The New York Times (12/28, Belluck) reports, “A small number of Covid patients who had never experienced mental health problems are developing severe psychotic symptoms weeks after contracting the coronavirus.” Medical experts have indicated “they expect that such extreme psychiatric dysfunction will affect only a small proportion of patients.” However, “the cases are considered examples of another way the Covid-19 disease process can affect mental health and brain function.”

Related Links:

— “Small Number of Covid Patients Develop Severe Psychotic Symptoms “Pam Belluck, The New York Times, December 28, 2020

In an opinion piece for the Washington Post (12/26), American Medical Association Chief Health Equity Officer Aletha Maybank, M.D., M.P.H.‎, past-president of the American Public Health Association Camara Phyllis Jones, Advancing Health Equity founder and CEO Uché Blackstock, and National Birth Equity Collaborative president Joia Crear Perry wrote about the treatment of Dr. Susan Moore, a Black family physician who died from COVID-19 after alleging she was mistreated by her health care provider due to her race. In a Facebook video about her treatment prior to her death, Dr. Moore said, “This is how Black people get killed, when you send them home and they don’t know how to fight for themselves.” According to the opinion piece, “Moore’s video offers a glimpse…of the injustice at the intersection of being a health-care provider and being a person of color during [COVID-19], and what happens when the system does not work to adequately care for the very people who are there to uphold it.” The authors of the piece urge, “As a nation, we need to understand four key messages about racism: Racism exists. Racism is a system. Racism saps the strength of the whole society. We must act to dismantle racism.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

According to Psychiatric News (12/23), a commentary published online Dec. 14 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry posited that “physicians’ responsibilities in addressing racism and racial violence toward Black Americans range from examining and taking steps to counter our own implicit and explicit biases to addressing policies and procedures that reproduce inequities within mental health delivery systems.” After “drawing from literature and their personal experience, the authors” of the commentary “offered…recommendations for the field of medicine, as it relates” to educators, clinicians, and medical administrators.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatrists Outline Strategies to Achieve Antiracism in Medicine, Psychiatric News, December 23, 2020

According to Psychiatric News (12/22), on Dec. 21, Congress “passed the Strengthening Behavioral Health Parity Act (HR 7539), a bipartisan bill based on APA’s model legislation for improving compliance with the federal mental health parity law.” The measure “was passed as part of a year-end funding package that combined annual appropriations legislation for federal agencies and a $900 billion COVID-relief package.” It is anticipated that President Trump will sign the proposed legislation into law “later this week.” Commenting on the bill, APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, said, “This act is a good example of how Congress can work in a bipartisan manner to keep Americans’ mental health needs on their radars and invest in programs that help us navigate the pandemic.”

Related Links:

— “Congress Passes Legislative Package Including APA Model Parity Enforcement Bill, Psychiatric News, December 22, 2020

Kaiser Health News (12/22, Reardon) reports that “in a typical year, Native American youth die by suicide at nearly twice the rate of their white peers in the” US, but “experts worry that the isolation and shutdowns caused by the COVID-19 pandemic could make things worse.” The article adds that social distancing has isolated people who in other times could seek help from others.

Related Links:

— “Health Officials Fear Pandemic-Related Suicide Spike Among Native Youth ” Sara Reardon, Kaiser Health News, December 22, 2020

Healio (12/22, Gramigna) reports, “Anxiety and depression levels during the COVID-19 pandemic reached their peak at its early stages then declined rapidly, likely because people adapted to circumstances,” investigators concluded after assessing “the trajectories of depression and anxiety over the 20 weeks following announcement of widespread lockdowns in England,” analyzing “data of 36,520 participants with three follow-up measures and no missing values who were included in the UCL COVID-19 Social Study. Weekly U.K. data from March 21 on anxiety were available from the Generalized Anxiety Disorder assessment and on depressive symptoms from the Patient Health Questionnaire.” The findings were published online Dec. 9 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, depression highest during COVID-19 pandemic’s early stages, decreased since “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 22, 2020

Psychiatric News (12/21) reports, “Adults with no history of unhealthy alcohol use who undergo bariatric surgery to promote weight loss may be more likely to develop unhealthy alcohol use compared with adults who do not receive surgery,” investigators concluded after analyzing “electronic health record data from 2,608 veterans (75% male) who underwent a bariatric surgical procedure between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2016.” The findings were published online Dec. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Bariatric Surgery May Increase Risk of Unhealthy Alcohol Use, Psychiatric News, December 21, 2020

The Washington Post (12/18, Chiu) reports, “Headache specialists say many of their patients have reported new or worsening symptoms this year – an increase that is believed to be largely triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on stress, daily routines and access to care.” In addition, “headaches are also the most common neurological symptom of” COVID-19.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (12/21, George) reports researchers found in a retrospective study that people hospitalized with COVID-19 “who presented with altered mental state had significantly higher risk of in-hospital death, even when pulmonary problems were not severe.” The study was published in Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (12/18) reported, “Rates of comorbid major depressive disorder [MDD] and generalized anxiety disorder [GAD] are three times higher in people who have cannabis use disorder,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from eight articles from six epidemiological surveys published from January 1980 through July 2020” that included some “177,000 respondents.” The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Dec. 16 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Depression, Anxiety Three Times More Likely in People with Cannabis Use Disorder, Psychiatric News, December 18, 2020