The AP (9/29, Hollingsworth, Schulte) reports, “More than a year after US health care workers on the front lines against COVID-19 were saluted as heroes with nightly clapping from windows and balconies, some are being issued panic buttons in case of assault and ditching their scrubs before going out in public for fear of harassment.” Across the United States, “doctors and nurses are dealing with hostility, threats and violence from patients angry over safety rules designed to keep the scourge from spreading.” Some healthcare professionals “have been accused of killing patients by grieving family members who don’t believe COVID-19 is real.” Healthcare systems across the country are taking protective measures to deal with the “increase in violence where they work.”

Related Links:

— “Health workers once saluted as heroes now get threats ” Heather Hollingsworth And Grant Schulte, AP, September 29, 2021

Healio (9/29, VanDewater) reports, “Following cancer diagnosis, there was a higher incidence of nonfatal self-injury than suicide, according to a population-based, retrospective cohort study.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Nonfatal self-injury more common than suicide after cancer diagnosis “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, September 29, 2021

Healio (9/29, VanDewater) reports, “People from historically underrepresented groups with depression symptoms more often expressed wanting a” clinician “who shared or understood their culture,” investigators concluded after collecting and then analyzing “questionnaire information from 3,910 adults (median age, 52 years; 60.9% women) who participated in the 2017 U.S. National Health Interview Survey,” then examining “responses to cultural competency, anxiety and depression questions.” The findings of the “retrospective, population-based, cross-sectional study” were published online Sept. 23 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Depressed patients’ desire for culturally competent providers differs by race, ethnicity “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, September 29, 2021

MedPage Today (9/29, Grant) reports, “Adults who continued to take their prescribed antidepressants were less likely to have a relapse of a depressive episode,” investigators concluded in a “nearly” 500-patient “double-blind, randomized trial” that assigned “patients on antidepressants to either placebo (discontinuation) or continued treatment (maintenance).” At the 52-week mark, researchers found that “the primary outcome – relapse of depression – occurred in 56% of patients in the discontinuation group and 39% of patients in the maintenance group.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Also covering the study are HealthDay (9/29, Norton) and Healio (9/29, Miller).

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (9/28, Stonehill) reports research indicates that “female trainees compared with male trainees still experience disproportionate stress burdens, especially regarding parental leave and breastfeeding support,” investigators concluded after conducting “a web-based survey of 1,719 residents and fellows (497 completed the survey) at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center to evaluate physician trainee experiences related to parental leave, breastfeeding and child care.” The findings were presented at the Women in Medicine Summit.

Related Links:

— “Female medical trainees report higher stress levels than male counterparts “Monica Stonehill, Healio, September 28, 2021

Healio (9/28, Marabito) reports, “Medical cannabis dispensary workers such as budtenders, managers and pharmacists often made recommendations on cannabis use to customers based on their personal or coworkers’ experience,” investigators concluded after analyzing “the practices of frontline dispensary workers who interacted with individuals purchasing medical cannabis.” Included in the survey were “434 staff members from 351 dispensaries in the U.S.” The study also revealed that “customers rarely received guidance from these staff members on cannabis use disorder, withdrawal, dangers of driving while using cannabis and psychotic reactions.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Cannabis use guidance from dispensary workers often lack clinician input, safety warnings “Maria Marabito, Healio, September 28, 2021

The Washington Post (9/27, Barrett, Dwoskin) reports that on Monday, the Drug Enforcement Administration “issued a public warning…that a growing number of pain medications bought on the black market are laced with the synthetic opioid fentanyl or the stimulant methamphetamine, driving overdose deaths to record levels.” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram told The Washington Post, “We are in the midst, in my view, of an overdose crisis, and the counterfeit pills are driving so much of it.” The Post adds that there were 93,000 overdose deaths last year, up nearly 30% over 2019.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (9/27, Norton) reports, “When mothers suffer depression during or after pregnancy, their kids may be at heightened risk, too – all the way into young adulthood, a new study suggests.” Researchers followed more than 5,000 children until age 24 and found “those whose moms had depression during or after pregnancy tended to report more depression symptoms themselves.” Depression was reported most “among young adults whose mothers had suffered depression both during and after pregnancy.” The study was published in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Depression During Pregnancy Raises Risk of Mood Disorder in Kids “Amy Norton, HealthDay, September 27, 2021

HealthDay (9/27) reports, “Sexual-minority adolescents have higher lifetime risks for suicide ideation, plan, and attempt than their heterosexual peers,” investigators concluded after conducting “a population-based longitudinal cohort study involving 1,771 adolescents.” The findings were published online Sept. 27 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Sexual-Minority Teens Have Elevated Suicide Ideation, Attempt, Plan, HealthDay, September 27, 2021

Healio (9/27, Gramigna) reports, “Premorbid factors including obstetric complications, personal psychiatric background and IQ may help predict which patients are at increased risk for early-onset psychosis,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data of 278 patients with a first episode of psychosis between ages seven and 35 years who participated in a multicenter prospective longitudinal study in Spain between Jan. 1, 2009, and Dec. 31, 2011.” The findings were published online Sept. 14 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Obstetric complications, psychiatric history, lower IQ linked to early-onset psychosis “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 27, 2021