CNN (6/5, Rogers ) reports that approximately “15% of participants who discontinued antidepressants experienced withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, nausea, insomnia and irritability, according to” a “review of 79 studies…totaling 21,002 adult participants.” Investigators also found that “one in 35 participants experienced severe symptoms once they stopped taking antidepressants.” The findings were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study finds the rate of withdrawal from quitting antidepressants,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 5, 2024

CNN (6/4, Rogers ) reports, “Teens who spend lots of time on social media have complained of feeling like they can’t pay attention to more important things like homework or time with loved ones.” Now, “a new study has possibly captured that objectively, finding that for teens diagnosed with internet addiction, signaling between brain regions important for controlling attention, working memory and more was disrupted.” The results “are from a review, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Mental Health, of 12 neuroimaging studies of a few hundred adolescents ages 10 to 19 between 2013 and 2022.” The article adds, “Technology addictions have become prevalent enough for the American Psychiatric Association to include it as a topic in its presidential initiative for 2023 to 2024, said [Dr. Smita] Das, immediate past-chair of the APA’s council on addictions.”

Related Links:

— “How internet addiction may affect your teen’s brain, according to a new study,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 4, 2024

The AP (6/4, Johnson ) reports, “Specially trained service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in U.S. military veterans in a small study that the researchers hope will help expand options for service members.” In the study, “researchers compared 81 veterans who received service dogs with 75 veterans on the waiting list for a trained dog,” and “after three months, PTSD symptoms improved in both groups, but the veterans with dogs saw a bigger improvement on average than the veterans on the waiting list.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in US military veterans, researchers say,”Carla K. Johnson, AP, June 4, 2024

The Washington Post (6/4, A1, Gilbert , Ovalle ) reports, “A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee overwhelmingly voted Tuesday that evidence is lacking that MDMA-assisted therapy is effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, and that the benefits don’t outweigh the risks to patients, dealing a potential blow to what could be the first psychedelic treatment the agency approves.” The panel’s “vote is not binding. Still, its recommendation could hold great weight as the FDA decides for the first time whether the mind-altering compound – better known by its street name, ecstasy, and long categorized among the riskiest of controlled substances – can be legally used as a medical treatment in the United States.”

The AP (6/4, Perrone ) reports the advisory panel “voted 10-1 against the overall benefits of MDMA when used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They cited flawed study data, questionable research conduct and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse.” Committee members “pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity among participants.” Because the drug “causes intense, psychological experiences, almost all patients in two key studies of the drug were able to guess whether they had received the MDMA or a dummy pill. That’s the opposite of the approach generally required for high-quality drug research, in which bias is minimized by ‘blinding’ patients and researchers to whether they received the drug under investigation.”

The New York Times (6/4, Jacobs ) reports the drug’s sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics, “submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to obtain agency approval to sell the drug legally to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.” However, on Friday, FDA staff “raised concerns about ‘significant increases’ in blood pressure and pulse rates among some of the participants in the Lykos clinical trials, noting those were risks that could ‘trigger cardiovascular events.’”

Reuters (6/4, Roy, Jain) reports that during the meeting, FDA staff “said there was a ‘striking lack’ of documentation of abuse related adverse events, which may limit the agency’s ability to explain the effects of MDMA or determine its abuse liability.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (6/3, Rollet ) reports, “In the first year after stopping anabolic steroid misuse, men had worse sexual function than those who continued using or never used the agents as well as more depression and anxiety, according to a presenter at ENDO 2024.” In a study, “men who had stopped using steroids had lower sexual function scores (IIEF-15 = 70; 95% CI, 67-71) compared with current users (IIEF-15 = 64; 95% CI, 60-67) and past users (IIEF-15 = 64; 95% CI, 60-67; P = .0009).” Additionally, “recent steroid cessation was associated with higher depression scores (BDI-II = 7; 95% CI, 4-11) compared with no past steroid use (BDI-II = 3; 95% CI, 1-6; P = .0079).”

