Healio (9/16, Keenan) reports, “Suicide risk was highest in the first 30 days after ideation diagnosis among certain United States Army soldiers, such as women and combat medics, according to” researchers who “looked at sociodemographic and service-related characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, physical health care visits, injuries and history of family violence or crime perpetration or victimization.” Investigators “noted that neither PTSD nor depression diagnoses were linked to increased risk for suicide attempt in those with ideation.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Attempted suicide high among some soldiers soon after ideation diagnosis “Julie S Keenan, Healio, September 16, 2021

Healio (9/15, VanDewater) reports, “Remote school may do more harm to the mental health of older and Black and Hispanic kids and those from lower-income families,” researchers concluded in a “nationally representative, cross-sectional study” that “surveyed 2,324 adults aged 18 to 64 years who had at least one child aged two to 17 years living at home from Dec. 2, 2020, to Dec. 21, 2020, about the child’s mental health challenges (emotional problems, peer problems, conduct, hyperactivity) and whether they were receiving remote, in-person or hybrid instruction.” The findings were published online Sept. 3 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Remote learning impact on mental health may vary by age, race, ethnicity, family income “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, September 15, 2021

Psychiatric News (9/15) reports, “The federal government is proposing to permanently allow payment under the Medicare program for ‘audio-only’ telehealth mental health services,” which have “been temporarily reimbursed as part of the government’s response to the COVID-19 public health emergency.” In addition, the government “would retain other temporarily reimbursed telehealth services through 2023 in order to evaluate whether those services should be permanently added to the list of covered Medicare services.” These “recommended changes are part of the proposed 2022 Physician Fee Schedule [PDF]” by the CMS and are seen as “a victory for psychiatrists and their patients for which APA has strongly advocated.” In a letter (PDF) to the CMS Administrator, APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, stated, “Audio-only services have been a lifeline for patients for whom it is the only option when seeking mental health and substance use disorder treatment.”

Related Links:

— “CMS Proposes Adding Payment for Telehealth Services by Mental Health Professionals, Psychiatric News, September 15, 2021

mHealth Intelligence (9/15, Wicklund) reports “telehealth use by physicians jumped from 25 percent in 2018 to almost 80 percent in 2020, while almost 85 percent of psychiatrists connected with the patients via video visit or telephone during the height of the pandemic, according to” an American Medical Association survey(PDF). The data show “psychiatrists were most likely to adopt telehealth,” pediatricians “scored above 76 percent,” and dermatologists “topped the list of those using video visits, at 87.3 percent, followed by urologists at 87.2 percent.”

Related Links:

— “AMA Survey Charts Explosive Growth of Telehealth Services in 2020 “Eric Wicklund, mHealth Intelligence, September 15, 2021

Healio (9/14, Weldon) reports, “Black pediatric patients are more likely to be physically restrained in EDs than their white peers,” researchers concluded in “a cross-sectional study of 551,740 pediatric visits to 11 different EDs within an unidentified New England health care system between 2013 and 2020, including 532 (0.1%) that had an associated physical restraint order.” Researchers found “Black children were almost twice as likely to be physically restrained during ED visits compared with white peers.” The data were published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Black pediatric patients more likely to be restrained in EDs than white peers, study finds “Rose Weldon, Healio, September 14, 2021

According to HealthDay (9/14), “Transgender people have an elevated risk for chronic conditions versus their cisgender counterparts,” a report published in Health Affairs suggests. Investigators “found that disparities were documented between transgender and cisgender people across most conditions, with an elevated risk for all chronic conditions for transgender people versus their cisgender counterparts.”

Related Links:

— “Elevated Risk for Chronic Conditions Found for Transgender People, HealthDay, September 14, 2021

Healio (9/14, Keenan) reports, “When used correctly, electroconvulsive therapy can be associated with lower all-cause mortality,” suggests “the first nationwide cohort study using Medicare claims data.”

Psychiatric News reports research indicates that “patients aged 65 or older who received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) while hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder” appeared “to have a lower rate of death in the year following discharge than similar patients who did not receive ECT while hospitalized.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion in a study that “included 10,460 ECT patients and 31,160 control patients who were matched based on such characteristics as age, gender, and number of psychiatric hospitalizations in the previous year.” The findingswere published online Sept. 10 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Electroconvulsive therapy correlates with lower all-cause mortality “Julie S Keenan, Healio, September 14, 2021

NPR (9/9, Hanson) reports a recent Center for American Progress report found “that nearly half of transgender people have experienced mistreatment at the hands of a medical provider.” Study researchers said transgender people are systemically underserved by the U.S. medical system.

Related Links:

— “The Pervasiveness Of Transgender Health Care Discrimination “Brit Hanson, NPR, September 9, 2021

Healio (9/13, Gramigna) reports, “Opioid overdose death rates increased among non-Hispanic Black individuals between 2018 and 2019, despite having leveled off overall,” investigators concluded after evaluating “trends in opioid overdose deaths according to race/ethnicity between 2018 and 2019 across 67…communities in Kentucky, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, for which they determined opioid overdose death rates per 100,000 adult residents using state death certificate records.” The findings were published online Sept. 9 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Opioid overdose death rate increases 40% among Black individuals “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 13, 2021

The Washington Post (9/13, Paúl) reports research indicates that “nearly half of the country’s college-age students said they consumed marijuana last year, leading researchers to wonder whether the pandemic may have spurred the record in cannabis consumption.” Investigators arrived at this conclusion after conducting the 2020 “Monitoring the Future” survey “online, querying about 1,550 young adults between March 20, 2020, and Nov. 30, 2020 – after the coronavirus pandemic had hit the United States.” Investigators found that “44 percent of college students reported using marijuana in 2020, an increase from 38 percent in 2015,” while “reported alcohol use among college students dipped from 62 percent in 2019 to 56 percent, with the number of them reporting being drunk in the past month decreasing to 28 percent from 35 percent last year.” The Hill (9/13, Oshin) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)