Psychiatric News (11/15) reports, “Nearly 90% of young people who died by suicide were seen by a healthcare professional at least once in the year prior to their death, including more than 40% who were seen in the month prior to death,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from nine healthcare systems across the country that participate in the Mental Health Research Network.” Included in the “overall study population” were “4,895 young people aged 10 to 24 years, including 445 who died by suicide between January 2000 and September 2015.” The findings were published online Nov. 9 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Most Youth Who Died by Suicide Sought Health Care in Year Prior to Death, Psychiatric News , November 15, 2022

PatientEngagementHIT (11/14, Rodriguez) reports, “Hospitals throughout the United States are facing increasing levels of emergency department (ED) overcrowding, an issue” investigators “linked to worse health outcomes and even death.” After examining “more than five million discharge records to determine if ED overcrowding on the day of discharge impacts the patient length of stay, in-hospital mortality, and ED readmission,” investigators concluded that “when ED overcrowding reached its peak, patients were, on average, 5.4% more likely to die.” The findings were published online in the journal Health Services Research.

Related Links:

— “Emergency Department (ED) Overcrowding Leads to Worse Health Outcomes ” Sarai Rodriguez, PatientEngagementHIT, November 14, 2022

Psychiatric News (11/14) reports, “Adults with attachment anxiety are more likely to have severe and persistent symptoms following a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI),” researchers concluded. In the 91-adult study, “the presence of attachment anxiety following mTBI was also associated with increased depression, increased anxiety, and decreased quality of life.” The findings were published online Nov. 10 in the Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.

Related Links:

— “Attachment Anxiety Following Mild TBI Associated With Poor Outcomes, Psychiatric News , November 14, 2022

HealthDay (11/14, Roberts Murez) reports, “The brains of girls and boys who have binge eating disorder show key differences,” researchers concluded in a neuroimaging study that included “38 boys and 33 girls who had a diagnosis of binge eating disorder” who were compared to 74 matched children without binge eating disorder. The study revealed that “girls with binge eating disorder had elevated gray matter density in several parts of the brain that are known to be connected to impulse control and binge eating symptoms,” while “boys with binge eating disorder did not have elevated gray matter density in these areas,” thereby suggesting that “a crucial brain maturation process known as synaptic pruning may be uniquely altered or delayed in these girls, the researchers said.” The findings were published online Oct. 28 in the journal Psychological Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Binge Eating Disorder Looks Different in Brains of Boys and Girls “Cara Murez, HealthDay, November 14, 2022

CNN (11/14, Christensen) reports, “There has been a steady increase in the number of children who are seen in emergency” departments (EDs) “for suicidal thoughts,” an increase that “started even before the Covid-19 pandemic, which brought record high demand for psychological services for children,” researchers concluded in findings published online in Pediatrics. Using data from Illinois hospitals, researchers examined “the number of children ages five to 19 who sought help for suicide in” EDs “between January 2016 and June 2021,” finding that ED visits of children “with suicidal thoughts increased 59% from 2016-17 to 2019-21.”

HealthDay (11/14, Norton) reports, “Experts said that while the findings come from one state, they reflect what’s been going on nationally,” and “also highlight” the fact that “U.S. children and teenagers have been showing a deterioration in their mental health for years.”

Related Links:

— “Study finds ‘huge’ increase in children going to the emergency room with suicidal thoughts ” Jen Christensen, CNN, November 14, 2022

Modern Healthcare (11/14, Kacik, Hudson, Subscription Publication) reports, “Medical associations, patient advocates, public health organizations and health systems are asking for federal and state help to address the escalating number of mental health patients seeking care at hospital emergency departments” (EDs). Currently, “patients are being held in” EDs “for as long as months as they await psychiatric beds.” As a result, “the system is cracking in a demonstration of the mental healthcare safety net’s systemic failings, the” American Psychiatric Association “and 30 other industry groups wrote in a letter” (PDF) “sent to the White House on” Nov. 7.

Related Links:

— “Mental health epidemic creates emergency department backlog “Alex Kacik, Modern Healthcare, November 14, 2022

Healio (11/11, Herpen) reported, “For adults in the U.K., preexisting neuropsychiatric conditions and having a prescription for a related treatment carried a significantly increased risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19 and other severe acute respiratory infections,” investigators concluded in a study that “utilized the QResearch database of English primary care records and created two separate longitudinal cohorts, one prepandemic (2015 to 2020) group of 11,134,789 adults…and one contemporary (2020 to 2021) group of 8,388,956 adults.” The findings were published online Nov. 9 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Preexisting neuropsychiatric conditions linked to higher risk for respiratory infections “Robert Herpen, MA, Healio, November 11, 2022

Medscape (11/11, Young, Subscription Publication) reported, “Dementia prevalence is dropping in the United States,” investigators concluded. In fact, “new data from the Health and Retirement Study…show that the prevalence of dementia among individuals aged 65 and older dropped from 12.2% in 2000 to 8.5% in 2016 – a 30.1% decrease.” Additionally, the study revealed “a substantial increase in the level of education between 2000 and 2016.” The study authors theorized that “the decline in dementia prevalence reflects larger socioeconomic changes in the United States as well as prevention strategies to reduce cardiovascular disease.” The findings were published online in PNAS.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (11/11, VanDewater) reported, “Depression was associated with a lower likelihood of having children and of having fewer children for adults in Finland,” investigators concluded in the findings of a study that included “106,725 people who had depression.” The findings were published online Oct. 22 ahead of print in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Related Links:

— “Depression associated with decreased odds of having children “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, November 11, 2022

The Washington Post (11/10, Cha) reports researchers in a study on SARS-CoV-2 reinfection “said a second, third or further infections can lead to health complications just as the first can.” The study published in Nature Medicine involved “an analysis of electronic medical records in the VA’s national health care database” and “found that patients with reinfections tended to have more complications in various organ systems both during their initial illness and longer term, and they were more likely to be diagnosed with long COVID than people who did not get another infection.” These findings also “applied regardless of people’s vaccination status or whether they were boosted.”

Reuters (11/10, Lapid) reports patients with reinfection “had a more than doubled risk of death and a more than tripled risk of hospitalization compared with those who were infected with COVID just once.” Also, they “had elevated risks for problems with lungs, heart, blood, kidneys, diabetes, mental health, bones and muscles, and neurological disorders.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)