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.

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— 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.

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— 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.”

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

MedPage Today (9/7, Monaco) reports, “The percentage of young U.S. adults receiving mental health treatment increased by nearly 5% from 2019 to 2021, according to National Health Interview Survey data.” In total, “the proportion of adults receiving mental health treatment – defined as receiving counseling, therapy, taking a medication, or any combination of the three – increased from 19.2% in 2019 to 21.6% by 2021,” but “this appeared to be driven by an uptick in mental health treatment for younger adults between the ages of 18 and 44, whose rates of mental health treatment jumped from 18.5% in 2019 to 23.2% in 2021.” These data were published online in an NCHS Data Brief.

HealthDay (9/7, Mundell) reports, “Young white American adults had the highest use of mental health care in 2021 (30.4%), while rates were much lower among young Black adults (14.8%), Hispanics (12.8%) and Asians (10.8%)

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

CNN (9/6, LaMotte) reports that to reduce the risk for dementia, people “need between 3,800 and 9,800 [steps] each day,” according to findings published online in a brief report in JAMA Neurology. The study found that people aged 40-79 “who took 9,826 steps per day were 50% less likely to develop dementia within seven years.” In addition, people with a pace of over 40 steps a minute “were able to cut their risk of dementia by 57% with just 6,315 steps a day.”

Related Links:

— “Walk this number of steps each day to cut your risk of dementia “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, September 6, 2022

The New York Times (9/6, Blum) reports, “As increasing numbers of people turn to melatonin, and more report taking high doses of the supplement, those who try to give up the supplement might find the process harder than they anticipated.” For instance, on social media platforms, people are “swapping stories about craving the supplement, or being unable to sleep without it,” and stressing “over how to stop taking melatonin after years of nightly use.” The Times adds, “Taking the supplement for years likely poses minimal risk for the average person, experts said, but there isn’t enough evidence to say for sure.”

Related Links:

— “Can You Get Hooked on Melatonin? “Dani Blum, The New York Times, September 6, 2022

HCPlive (9/6, Walter) reports research indicates that “pediatric patients with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) appear to be at “increased risk of injuries and hospitalization because of the injuries.” Investigators came to this conclusion after evaluating data on “4658 patients with” AD/HD “aged six to 18 years” who “were matched with 18,632 sex-, age- and index day-matched…control participants” without AD/HD. The findings were published online Sept. 6 in the journal Psychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences.

Related Links:

— “Patients With ADHD at an Increased Risk of Injuries “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, September 6, 2022

HCPlive (9/5, Walter) reports, “An older individual’s 24-hour activity pattern could help forecast their depressive symptom subgroup,” investigators concluded in a study that “identified four distinct subgroups – earlier rising/robust…shorter active period/less modelable…shorter active period/very weak…and later settling/very weak.” The findings were published online Aug. 31 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Activity Patterns Related to Depressive Symptoms in Older Adults “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, September 5, 2022