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
The Hill (3/24, Barnes) reports, “People with depression and anxiety experienced nearly double the cardiovascular benefits of exercise than those without either diagnosis, according to a…study.” The results are set to be presented at the American College of Cardiology’s 71st Annual Scientific Session & Expo.
Related Links:
— “People with depression, anxiety may benefit most from exercise “Adam Barnes, The Hill, March 24, 2022
The New York Times (3/23, Tingley) reports on the children’s mental-health crisis in the US. According to the Times, “it would be easy to blame the pandemic for changes in mental health that have been observed since March 2020,” but last year, “when the surgeon general noted a ‘mental-health crisis’ among young people, he made clear that rising numbers of children and young adults were struggling with anxiety and depression before Covid-19.”
Related Links:
— “There’s a Mental-Health Crisis Among American Children. Why? ” Kim Tingley, The New York Times, March 23, 2022
Reuters (3/22, Thomasson) reports, “About half a million refugees from Ukraine who have fled to Poland need support for mental health disorders, and 30,000 have severe mental health problems,” a “representative for the World Health Organization in Poland said on” March 22. Ukrainian “refugees arriving in Poland are suffering from a range of health problems…but the main need is for support due to trauma, Paloma Cuchi, WHO representative in Poland, told a briefing in Geneva.”
ABC News (3/22, Kondoleon) reports research indicates that “firsthand exposure to traumatic events, such as the Ukraine war, can have lasting effects, including PTSD, anxiety, depression and relapse of alcohol abuse.” The American Psychiatric Association has estimated that the “prevalence of acute stress disorder ranges from 13%-50% depending on the type of event exposed to and about half of those individuals with acute stress disorder develop PTSD.” According to Craig Katz, MD, a clinical professor of psychiatry, medical education, system design and global health at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, “the risk of developing lasting effects of acute stress disorder increases depending on the extent of exposure to a traumatic event, prior trauma that was not well addressed previously, a history of psychiatric disorders and not having social support.”
The Hill (3/22, Oshin) also covers the story.
Related Links:
— “500,000 refugees from Ukraine have mental health issues, WHO says, Reuters, March 22, 2022
Psychiatric News (3/21) reports research indicates that “adults who napped excessively were more likely to experience worse cognition in the future, and conversely, adults with poor cognition were more likely to nap excessively in the future.” Investigators arrived at these conclusions after examining “data from 1,401 adults with a mean age of 81.4 years who were part of the Rush Memory and Aging Project between 2005 and 2020.” The study also revealed that “longer naps were also linked with Alzheimer’s risk.” The findings were published online March 17 in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
Related Links:
— “Longer, More Frequent Daytime Naps Linked to Worse Cognition, Alzheimer’s Disease, Psychiatric News, March 21, 2022
Modern Healthcare (3/21, Tepper, Subscription Publication) reports, “Health insurers Anthem and Aetna began denying [healthcare professionals’] claims that include consultation codes this year, joining the growing ranks of payers cutting reimbursement amid an industrywide coding change.” In 2010, “Medicare stopped paying claims that include consult codes,” and “now, more insurers are following the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ lead and requiring [healthcare professionals] to use different codes to bill for consultations.” In 2019, “UnitedHealthcare stopped recognizing these codes…in an effort to align with federal practices,” implementing “the policy after facing pushback from groups such as the… American Psychiatric Association, which complained the change undervalued their members’ services.”
Related Links:
— “More insurers cut payment for patient consultations “Nona Tepper, Modern Healthcare, March 21, 2022
The Hill (3/21, Barnes) reports, “More than a quarter of U.S. parents said their child has seen a mental health specialist over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, with 60 percent of visits taking place in the past year,” researchers concluded.
According to HealthDay (3/21, Munez), “nearly 95% of the parents surveyed said they were somewhat or very confident that they would notice the signs of” mental health problems in their children. Nevertheless, “only about 25% think their adolescent would definitely talk to them, while 55% say their teens would possibly talk to them if they were experiencing mental health issues.” The poll data included responses from some 1,200 US parents. Anish Dube, MD, “a member of the American Psychiatric Association Council on Children, Adolescents and Their Families,” and who “was not involved with the poll,” was “encouraged by parents’ responses that they’re actively looking out for their children’s mental health.” The poll’s findings were published March 21 in the C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.
Related Links:
— “A quarter of parents say their child has seen a mental health specialist during pandemic: poll “Adam Barnes, The Hill, March 21, 2022
CNN (3/18, Ahmed) reported that “the number of deaths in the U.S. involving alcohol jumped 25.5% between 2019 and 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to” a study that “analyzed death certificates provided by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics for people 16 and over between 2019 and 2020.” The study published in JAMA revealed that “there were 78,927 alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. in 2019 and 99,017 in 2020.” CNN added, “Alcohol-related deaths made up 2.8% of all deaths in 2019 and 3% in 2020.”
Related Links:
— “Alcohol-related deaths in the US spiked more than 25% in the first year of the pandemic, study shows “Tasnim Ahmed, CNN, March 18, 2022
Healio (3/18, Herpen) reported, “Mental health of young adults showed little change at the outset of COVID-19, but appeared to worsen as the pandemic continued,” researchers concluded in a “multisite, longitudinal study” that “included 794 participants…from five institutions from the United States and Canada.” The findings were presented at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America annual conference.
Related Links:
— “Mental health of college students altered as COVID-19 pandemic continued “Robert Herpen, Healio, March 18, 2022