HealthDay (3/10, Mozes) reports research indicates that as COVID-19 pandemic-related lockdowns keep “people from regular exercise,” rates of depression have begun to rise. Investigators arrived at this conclusion “based on multiple mental health surveys conducted among three successive groups of University of Pittsburgh students, totaling nearly 700 in all.” The findings were published online March 2 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Related Links:

— “As Lockdowns Cut Into Exercise Time, Depression Rates Are Rising “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, March 10, 2021

Healio (3/10, Gramigna) reports, “Benzodiazepine or Z-drug treatment was linked to increased risk for nonfatal drug-related poisoning among patients with opioid use disorder,” researchers concluded after analyzing “prescription claims of 23,036 individuals aged 12 to 64 years with opioid use disorder who experienced drug-related poisoning and who had buprenorphine prescriptions and claims data in the IBM MarketScan databases between 2006 and 2016.” The findings of the “case-crossover analysis” were published online March 3 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Buprenorphine treatment may reduce benzodiazepine risks for those with opioid use disorder “Joe Gramigna, Healio, March 10, 2021

MedPage Today (3/9, Walsh) reports, “The presence of depression or anxiety among patients with psoriatic arthritis [PsA] was associated with a diminished likelihood of achieving a state of minimal disease activity, regardless of the method used to diagnose depression/anxiety,” investigators concluded. The findings of the 743-patient study were published online in Arthritis Care & Research.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (3/9, Marabito) reports, “Gait variability – or the stride-to-stride fluctuations in distance and time when moving – served as a marker of cognitive-cortical dysfunction,” investigators concluded after examining “gait and cognitive performance in 500 older adults with different neurodegenerative and cognitive conditions, including subjective cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s disease,” mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s with mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson’s with dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, “Lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia, in addition to a control group of adults with normal cognitive function.” The findingswere published online in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Related Links:

— “Gait variability serves as indicator of cognitive dysfunction in AD, other diseases “Maria Marabito, Healio, March 9, 2021

MedPage Today (3/9, George) reports, “Of nearly 1.2 million Medicare beneficiaries with dementia, 13.9% were prescribed CNS-active polypharmacy, defined as more than 30 days of overlap for at least three drugs that were antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-epileptics, benzodiazepines, non-benzodiazepine receptor agonist hypnotics, or opioids,” investigators concluded. What’s more, “gabapentin (Neurontin) – a drug approved for seizures, nerve pain, and restless legs syndrome that’s frequently used for off-label indications – was the most common medication and was associated with 33% of polypharmacy-days,” the study revealed. Nearly “all (92%) polypharmacy-days included an antidepressant. About half (47.1%) included an antipsychotic, 40.7% included a benzodiazepine, and 32.3% included an opioid,” with “the most common medication class combination…an antidepressant, an anti-epileptic, and an antipsychotic, which represented 12.9% of polypharmacy-days.” The findings The findings were published in the March 9 issue of JAMA.

Psychiatric News (3/9) reports investigators arrived at these conclusions after analyzing “data on Medicare beneficiaries with dementia who had Part D prescription drug coverage on January 1, 2018.” Not included in the study were people “living in long-stay nursing homes.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Health Exec (3/8) reports “telehealth claim lines rose 2,817% from December 2019 to December 2020,” according to a study by Fair Health. The analysis “excluded Medicare and Medicaid” and aligns “with other studies and surveys showing a huge demand for telehealth during the pandemic, as patients and [health care] professionals alike aim to reduce exposure and spread of the virus.” The study also “measured the five most common diagnoses made via telehealth” and found mental health topped the list at 47%, followed by communicable disease exposure at 3.6%, respiratory infections at 3.4%, joint/soft tissue diseases at 3.4%, and COVID-19 at 3%. The findings were published in AJMC.

Related Links:

— “Telehealth claims surged in 2020 “Amy Baxter, Health Exec, March 8, 2021

Healio (3/8, Gramigna) reports, “Compassion cultivation training effectively decreased psychological distress among caregivers of individuals with mental illness,” researchers concluded in a study that included 161 participants. The findings of the “randomized clinical trial” were published online March 8 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Compassion cultivation training may decrease caregivers’ psychological distress “Joe Gramigna, Healio, March 8, 2021

CIDRAP (3/8, Van Beusekom) reports researchers analyzed “the medical records of 558,672” Americans with COVID-19, and found that “intellectual disability is second only to old age as a risk factor for” death from COVID-19, according to a commentary published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Meanwhile, a study published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report found that “obesity is linked to coronavirus-related hospitalization and death.

Related Links:

— “Intellectual disability, obesity tied to COVID-19 hospitalization, death “Mary Van Beusekom, CIDRAP News, March 8, 2021

Healio (3/5, Downey) reported, “Current and past prescription opioid misuse were associated with increases in the risk for suicide-related behaviors and experiences among U.S. high schoolers,” researchers concluded after calculating “prevalence estimates of prescription opioid misuse and suicide risk behaviors in the past 12 months among high school students” by obtaining “data on 13,677 U.S. high school students who participated in the 2019 National Youth Risk Behavior Survey.” The findings were published online ahead of print in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Opioid misuse among high schoolers associated with increased risk for suicidal behaviors “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, March 5, 2021

Psychiatric News (3/5) reported, “More than half of college students meet the criteria for one or more mental health conditions,” investigators concluded after analyzing “2016-2019 data from the Healthy Minds Study, an annual web-based survey.” Survey “data were drawn from 10,089 students from 23 community colleges and 95,711 students from 133 four-year institutions.” The findings were published online March 4 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “, Psychiatric News, March 5, 2021