MedPage Today (7/17, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “A lack of institutional support topped the list of reasons why clinicians may be reluctant to intervene in addiction, according to a systematic review of 283 studies.” About “81.2% of articles stated the institutional environment was the most common reason for not intervening in addiction,” researchers found. Among “other common reasons for not intervening” were “a lack of knowledge (71.9%), a lack of skill (73.9%), and a lack of cognitive capacity (73.5%), they reported.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (7/17, Jenkins) reports, “Individuals discharged from psychiatric inpatient care appeared vulnerable to premature death and suicidal behavior, according to a study.” Researchers found that “in fully adjusted sex-stratified hazard models, cognitive disorders…and alcohol-related disorders…increased risk for premature death following psychiatric discharge.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Risk for premature death, suicide significantly higher following psychiatric discharge,”Cassandra Jenkins, Healio, July 17, 2024

ABC News (7/16, Kekatos ) reports, “Dangerously high temperatures have been sweeping across the southern, central and eastern U.S., leaving more than one-third of the country under heat alerts as of Tuesday afternoon.” Experts “tell ABC News that heat can…have a serious impact on mental health.” Research has “shown that extreme heat can exacerbate conditions such as depression, anxiety and suicide ideation.” Some “groups are especially vulnerable to the impacts of extreme heat including elderly adults, children and those with preexisting conditions, according to the American Psychiatric Association.” But, “anyone can be vulnerable to extreme heat.”

Related Links:

— “How extreme heat can impact your mental health as high temperatures sweep US,”Mary Kekatos, ABC News, July 16, 2024

The New York Times (7/16, Weiland ) reports, “More than 10 million calls, texts and chat messages have been answered by counselors working for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s three-digit hotline in the two years since it debuted, federal officials said on Tuesday.” Almost “two million of the 10 million interactions were text messages, while 1.2 million were calls answered by the Veterans Crisis Line, an option that allows service members and veterans to press 1 on a phone’s dial pad to reach help.” So far, “the Biden administration has funneled almost $1.5 billion into 988, federal officials said on Tuesday, and more than $200 million in grants will be given to states in the 2024 fiscal year to support the work.”

CNN (7/16, Davis) reports that “this year, text messages to 988 have increased 51% and calls 34% from the year before, a sign of the effects of expanded services, according to senior administration officials.”

The Hill (7/16, O’Connell-Domenech ) reports the hotline “has also answered roughly 20,000 chats and texts in Spanish, 20,000 video calls in American Sign Language and more than 475,000 calls, texts and chats from LGBTQ Americans since last year, according to” HHS.

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (7/15, McMahan) says, “About 7 percent of U.S. adults – nearly 18 million people – had suffered from long covid as of early last year, according to a recent report.” The survey also found “just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated.” The findings were published in JAMA. (One of the symptoms of long covid is depression.)

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthPayerIntelligence (7/15, Waddill ) reports, “CMS released a brief [PDF] exploring the status of children with autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Medicaid and CHIP.” About “5% of children between the ages of three and seventeen who are under public coverage have autism or ASD.” Meanwhile, “2% of children with private coverage and 2% of children without coverage were reported as having autism or ASD.” The federal agency “found that 8% of boys ages three to eleven and 8% of boys ages twelve to seventeen had autism or ASD, compared to 3% and 2% of female children respectively.”

Related Links:

— “CMS shares Medicaid, CHIP data on children with ASD, autism,”Kelsey Waddill, HealthPayerIntelligence, July 15, 2024

Psychiatric News (7/12) reported study results show that youth who took part “in a two-week family intervention to reduce time spent on smartphones and other screen media showed improved behaviors relative to youth that did not participate.” Psychiatric News added, “While acknowledging that ‘more research is needed to confirm whether these effects are sustainable in the long term,’ the study authors noted that this clinical trial data provides a causal link between a reduction in screen time and improvements in psychological symptoms.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Short-Term Digital Break Improves Child Behavior, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, July 12, 2024

The Washington Post (7/13, Blakemore) reported research examined “the reasons young adults give for not drinking, which researchers say could help in crafting public health messaging aimed at reducing alcohol abuse.” Researchers concentrated on 614 individuals who did online surveys regarding their utilization of alcohol. Of the participants, the average age of whom was 21.5, 64.5% were White and 54.2% were male. The leading reasons participants provided for abstaining from consuming alcohol “on a given day were ‘I wasn’t interested in drinking’ (83.4 percent of non-drinking days), followed by ‘I didn’t want to get drunk’ (81.8 percent) and ‘I don’t usually drink on this night of the week’ (58.7 percent, mostly Sunday through Thursday).” The findings were published in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

mHealthIntelligence (7/10, Vaidya ) reports, “Telemental healthcare service availability has declined since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), with only 79 percent of mental health treatment facilities offering telehealth after May 2023 compared to 81 percent before then, new research shows.” The study also found “the availability of audio-only telehealth declined from” 49.3% of facilities to 34.1%, “and the availability of telehealth for comorbid mental health and alcohol use disorder declined from” 76.3% of facilities to 66.5%. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Telemental health service availability declined post-PHE,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealthIntelligence, July 10, 2024

Healio (7/10, Weldon) says, “Adolescents who experienced housing insecurity beginning in infancy reported worse overall health outcomes, including anxiety and depressive symptoms, according to study results.” The study’s “findings indicate a need for screening methods that identify housing insecurity at the start, as well as policies to prevent housing insecurity and associated health outcomes in this population, researchers concluded.” The findings were published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Unstable housing in childhood associated with anxiety in adolescence,”Rose Weldon, Healio, July 10, 2024