Psychiatric News (5/11) reports that in spite of “some challenges, 20 psychiatrists who completed interviews from March 31 to April 9 said that the transition to seeing patients via telemedicine due to COVID-19 has generally been a positive experience.” The findings (PDF) now “appear in an article in press at Psychiatric Services,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatrists Report Mostly Positive Transition to Telemedicine During Pandemic, Psychiatric News, May 11, 2020

MedPage Today (5/11, Hlavinka) reports, “Rates of pediatric emergency room visits among children with mental health disorders soared from 2007 to 2016, researchers found.” During the time frame, “pediatric emergency department visits increased somewhat, from 273.5 to 305.5 cases per 10,000 (11.7% increase, P=0.06), but visits among children with mental health disorders spiked 60%, from 15.9 to 25.4 cases per 10,000,” researchers reported in a study published in Pediatrics. Researchers “used the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample (NEDS) database to track trends among hospitals, and categorized pediatric emergency department volume for each site.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (5/8, Gramigna) reported investigators “have observed significant changes in the treatment of bipolar disorder over the past two decades,” investigators concluded after examining “nationally representative data from the 1997 to 2016 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys to examine trends in the use of first- and second-generation antipsychotics, antidepressants and mood stabilizers among psychiatrist visits for which one of the primary diagnoses was bipolar disorder.” The study revealed that “second-generation antipsychotics in large measure having supplanted traditional mood stabilizers.” At the same time, “antidepressant prescriptions have persisted despite a lack of evidence for their efficacy in bipolar disorder.” The findings were published online April 21 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Second-generation antipsychotics have largely replaced mood stabilizers for treatment of bipolar disorder, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 8, 2020

CBS News (5/8, Gordon) reported, “COVID-19 has directly claimed tens of thousands of U.S. lives, but conditions stemming from the novel coronavirus – rampant unemployment, isolation and an uncertain future – could lead to 75,000 deaths from drug or alcohol abuse and suicide,” according to a report published by the Well Being Trust. Dr. Elie Aoun, vice chairman of the APA’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, said the projections were shocking, but not surprising, “I’ve been seeing this in practices and my colleagues have been talking about it, too.” Dr. Aoun added, “Addiction patients are relapsing, and a lot of patients who don’t have drug use or alcohol problems are drinking more now, sometimes every day from 4 or 5 p.m., and they don’t stop until they sleep.”

Related Links:

— “Coronavirus pandemic may lead to 75,000 “deaths of despair” from suicide, drug and alcohol abuse, study says, “Serena Gordon, CBS News, May 8, 2020

Healio (5/7, Gramigna) reports, “Frequent religious service attendance appeared associated with lower risk for death from despair among health care professionals,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from self-reported questionnaires and medical records of 66,492 female registered nurses included in the Nurses’ Healthy Study II…from 2001 through 2017” and the “data of 43,141 male health care professionals, such as dentists, pharmacists, osteopaths, podiatrists, optometrists and veterinarians, included in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study…from 1988 through 2014.” The findings of the “population-based cohort study” were published online May 6 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Religious service attendance linked to significantly lower risk for death from despair, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 7, 2020

TIME (5/7, Heid) reports, “Late last month, as the full weight of the COVID-19 crises was settling on the country’s shoulders, more than one in four American adults met the criteria that psychologists use to diagnose serious mental distress and illness. That represents a roughly 700% increase from pre-pandemic data collected in 2018.” TIME adds, “While this surge in mental distress showed up across age and demographic groups, young adults and those with children experienced the most pronounced spikes. Among adults living at home with kids under the age of 18, the rate of severe distress rose from just 3% in 2018 to 37% last month.” Researchers at Florida State University and San Diego University conducted the study, which is currently in preprint on the PsyArXiv website.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19’s Psychological Toll: Mental Distress Among Americans Has Tripled During the Pandemic Compared to 2018, “Markham Heid, TIME, May 7, 2020

HealthDay (5/7, Thompson) reports experts warn that COVID-19 survivors “will be emotionally scarred by their time spent in an intensive care unit (ICU), and they are at increased risk of psychological problems, such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” Dr. Joshua Morganstein, chair of the APA’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters, said that in addition to the potential trauma of being in the ICU, the virus might cause psychiatric or neurological problems itself, “There certainly are many infectious illnesses that have associated with them the development of temporary or permanent neuropsychiatric symptoms that can range from things like mood changes to confusion or cognitive impairment, to pain or fatigue.” Dr. Morganstein advised, “When a person’s body and mind is trying to respond to and manage a severe infection, this can be disorienting and fatiguing. Health care workers should take their time when they are talking to articulate clearly and speak in a gentle but audible manner to patients, to help ensure the patients understand what is happening.”

Related Links:

— “Depression, Anxiety, PTSD May Plague Many COVID-19 Survivors, “Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, May 7, 2020

HealthDay (5/6, Preidt) reports, “Adults who had rough childhoods have higher odds for heart disease,” investigators concluded after looking at data from “more than 3,600 people who were followed from the mid-1980s through 2018.” Investigators found that people “who experienced the most trauma, abuse, neglect and family dysfunction in childhood were 50% more likely to have had a heart attack, stroke or other heart problem in their 50s and 60s.” The findings were published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Tough Childhoods Are Tough on Adult Hearts: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 6, 2020

Healio (5/6, Gramigna) reports, “Nondiscrimination policies appeared associated with a decrease or no change in suicidality among gender minority individuals living in states with these policies,” investigators concluded after conducting “a difference-in-differences analysis to compare changes in mental health outcomes among gender minority enrollees before and after nondiscrimination policy implementation between 2009 and 2017.” Next, “using gender minority-related diagnosis codes obtained from private health insurance claims, they identified” and examined the “data of 28,980 unique gender minority enrollees from 2009 to 2017.” The findings were published online May 6 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “State-level nondiscrimination policies may decrease suicidality among gender minority individuals, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 6, 2020

The Hill (5/6, Weixel) reports a bipartisan group of 90 lawmakers in the House along with several medical groups, including the APA, “are pushing for the inclusion of enhanced mental health resources for health workers in the next coronavirus aid package.” The bipartisan group “called for the establishment of a grant program within the Department of Health and Human Services to allow healthcare employers or facilities to confidentially assess and treat the mental health of healthcare workers on the front lines of treating COVID-19 patients.”

Related Links:

— “Lawmakers push for mental health funding for providers in next aid package, “Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill, May 6, 2020