Psychiatric News (11/4) reports a study found that “more than a third of middle school students have used technology-facilitated reporting systems (TFRS),” including apps, websites, and texts, to confidentially “report concerns about friends who are in distress.” The researchers “found that 80.7% of the youth reported their concern about their peer’s distress, with 37.3% using a TFRS to do so. Youth were more likely to use a TFRS when they perceived lower levels of trust in traditional school-based figures. However, the appeal of TFRS was not purely about discretion, as youth who made use of TFRS were also highly likely to voice their concerns to a parent, friend or classmate, or trusted adult not affiliated with the school.” The study was published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Related Links:

— “More Than a Third of Middle Schoolers Turn to Technology for Reporting Peers in Distress, Psychiatric News, November 4, 2025

CNN (11/3, LaMotte) reports, “Increasing the number of steps” taken “every day may slow cognitive decline in older adults who already have biological signs of early Alzheimer’s disease, according to a new observational study.”

MedPage Today (11/3, George) reports that investigators found that “in a group of cognitively unimpaired older adults with elevated levels of amyloid-beta, Alzheimer’s-related decline was delayed by an estimated 3 years on average for those who walked 3,000-5,000 steps per day, and by 7 years in people who walked 5,000-7,500 steps per day.” The “relationship emerged only for people with elevated brain amyloid,” and “was not related to lower amyloid burden at baseline or over time.” MedPage Today adds, “Instead, higher physical activity was associated with slower amyloid-related inferior temporal tau accumulation, which mediated associations with slower cognitive decline.” The study was published in Nature Medicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (11/3, Herpen) reports a study found that “shorter total time in bed during school days and more frequent night awakenings were associated with an elevated suicide risk in U.K. adolescents.” Study participants aged 14 to 17 years “were tasked with reporting their sleep behaviors at age 14 based on six categories developed” by the Millennium Cohort Study: “bedtimes and wake times on both school and non-school days, 4-week sleep initiation intervals and 4-week frequency of nighttime awakenings.” Study results indicated that “shorter total time spent in bed on school days and more frequent night awakenings were significant predictors for suicide attempt at age 17.” The researchers “further reported that, with the frequency of awakenings acting as a predictor, rational decision-making moderated the association between night awakenings and suicide attempts.” The study was published in Sleep Advances.

Related Links:

— “Time in bed, night wakefulness linked to elevated suicide risk in UK adolescents,”Robert Herpen, Healio , November 3, 2025

ABC News (11/1, Gomez) reported that millions of Americans “are discovering just how much their plans will cost as open enrollment for Affordable Care Act insurance plans began on Nov. 1.” An analysis from KFF “found that if the enhanced premium tax credits expire, as they are currently set to do on Dec. 31, ACA enrollees will see their monthly premiums more than double – rising by roughly 114% on average. An estimated 22 million out of 24 million ACA marketplace enrollees are currently receiving a tax credit to lower their monthly premiums. Even if those credits are extended, KFF found that the amount insurers charge for ACA premiums will rise by an average 26% in 2026.”

Reuters (11/1, Niasse, Layne, Sullivan) reported that the “likelihood that enrollment will be unaffected by the fight over subsidies – whether they are extended or not – is slim. Subsidized enrollees are expected to see an average premium increase to $1,904 a year from $888 in 2025, KFF said.”

Related Links:

— “Obamacare enrollee sees premium spike over 300% as sign-up period begins: ‘This will devastate us’,”Justin Gomez, ABC News, November 1, 2025

The Hill (10/31, Coakley) reported a study published in Tobacco Control suggests that “teens and young adults who use cannabis may be significantly more likely to become regular tobacco users later on.” According to the study, “cannabis use among youth may be responsible for roughly 13% of new cases of regular tobacco use in the United States.” Researchers found that “among the younger respondents, age 12 to 17, 32.7 percent of those who used cannabis had become regular tobacco users by 2021, about 15 percentage points higher than their peers who did not use cannabis. For young adults, age 18 to 24, the difference was smaller but still notable, with 14 percent of cannabis users becoming regular tobacco users.” The Hill added, “When weighed on a national level, researchers estimate that more than 500,000 fewer young Americans might have avoided regular tobacco use if they had not previously used cannabis.”

