The AP (3/13, Swenson, Klepper) reported that “journalists, public health officials and tech companies” have sought to counter the “bogus claims about the virus, masks and vaccines [that] have exploded since COVID-19 was declared a global pandemic a year ago,” but “much of the job of correcting misinformation has fallen to the world’s front-line medical workers.” The AP highlights that nurses are playing a key role in the effort, but concedes that “in some cases, it’s nurses and other health care workers themselves spreading misinformation. And many nurses say they encounter falsehoods about the coronavirus vaccine in their own families.”

Related Links:

— “Nurses fight conspiracy theories along with coronavirus “Ali Swenson and David Klepper, AP, March 13, 2021

The AP (3/12, Leicester) reported around the world, pediatric healthcare professionals are seeing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on children’s mental health. In France, Japan, and other countries, physicians have reported increases in suicide attempts among children and teenagers. The AP adds, “Pediatric psychiatrists say they’re also seeing children with coronavirus-related phobias, tics and eating disorders, obsessing about infection, scrubbing their hands raw, covering their bodies with disinfectant gel and terrified of getting sick from food.”

Related Links:

— “Global rise in childhood mental health issues amid pandemic “John Leicester, AP, March 12, 2021

The Washington Post (3/12, Chiu) reported, “Several health-related organizations held a news conference Friday to raise alarm about the significant effect the coronavirus pandemic is having on Americans’ efforts to quit smoking.” In a report (PDF) released Friday, the “North American Quitline Consortium (NAQC) found a steep drop in calls during 2020 to the National Cancer Institute-operated portal that connects callers to local quitlines.” And “at the same time, the nonprofit noted, cigarette sales increased after years of steady decline, according to data from the Treasury Department.”

USA Today (3/12, Alltucker) reported, “Officials attributed the decline in calls…to stress, anxiety, depression and isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

CIDRAP (3/12, Van Beusekom) reported a research letter published in JAMA Network Open suggests that the majority of COVID-19 survivors have “symptoms of major depressive disorder months after recovery.” The researchers “analyzed internet-based nonprobability survey and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9) responses from 82,319 adult coronavirus survivors delivered in eight waves from June 2020 to January 2021.”

Related Links:

— “Half of COVID survivors note lingering signs of depression “Mary Van Beusekom, CIDRAP News, March 12, 2021

CNN (3/11, Maxouris, Sanchez, Almasy, McPhillips) reports one year after the WHO declared a pandemic, 10% of the U.S. population is vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2. According to the CDC’s website, “at least 33.9 million Americans are protected with either a one-dose or two-dose vaccine.”

Related Links:

— “One year after the pandemic was declared, 1 in 10 Americans have been fully vaccinated “Christina Maxouris, Ray Sanchez, Steve Almasy and Deidre McPhillips, CNN, March 11, 2021

HealthDay (3/11, Preidt, Mundell) reports, “The trauma and loss of stroke can often leave survivors with long-term depression, and women appear to be at special risk,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from Medicare patients aged 65 and older who were hospitalized for either ischemic stroke (more than 174,000) or heart attack (more than 193,000) from July 2016 to Dec. 31, 2017,” then following patients “for an average of 1.5 years.” The findings are set for presentation “later this month at the virtual American Stroke Association’s annual meeting.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Often Follows Stroke, and Women Are at Higher Risk “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 11, 2021

The Hill (3/11, Coleman) reports that more than “20 percent of health care workers worldwide have experienced depression and anxiety amid the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Wednesday” in PLOS One. A meta-analysis of 65 studies “surveying more than 97,000 people between December 2019 and August 2020 concluded that 21.7 percent of health care workers have experienced depression and 22.1 percent have experienced anxiety during the COVID-19 crisis.” Researchers “averaged the results of nine of these studies to predict that 21.5 percent of health care workers worldwide have reported symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.”

Related Links:

— “More than 20 percent of health care workers experience depression, anxiety amid pandemic: study ” Justine Coleman, The Hill, March 11, 2021

HealthDay (3/10, Mann) reports, “Sustaining just one head injury may up your chances of developing dementia decades later by 25%, and this risk increases with each subsequent head injury,” investigators concluded after analyzing “25 years of data on more than 14,000 people in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study.” The study also revealed that “a history of two or more head injuries was associated with more than two times the risk of developing dementia 25 years later.” The findings were published online in Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association.

Related Links:

— “Even 1 Concussion May Raise Your Odds for Dementia Later ” Denise Mann, HealthDay, March 10, 2021

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