mHealth Intelligence (4/28, Melchionna) reports “a study published in JAMA Network Open found that telehealth appointments for acute conditions resulted in a higher likelihood of multiple follow-up visits than in-person appointments.” For instance, “the odds ratio of a follow-up encounter following” a virtual encounter for acute bronchitis “was 1.23 as compared to 1 for those who had an in-person visit.” Between 2019 and 2020, “the COVID-19 pandemic sharply increased the percentage of telehealth encounters as a proportion of all ambulatory encounters, from 0.6% in 2019 to 14.1% in 2020.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth More Likely to Prompt Follow-up for Acute Conditions ” Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, April 28, 2022

According to HealthDay (4/28, Preidt), the success of depression treatment may be affected by “race, income, job status and education,” investigators concluded in a study that “looked at 665 patients who had equal access to depression treatment.” Following adjustment “for sex, age and treatment type after 12 weeks of antidepressant medication, the researchers found that non-white patients had 11.3% less improvement in their depression compared to white patients,” and “patients who were non-white and unemployed, didn’t have a college degree and had incomes in the bottom quarter had 26% less improvement than those who were white and had jobs, a degree and income in the highest quarter.” The findings were published online March 31 in the journal Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Race, Income Can Be Roadblocks to Recovery From Depression ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 28, 2022

Forbes (4/28, Gordon) says that according to a survey “from the COVID States Project, nearly half (49%) of respondents reported symptoms of depression, with 26% reporting moderate symptoms or worse.” The survey – conducted between March and April 2022 – found “rates of depression varied dramatically by age,” noting that “fully half of young adults aged 18 to 24 reported moderate or severe symptoms of depression and another 23% reported mild symptoms.” The survey also noted “gender and racial differences,” with rates of depression highest among women and “Hispanic respondents and respondents identified as ‘other race.’”

Related Links:

— “50% Of Young Adults Report Symptoms Of Depression, New Covid-19 Survey Shows “Deb Gordon, Forbes, April 28, 2022

Psychiatric News (4/28) reports, “The rate of suicide among women living in previously handgun-free homes increased substantially when a cohabitant acquired a handgun,” researchers concluded after conducting “an observational cohort study involving 9.5 million adult women (average age, 41.6 years) in California who did not own guns.” The findings were published online April 27 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Rate Among Women Increases When Gun Added to Home, Psychiatric News, April 28, 2022

The New York Times (4/28, Abelson) reports, “Every year, tens of thousands of people enrolled in private Medicare Advantage plans are denied necessary care that should be covered under the program, federal investigators concluded in a report published on Thursday.” The investigators, from HHS’ Office of the Inspector General, “urged Medicare officials to strengthen oversight of these private insurance plans, which provide benefits to 28 million older Americans, and called for increased enforcement against plans with a pattern of inappropriate denials.” AMA President-Elect Jack Resneck Jr., M.D., “said the plans’ denials had become widespread.” The AMA “has been aggressively lobbying lawmakers to impose stricter rules.”

Related Links:

— “Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds “Reed Abelson, The New York Times, April 28, 2022

HealthDay (4/27, Preidt) reports, “Witnessing violence between your parents is traumatic when it happens, but” research indicates that “trauma can raise your risk of depression and other mental health problems.” Included in the study were “more than 17,700 Canadian adults,” 326 of whom “said they witnessed parental domestic violence more than 10 times before age 16, which was defined as chronic.” Among participants “exposed to chronic parental domestic violence during childhood, 22.5% had major depression at some point in their life, 15% had an anxiety disorder and nearly 27% had a substance abuse disorder,” compared to “rates among people with no history of violence between their parents” of “9%, 7% and 19%, respectively.” The findings were published online April 12 in the Journal of Family Violence.

Related Links:

— “Kids Who Witness Domestic Violence May Suffer Mentally for Decades ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 27, 2022

According to NPR (4/26, Hamilton), “brain scan studies have yet to offer much insight into the underpinnings of traits like intelligence, or mental health conditions like anxiety and depression,” investigators concluded after analyzing “nearly 1,000 brain scans,” then checking “their work, using 1,000 different scans.” One “key reason is that these studies need to include scans of thousands of brains, instead of the dozens typically used, a team reported” in findings (PDF) published online March 16 in the journal Nature.

Related Links:

— “Brain scans may reveal a lot about mental illness, but not until studies get bigger “Jon Hamilton, NPR, April 26, 2022

MedPage Today (4/26, Firth) reports, “American adults experiencing depression, substance use problems, or both are turning to cigarettes less often,” investigators concluded.

Psychiatric News (4/26) reports, “The percentage of adults with major depression and/or substance use disorder [SUD] who reported smoking cigarettes declined between 2006 and 2019,” investigators concluded in a study that “analyzed data from adults 18 years and older who participated in the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health…between 2006 and 2019,” focusing specifically on “data on past-month cigarette use from 558,960 adult participants.” The findings were published April 26 in JAMA.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

CNN (4/25, Holcombe) reports family members of patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) with COVID-19 often “come away from the experience with symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTSD [posttraumatic stress disorder], according to a” survey study. The findings – published in JAMA Internal Medicine – “found that of the families that responded to the survey, 201 out of 316 (about 63%) had significant symptoms of PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Family members of Covid-19 ICU patients may emerge with a different condition, study says “Madeline Holcombe, CNN, April 25, 2022

CNN (4/25, Rogers) reports, “The number of suicides among adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 increased in five states during the pandemic, according to research looking at 14 states.” In addition, “data from Georgia, Indiana, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Virginia and California…showed an increase in the proportion of adolescent deaths by suicide relative to suicides by people of all ages.”

MedPage Today (4/25, Walker) reports, “Adolescent suicides made up a larger share of suicides at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to prepandemic years, according to data from 14 states,” data which “comprised 32% of all U.S. residents and about a third of all adolescents.” The study revealed that “in 2020, individuals ages 10-19 comprised a significantly higher proportion of total suicides versus the prepandemic period of 2015-2019 (6.5% vs 5.9%, respectively), a relative 10% increase,” but even though “there was also an increase in the absolute number of adolescent suicides in 2020, at 903 versus 835.6 on average in the prepandemic years, it was not statistically significant, the authors stated.” The findings were published online in an April 25 research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Adolescent suicides increased in 5 US states during the pandemic. Why parents should be concerned “Kristen Rogers, CNN, April 25, 2022