Healio (6/22, Marabito) reports, “Adults with depressive symptoms used more humor and sarcasm to cope with challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic,” researchers concluded in a digital survey of “661 Canadian adults during the height of COVID-19 restrictions, between April 27 and July 17, 2020.” The survey study also revealed that “adults with anxiety used more sarcasm but less humor during the pandemic, and those with psychiatric disorders reported using more humor.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the August issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Adults with depression, anxiety use more humor, sarcasm to cope with COVID-19 pandemic “Maria Marabito, Healio, June 22, 2021

MedPage Today (6/22, Grant) reports, “Cannabis use may be associated with suicidality trends among young adults, regardless of their depression status, according to a survey study” published in JAMA Network Open. The “analysis of data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)” on “over 280,000 young adults ages 18 to 34” found “increases in suicidal ideation, plan, and attempt ranging from 40% to 60% over the past decade – increases beyond those attributable to either cannabis use or major depressive episodes (MDE) alone, reported” researchers.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Wall Street Journal (6/21, Reddy, Subscription Publication) reports that experts nationwide are saying the pandemic’s social isolation may have triggered eating disorders in many adolescents and young adults. Data show that the demand for treatment has risen to new levels.

Related Links:

— “Eating Disorders Surged Among Adolescents in Pandemic “Sumathi Reddy, The Wall Street Journal, June 21, 2021

Healio (6/21, Marabito) reports “cognitive behavioral, behavioral activation, problem-solving, ‘third wave therapy,’ interpersonal psychotherapy, psychodynamic, and life-review therapy” may treat depression “more effectively and acceptably, with several” of these psychotherapies “having significant long-term effects after 1 year,” according to a studypublished in World Psychiatry. Study investigators “conducted network and random-effects pairwise meta-analyses on 331 randomized trials with 34,285 patients” and found “greater efficacies for all assessed therapies than care-as-usual and waiting list control conditions.”

Related Links:

— “Certain psychotherapies offer effective, long-term treatment for adult depression “Maria Marabito, Healio, June 21, 2021

The Washington Post (6/20, Waters) reported “cities around the country are looking into or already pursuing” efforts to divert some emergency calls to mental health workers rather than police. For example, CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) is a Eugene, Oregon-based service “that sends a mental health crisis worker and EMT, rather than police, to people in mental health distress.” In Phoenix, a “consortium of nonprofit agencies led by Solari Crisis and Human Services, has built a crisis line and mobile response system that, in one recent 30-day period, handled 20,000 calls and dispatched mobile crisis teams composed of a mental health clinician and a paraprofessional – and not police – 2,200 times.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (6/18, Preidt) reported, “Postpartum depression strikes fathers of premature babies more often than previously thought, and it can linger longer in fathers than in mothers,” according to researchers who “screened for depression in 431 parents of premature infants in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) and identified depression symptoms in 33% of mothers and 17% of fathers.” The study was published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Dads of ‘Preemie’ Babies Can Be Hit by Depression “Robert Preidt, HealthDay , June 18, 2021

Healio (6/18, Gramigna) reported, “Obsessive-compulsive disorder independently increased risk for subsequent dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia, according to” longitudinal study results published in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “OCD increases risk for any dementia, Alzheimer’s disease “Joe Gramigna, Healio, June 18, 2021

TODAY (6/16, Hohman) reported that “even in the wake of the 1969 Stonewall riots, homosexuality was a diagnosable illness listed in the first two editions of the APA’s ‘Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,’ often referred to as the ‘DSM,’” and only in 1973 did the APA vote “to remove homosexuality from” it. Saul Levin, MD, MPA, FRCP-E, “current CEO and medical director of the APA, told TODAY, ‘The psychiatrists of APA became emboldened by what’” activists such as Barbara Gittings, Kay Tobin Lahusen and Frank Kameny “were doing and said this has got to end.” Although “activism” has “paved the way for a society more inclusive of gay people, the work is not done, Amit Paley, CEO of The Trevor Project, which provides mental health services for LGBTQ youth, told TODAY.” Paley “pointed to conversion therapy, which is still legal in 30 states, and the ongoing laws and bills targeting trans youth.” Even though “both the American Psychiatric Association and the American Medical Association have put out statements opposing conversion therapy and restrictions on gender-affirming care for trans youth,” the attitude “that there’s something wrong with being LGBTQ” appears to still “have a powerful effect on the community’s mental health.”

Related Links:

— “Lesbian pioneers Kay Lahusen, Barbara Gittings fought medical myths about gays. Their work isn’t finished “Maura Hohman, TODAY, June 16, 2021

Healio (6/17, Gramigna) reports, “Among patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, women had poorer subjective recovery-related outcomes and more unmet needs compared with men,” researchers concluded in a study that sought to assess “sex differences in objective and subjective recovery factors and psychiatric rehabilitation needs among 1,055 outpatients with schizophrenia spectrum disorder according to DSM-5 diagnosis who were recruited from the French National Centers of Reference for Psychiatric Rehabilitation cohort between January 2016 and November 2019.” The findings were published online May 18 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Women with schizophrenia spectrum disorder have poorer subjective outcomes than men “Joe Gramigna, Healio, June 17, 2021

Healio (6/16, Gramigna) reports, “Cannabis use in middle to late adolescence may alter neurodevelopment,” investigators concluded in a study that sought “to evaluate the potential associations between MRI-assessed cerebral cortical thickness development and cannabis use among a longitudinal sample of 799 adolescents (56.3% female; mean age, 14.4 years at baseline and 19 years at follow-up) who reported being cannabis naive at study baseline and who had behavioral and neuroimaging data available at baseline and five-year follow-up.” The findings were published online June 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Relevance: “ Analysis revealed that thinning in right prefrontal cortices, from baseline to follow-up, was associated with attentional impulsiveness at follow-up.
Conclusions and Relevance: Results suggest that cannabis use during adolescence is associated with altered neurodevelopment, particularly in cortices rich in cannabinoid 1 receptors and undergoing the greatest age-related thickness change in middle to late adolescence.”

Related Links:

— “Adolescent cannabis use may alter neurodevelopment “Joe Gramigna, Healio, June 16, 2021