The AP (4/8, Stobbe) reports that “the number of U.S. suicides fell nearly 6% last year amid the coronavirus pandemic – the largest annual decline in at least four decades, according to preliminary government data.” The AP adds, “Death certificates are still coming in and the count could rise.” However, “officials expect a substantial decline will endure, despite worries that COVID-19 could lead to more suicides.”

Related Links:

— “US suicides dropped last year, defying pandemic expectations ” Mike Stobbe, AP, April 8, 2021

HealthDay (4/7, Preidt, Mundell) reports, “A combination of hearing and vision loss is tied to an increased risk of mental decline and dementia, but having just one of those impairments isn’t connected with a higher risk,” researchers concluded in a study that “included 6,520 people, aged 58 to 101, whose visual and hearing impairments were assessed by asking them about their use of glasses or hearing aids.” After adjustment for confounding factors, the study team “concluded that people with both hearing and vision impairment were twice as likely to develop dementia as those with one or neither of the impairments.” The findings were published online in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Diminished Hearing, Vision Together Could Be Risk Factor for Dementia ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 7, 2021

PatientEngagementHIT (4/6, Heath) reports 10% of “Black patients reported feeling discrimination during a healthcare encounter, a rate that is three times that of White people and twice that of Hispanic people,” according to a report published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute. PatientEngagementHIT adds, “Of the Black non-elderly adults who reported institutional racism or implicit bias during a medical encounter, 13.1 percent were women and 14.6 percent were low-income, the data furthered.”

Related Links:

— “10% of Black Patients Report Implicit Bias in Medicine “Sara Heath, PatientEngagementHIT, April 6, 2021

The Washington Post (4/6, Clement) reports that a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll found that a majority of healthcare workers say “worry, exhaustion, constantly changing safety rules and long hours of wearing PPE” are among the most difficult aspects of their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Post continues, “Their work has saved countless lives but also taken a personal toll: 62 percent say worry or stress related to [COVID-19] has had a negative effect on their mental health. A 55 percent majority feel ‘burned out’ going to work. Nearly half of all health-care workers say worry or stress has caused them to have trouble sleeping or to sleep too much.” At the top of the list of reported difficulties “were fears of infection for themselves, their family members or patients, mentioned by 21 percent of health-care workers.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

STAT (4/6, Cooney) reports that a study found that “six months after being diagnosed with Covid-19, 1 in 3 patients also had experienced a psychiatric or neurological illness.” While “anxiety, mood, and substance use disorders were most common,” investigators “also found worrying, if lower, rates of serious neurological complications, especially in patients who had been severely ill with Covid-19.” The data also indicated that “compared to control groups of people who had the flu or other non-Covid respiratory infections, first-ever neuropsychiatric diagnoses were almost twice as high.” The study was published in Lancet Psychiatry,

Reuters (4/6, Kelland) reports that the study, which analyzed health records of more than 236,000 patients with COVID-19, “was not able to determine the biological or psychological mechanisms involved…said” Max Taquet, who co-led the research.

Related Links:

— “1 in 3 Covid-19 patients are diagnosed with a neuropsychiatric condition in the next six months, large study finds “Elizabeth Cooney, STAT, April 6, 2021

STAT (4/5, Gaffney) reports, “Children taken to the emergency” department (ED) “for mental health concerns are more likely to be stuck there for extended stays than they were a decade ago,” investigators concluded after analyzing “national survey data from 2005-2015, focusing on patient length of stay in the” ED. The study also revealed that “Hispanic children are almost three times more likely than white children to experience these delays in care.” The findings were published online in the journal Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Kids in the ER are waiting longer for mental health care “Theresa Gaffney, STAT, April 5, 2021

HealthDay (4/5) reports, “Show your baby your love, and you’ll get a kinder, gentler adult child as your reward, a new study suggests.” More than 20 years ago, researchers “began studying the impact on newborns of time spent in physical contact with their mothers,” and they “followed these infants, born in the mid- to late-1990s, for two decades.” Now, the researchers’ “latest results – based on nearly 100 young adults – show that the maternal contact received all those years ago had a measurable impact on social brain functioning decades later, and the ability to empathize and relate to others.” The study was published online in the journal PNAS.

Related Links:

— “Is Empathy Born in Mom’s First Hugs? “Cara Murez, HealthDay, April 5, 2021

HCPlive (4/5, Walter) reports researchers have shown “a complex relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and drinking alcohol to cope with the symptoms for men in the military.” For the study, investigators “used interview data from 11,474 [participants] who reported at least one lifetime traumatic experience from the National Epidemiologic survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC), a face-to-face interview study of a nationally representative sample of adults living in the US between 2004-2005.” The study “compared trauma-exposed men without combat experience to men with military combat experience to identify who would be more likely to endorse drinking alcohol to cope with their PTSD symptoms.” The findings were published online March 17 in the Journal of Dual Diagnostics.

Related Links:

— “New Study Shows Alcohol, PTSD Relationship in Veterans “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, April 5, 2021

The AP (4/5, Johnson) reports the FDA approved Supernus Pharmaceuticals’ Qelbree (viloxazine) for the treatment of children with AD/HD. Unlike most alternatives, “Qelbree is not a stimulant or a controlled substance, making it harder to abuse than older drugs,” which has been an issue for other AD/HD drugs. The AP adds that “viloxazine was sold as an antidepressant in Europe for several decades, but was never approved by the FDA.”

The Hill (4/5, Choi) reports viloxazone is the first new drug approved by the FDA to treat children with AD/HD in more than a decade.

Related Links:

— “FDA Approves New Drug For Children With AD/HD “Linda A. Johnson, AP, April 5, 2021

MedPage Today (4/2, Gever) reported, “Most adults who reported using e-cigarettes indicated that they would like to stop, federal survey data indicated, but ratings of the strength of intention varied by their past histories with tobacco and, in general, were not especially high.” The researchers found that “among 1,988 self-identified e-cigarette users in wave 4 (conducted 2016-2018) of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) survey, 1,194 (60.1%) said they planned to quit,” although “respondents’ mean ‘level of interest in quitting,’ which they ranked on a 10-point scale (with 10 the strongest), was just 3.9 overall (95% CI 3.8-4.1).” The findings were published in a JAMA Network Open research letter.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)