Healio (2/18, Marabito) reported, “Most physicians and trainees who were surveyed agreed that racism has an impact on health; however, less than half of respondents reported speaking out against a racist encounter or policy,” according to results of “an anonymous, cross-sectional survey of interns, residents, fellows and faculty.” The survey also found that “adults aged 50 years and older were more likely to report speaking out against racism compared with younger physicians.” The results were published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

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— “Survey suggests many health care workers are not speaking out against racism “Maria Marabito, Healio, February 18, 2022

Healio (2/21, Gramigna) reports, “Researchers found moderate rates of exclusion and refusal in” 36 “youth suicide prevention randomized controlled trials” that included some 13,264 participants. The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Feb. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Exclusion, refusal rates moderate in youth suicide prevention RCTs “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 21, 2022

According to MedPage Today (2/18, Firth), a Feb. 17 “subcommittee hearing of the House Committee on Energy & Commerce…focused on the rising toll of youth mental health challenges during the pandemic.” In 2020 alone, “mental health-related emergency department visits for children rose by 24% for children ages five to 11 and by 31% for those ages 12 to 17, according to the CDC.” What’s more, “every week, 119 young people die by suicide.” While the pandemic has undoubtedly adversely affected youth mental health, some witnesses before the subcommittee, however, “stressed that no single factor is responsible for the rise in children’s mental health issues.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (2/21, Preidt) reports investigators “have discovered differences between the brains of girls and boys with autism that they say may improve diagnosis of the developmental disorder in girls.” After utilizing “artificial intelligence to analyze MRI brain scans from 637 boys and 136 girls with autism worldwide,” researchers concluded that “girls had different patterns of connectivity from the boys in several brain centers, including motor, language and visuospatial attention systems,” with “the largest differences between the sexes…in a group of motor areas.” The findings were published online Feb. 15 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Signs of Autism Differ in Brains of Boys, Girls “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 21, 2022

MedPage Today (2/18, George) reported, “Mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) affected cognition 1 year later, data from the prospective TRACK-TBI study showed.” Investigators found that “at 1 year, 13.5% of people with mild TBI had a poor cognitive outcome compared with 4.5% of controls.” The data indicated that “poor 1-year cognitive outcomes were associated with non-white race, lower education, lower income, lack of health insurance, hyperglycemia, pre-injury depression, and greater injury severity in univariate analysis.” The findings were published in Neurology.

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The New York Times (2/18, Richtel) said U.S. emergency departments during the pandemic “reported an increase in visits from teenage girls dealing with eating and other disorders, including anxiety, depression and stress, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The CDC “said that the proportion of eating disorder visits doubled among teenage girls, set off by pandemic-related risk factors, like the ‘lack of structure in daily routine, emotional distress and changes in food availability.’”

Related Links:

— “More Teenage Girls With Eating Disorders Wound Up in the E.R. During the Pandemic “Matt Richtel, The New York Times, February 18, 2022

Healio (2/17) reports, “Diagnosis of mental disorders was associated with an increased risk for the onset of dementia later in life, according to results of a population-based administrative register study.” The findingswere published in JAMA Psychiatry.

MedPage Today (2/17, George) reports, “This association was not explained by pre-existing chronic physical illness or socioeconomic deprivation, the researchers said.” Furthermore, “The connection was seen for both men and women, for both Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementia, and for different types of mental disorders.”

Related Links:

— “Diagnosis of mental disorders linked to higher risk for dementia “Robert Herpen, Healio, February 17, 2022

The Hill (2/17, Ali) reports “the coronavirus pandemic upended most students’ school routines across the country,” but research published in Frontiers in Education “shows that children with autism suffered greatly.” Investigators “surveyed parents of school-aged children, between the ages of 4-15-years-old, from May to August 2020,” and found that “overall, parents of children with autism were more than three times as likely to report negative changes in their child compared to parents of neurotypical children.” Specifically, parents “reported concerns related to their child’s hygiene, behavioral regression, therapy disruption, meltdowns and returning to school.”

Related Links:

— “Autistic children three times more likely to report negative changes during pandemic, study says “Shirin Ali, The Hill, February 17, 2022

Healio (2/17) reports, “Patients with mood or anxiety disorders had significant rates of PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms that often persisted beyond 3 months following lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results.” The findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Lockdown, COVID-19 incidence worsened outcomes in patients with mood, anxiety disorders “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 17, 2022

MedPage Today (2/16, Monaco) reports “people who battled COVID-19…had a higher risk of multiple mental health conditions,” according to researchers who found that “among those who survived the first 30 days of COVID-19 infection, there was a 60%…increased risk for having any new mental health diagnosis or a new mental health-related drug prescription compared with those who were never infected.” This risk “was largely driven by an uptick in mental health-related drug prescriptions, which increased by 86%,” the study published in The BMJ found. Moreover, “COVID-19 survivors saw significantly higher risks for developing anxiety disorders…which included a higher risk for generalized anxiety disorder, mixed anxiety disorder, and panic disorder.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)