Related Links:

— “Mental health, sexual function worsen for men in first year of quitting steroids,”Jill Rollet, Healio, June 3, 2024

The New York Times (5/31, Jacobs , Jewett ) reported the FDA “on Friday raised concerns about the health effects of MDMA as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, citing flaws in a company’s studies that could pose major obstacles to approval of a treatment anticipated to help people struggling with the condition.” FDA staff “said that bias had seeped into the studies because participants and therapists were readily able to figure out who got MDMA versus a placebo.” The agency “also flagged ‘significant increases’ in blood pressure and pulse rates that could ‘trigger cardiovascular events.’”

The AP (5/31, Perrone ) reported the FDA “posted its initial review of the drug Friday, ahead of a meeting of outside advisers who could help decide whether MDMA – currently illegal under federal law – becomes the first drug of its kind to win U.S. approval as a medication.” In the review, “FDA scientists said that patients who received MDMA and talk therapy showed ‘rapid, clinically meaningful, durable improvements in their PTSD symptoms.’” However, “they also called the research ‘challenging to interpret,’ and questioned how long the benefits might last.”

The Washington Post (5/31, Gilbert , Ovalle ) reported, “The agency’s review outlines the challenges for sponsor Lykos Therapeutics, which conducted two late-stage clinical trials showing that patients treated with MDMA – better known by its street name, ecstasy – experienced a significant improvement in their PTSD symptoms relative to those who got a placebo.”

Reuters (5/31, Jain, Roy) reported there “is a large unmet need for new treatments for PTSD, which affects those who have experienced traumatic events and is common among war veterans, as existing drugs do not work on all patients.”

Related Links:

— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Healio (5/31, Weldon) reported, “Preteens whose parents were incarcerated or arrested were more likely to experience suicidal ideation, according to research published in Pediatrics.” In the study, “researchers examined data from 10,532 children who participated in the ABCD study and found that 6.5%…reported parental incarceration and 12% reported parental arrest.” Of those, “4.7% reported suicidal ideation. The researchers calculated that children whose parents had been incarcerated had an RR of suicidal ideation of 1.74 (95% CI, 1.32-2.31). Children whose parents had been arrested had an RR of suicidal ideation of 1.89 (95% CI, 1.53-2.37) and an RR of suicide attempt of 2.69 (95% CI, 1.7-4.25).”

Related Links:

— “Parents’ incarceration may put kids at higher risk for suicidal thoughts,”Rose Weldon, Healio, May 31, 2024

Healio [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] (5/30, Weldon) reports, “Teenagers who use cannabis have a much higher risk for developing a psychotic disorder compared with their nonusing peers, according to research published in Psychological Medicine.” In the study [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com], “researchers found that, compared with no cannabis use, cannabis use was significantly associated with psychotic disorders during adolescence (adjusted HR = 11.2; 95% CI, 4.6-27.3), but not during young adulthood (aHR = 1.3; 95% CI, 0.6-2.6). When the researchers restricted outcomes to hospitalizations and ED visits, the strength of the association increased markedly during adolescence (aHR = 26.7; 95% CI, 7.7-92.8) but again did not change meaningfully during young adulthood (aHR = 1.8; 95% CI, 0.6-5.4).”

Related Links:

— “Study suggests strong link between teen cannabis use, psychotic disorders,”Rose Weldon, Healio, May 30, 2024

The New York Times [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] (5/30, Barry ) reports, “Post-traumatic stress disorder diagnoses among college students more than doubled between 2017 and 2022, climbing most sharply as the coronavirus pandemic shut down campuses and upended young adults’ lives, according to new research published on Thursday.” PTSD prevalence “rose to 7.5 percent from 3.4 percent during that period, according to the findings [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com],” which were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (5/29) reports, “Individuals having a mental health crisis who were transported to a hospital by a ‘psychiatric ambulance’ required fewer restraints or other coercive measures compared with individuals transported by the police, according to a report in Psychiatric Services.” This option is an alternative to law enforcement transporting patients, as police “usually receive limited training in managing psychiatric disorders and in responding to individuals experiencing psychiatric symptoms or crises, which may increase the risk for preventable escalation and the use of restrictive measures,” researchers wrote.

Related Links:

— “Study Finds ‘Psychiatric Ambulance’ Provides Safe and Uncoercive Transport of Individuals in Crisis, Psychiatric News , May 29, 2024