Psychiatric News (12/30) reported, “More than one in five fathers have symptoms of depression and anxiety at some point during the first year after their children are born,” researchers concluded in a survey study that included “2,544 fathers” who “provided data for at least one time point during the first year postpartum, and 2,442 fathers” who “provided data during the second year.” The findings were published online Dec. 28 in the journal Depression and Anxiety.

Related Links:

— “Comorbid Symptoms of Depression, Anxiety Common in Fathers After Their Children Are Born, Psychiatric News, December 30, 2021

mHealth Intelligence (12/29, Vaidya) reports “close to a third of older Americans remain concerned about the efficacy of telehealth visits as compared with in-person care, according to a” poll (PDF) “conducted by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and funded by the SCAN Foundation” of “1,000 adults, aged 50 years and older, between Nov. 12 and 15.” Respondents “cited concerns regarding not having a personal relationship with their doctor (29 percent), the security of health information (17 percent) and running into technical issues (16 percent).”

Related Links:

— “31% of Older Americans Worry Telehealth Not as Effective as In-person Care “Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence, December 29, 2021

Modern Healthcare (12/29, Devereaux, Subscription Publication) reports, “Supporting telehealth companies is nothing new for insurers, but a COVID-19 windfall and an explosion in demand for mental healthcare during the pandemic have led payers toward virtual therapy platforms as a way to reduce costs and provide better benefits.” This year, “large insurers’ investing arms contributed to significantly more funding rounds for ‘telebehavioral’ health companies than during previous years.”

Related Links:

— “Insurers test the waters with ‘telebehavioral’ health platforms “Mari Devereaux, Modern Healthcare, December 29, 2021

Healio (12/29, Weldon) reports, “School environments play a role in early adolescents’ mental health,” researchers concluded in the 26,885-student “My Resilience in Adolescence (MYRIAD) study, a collaborative survey between various universities in the United Kingdom.” The study revealed that even though “schools explained only small amounts of variation in mental health, school climate was nonetheless associated with mental health.” Additionally, the study revealed that “children who attended schools with a higher proportion of white pupils had poorer mental health than children in schools with more ethnically diverse student bodies.” The findings were published in the December issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Schools play role in adolescent mental health, study finds “Rose Weldon, Healio, December 29, 2021

Bloomberg Law (12/28, Reed, Subscription Publication) reports behind a paywall, “States can integrate behavioral health services into their Medicaid programs under a new option meant to help people experiencing mental health or substance use crises,” the Biden Administration announced on Tuesday. Furthermore, the option “will allow states to support mobile crisis intervention services, which connect users to a behavioral health specialist on call.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Support to Get Expansion Under New Medicaid Option “Allie Reed, Bloomberg Law, December 28, 2021

MedPage Today (12/28, Gever) reports government survey data indicate that “among daily smokers followed for up to 5 years – all reporting at study enrollment that they intended to keep smoking and that they weren’t using e-cigarettes – 28% of those who started daily e-cigarette use then discontinued regular cigarettes…compared with a 5.8% quit rate…for those who never used nicotine vaping products.” According to the findings, published in JAMA Network Open, “a similar pattern was seen for the outcome of stopping daily cigarette smoking…with some 46% of those who took up e-cigarettes becoming intermittent smokers, versus 10% of smokers who avoided e-cigarette use during follow-up.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (12/23) reported, “Black patients continue to be at greater risk of physical or chemical restraint during an emergency psychiatric evaluation than white patients,” researchers concluded after analyzing data from “electronic medical records of adults 18 years and older who received an emergency psychiatric evaluation at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., over a six-year period.” Included in the study were “a total of 12,977 unique emergency psychiatric encounters.” The findings were published online Dec. 21 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Black Patients More Likely to Be Restrained During Emergency Psychiatric Evaluation, Psychiatric News, December 23, 2021

Healio (12/27, Gramigna) reports, “People with schizophrenia spectrum disorders appeared to have increased risk for perpetrating violent outcomes compared with community control individuals,” investigators concluded in a 24-study, 51,309-participant systematic review and meta-analysis, the findings of which were published online Dec. 22 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Schizophrenia spectrum disorders tied to increased risk for perpetrating violence “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 27, 2021

Healio (12/23, Herpen) reported, “Use of antipsychotic medication in psychiatric patients led to decreases in assault risk against personnel within emergency settings,” researches concluded after analyzing data on medication orders “as well as assault incident reports…culled from electronic health records based on 17,056 total visits by 9,870 individual patients to urban psychiatric emergency locations over more than 1.3 million hours during a five-year period from January 2014 to December 2019.” The findings were published online Dec. 14 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotics linked to decreased assault risk for emergency personnel “Robert Herpen, Healio, December 23, 2021

The Washington Post (12/24, A1, Iati) reported, “Nearly two years into a pandemic coexistent with several national crises, many Americans are profoundly tense.” Americans are “snapping at each other more frequently, suffering from physical symptoms of stress and seeking methods of self-care.” In the most extreme cases, they are “acting out their anger in public – bringing their internal struggles to bear on interactions with strangers, mental health experts said.” Some of those behaviors “appear to be the result of living through a long-lasting public emergency with no clear endpoint, the experts said.” American Psychiatric Association Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster chair Joshua Morganstein said, “When people are presented with situations that seem overwhelming, they are more apt to give up in a sense and lock more tightly to a single perspective and approach, because the work that’s necessary to hold on to all this different information is just too much.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)