Psychiatric News (12/8) reports, “Local changes in opioid-dispensing rates have a direct effect on individuals’ misuse and dependence on prescription opioids, but they do not affect the odds of heroin misuse or dependence,” investigators concluded after analyzing “2006-2016 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which surveys about 70,000 individuals aged 12 and older annually, as well as CDC data on county-level opioid dispensing.” The study team then “specifically focused on whether county-level dispensing rates affected respondents’ substance use, frequency of use, and prescription opioid or heroin dependence.” The findings were published online Dec. 8 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Reduced Opioid Dispensing Found to Stem Opioid Misuse While Not Increasing Heroin Use, Psychiatric News, December 8, 2021

USA Today (12/8, Keveney) reports suicidal ideation “is increasingly affecting young children.” USA Today adds, “At emergency rooms in 38 children’s hospitals across the nation, the number of suicide and self-injury cases in the first three quarters of 2021 was 47% higher among 5- to 8-year-olds and 182% higher among 9- to 12-year-olds than they were for the same period in 2016, according to statistics compiled by the Children’s Hospital Association.” The increasing rates “among children reflect a growth in the suicide rate among Americans of all age groups, which rose every year from 2006 to 2019, when more than 47,000 people died from suicide, according to the American Psychiatric Association.”

Related Links:

— “More young children are killing themselves: The COVID-19 pandemic is making the problem worse “Bill Keveney, USA TODAY, December 8, 2021

According to the New York Times (12/7, Richtel), on Dec. 7, in a “rare public advisory,” US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, “warned that young people are facing ‘devastating’ mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.” Murthy, “in a 53-page report [PDF],” delineated how “the pandemic intensified mental health issues that were already widespread by the spring of 2020,” citing “significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency-room visits for mental health challenges.” For example, in the US, emergency department “visits for suicide attempts rose 51 percent for adolescent girls in early 2021 as compared to the same period in 2019,” while “the figure rose four percent for boys.”

Related Links:

— “The pandemic worsened young people’s mental health crisis. ” Matt Richtel, The New York Times, December 7, 2021

MedPage Today (12/8, Frieden) reports, “Harm reduction strategies, including syringe service programs and use of fentanyl test strips, will be eligible for federal grants under a $30 million, three-year program announced” on Dec. 8 “by the Biden administration.” What’s more, “in addition to the harm reduction grants – which will be given at a rate of $10 million per year for three years – the administration also released model legislation for states that want to start up or refine their syringe service programs, formerly known as needle exchange programs.” Click here to read more about the grant funding opportunities.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Forbes (12/7) contributor Anuradha Varanasi writes research “shows there was an almost 66 percent jump per month in anorexia diagnoses among girls between the ages of 9 to 18 years during the first wave of the pandemic.” What’s more, researchers “further observed that the number of hospitalizations for” patients newly diagnosed with anorexia “nearly tripled compared with pre-pandemic rates.” The study, published in JAMA Network Open, included “1883 children and adolescents with newly diagnosed anorexia nervosa.”

Related Links:

— “Anorexia Cases Among Children & Teens Have Risen During Covid-19: Study “Anuradha Varanasi, Forbes, December 7, 2021

The Washington Post (12/7, Jeong) reports, “Gen Z is feeling the stresses of the pandemic more than any other age group, according to a U.S. survey” that found “higher proportions of Americans between ages 13 and 24 say the pandemic has made their education, career goals and social lives more difficult, compared with millennials and Gen X.” The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey “polled 3,764 people between ages 13 and 56 from Sept. 1 to Sept. 19.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (12/6) reports, “Nearly 50% of individuals with incident mild cognitive impairment diagnoses were considered cognitively normal at follow-up, according to results of a community-based cohort study.” The findings were published in Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Many mild cognitive impairment cases appear to resolve over time “Joe Gramigna, Healio , December 6, 2021

MedPage Today (12/6, George) reports, “Cataract surgery was linked to a nearly 30% lower risk of dementia in older adults,” researchers concluded in a 3,038-patient study. The study’s lead author posited, “One possible mechanism by which cataract surgery could decrease the risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease is by enabling higher quality sensory input to the retina and therefore improving stimuli to the brain.” The findings were published online in JAMA Internal Medicine. Psychiatric News (12/6) also covers the study.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Modern Healthcare (12/6, Devereaux, Subscription Publication) reports, “Since the start of the pandemic, mental health conditions have remained the top diagnosis seen in telehealth nationwide, recently reaching 61.2% of all virtual care claims,” according to “FAIR Health’s Monthly Telehealth Regional Tracker.” Meanwhile, FAIR Health also found that “in August, COVID-19 accounted for between 1.5% and 3.5% of claims in every region except the Northeast, and in September, the virus dropped out of the top five diagnoses seen nationwide in telehealth.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health continues to dominate telehealth diagnoses “Mari Devereaux, Modern Healthcare, December 6, 2021

MedPage Today (12/3, D’Ambrosio) reported, “Among pregnant people living with HIV, marijuana use climbed over the last decade both in pregnancy and during the postpartum period,” researchers concluded in a study that “analyzed nearly 3,000 pregnancies from 2,300 people living with HIV.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)