The Hill (9/12, Hou) says, “Mental health in children and teenagers has suffered during the coronavirus pandemic,” and now, a “report from Clarify Health” of “data covering 2016 through 2021 for mental health related insurance claims for children ages 1 to 19” has found that “overall, there were increases in most claims related to mental health, sometimes very sharp increases starting in 2020.” The report (PDF) found “a 61 percent increase in mental health inpatient admissions” and “a 20 percent increase in emergency department (ED) visits.” Also, “teenagers aged 12 to 15 and 16 to 19 fared worse than the younger age groups.”

Related Links:

— “Children’s mental health issues have increased, insurance claims suggest “Chia-Yi Hou, The Hill, September 12, 2022

Psychiatric News (9/12) reports research indicates that “the more limited the resources of the neighborhood into which young refugees are settled, the more likely they are to go on to be diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder,” investigators concluded in a study that “used multiple Danish health and census registers to monitor the outcomes of 18,709 child and adolescent refugees (ages 0-16) who resettled in Denmark between 1986 and 1998.” The findings were published online Sept. 12 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Socioeconomic Status of Neighborhood Matters for Mental Health of Refugee Children, Adolescents, Psychiatric News, September 12, 2022

Healio (9/9, Downey) reported, “Older adults with dementia are at greater risk for SARS-CoV-2 infection and death, highlighting the need for close monitoring of these patients, researchers reported” in a “retrospective, population-based study” of patients in Italy. The team “reported a crude risk for infection of 6.7%, with an increased risk for infection in both women…and men,” and “also reported the crude risk for death was 31%,” according to the findings published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Increased risk for COVID-19 infection, death among adults with dementia “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, September 9, 2022

Parkinson’s News Today (9/9, Wexler) reported, “The use of antipsychotic medications is substantially more common among people with Parkinson’s disease than in the general population,” investigators concluded in a study that “included data for 20,994 people diagnosed with Parkinson’s between 1996 and 2015 as well as data for 142,944 people without Parkinson’s who were not on antipsychotics in the year before the follow-up period started.” The study also revealed that “antipsychotic use among Parkinson’s patients is evident several years before the disease is diagnosed.” The findings were published online in the journal Parkinsonism and Related Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotics Use Climbs in Years Before Parkinson’s Diagnosis: Study “Marisa Wexler, Parkinson’s News Today, September 9, 2022

CNN (9/9, Howard) reported, “After the summer launch of the new 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline number, calls to the lifeline increased 45% compared with the same time last year, and the majority of those calls were connected to a counselor, according to the” HHS. On Sept. 9, the department “released performance data detailing the number of calls, chats and texts made to the 988 lifeline in the month of August, as well as the portion of those contacts that were answered.” The article added, “Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the United States for people ages 10 to 34, according to the American Psychiatric Association, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes it as a ‘serious public health problem.’”

Related Links:

— “Calls to suicide prevention lifeline rose 45% after changeover to 988 number “Jacqueline Howard, CNN, September 9, 2022

Medscape (9/8, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports, “Clozapine or antipsychotic polytherapy appear to be the best approach in reducing the risk for a substance use disorder (SUD) in adults with schizophrenia and for preventing relapse in patients with both diagnoses,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data on more than 45,000 patients with schizophrenia from Finnish and Swedish national registries, with follow-up lasting 22 years in Finland and 11 years in Sweden.” The findings were published online Aug. 25 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (9/8, Walter) reports, “Family therapy was not necessarily more beneficial than other comparison therapies in treating pediatric patients with depression or suicidal ideation,” according to researchers who “screened 5940 records and identified 10 randomized controlled studies of family therapy for depressive disorder or suicidal ideation in adolescents with an active treatment comparison group.” The researchers “found no significant difference between family therapy and active comparison treatment for end-of-treatment levels of depression.” The research was published online in Clinical Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Family Therapy Not Superior to Other Therapies for Adolescents With Depression “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, September 8, 2022

Medscape (9/8, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports, “Feelings of detachment following a traumatic event are a marker of more severe psychiatric outcomes, including depression and anxiety,” according to findings that “highlight the importance of screening for dissociation in patients who have experienced trauma.” Researchers “used data from the larger Advancing Understanding of Recovery After Trauma (AURORA) study and included 1464 adults” and “found persistent derealization was associated with increased ventromedial prefrontal cortex (vmPFC) activity while viewing fearful faces.” The study was published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

mHealth Intelligence (9/7, Melchionna) reports, “While comparing diagnostic consistency between different methods of care, a…study found high levels of diagnostic concordance between telehealth and in-person visits overall.” Among “the 2,393 cases, 2,080 (86.9 percent) displayed diagnostic concordance between virtual and in-person visits.” Furthermore, “medical specialties also displayed a wide range of concordance levels,” according to the findings published online in JAMA Network Open, showing that “diagnostic concordance was 77.3 percent for otorhinolaryngology and 96 percent for psychiatry.”

Related Links:

— “Clinical Diagnoses Similar During Telehealth, In-Person Visits “Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, September 8, 2022

NBC News (9/7, Bendix) reports “people who felt stressed, anxious, lonely, depressed or worried about COVID before getting infected were at higher risk of developing long-term symptoms from their illness,” according to results from a survey study of “nearly 55,000 people in the United States and Canada.” The study published online in JAMA Psychiatry “showed that people who reported psychological distress before they got infected had a 32% to 46% increased risk of long COVID,” and people “who reported high levels of two or more types of psychological distress…had a 50% increased risk.”

STAT (9/7, Trang) reports the researchers “found that psychological stressors…were more predictive of…patients’ likelihood of experiencing long COVID than classically associated physical factors.”

Related Links:

— “Stress, anxiety and depression may increase the risk of long Covid, study finds “Aria Bendix, NBC News, September 7, 2022