Healio (8/7, Rhoades) reports, “Approximately one-third of imprisoned individuals with a mental health condition received no treatment, according to a study.” Researchers also observed that “61.7% of prisoners reported one or more chronic physical conditions,” 13.8% of which “had received no medical visit since their incarceration.” Further, “co-payments charged by many prisons decreased odds of receiving treatment among the incarcerated.” The findings were published in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Care for mental, physical health severely lacking among incarcerated,”Andrew (Drew) Rhoades, Healio, August 7, 2024

Healio (8/6, Monostra) reports a study found “older adults with diabetes who spend less time within their individualized HbA1c target range have a higher risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease and dementias.” In the analysis, “veterans aged 65 years and older with diabetes were assigned an HbA1c target range based on measurements during a 3-year baseline period.” Researchers found that “during follow-up, adults who spent less than 20% of the time within their HbA1c target range had a 19% higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease and other related dementias than adults who spent 80% or more time in their target HbA1c range.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Spending less time in HbA1c target range may increase dementia risk for older adults,”Michael Monostra, Healio, August 6, 2024

The AP (8/6, Johnson ) reports, “There are small signs of improvement in the mental health of U.S. teenagers, a government survey released Tuesday said, but the share of students – particularly girls – feeling sad and hopeless remained high.” From 2021 to 2023, the percentage “of high school students who reported feelings of persistent sadness or hopelessness declined from 42% to 40%, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report” (PDF). Among girls, the CDC found “the percentage reporting persistent sadness or hopelessness fell from 57% to 53%.”

The New York Times (8/6, Ghorayshi ) reports the survey found “just 28 percent of teenage boys felt persistent sadness, about the same as in 2021.” Meanwhile, “suicide risk among girls stayed roughly the same as the last survey.” However, “Black students, who reported troubling increases in suicide attempts in 2021, reported significantly fewer attempts in 2023.”

ABC News (8/6, Kekatos ) reports the survey found “youth who identify as LGBTQ+ reported higher rates of poor mental health and experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their cisgender and heterosexual peers.” Last year, “more than three in five LGBTQ+…high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and more than half reported having poor mental health, according to” the findings.

Also reporting is CNN (8/6, Goodman ).

Related Links:

— “High schoolers’ mental health shows small improvement in a US government survey,”Carla K. Johnson, AP, August , 2024

Endocrinology Advisor (8/5, Kurek) reports, “The addition of a weight stigma intervention to a behavioral weight loss program is associated with greater weight loss regardless of physical activity, according to the results of a study.” After conducting “a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial,” investigators discovered that decreases in internalized weight stigma “at week 20 were associated with greater weight loss at week 20.” The findings were published in Obesity Science and Practice

Related Links:

— “Internalized Weight Stigma Intervention Lowers Weight Despite Physical Activity,”Ellen Kurek, Endocrinology Advisor, August 5, 2024

The Washington Post (8/5, Nix ) reports, “A minor from New York on Monday filed a lawsuit seeking class-action status against Meta, alleging that the social media giant sought to keep teens hooked on Instagram while knowingly exposing them to harmful content.” Filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuit “argues that Meta implemented features its leaders knew would make Instagram addicting for teens, such as displaying counts of how many ‘likes’ posts receive, even as internal evidence grew that the service could harm their mental health.” The plaintiff “is seeking $5 billion in damages, to be shared among eligible Instagram users if the suit is certified as a class action.” The filing “adds to a growing swarm of suits against the company from state attorneys general and school districts aiming to tie America’s teen mental health crisis to social media.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (8/5, Derman) reports, “A recent study revealed Medicaid enrollees struggle to receive psychiatric care.” Investigators came to this conclusion after conducting “a ‘secret shopper’ audit study to evaluate availability and wait times for adult appointments with psychiatrists or mental health professionals across 4 of the largest US cities: New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Phoenix,” all of which had “expanded Medicaid eligibility under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.” The researchers found that “among the sampled clinicians, only 17.7% had availability, and 9.4% of the alternate clinicians at the same practice had availability.” The findings were published in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Medicaid Enrollees Struggle to Receive Psychiatric Care,”Chelsie Derman, HCP Live, August 5, 2024

The AP (8/4, Johnson ) reports, “Schools across the U.S. have been introducing yoga, meditation and mindfulness exercises to help students manage stress and emotions” following 2023 recommendations from the CDC. Research shows that “school-based mindfulness programs can help” students struggling with isolation, “especially in low-income communities where students face high levels of stress or trauma.” Programs like Inner Explore, which is “used at Atlanta Public Schools and over 100 other districts across the country,” guide “students and teachers through five-to-10-minute sessions of breathing, meditating and reflecting several times a day.” Teachers and administrators “say they have noticed a difference in their students since” incorporating the practices, which have helped children build confidence and learn emotional regulation.

Related Links:

— “More US schools are taking breaks for meditation. Teachers say it helps students’ mental health,”Sharon Johnson, AP, August 4, 2024

CNN (8/2, Christensen ) reported exposure to wildfires “can increase the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, alcohol and substance use disorders, and sleep problems, as well as mental health problems that could last years.” A study published in PLOS Climate on Friday that focused on California residents “said about half of the 24,000 Californians researchers spoke with had been affected by a climate event like a wildfire or flood, and of those, nearly 23% reported that their mental health was harmed.” People in rural areas were also “more likely to report that a climate event has had a negative impact on their mental health, in addition to people who were White, college-educated or female.” Dr. Steven Sugden, a member of the American Psychiatric Association’s committee for disaster psychiatry, emphasized the detriment of repeated exposure to natural disasters, stating, “If people have lived through those experiences before, then with each subsequent year, there are just more triggers.”

Related Links:

— “Repeated wildfires put pressure on residents, making it difficult to recover peace of mind,”Jen Christensen, CNN, August 2, 2024

The Washington Post (8/4, Blakemore) reports, “People living with chronic pain are more likely than their peers without pain to need mental health treatment, yet less likely to get it, a new analysis suggests.” Using “data from the 2019 National Health Interview Survey,” researchers discovered that “43.2 percent of respondents with chronic pain had a mental health need compared with 17.4 percent of those not in pain.” Investigators also observed that “over 44 percent of those with chronic pain received mental health treatment, yet still had symptoms of unremitted depression or anxiety, unlike 71.5 percent of those without chronic pain.” The findings were published in PAIN.

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (7/31, Buzby) reports, “Risk for psychiatric disorder or suicide attempt is particularly high in the first year following hospitalization for heart disease, and patient support is important to lower such risk, researchers” found. The “analysis included 63,923 patients hospitalized for the first time with CVD between 1997 and 2020 and 127,845 matched individuals without a CVD hospitalization.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Mental health ‘crucial’ after first-time hospitalization for heart disease,”Scott Buzby, Healio, July 31, 2024