According to Healio (12/7, Weller), the COVID-19 “pandemic has heightened the stress and burnout that” healthcare professionals “experience, such that it is imperative to seek mental health care and, when needed, take difficult steps to protect colleagues’ well-being, according to” a speech given by “Saul Levin, MD, MPA, FRCP-E, FRCPsych, CEO and medical director of the American Psychiatric Association and clinical professor at the George Washington School of Medicine…at the opening session of the virtual American Academy of Ophthalmology annual meeting.” Dr. Levin said, “As physicians, we’re responsible for the health of our patients, but we need to remember, we’re also responsible for ours.” In addition, “physicians must…be able to recognize symptoms of burnout and depression in themselves and their colleagues.” Finally, “if immediate help is needed for a colleague who expresses active suicidal ideation, physicians must be prepared to contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline or emergency services, Levin said.”

Related Links:

— “It takes ‘great courage’ to support colleagues’ mental health during pandemic “Madison Weller, Healio, December 7, 2020

CNN (12/7, Rogers) reports, “Negative body image can threaten mental health, according to new research that found teenagers who were dissatisfied with their bodies tended to experience depression as adults.” When “study participants were 14, on a five-point scale (from extremely satisfied to extremely dissatisfied) they rated their satisfaction with their weight, figure, body build or breasts, stomach, waist, thighs, butt, hips, legs, face and hair,” and at 18 “a nurse assessed their depression symptoms and severity.” The study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, found that “girls who were discontented with their bodies at 14 had mild, moderate and severe depressive episodes at 18, while boys had mild and/or moderate depressive episodes.”

Related Links:

— “Teens with negative body image may experience depression as adults, study finds “Kristen Rogers, CNN, December 7, 2020

Healio (12/4, Gramigna) reported, “Emergency psychiatric services and clinical and diagnostic COVID-19 screening of psychiatric emergency patients are needed during the ongoing pandemic,” investigators concluded after examining “sociodemographic characteristics, psychiatric diagnoses, symptoms and disposition of patients evaluated for psychiatric emergency during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, between March 1 and April 30, with those seen immediately prior to this period, between January 1 and February 28.” Next, the research team “compared the same outcomes of patients who tested positive for COVID-19 with those who tested negative,” rating “prevalence and nature of stressors related to COVID-19 that affected the emergency presentation.” The findings were published online Oct. 28 in the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Emergency psychiatric services needed to address mental health fallout of COVID-19 era ”
Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 4, 2020

According to the AP (12/5, Tanner), “When children and teens are overwhelmed with anxiety, depression or thoughts of self-harm, they often wait days in emergency” departments due to the shortage of “psychiatric beds.” The issue has become more severe, however, amid “the pandemic, reports from parents and professionals suggest.” While children find themselves bearing “new burdens many are unequipped to bear,” swelling hospitalized COVID-19 patient totals have made bed space “even scarcer.” The AP added, “By early fall, many Massachusetts ERs were seeing about four times more children and teens in psychiatric crisis weekly than usual, said Ralph Buonopane, a mental health program director at Franciscan Hospital for Children in Boston.”

Related Links:

— “ER visits, long waits climb for kids in mental health crisis “Lindsey Tanner, AP, December 5, 2020

The New York Times (12/3, Wu) reports, “Across the nation, testing teams are grappling with burnout, repetitive-stress injuries and an overwhelming sense of doom.” While “supply chains sputter and laboratories rush to keep pace with diagnostic demand, experts warn that the most severe shortage stymieing America’s capacity to test is not one that can be solved by a wider production line or a more efficient machine.” The issue comes down to “a dearth of human power: the dwindling ranks in a field that much of the public does not know even exists.”

Related Links:

— “‘Nobody Sees Us’: Testing-Lab Workers Strain Under Demand ” Katherine J. Wu, The New York Times, December 3, 2020

The Washington Post (12/3, Wan) reports the COVID-19 “pandemic has pushed America’s 911 system and emergency responders to a breaking point, with ambulance operators exhausted and their services financially strained.” In fact, the situation “has grown so dire that the American Ambulance Association recently begged the Department of Health and Human Services for emergency funding of $2.62 billion in a letter.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (12/3, Mundell) reports, “For people struggling with drug addiction, 2020 has triggered a big rise in emergency” department “visits for cardiac arrest tied to drug overdoses,” investigators concluded “based on data involving 80% of emergency medical services (EMS) ‘activations’ across the” US. After analyzing “data on nearly 26 million EMS calls in 2020,” researchers found that overdose-related “cardiac arrests reached a peak in May, when lockdowns began to really take hold across the” US.

MedPage Today (12/3, Hlavinka) reports, “As of Oct. 31, 2020, all but nine U.S. states had reported increases in opioid-related mortality, according to the American Medical Association.” Investigators posited that “the pandemic may have disrupted the supply of narcotics for some patients, leading them to consume drugs that have traces of fentanyl or other substances triggering an overdose.” In addition, “the psychological and financial tolls of the pandemic may also be driving people to use substances more often.” The findingswere published online Dec. 3 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Pandemic Is Driving U.S. Surge in Cardiac Arrests Tied to Overdose ” Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, December 3, 2020

Healio (12/2, Miller) reports, “Patients with a history of traumatic brain injury [TBI] experienced the clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease several years earlier than those without TBI,” researchers concluded after analyzing “241 amyloid positron emission tomography scans from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative public database to look for differences in standardized uptake value ratio, cortical morphometry and neuropsychological assessments.” The study revealed that “a history of TBI was associated with ‘higher amyloid deposition and cognitive deficit’ in patients with Alzheimer’s disease.” The findings were presented at the virtual Alzheimer’s Association International Conference Neuroscience Next.

Related Links:

— “TBI ‘significantly fast-forwards’ clinical onset of Alzheimer’s disease “Janel Miller, Healio, December 2, 2020

In an op-ed for USA Today (12/2, Fialk, Contributor), Amanda Fialk, “a licensed clinical social worker and partner and chief of clinical services at The Dorm, a young adult mental health treatment community,” writes, “Last month, New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced the pilot of a new program that would end the city’s de facto police response to mental health emergencies.” Under the program, the New York City “health department and hospitals will help train new mental health teams and provide case conferencing,” and “mental health professionals will be the responders for a person in crisis.” She observes, “According to the American Psychiatric Association, most people with mental illness are ‘not violent, not criminal and not dangerous.’” Fialk believes the initiative “will allow New Yorkers, and perhaps the entire country, to reimagine how to address the mental and physical safety of those who are frequently put in danger by insufficiently trained officers.”

Related Links:

— “Cops shouldn’t be first at scene in mental health crises. NYC pilot program needed nationwide “Amanda Fialk, USA Today, December 2, 2020

Psychiatric News (12/1) reports research “highlights the need to educate women with serious mental illness (SMI) about the risks of” HIV/AIDS and HPV. After asking “89 women with SMI receiving outpatient care at a public mental health center in Augusta, Ga., to complete HIV and HPV questionnaires,” researchers then compared “the responses of women with SMI…with those of women in the general population (357 responded to an HIV questionnaire; 413 to an HPV questionnaire).” The study revealed that “women with SMI on average answered 64% of the answers correct on the HIV Knowledge Questionnaire.” What’s more, the women with SMI “knew significantly less about HPV compared with HIV, answering 55% of HPV general knowledge, 51% of HPV vaccination, and 40% of HPV testing questions correctly.” The findings were published online Aug. 1 as a research letter in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Report Highlights Need to Educate Women With SMI About Risks of HIV, Other STDs, Psychiatric News, December 1, 2020