The Hill (12/31, Choi ) reported, “A key cost-saving provision of the Inflation Reduction Act goes into effect in the new year, limiting annual out-of-pocket spending on prescription drugs to $2,000 for Medicare beneficiaries.” As of “Jan. 1, 2025, an estimated 19 million Medicare beneficiaries will see their out-of-pocket Medicare Part D spending capped at $2,000 for the year.” The “annual cap will be indexed to the rate of inflation every year going forward.” The Hill added, “An interim spending cap of roughly $3,500 was put in place in 2024.”

Related Links:

— “Medicare’s new drug price cap kicks in Jan. 1,” Joseph Choi, The Hill, December 31, 2024

Psychiatric News (12/31) reported, “One-third of Americans (33%) have made New Year’s resolutions related to mental health heading into 2025, according to the latest APA Healthy Minds Monthly poll.” That “represents a 5% increase over last year and the highest rate since APA began polling on this question in 2021.”

Related Links:

— “More Americans Are Making Mental Health Resolutions for 2025,” Psychiatric News, December 31, 2024

The Los Angeles Times (1/1, Wiley ) reports that “drug overdose deaths in San Francisco plummeted in 2024, according to preliminary data compiled by city health officials.” The Times adds, “San Francisco public health experts attributed the decline in fatal drug use in the city to the widespread availability of naloxone…as well as buprenorphine and methadone, prescription medications that treat opioid addiction long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Drug overdose deaths plummet in San Francisco. What’s changed?,” Hannah Wiley, Los Angeles Times, January 1, 2025

The Washington Post (1/3, A1, Ho , Nirappil ) reported, “Health warning labels on alcohol should be updated to include a cancer risk warning, the U.S. surgeon general said Friday, adding that recommended limits for alcohol consumption should also be reassessed, given the increased risk of certain cancers.” The consumption of alcohol “is the third-leading preventable cause of cancer in the United States behind tobacco and obesity, Vivek H. Murthy said in an advisory [PDF].” Alcohol consumption “contributes to 100,000 cancer cases and 20,000 related deaths each year, he added.”

CNN (1/3, Tinker, Tirrell , Goodman ) reported, “The American Medical Association, which has long recognized alcohol as a cancer risk, cheered the new advisory.” In a statement, AMA President Bruce A. Scott, MD, said, “Today’s advisory, coupled with a push to update the Surgeon General’s health warning label on alcoholic beverages, will bolster awareness, improve health, and save lives.”

Related Links:

— “US surgeon general sounds alarm about link between alcohol and cancer,” Ben Tinker, Meg Tirrell and Brenda Goodman, CNN, January 3, 2025

Psychiatric News (1/3) reported, “Key telehealth service flexibilities will be extended for Medicare beneficiaries until March 31, 2025, as part of the American Relief Act, signed by President Biden on December 21.” Under “the Relief Act, Medicare beneficiaries can continue to receive telehealth services from any location, including their homes.” The bill also “extends the waiver of the requirement for an initial in-person visit prior to a telemental health visit and also continues the extension of telehealth services to federally qualified health centers and rural health centers.”

Related Links:

— “Congress Extends Telehealth Flexibilities for Medicare Beneficiaries,” Psychiatric News, January 3, 2025

HealthDay (1/3, Thompson ) reported, “Socially awkward young adults are more prone to regularly binge drink, but they back off their boozing bouts as they become older and more secure.” New research “shows that young adults who are more self-conscious appear to binge drink more often.” But, “these same self-conscious people had lower rates of binge drinking as they grew older, researchers discovered in a psychological experiment.” The findings were published in Alcohol: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Related Links:

— “Feeling Self-Conscious Is Linked to Teen Binge Drinking,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, January 3, 2025

HCPlive (1/4, Derman) reported, “A recent study found social determinants of suicide mortality include being involved in the justice system, exposure to parental and others’ suicide, firearm accessibility, divorce, experience in foster care, release from incarceration, and midlife unemployment (35 – 65 years).” Among these, people “released from [incarceration] demonstrated the greatest prevalence of suicide mortality.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study Identifies Social Determinants of Suicide Mortality, Suicide Attempts,” Chelsie Derman

The Hill (12/28, Cochran) reported, “A new study has experts beaming with hope as it shows teen drug use at a record low, but they admit confusion as to why the trend is happening and how to ensure it continues.” The “Monitoring the Future survey found the use of alcohol, marijuana, cigarettes and e-cigarettes among high schoolers is at its lowest level since the study began.” Furthermore, “two-thirds of 12th graders in the survey, which included 24,000 students in total, said they haven’t used any of those substances in the last 30 days, and 90 percent of eighth graders and 80 percent of 10th graders said the same.”

Related Links:

— “Experts confused but delighted by low rates of teen drug use,” Lexi Lonas Cochran, The Hill, December 28, 2024

Neurology Advisor (12/27, Nye) reported, “One in 6 women experienced symptoms of postpartum depression 2 months after cesarean delivery, according to study findings.” Investigators came to this conclusion after conducting “an ancillary prespecified analysis of the Tranexamic Acid for Preventing Postpartum Hemorrhage after Cesarean Delivery…trial in 27 maternity units in France between March 2018 and January 2020.” The research was published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Related Links:

— “Postpartum Depression Is Prevalent Among Women Who Have a Cesarean Delivery,” Jessica Nye, PhD, Neurology Advisor, December 27, 2024

CNN (12/26, Hassan ) reports, “Food noise is incessant internal chatter about food that some people experience, which can make it hard for them to make healthy decisions about their nutrition.” The conversation around food noise “has grown, especially online, as more people taking popular weight-loss and diabetes medications realized the drugs seemed to turn off the noise.” While “there are varying theories about the root cause of food noise, and there isn’t a clear number of how many people experience it,” CNN adds that “most experts believe it’s real, even if awareness of it is only recently emerging.”

Related Links:

— “‘An insatiable itch’: Why some people are turning to weight-loss medications to help quiet food noise,” Carma Hassan, CNN, December 26, 2024