According to the Washington Post (6/6, Villegas), in the days since the school shootings in Uvalde, TX, “therapists have flooded the town, offering counseling to grief-stricken residents.” In the next few weeks or months, however, “most of those support organizations will leave,” and even though “several public and private practices in the town offer behavioral and mental health services, experts say Uvalde lacks inpatient treatment options, and enough psychiatrists specializing in children and adolescents.” Despite Gov. Greg Abbott’s (R-TX) promises to increase the region’s mental health resources, “a recent report by the nonprofit Mental Health America ranked the Lone Star State 51st in the nation on access to mental health care – a ranking that weighs access to insurance and treatment, quality and cost of insurance, access to special education, and mental health workforce availability.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (6/5, A1, Barry) reports, “School-based services, which studies suggest can significantly decrease suicidal behavior and substance abuse, have emerged as a first-line policy response” to address the mental health crisis among US children and adolescents. Over the past 12 months, “legislators in more than 30 states have considered an expansion of school-based services, according to Inseparable, a mental health policy group, and eight states, including Connecticut, have passed legislation to do so.” Nevertheless, “before the services reach students, though, they must be embraced by American communities.” The Times detailed the “fierce opposition” expanded school mental health services faced in Killingly, CT.

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— “A Mental Health Clinic in School? No, Thanks, Says the School Board “Ellen Barry, The New York Times, June 5, 2022

Psychiatric News (6/3) reported, “Patients between 75 and 80 years old who take opioids have an increased risk of dementia,” researchers concluded after examining “data from 91,307 older people in an Israeli HMO.” The findings were published online May 31 ahead of print in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

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— “Opioids Linked to Increased Dementia Risk in Patients Older Than 75, Psychiatric News , June 3, 2022

According to the AP (6/4), Cailin Bracken, who decided to leave the Vanderbilt University lacrosse team in order to deal with mental health struggles, has written “an open letter to college sports, calling on coaches and administrators to become more cognizant of the challenges athletes face in navigating not only their competitive side, but also their social and academic responsibilities.” Bracken wrote the letter in response to multiple suicides involving student-athletes. Even though it remains unclear “whether U.S. college athletes are taking their lives at a higher rate than others in their age range,” colleges and “universities are starting to pay closer attention to the mental health of their athletes – in varying degrees – and it’s partly because athletes are advocating for themselves and their teammates.”

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— “College athletes push mental health to the forefront “Hank Kurz Jr. and Erica Hunzinger, AP, June 4, 2022

The Hill (6/1, Choi) reports U.S. “consumers are overpaying billions for generic drugs due to the cost being driven up by” pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), according to a reportby the University of Southern California. The report said, “Commercial tactics such as spread pricing, copay clawbacks and formularies that advantage branded drugs over less expensive generics have funneled the savings from low-cost generics into intermediaries’ pockets, rather than the pockets of patients.”

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— “Industry middlemen driving up prices of generic drug prescriptions as much as 20 percent: research “Joseph Choi, The Hill, June 1, 2022

Healio (6/2, Downey) reports, “Decreased work hours, more treatment, and better sleep and shift length can help address the high rate of depression among training physicians, according to” a presentation given at the American Psychiatric Association 2022 Annual Meeting by Srijan Sen, MD, PhD, director of the Frances and Kenneth Eisenberg Family Depression Center at the University of Michigan. Dr. Sen “said the largest driver of depression was found to be work hours.”

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— “VIDEO: Decreased hours, more treatment can address depression among physician interns “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, June 2, 2022

Healio (6/1, Wursta) reports research indicates that “compared with no sport participation, adolescents who participate in team sports experience fewer mental health difficulties, while those who compete in individual sports experience more mental health difficulties.” Investigators arrived at these conclusions after having “analyzed data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development study, which included a sample of 11,235 U.S. children aged nine to 13 years.” The findings were published online in PLOS One.

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— “Study: Participation in team sports fosters adolescent mental health “Max R. Wursta, Healio, June 1, 2022

HealthDay (6/2, Preidt) reports, “Children whose mothers had rising levels of depression during pregnancy appear to have an increased risk of behavioral problems,” investigators concluded in a seven-year study that “included 125 U.S. women and their children who were followed from before pregnancy until the children were five years old.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the July 15 issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

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— “Depression in Pregnancy Tied to Behavior Issues in Kids ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 2, 2022

Medwire News (6/1, Piper) ​​​​​​​reports, “Depression in patients with incident rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is associated with a sixfold increased risk for mortality,” investigators concluded in a study that “followed up 11,071 patients with incident RA,” 1,095 of whom “were exposed to antidepressants.” The findings were presented at the EULAR 2022 Congress and published online in a supplemental issue of the Annals of the Rheumatic Diseases.

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— “Increased mortality risk with antidepressant use in patients with RA ” Lucy Piper, Medwire News, June 1, 2022

Psychiatric News (6/2) reports, “Beginning July 16, people in the United States experiencing a mental health crisis have to remember only three numbers – 988 – to connect with trained staff who are part of the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline network,” but “many state, regional, and county behavioral health program directors are feeling unprepared for this transition,” according to a RAND Corporation report (PDF) “based on an online survey of 180 state, regional, and county behavioral health program directors who, according to the authors, ‘represented jurisdictional coverage of more than one-third of the U.S. population and 23 states.’”

Related Links:

— “Many Behavioral Health Program Directors Feel Unprepared for 988 Rollout, RAND Report Suggests, Psychiatric News, June 2, 2022