 2021 survey (PDF) from the “American Medical Association, 40% of physicians said they have staffers who work exclusively on prior authorization.” Moreover, “instead of providing a guardrail against useless, expensive treatment, pre-authorization prevents patients from getting the vital care they need, researchers and doctors say.” The federal government in December “proposed several changes that would force health plans…to speed up prior authorization decisions and provide more information about the reasons for denials,” and several states “have passed their own laws governing the process.” While groups including AMA “have expressed support for the proposed changes, some doctors feel they don’t go far enough.”

Related Links:

— “Insurance requirements for prior authorization may prompt ‘devastating’ delays “Lauren Sausser, Kaiser Health News, March 10, 2023