MedPage Today (11/21, Firth) reports, “Workforce shortages among mental health professionals in the U.S. were linked to increased rates of youth suicide at the county level,” researchers concluded in a study that “used data from all U.S. counties and all youth suicides (ages five to 19) from January 2015 through December 2016 obtained from death certificates through the CDC’s Compressed Mortality File, for which 2016 was the most recently released dataset.” The study “also used publicly available health professional shortage area data from the Health Resources and Services Administration.” The findings were published online Nov. 21 in JAMA Pediatrics.

HealthDay (11/21, Gotkine) also covers the study.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (11/21, Bascom) reports, “One-third of public health workers” (PHWs) “have faced some sort of workplace violence that has affected their mental health,” investigators concluded in a survey study that examined responses from 26,174 PHWs. The study revealed that “26%…experienced stigma due to their public health work, 24%…were bullied or harassed and 12%…received job-related threats.” The findings were published online Nov. 13 ahead of print in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

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— “Public health workers face workplace violence that is ‘detrimental’ to mental health “Emma Bascom , Healio, November 21, 2022

mHealth Intelligence (11/18, Melchionna) reported a study “found that despite an overall decline in visit rates throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, high telehealth availability led to better care engagement among Medicaid beneficiaries with mental health conditions treated within federally qualified health centers (FQHCs).” These “results were similar after reviewing data from patients with various diagnoses.” Theresults were published in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Telehealth Availability at FQHCs Linked to Engagement in Mental Healthcare ” Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, November 18, 2022

Psychiatric News (11/18) reported, “Using cannabis while pregnant may raise the risk of preterm birth,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from 27 studies that measured cannabis use during pregnancy and were published between 1986 and 2022.” The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Oct. 28 in the journal Addiction.

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— “Cannabis Use in Pregnancy Linked to Preterm Birth, Psychiatric News, November 18, 2022

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.”

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— “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.

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— “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.

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— “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.

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— “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