MedPage Today (2/27, George) reports, “Sparks of visual artistic creativity occurred early in frontotemporal dementia and were disproportionately observed in patients with temporal lobe-predominant degeneration, a case-control study showed.” The “burst of visual art expression was associated with damage to brain regions that normally suppress dorsomedial occipital cortex function, reported” researchers. The findings of the 17-patient study were published online in JAMA Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The AP (2/24, Seitz, Whitehurst) reported that on Friday, the Biden Administration “moved…to require patients see a doctor in person before getting attention deficit disorder medication or addictive painkillers, toughening access to the drugs against the backdrop of a deepening opioid crisis.” The Drug Enforcement Administration “said late Friday it plans to reinstate once longstanding federal requirements for powerful drugs that were waived once COVID-19 hit.” The AP added, “Patients will still be able to get common prescriptions like antibiotics, skin creams, birth control and insulin prescribed through telehealth visits.”

CNN (2/25, Millman) reported, “Prescriptions for other drugs – to help with pain or sleep, for example – could be prescribed via telehealth but a patient would need an in-person evaluation before obtaining a refill,” while Schedule II medications “necessitate an in-person appointment before any prescription can be written.”

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— “Feds seek to limit telehealth prescriptions for some drugs “Amanda Seitz and Lindsay Whitehurst, AP, February 24, 2023

Psychiatric News (2/24) reported “youth with anxiety disorders who contract COVID-19 may experience worsening anxiety symptoms,” according to an “analysis on data obtained from 26 patients” from a “longitudinal study.” Researchers “found that post-COVID-19, patients’ anxiety symptoms were significantly worse on all” Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 “subscales (including feelings of nervousness, irritability, and dread) and the” Clinical Global Impression-Severity scale. The results were published online Feb. 21 in an empirical letter to the editor in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

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— “Youth With Anxiety May Experience Worsening Symptoms After COVID-19, Psychiatric News, February 24, 2023

The New York Times (2/26, Span) reports, “Anxiety is the most common mental health disorder; a 2017 study of older adults in six countries found that more than 17 percent had experienced an anxiety disorder within the past year.” And “recently, attention to anxiety has increased because of a draft recommendation from the United States Preventive Services Task Force” urging greater screening for anxiety among adults. One author of an “editorial on late-life anxiety in JAMA Psychiatry” said, “With a common disorder that causes a lot of impairment of quality of life and that has simple, inexpensive, straightforward kinds of treatment, I think screening is called for.”

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— “Why Aren’t Doctors Screening Older Americans for Anxiety? “Paula Span, The New York Times, February 26, 2023

The Washington Post (2/23, J Sima) reports, “Inflammation in the body may be triggering or exacerbating depression in the brains of some patients,” with clinical data suggesting that “targeting and treating the inflammation may be a way to provide more-precise care.” According to the Post, “it appears that inflammatory agents in the blood can break down the barrier between the body and the brain, causing neuroinflammation and altering key neural circuits, researchers say,” and “in people at risk for depression, inflammation may be a trigger for the disorder.” The article goes on to summarize recent studies exploring how inflammation appears to be a “pathway to depression.”

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Healio (2/23, Welsh) reports that “during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a temporary increase in unstable or unsafe living situations and intimate partner violence for pregnant people in the U.S., according to” results of a “cross-sectional population-based interrupted time-series analysis” published online in JAMA Network Open. The study team “noted a 38% increase in unstable and/or unsafe living situations during the first month of the COVID-19 pandemic…and a return to the overall trend afterward for the remaining study period,” as well as “a 101% increase in intimate partner violence during the first 2 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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— “Increase in domestic violence seen early in COVID-19 pandemic among pregnant individuals “Erin T. Welsh, Healio, February 23, 2023

The Hill (2/23, Hou) reports, “Half of Americans…say the government should emphasize lowering prescription drug costs and reducing the cost of health care over other public health-related priorities,” according to the Axios-Ipsos American Health Index. In “comparison, 14 percent” of poll respondents “listed reducing gun deaths and another 14 percent cited research into cures and treatment for major diseases as a top priority for government action.” The article adds, “Asked to identify what they believe is the No. 1 threat to public health in the U.S., 26 percent listed opioids and fentanyl, 21 percent listed obesity, 17 percent pointed to access to guns or firearms, and 12 percent cited cancer.”

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— “Americans worried about rising drug costs, health bills: survey “Chia-Yi Hou, The Hill, February 23, 2023

Psychiatric News (2/22) reports, “Patients with trichotillomania (also known as hair-pulling disorder) and/or excoriation (skin-picking) disorder may experience symptom improvements while taking the Alzheimer’s medication memantine,” investigators concluded in a study that “recruited 100 adults…with a current primary DSM-5 diagnosis of trichotillomania…excoriation disorder…or both.” The findings were published online Feb. 22 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

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— “Memantine May Reduce Symptoms of Hair-Pulling, Skin-Picking Disorder, Psychiatric News, February 22, 2023

Parkinson’s News Today (2/22, Maia) reports, “Among several atypical antipsychotics, Nuplazid (pimavanserin) seems to be the most effective at easing Parkinson’s disease psychosis…while sparing motor function,” researchers concluded in the findings of a 19-study systematic review and network meta-analysis that “evaluated outcomes with Nuplazid and other atypical antipsychotics such as clozapine, quetiapine, olanzapine, ziprasidone, and risperidone.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry & Neurology.

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— “Nuplazid, clozapine treat Parkinson’s psychosis without motor decline “Margarida Maia, Parkinson’s News Today, February 22, 2023

MedPage Today (2/21, George) reports, “Being and remaining physically active throughout adulthood was linked with higher cognition at age 69,” researchers concluded in a study that “followed 1,417 participants in the 1946 British Birth Cohort, a long-running U.K. study of people born the same week in 1946.” The study revealed that “effect sizes were similar across all adult ages, suggesting that being physically active at any time in adulthood – even as little as once a month – was tied to higher cognition.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)