mHealth Intelligence (3/9, Melchionna) reports, “Telehealth utilization increased nationally by 11.4 percent between November and December 2021 and rose from 4.4 to 4.9percent of all medical claim lines, according to FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.” According to the December report, “mental health conditions remained at No. 1 nationally,” and “acute respiratory disease was another diagnosis taking up a large share of telehealth claim lines in all regions during this time.” Moreover, “hypertension entered the top five telehealth diagnoses in the South, as did joint and soft tissue diseases in the Northeast.”

Related Links:

— “National Telehealth Use Skyrocketed Amid Omicron Surge “Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, March 9, 2022

HealthDay (3/9, Preidt) reports, “People with serious mental illness,” that is, “bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder,” appear to “have up to double the risk of heart disease, and should have their heart health monitored from a young age,” investigators concluded.
        
Healio (3/9, Buzby) reports the study observed “elevated 10-year” cardiovascular “risk…among patients with a serious mental illness aged 18 to 59 years without” cardiovascular disease “at baseline.” What’s more, “patients with serious mental illness were more likely to smoke and have BMI of 30 kg/m² or more compared with patients without a serious mental illness,” the study revealed. The findings of the 591,257-patient study were published online March 9 ahead of print in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Heart Risks Double for People With Bipolar, Schizophrenia “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 9, 2022

HealthDay (3/8, Mann) reports research indicates that some people with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) may “improve and return to normal” rather than go on to develop dementia. Investigators arrived at this conclusion after they “analyzed data on 619 U.S. Catholic nuns, age 75 and up, in a long-running study of aging and Alzheimer’s disease.” The study revealed that “participants who earned a bachelor’s degree had more than double the chances of getting their memory back compared to those with a grade school or high school education.” The study also found that “language skills, including those reflected in high grades in English class or in strong writing skills…protected against dementia.” The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “More Evidence That Education May Protect Against Dementia “Denise Mann, HealthDay, March 8, 2022

Healio (3/8, Gramigna) reports, “Compared with the general population, individuals with mental disorders had increased risk for mortality across all disorders,” researchers concluded in a 76-study, systematic review and meta-regression, the findings of which were published online ahead of print in the May issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “People with severe mental disorders have ‘persistent mortality gap’ “Joe Gramigna, Healio, March 8, 2022

MedPage Today (3/7, Wu) reports, “Concussion in kids was associated with an increased risk of mental health problems compared with orthopedic injury,” investigators concluded. The “10-year retrospective cohort study from Canada” revealed that “among over 400,000 youths ages five to 18, those who had a concussion were at greater risk for mental health problems,” as well “as self-harm…and psychiatric hospitalization.” In fact, “the incidence rate of any mental health problem was 11,141 per 100,000 person-years in the concussion group versus 7,960 per 100,000 person-years in the orthopedic injury group.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (3/7, Belluck) reports, “COVID-19 may cause greater loss of gray matter and tissue damage in the brain than naturally occurs in people who have not been infected with the virus, a large…study finds.” This study” found shrinkage and tissue damage primarily in brain areas related to sense of smell; some of those areas are also involved in other brain functions, the researchers said.” The findings were published in Nature.

USA Today (3/7, Weintraub) reports the study “used before-and-after brain images of 785 British people, ages 51 to 81.” USA Today adds, “Analysis of the ‘before’ and ‘after’ images from the UK Biobank showed that people infected with COVID-19 had a greater reduction in their brain volumes overall and performed worse on cognitive tests than those who had not been infected.” The findings also revealed brain changes among people “who had much milder disease.”

Bloomberg (3/7, Gale) also reports on the study.

Related Links:

— “Covid May Cause Changes in the Brain, New Study Finds “Pam Belluck, The New York Times, March 7, 2022

The Washington Post (3/7, Haupt) spotlights “hoarding disorder – a mental health condition in which people have trouble getting rid of possessions because of a perceived need to save them.” The disorder “affects about 2.6 percent of people worldwide, according to the American Psychiatric Association,” with “higher rates” seen “in those over 60 and people who have other psychiatric problems, such as anxiety or depression.” The article provides a list of tips to help friends and family members with hoarding disorder. Click here to see a patient and family resource about hoarding disorder.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

The AP (3/4, Dale) reported, “Black retired football players who were denied payments for dementia in the NFL’s $1 billion concussion settlement can seek to be retested or have their claims rescored to eliminate racial bias in the testing and payout formula, under a revised plan finalized Friday.” The AP added, “Outrage over the use of ‘race-norming’ in the dementia testing…forced the NFL and players’ lawyers back to the negotiating table last year.” These “revisions could allow many retired players to resubmit their claims and add $100 million or more to the NFL’s legal tab.”

Related Links:

— “Judge approves fix to stem race bias in NFL concussion deal “Maryclaire Dale, AP, March 4, 2022

MedPage Today (3/4, D’Ambrosio) reported, “Despite treatment with antidepressant medication, a significant proportion of women still reported symptoms of anxiety and depression during pregnancy, according to a prospective study” published in Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice. Among the “group of 88 women who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), about a third had clinically relevant symptoms of depression during pregnancy and the postpartum period, reported” researchers. Furthermore, “only 18% to 29% of pregnant women who took antidepressants maintained remission, the researchers wrote.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (3/4) reported drug overdose fatalities “among Black people living in the United States rose significantly from 2019 to 2020, outpacing the overdose death rates of White people for the first time in over 20 years, according to a report published this week in JAMA Psychiatry.” The analysis also found “that American Indian or Alaska Native people experienced the highest rate of overdose mortality in 2020 of all the groups examined.”

Related Links:

— “Study Examines Shifting Racial Trends in Drug Overdose Deaths, Psychiatric News, March 4, 2022