Psychiatric News (2/19) reported, “Gastrointestinal symptoms are common in people who have major depressive disorder (MDD),” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from 3,256 MDD patients aged 18 years and older from the National Survey on Symptomatology of Depression.” The study revealed not only that “more than 70% of patients experienced gastrointestinal symptoms during depressive episodes,” but also that “a higher frequency of gastrointestinal symptoms was associated with an increased risk of psychological symptoms such as suicidal ideation, suicide attempts, anxious mood, depressed mood, insomnia, and feeling like a failure.” The findings were published online Feb. 17 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Gastrointestinal Symptoms Common in Major Depressive Disorder, Study Shows, Psychiatric News, February 19, 2021

HCPlive (2/19, Walter) reported investigators “are now worried post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) rates may rise in patients infected with the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).” In a 381-patient study, researchers “examined whether PTSD rates increased in patients who were hospitalized with COVID-19, but ultimately recovered.” The study revealed “‘a PTSD prevalence of 30.2% after acute COVID-19 infection, which is in line with findings in survivors of previous coronavirus illnesses compared with findings reported after other types of collective traumatic events,’ the authors” concluded. The findings were published online Feb. 18 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 Increases Risk of PTSD “Kenny Walter, HCPlive, February 19, 2021

HealthDay (2/19, Norton) reported researchers “may have uncovered the reason” why antipsychotic “medications for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder cause weight gain and diabetes.” Working in the laboratory with pancreatic cells, investigators “found that dopamine influenced the production of both glucagon and insulin.” But, “when the researchers used antipsychotic medications to block the pancreatic cells’ D2-like receptors, that ramped up the production of both glucagon and insulin.” In the human “body, unchecked release of those hormones could quickly lead to a loss in insulin sensitivity and chronically high blood sugar levels.” The findings were published online Feb. 16 in the journal Translational Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Many Psych Meds Trigger Weight Gain, But New Research Points to Better Options ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, February 19, 2021

The New York Times (2/18, Tavernise, Goodnough) reports “life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year in the first six months of 2020, the federal government reported on Thursday, the largest drop since World War II and a grim measure of the deadly consequences of the coronavirus pandemic.” The new data give “the first full picture of the pandemic’s effect on American life spans, which dropped to 77.8 years from 78.8 years in 2019.” The data “also showed a deepening of racial and ethnic disparities: Life expectancy of the Black population declined by 2.7 years in the first half of 2020, slicing away 20 years of gains.”

The Washington Post (2/17, A1, Bernstein) reports “Americans can now expect to live as long as they did in 2006, according to the provisional data released by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a part of the” CDC. Latinos lost 1.9 years of life expectancy, and white Americans lost 0.8 years, the data show. Bloomberg (2/18, Tanzi) says the report showed the gap in life expectancy “between the sexes rose to 5.4 years, the most in more than two decades.” Also reporting are the Wall Street Journal (2/18, Adamy, Subscription Publication), USA Today (2/18, Rodriguez), Reuters (2/18, Mishra, Chander), CNN (2/18, McPhillips), STAT (2/18), and Axios (2/18, Falconer).

Related Links:

— “Sabrina Tavernise and Abby Goodnough “Sabrina Tavernise and Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, February 18, 2021

Healthcare IT News (2/18, Jercich) reports that a Health Affairs study “found that telemedicine use during the COVID-19 pandemic was lower in communities with higher rates of poverty – suggesting that the industry must address the digital divide in order to ensure widespread access to virtual care.” The study, “which was conducted by researchers from Harvard and the RAND Corporation, examined the variation in total outpatient visits and telemedicine use among 16.7 million commercially insured and Medicare Advantage enrollees from January through June 2020.” The research team wrote: “Although the increase in telemedicine use during the pandemic is widely recognized, it is unclear how the use of telemedicine and in-person care has varied across patient demographics, clinical specialties, and medical conditions.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth used less in disadvantaged areas, Health Affairs study finds “Kat Jercich, Healthcare IT News, February 18, 2021

Healio (2/18, Gramigna) reports researchers found “nearly one-third of patients with severe COVID-19 had PTSD after acute infection.” The findings were published in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry.

MedPage Today (2/18, Grant) reports in the study, “among the 381 patients who were followed, those who developed PTSD were more likely to be women (55.7%), had higher rates of history of psychiatric disorder (34.8%), and were more likely to have had delirium or agitation during their acute illness (16.5%).”

Related Links:

— “One-third of ED-admitted COVID-19 patients may experience PTSD “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 18, 2021

HealthDay (2/17) reports researchers analyzed 28 studies and found that children who bully other children are more likely to abuse tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs later in life. The review study was published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Child Bullies at Higher Odds for Substance Abuse as Adults: Study ” Denise Mann, HealthDay, February 17, 2021

The Washington Post (2/17, Schmidt) reports that a “report the CDC released this month found that gay, lesbian and bisexual people in the United States have higher rates of self-reported underlying conditions associated with severe covid-19 outcomes, including asthma, cancer, heart disease, obesity, kidney disease and stroke, than heterosexual people.” Within this community, “Black and Hispanic people are particularly vulnerable, according to the report, which relied on 2017-2019 data from a collection of population health surveys called the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System.” But “as the report’s authors point out, no one knows the true toll of the virus on that community – because the United States is not collecting the data necessary to study it.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (2/17) reports researchers found “older adults who get little sleep each night may be at heightened risk of dementia or earlier death.” The findings were published in Aging.

Related Links:

— “Too Little Sleep Could Raise Your Dementia Risk “Amy Norton, HealthDay, February 17, 2021

CNN International (2/17, Rogers, Rogers) reports researchers found that people with mental illness early in life may have “poorer physical health and accelerated aging in adulthood.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry. Dr. Brent Forester, a member of APA’s Council on Geriatric Psychiatry, said, “We think about depression as a disease that originates in the brain with chemical disturbances and things like that. But depression probably is a systemic illness that affects the entire body. The longer I’ve done this work, and the longer that I’ve worked with older adults in particular, the more I think of psychiatric illness as not a brain disorder, but as a whole-body disorder.”

Psychiatric News (2/17) reports the association remained “even after controlling for a host of other factors that might explain early aging, such as poor health in childhood; being overweight; smoking; or a history of cancer, diabetes, or heart attack.”

Healio (2/17, Gramigna) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “People with multiple mental disorders may age several years faster, study finds “Kristen Rogers, CNN, February 17, 2021