Related Links:

— “Cannabis use may boost tobacco addiction risk in young Americans, study finds,”Amber Coakle , The Hill, October 31, 2025

Psychiatric News (10/31) reported a study found “patients with mental illness who received a model of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) that integrates local police into ACT teams (ACT-PI) had significantly fewer overall police encounters than before their entry into treatment.” The overall “rates of monthly police interactions decreased significantly for individuals after admission to the ACT-PI program, from an average of one occurrence every two months to one occurrence every three months.” In addition, “clients with a history of violence showed a decrease in violent occurrences and an increase in mental health–focused interactions with police.” According to researchers, this finding “suggests that ACT-PI program admission might reduce the risk of violent behaviors that can put staff and the public in danger while facilitating police interactions that focus on mental health.” The study was published in Psychiatric Services.

Related Links:

— “Assertive Community Treatment With Police Involvement Leads to Fewer Overall Police Encounters, Psychiatric News , October 31, 2025

CNN (10/30, McPhillips) reports, “Children may be more likely to be diagnosed with autism and other neurodevelopment disorders if their mother had” COVID-19 “while pregnant, according to a new study.” Investigators “analyzed more than 18,000 births that occurred…March 2020 and May 2021, assessing records for laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 tests among the mothers and for neurodevelopment diagnoses among their children through age 3.” The investigators “found that children born to mothers who had COVID-19 during pregnancy were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with a neurodevelopment disorder than those born to mothers who did not have an infection while pregnant: more than 16% versus less than 10%, or a 1.3 times higher risk after adjusting for other risk factors.” The findings were published in Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Related Links:

— “Autism diagnosis rates higher among children born to mothers who had Covid-19 during pregnancy, study suggests,”Deidre McPhillips, CNN, October 30, 2025

Psychiatric News (10/30) reports a study found that adults with serious mental illness (SMI) are more likely to develop long COVID, or “post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 infection (PASC).” The researchers “used health records data from the National Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network to compare outcomes over six months for 1.6 million U.S. adults with a confirmed COVID-19 infection between March 2020 and October 2022 who also attended a follow-up visit 30 or more days postinfection.” They observed that “among patients with a prior SMI, 28% developed PASC. After adjusting for demographics, people with any SMI were 10% more likely to develop PASC. The increased risk held true for each individual SMI category; COVID patients with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or recurrent depression were 7%, 14%, and 8% more likely to develop PASC, respectively.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Adults with Serious Mental Illness Face Increased Risk of Long COVID, Psychiatric News, October 30, 2025

The Los Angeles Times (10/30, Purtill) reports that clinics have advertised “something called magnetic e-resonance therapy, or MERT, as a therapy for autism.” The clinics “licensing MERT have claimed that their trademarked version of the treatment can also produce ‘miraculous results’ in kids with autism, improving their sleep, emotional regulation and communication abilities. A six-week course of MERT sessions typically costs $10,000 or more.” However, the FDA “hasn’t approved MERT for this use.” Although off-label prescribing “is a legal and common practice in medicine,” a group of researchers “argue in a new peer-reviewed editorial in the medical journal Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation” that when “such treatments are offered to vulnerable people,” they should be “evidence-based, clearly explained to patients and priced in a way that reflects the likelihood that they will work as advertised. Most clinics advertising off-label TMS as a therapy for autism don’t meet those standards, the researchers say.” The editorial singles out MERT as an “example of off-label TMS where there is negligible evidence of efficacy.”

Related Links:

— “Families pay thousands for an unproven autism treatment. Researchers say we need ethical guidelines for marketing the tech,”Corinne Purtill, Los Angeles Times, October 30, 2025

NPR (10/29, Chatterjee) reports a study found that “teens who start using cannabis before age 15 are more likely to use the drug often later in their lives.” Study results indicate that “they are also more likely to develop mental and physical health problems in young adulthood compared to their peers who did not use the drug in adolescence.” Researchers found that “early, frequent cannabis users had a 51% higher chance of seeking care for mental health problems in young adulthood compared to those who didn’t use the drug.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Teens who use weed before age 15 have more trouble later, a study finds,”Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, October 29, 2025