MD Edge ObGyn (3/29, Haelle) reports, “Children prenatally exposed to opioids alone have an increased risk of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD), “but interactions between opioids and both cannabis use and alcohol use were linked to varying levels of” AD/HD “risk as well,” investigators concluded in a study that included “3,138 children (50.4% of whom were male) with at least two years of follow-up, excluding children from multiple-gestation pregnancies, in vitro fertilization pregnancies, and deliveries involving major maternal trauma or major chromosomal anomalies.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “ADHD link to prenatal opioid exposure shifts with other substances “Tara Haelle, MD Edge ObGyn, March 29, 2022

Healio (3/29, Herpen) reports, “Long-term cannabis users showed deficits in cognition and smaller hippocampal volume by midlife,” investigators concluded in a study involving “a representative cohort of 1,037 people born in Dunedin, New Zealand, between April 1972 and March 1973, who were followed through the age of 45 years.” Study “participants were assessed for cannabis use and dependence at ages 18, 21, 26, 32, 38 and 45, with IQ gauged at ages 7, 9, 11 and 45 years.” The study revealed that “long-term cannabis users’ IQ declined from childhood to midlife (mean = 5.5 IQ points), with resultant poorer learning and processing speed relative to their childhood IQ, as well as memory and attention problems.” The findingswere published online March 8 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Long-term cannabis use linked to cognitive deficits, lower hippocampal volume in midlife “Robert Herpen, Healio, March 29, 2022

The New York Times (3/28, Hughes) reports, “Analyzing survey responses of more than 84,000 people of all ages in Britain,” investigators have “identified two distinct periods of adolescence when heavy use of social media spurred lower ratings of ‘life satisfaction’: first around puberty – ages 11 to 13 for girls, and 14 to 15 for boys – and then again for both sexes around age 19.” The findings were published online March 28 in the journal Nature.

Related Links:

— “Does Social Media Make Teens Unhappy? It May Depend on Their Age. “Virginia Hughes, The New York Times, March 28, 2022

MedPage Today (3/28, Bassett) reports that patients with cancer “are at a particularly high risk of mental health disorders and suicide, two studies showed.” In one study, investigators found that patients with cancer “have nearly twice the risk of suicide compared with the general population, and about a 3.5 times greater risk if their cancers are known to have a poor prognosis.” The other study “showed that the high proportion of” patients with cancer “with psychological disorders subsequently have a higher risk of self-harm and mortality, compared with other patients with cancer.” The studies were published in Nature Medicine.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Hill (3/28, Barnes) reports, “Thirty-two percent of U.S. adults in a YouGov poll released Monday said the pandemic had a ‘very negative effect’ on children’s mental health, while another 39 percent said the pandemic’s mental toll on kids was ‘somewhat negative.’” The poll “follows recent survey data that shows a quarter of adolescent children between the ages of 11 and 18 had seen a mental health specialist over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Related Links:

— “A third of Americans say pandemic had ‘very negative effect’ on children’s mental health “Adam Barnes, The Hill, March 28, 2022

HealthDay (3/25) reported, “Psilocybin…is generating lots of interest as a potential treatment for a host of mental” health conditions, but a 40-study systematic review and meta-analysis revealed “there is little data on how it might interact with more traditional psychiatric medications.” The findings were published online March 7 in the journal Psychopharmacology. “ The current standard of care for these disorders involves treatment with psychiatric medications (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), so it will be important to understand drug-drug interactions between MDMA or psilocybin and psychiatric medications.”

Related Links:

— “‘Magic Mushroom’ Therapy: Does It Interact With Other Medicines? “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 25, 2022

The Washington Post (3/26, Harris) reported that based on a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “Medicare’s hospice regulations are not working as intended for many people with dementia, says” one of the study authors. According to the “study of 3,837 hospice patients with dementia, about 5% are pulled from hospice when their condition seems to have stabilized.” With no amendment to CMS’ current rules “in sight, hospice and palliative care workers are pushing for a different end-of-life model for people with dementia.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (3/25, Herpen) reported, “An analysis of more than 350,000 posts on the social media platform Reddit found many individuals used language to discuss non-suicidal self-injury similar to language used in diagnoses of substance use disorder,” investigators concluded. The findings were published online March 21 in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. “ A majority (76.8%) of users endorsed at least two adapted SUD criteria in their posts, indicative of mild, moderate, or severe addiction. The most frequently endorsed criteria were urges or cravings (67.6%), escalating severity or tolerance (46.7%), and NSSI that is particularly hazardous. User-level addictive features positively predicted number of methods used for NSSI, number of psychiatric disorders, and particularly hazardous NSSI, but not suicidality.”

Related Links:

— “Social media posters describe non-suicidal self-harm in similar terms to addiction “Robert Herpen, Healio, March 25, 2022

MedPage Today (3/24, Dotinga) reports, “Amputees with psychiatric and medical conditions are much more likely to experience phantom limb syndrome,” investigators concluded in a study that “examined 64,158 patients from a large insurance database who had undergone one or more extremity amputations.” The findings of the “retrospective cohort study” were presented at the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons annual meeting.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (3/24) reports, “The number of adults over 55 admitted for substance use treatment for the first time nearly doubled between 2008 and 2018,” investigators concluded in a study that “compared the rate of first-time admissions for publicly funded substance use treatment by 453,598 adults 55 years or older with those by more than three million adults aged 30 to 54 years.” The findings were published online March 19 ahead of print in the Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Rising Number of Older Americans Admitted for Treatment for Heroin Use, Psychiatric News, March 24, 2022