The AP (11/18) reported, “Despite an influx of COVID-19 relief money, school districts across the country have struggled to staff up to address students’ mental health needs that have only grown since the pandemic hit.” Among 18 of the “largest school districts, 12 started this school year with fewer” mental health professionals “than they had in fall 2019, according to an analysis by Chalkbeat.” And consequently, “many school mental health professionals have caseloads that far exceed recommended limits, according to experts and advocates, and students must wait for urgently needed help.”

Related Links:

— “Schools struggle to staff up for youth mental health crisis “Annie Ma,Kalyn Belsha,Patrick Wall, The Associated Press, November 18, 2022

HealthDay (11/17, Mann) reports a large study suggests that “kids who spend long hours in day care centers aren’t any more likely” to have more externalizing behavioral problems. Investigators “reviewed teacher and/or parent reports on more than 10,000 toddlers and preschoolers who took part in seven studies spanning 1993 to 2012,” and found that “the older the kids got, the more hours a week they were spending in day care centers, but this did not result in behavioral issues.” The findings were published in Child Development.

Related Links:

— “Time Spent in Day Care Won’t Harm Child’s Development ” Denise Mann, HealthDay, November 17, 2022

According to Healio (11/17, Herpen), investigators “have developed an online platform of metrics designed to assess a patient’s risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease” (AD) “and other neurological issues.” Called the Brain Health Platform, the metrics platform “is an advanced series of tests that determine the risk for dementia by combining three measures – a Resilience Index (RI), a Vulnerability Index (VI) and a Number-Symbol Coding Task,” which, when “combined…help assess the risk for developing AD and other related conditions.” The 230-participant study revealed that “participants with abnormal test scores were 95.7% likely to be impaired.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Digital brain health platform offers rapid, accurate assessment of dementia risk “Robert Herpen, Healio, November 17, 2022

Psychiatric News (11/17) reports, “Youth with a psychiatric illness who experience at least one adverse social determinant of health – such as child welfare placement, abuse, or neglect – have a significantly increased risk of self-harm,” investigators concluded after analyzing “Ohio Medicaid claims data to identify” 244,958 “youth aged 10 to 17 who had at least one claim with a primary psychiatric diagnosis between April 2016 and December 2018.” The findings were published online Nov. 15 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Adverse Social Determinants of Health Associated With Self-Harm Among Youth, Psychiatric News, November 17, 2022

MedPage Today (11/16, DePeau-Wilson) reports “hospitalizations due to suicidality and self-harm were four or fives times more common in young people with gender dysphoria-related diagnoses compared with those without such diagnoses, a serial cross-sectional study” published in the Lancet Child and Adolescent Health showed. Among non-binary and transgender “young people ages 6 to 20 included in the Kids’ Inpatient Database for 2016 and 2019, 36% of those with gender dysphoria-related codes also had suicidality codes compared with 5% of those without gender dysphoria-related codes in 2016…and these rates were 55% versus 4% in 2019…reported” the researchers.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (11/16, Reinberg) reports research indicates that “suicide rates dipped slightly among white Americans while they rose for Black and Hispanic Americans.” While “suicide rates for white people increased from 2000 to 2018, but then dropped from 18 per 100,000 people to 17 per 100,000 in 2020,” investigators found that “among Black and Hispanic people, the suicide rate continued to increase to nearly 8 per 100,000.” The findings were published online Nov. 16 in the CDC’s NCHS Data Brief No. 450.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Rates Declining for White Americans, But Not for Minorities ” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, November 16, 2022

Psychiatric News (11/16) reports, “Individuals who take antipsychotics that increase the hormone prolactin for four years or more are at heightened risk of low-energy fractures (fractures resulting from falls from standing height or lower),” researchers concluded in a study that “used Finnish national birth registries to look at the use of prolactin-increasing and prolactin-sparing antipsychotics among 4,960 people with schizophrenia who experienced a low-energy fracture and 24,451 people with schizophrenia who did not experience a low-energy fracture, matched for age, sex, and duration of illness.” The findings were published online Nov. 5 in the Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Related Links:

— “Long-Term Use of Some Antipsychotics Increases Risk of Fractures, Study Shows, Psychiatric News, November 16, 2022

The New York Times (11/16, Blum) reports, “In October, the Food and Drug Administration confirmed…a nationwide shortage of Adderall” (amphetamine/dextroamphetamine), a shortage that is still ongoing. Patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) who suddenly discontinue the medication and go into withdrawal “may grapple with mood swings, irritability, appetite suppression and, in severe cases, suicidal thoughts.” Others may also “experience headaches, jitteriness, intense fatigue and gastrointestinal distress, said” Anish Dube, MD, “chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Children, Adolescents and Their Families.” Besides “withdrawal, Dr. Dube said the” AD/HD “that prompted patients to start medication in the first place can become even more severe when they stop medication abruptly.”

Related Links:

— “Amid the Adderall Shortage, People With A.D.H.D. Face Withdrawal and Despair “Dani Blum, The New York Times, November 16, 2022

Healthcare IT News (11/15, Fox) reports, “Combining research on provider burnout, electronic health record experiences and other data, KLAS researchers address what organizations can do to address staff shortages and patient care.” Many “of the measured contributors to burnout have become less prevalent than they were at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new Provider Burnout and the EHR Experience report from the KLAS Arch Collaborative,” but staffing shortages “are more frequently reported by all types of clinicians.” The findings showed “the stressor with the most significant drop was too much time spent on bureaucratic tasks.”

Related Links:

— “Provider burnout rates have leveled off, says KLAS report “Andrea Fox, Healthcare IT News, November 15, 2022

HealthDay (11/15) reports “high telehealth availability at federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) was associated with better care engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic for patients enrolled in Medicaid who had mental health diagnoses, according to a research letter published online Nov. 15 in JAMA Network Open.” The study “found that visit rates declined across all FQHCs during the COVID-19 pandemic, although high telehealth availability was associated with a larger relative increase in visit rates among patients with mental health diagnoses…versus lower telehealth availability.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth Ups Engagement for Medicaid Patients With Mental Health Diagnosis “Lori Solomon, HealthDay, November 15, 2022