MedPage Today (5/20, Monaco) reports, “Self-reported questionnaire data predicted difficult-to-treat depression, even in patients who weren’t considered treatment-resistant, observational data showed.” Investigators found, “in a sample of 550 hospitalized patients – including those who had or had not failed multiple trials of antidepressant medications – higher scores on the Difficult-to-Treat Depression Questionnaire (DTDQ) correlated with Remission from Depression Questionnaire (RDQ) total discharge scores (r=0.28).” The data indicated that “every RDQ subscale measure correlated with DTDQ scores.” The findings were presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (5/19, Gibson) reports a study found that “teens averaged over 50 minutes of smartphone use between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on school nights…and nearly half of the teens used their phones between midnight and 4 a.m.” The researchers “followed the screen use of 657 adolescents, a cohort with an average age of 15. All are participants in the national Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which includes a racially and economically diverse sample of children and is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.” The findings “build on prior research showing that bedtime screen use can degrade sleep quality – and that even short intervals of extra sleep can make a significant impact for adolescents.” The study was discussed in a JAMA Pediatrics research letter.

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Psychiatry Advisor (5/19, Goldberg) reports a study found that “patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) vs those without are more likely to have chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) among both populations with commercial insurance and Medicaid.” They found that “individuals with vs without PTSD with commercial insurance had on average 2.07 times the rate of COPCs; and those with Medicaid insurance had on average 3.54 times the rate of COPCs. Among those who received commercial insurance with PTSD, 10.85% had 2 co-occurring COPCs vs 2.30% of those without PTSD (prevalence ratio [PR], 4.72), and 1.80% of those with PTSD had 4 or more COPCs vs 0.13% of those without PTSD (PR, 13.55).” The study was published in General Hospital Psychiatry.

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— “PTSD Linked to Increased Rates of Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions,”Ron Goldberg, Psychiatry Advisor, May 19, 2026

The AP (5/18, Sherman, Swenson) reports, “The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from pharmaceutical companies that object to negotiating Medicare drug prices with the federal government.” The high court’s “justices did not comment in leaving in place rulings from the federal appeals court in Philadelphia that dismissed the drug manufacturers’ claims.”

Reuters (5/18, Chung) reports drugmakers argued the negotiations illegally force “them to accept steep discounts and” jeopardize innovation. The Supreme Court “justices turned away appeals by Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim.” The justices “left in place decisions by lower courts rejecting various legal claims against the drug price negotiation plan.”

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— “Supreme Court rejects appeals from drug manufacturers over Medicare price negotiations,”Mark Sherman and Ali Swenson , AP, May 18, 2026

The New York Times (5/18, Barry) reports that a “study of insurance claims for 1.8 million children found that the number of families raising mental health issues at visits to general practitioners rose sharply over a decade, with anxiety by far the fastest-growing complaint.” According to the study, “the number of pediatric visits rose to 9.7 percent in 2023 from 5.7 percent in 2014.” Researchers noted that “visits for anxiety rose by more than 250 percent during that period, to 6.1 percent in 2023 from 1.7 percent in 2014.” Additionally, “smaller increases were seen for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder…which rose to 6.7 percent from 5.0 percent; depression, which rose to 1.6 percent from 1.2 percent over the same period; autism spectrum disorder, which rose to 2.0 percent from 0.5 percent; and trauma, which rose to 1.6 percent from 0.8 percent.” The study was discussed in a JAMA Network Open research letter.

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The Washington Post (5/17, Reynolds) reports a study suggests that “being in good shape during middle age was associated with about a 2 to 3% improvement in both health span and lifespan, translating to about a year and a half to two years of longer, healthier living.” The researchers tracked thousands of midlife men and women who visited a Dallas clinic “for checkups, most of which included treadmill tests to estimate aerobic capacity.” They “followed people’s Medicare records deep into retirement and usually until death, noting if and when they developed any of 11 common and serious age-related conditions.” They concluded that “people who had been the most fit in middle age lived longer in old age than less-fit people, with fewer diseases that appeared later.” Specifically, participants in the fittest group “tended to develop their first major illness, if any, about 1½ years later in life than people in the least-fit group.” The study was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

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Neurology Advisor (5/15, Saha) reported a study found that “cognitive reserve is associated with delayed symptom onset and slower clinical progression among individuals with dominantly inherited Alzheimer disease (AD).” Researchers observed that among asymptomatic carriers of dominantly inherited AD, “a 1 SD increase in cognitive reserve was associated with higher odds of remaining clinically unimpaired (odds ratio [OR], 3.66). A 1 SD increase in the cognitive biomarker component was also associated with greater odds of remaining unimpaired (OR, 7.77), whereas the demographic component was not significantly associated (OR, 1.24). Among symptomatic carriers, a 1 SD increase in cognitive reserve was associated with a 0.83-fold reduction in baseline CDR-SB score, while a 1 SD increase in the biomarker component was associated with a 0.60-fold reduction.” The study was published in Neurology.

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— “Cognitive Reserve Delays Symptom Onset in Dominantly Inherited AD,”Rajan Saha, Neurology Advisor, May 15, 2026

HealthDay (5/14, Thompson) reports a study found that people with autism spectrum disorder sometimes cope with feelings of anxiety and “uncertainty by labeling their feelings.” The researchers “had more than 500 Japanese adults ages 20 to 39 complete an online questionnaire that measured their” ASD “traits, their ability to manage uncertainty and their anxiety levels.” They observed that “people who had more” ASD “traits tended to experience stronger anxiety in uncertain situations, a condition known as intolerance of uncertainty. Further, those with higher intolerance of uncertainty tended to label their emotions more often as a coping mechanism.” The researchers believe “others might be able to aid this process by offering the right words to describe how a” person with autism spectrum disorder “is feeling.” The study was published in Scientific Reports.

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— “Naming Emotions Can Help Autistic People Cope With Anxiety, Study Finds,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, May 14, 2026

HealthDay (5/14, Thompson) reports a study found that “heart attack survivors have a yearly 5% increased risk of developing cognitive impairment.” The research team “tracked the brain function of nearly 21,000 men and women over a 10-year period. The participants underwent a medical interview and electrocardiogram at the start of the study to determine whether they’d had a heart attack in the past.” Study results showed “that people who’d had a silent heart attack experienced an accelerated rate of brain decline compared to those who hadn’t had a heart attack. This matters more for women, who more often experienced silent heart attacks, researchers said.” The study was published in Stroke.

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— “Heart Attack Survivors Have Higher Risk Of Brain Decline,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, May 14, 2026

Psychiatry Advisor (5/13, Kuhns) reports that research indicates that “dementia in” patients with “severe, extremely treatment-resistant schizophrenia is a distinct cognitive syndrome that is not adequately explained by Alzheimer disease (AD), other neurodegenerative dementias, antipsychotic exposure, cardiometabolic risk factors, poor effort, premorbid intellectual disability, or long-term institutionalization.” Investigators came to this conclusion after using data from New York state hospitals to study “continuously hospitalized adults with schizophrenia,” all of whom had been “hospitalized for at least 5 years.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

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— “Dementia in Schizophrenia Reflects Intrinsic Disease Not Neurodegeneration,”Lisa Kuhns, Psychiatry Advisor, May 13, 2026