Rheumatology Advisor (6/11, Maitlall) reports, “The high prevalence of mental health conditions among individuals with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) emphasizes the need for early screening, intervention, and tailored strategies to mitigate the impact of these conditions on patient outcomes, according to study results published in Rheumatology.” In the study, “among adults with SLE, cognitive impairment, mood disorders, and depressive disorders were the 3 most common mental health conditions, corresponding to prevalence rates of 27.0%, 27.0%, and 22.4%, respectively.”

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— “Emotional Wellness Impacts Outcomes in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus,”James Maitlall, MD, Rheumatology Advisor, June 11, 2024

The Washington Post (6/11, Beard) reports, “A growing body of evidence suggests the effects of mental health has a disproportionate impact on women’s bodies.” Data recently “presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session in April indicate that depression and anxiety accelerate the development of new cardiovascular disease risk factors, particularly among young and middle-aged women.” Trial participants “with a history of anxiety or depression before the study were about 55 percent more likely to develop high blood pressure, high cholesterol or diabetes compared to those without.” These results were “most pronounced among women with anxiety or depression who were under 50, who were nearly twice as likely to develop cardiovascular risk factors compared with any other group.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (6/10, Corkery , Irvine) reports on efforts by Montana resident Ali Mullen to reduce firearm suicide rates in the state, where over the last three years the “suicide rate was the highest in the nation, according to an analysis of federal mortality data by The New York Times.” Ms. Mullen lost her husband in January 2021 to suicide by firearm, and now distributes gun locks to help other families avoid dealing with a similar situation.

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] (6/7) reported, “Skills-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy and emotion-focused psychotherapy were equally effective at preventing relapse in patients with bipolar disorder when added to standard treatment, reports a study [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] in JAMA Psychiatry.” In the study, “what affected the relapse rate more than the therapy delivered was whether the patients attended all their psychotherapy sessions and whether they had bipolar I versus bipolar II disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Emotion-Focused Therapy Comparable to CBT at Preventing Relapse Among Bipolar Patients, Psychiatric News, June 7, 2024

HealthDay [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] (6/7, Mundell ) reported, “If your child is among the youngest in their school grade, it’s more likely they’ll be mistakenly identified by teachers as having ADHD or autism, a new study confirms.” Researchers “found that ‘children who are younger relative to their peers within the same school year are 38% more likely to receive an ADHD diagnosis and 28% more likely to be prescribed ADHD medications,’ compared to older kids in the same class.” The results [mailview.bulletinhealthcare.com] were published in European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

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— “Younger Kids in Class Might Be Misdiagnosed With ADHD, Autism,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, June 7, 2024

mHealth Intelligence (6/6, Vaidya) reports, “New data reveals that in 2021, 43.2 percent of psychiatrist visits occurred via telehealth versus 4.5 percent of visits to other physicians, highlighting telemental healthcare’s enduring popularity after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic.” The results were published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “43% of mental health visits occurred via telehealth in 2021,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence , June 6, 2024

CNN (6/5, Rogers ) reports that approximately “15% of participants who discontinued antidepressants experienced withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headaches, nausea, insomnia and irritability, according to” a “review of 79 studies…totaling 21,002 adult participants.” Investigators also found that “one in 35 participants experienced severe symptoms once they stopped taking antidepressants.” The findings were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

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— “Study finds the rate of withdrawal from quitting antidepressants,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 5, 2024

CNN (6/4, Rogers ) reports, “Teens who spend lots of time on social media have complained of feeling like they can’t pay attention to more important things like homework or time with loved ones.” Now, “a new study has possibly captured that objectively, finding that for teens diagnosed with internet addiction, signaling between brain regions important for controlling attention, working memory and more was disrupted.” The results “are from a review, published Tuesday in the journal PLOS Mental Health, of 12 neuroimaging studies of a few hundred adolescents ages 10 to 19 between 2013 and 2022.” The article adds, “Technology addictions have become prevalent enough for the American Psychiatric Association to include it as a topic in its presidential initiative for 2023 to 2024, said [Dr. Smita] Das, immediate past-chair of the APA’s council on addictions.”

Related Links:

— “How internet addiction may affect your teen’s brain, according to a new study,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, June 4, 2024

The AP (6/4, Johnson ) reports, “Specially trained service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in U.S. military veterans in a small study that the researchers hope will help expand options for service members.” In the study, “researchers compared 81 veterans who received service dogs with 75 veterans on the waiting list for a trained dog,” and “after three months, PTSD symptoms improved in both groups, but the veterans with dogs saw a bigger improvement on average than the veterans on the waiting list.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Service dogs helped ease PTSD symptoms in US military veterans, researchers say,”Carla K. Johnson, AP, June 4, 2024

The Washington Post (6/4, A1, Gilbert , Ovalle ) reports, “A U.S. Food and Drug Administration advisory committee overwhelmingly voted Tuesday that evidence is lacking that MDMA-assisted therapy is effective for treating post-traumatic stress disorder, and that the benefits don’t outweigh the risks to patients, dealing a potential blow to what could be the first psychedelic treatment the agency approves.” The panel’s “vote is not binding. Still, its recommendation could hold great weight as the FDA decides for the first time whether the mind-altering compound – better known by its street name, ecstasy, and long categorized among the riskiest of controlled substances – can be legally used as a medical treatment in the United States.”

The AP (6/4, Perrone ) reports the advisory panel “voted 10-1 against the overall benefits of MDMA when used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder. They cited flawed study data, questionable research conduct and significant drug risks, including the potential for heart problems, injury and abuse.” Committee members “pointed to flawed studies that could have skewed the results, missing follow-up data on patient outcomes and a lack of diversity among participants.” Because the drug “causes intense, psychological experiences, almost all patients in two key studies of the drug were able to guess whether they had received the MDMA or a dummy pill. That’s the opposite of the approach generally required for high-quality drug research, in which bias is minimized by ‘blinding’ patients and researchers to whether they received the drug under investigation.”

The New York Times (6/4, Jacobs ) reports the drug’s sponsor, Lykos Therapeutics, “submitted evidence from clinical trials in an effort to obtain agency approval to sell the drug legally to treat people with a combination of MDMA and talk therapy.” However, on Friday, FDA staff “raised concerns about ‘significant increases’ in blood pressure and pulse rates among some of the participants in the Lykos clinical trials, noting those were risks that could ‘trigger cardiovascular events.’”

Reuters (6/4, Roy, Jain) reports that during the meeting, FDA staff “said there was a ‘striking lack’ of documentation of abuse related adverse events, which may limit the agency’s ability to explain the effects of MDMA or determine its abuse liability.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)