Healio (5/16, Young) reports, “Time, financial and energy constraints are the leading barriers to mental health care access for health care workers, according to research.” Investigators came to this conclusion after conducting “a cross-sectional survey-based study” in which they “evaluated the burden of mental illness and access to resources and treatment for health care workers,” including a total of “149 participants in various health care roles including nurses, physicians, pharmacists and support staff.” The findings were presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “Time, finances, energy leading barriers to health care worker access to mental health care,”Kate Young , Healio, May 16, 2024

The Washington Post (5/16, Ovalle , Nirappil ) reports, “President Biden on Thursday publicly endorsed the Justice Department’s recommendation to loosen restrictions on marijuana, a long-expected measure that marks a historic shift in the nation’s drug policy.” Now, the Justice Department “will publish an official notice, opening a two-month period for the public to comment on the proposed change. The rule reclassifying marijuana as a Schedule III controlled substance would not go into effect until afterward.”

The AP (5/16, Whitehurst ) reports the “proposed rule sent to the federal register recognizes the medical uses of cannabis and acknowledges it has less potential for abuse than some of the nation’s most dangerous drugs.” The proposal “comes after a recommendation from the federal Health and Human Services Department, which launched a review of the drug’s status at the urging of President Joe Biden in 2022.”

Reuters (5/16, Lynch) reports that in its analysis, the FDA “said it found ‘some credible scientific support for the use of marijuana in the treatment of chronic pain, anorexia related to a medical condition, and nausea and vomiting.” No safety concerns were raised “‘in the FDA’s review that would indicate that medical use of marijuana poses unacceptably high safety risks,’ the proposal says.”

NBC News (5/16, Tsirkin , Alba) reports that in Congress, Democrats “are pursuing a partisan effort to remove cannabis entirely from the Controlled Substances Act, empowering states to create their own cannabis laws and prioritize restorative and economic justice for those affected by the ‘war on drugs.’”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (5/15) reports, “Few individuals with schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders were in remission or recovery 25 years after diagnosis, according to a report in AJP in Advance.” Investigators found that “for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (schizophrenia, schizoaffective, and schizophreniform disorders), almost none experienced stable remission or recovery across 25 years.” According to the researchers, the “stability of symptoms across the follow-up period indicates that more effective treatments are needed to influence the course of remission and recovery for individuals with schizophrenia spectrum disorders and illuminates the need for sustained intervention and support for this population.”

Related Links:

— “Study Underscores Need for Sustained Intervention for Schizophrenia, Other Psychotic Disorders, Psychiatric News, May 15, 2024

The AP (5/15, Stobbe ) reports, “The number of U.S. fatal overdoses fell last year, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data posted Wednesday.” If these figures are finalized, this “would be only the second annual decline since the current national drug death epidemic began more than three decades ago.” Around “107,500 people died of overdoses in the U.S. last year…the CDC estimated,” a decrease of “3% from 2022, when there were an estimated 111,000 such deaths, the agency said.”

The New York Times (5/15, Hoffman ) reports this is “the first decrease in five years.” This “was attributable mostly to a drop in deaths from synthetic opioids, chiefly fentanyl, said researchers at the National Center for Health Statistics, who compiled the numbers.” However, “the full portrait of the death toll from street drugs remains grim. Even as opioid deaths fell, deaths from stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamine rose.” Overall, “opioid deaths fell 3.7 percent while deaths from cocaine rose 5 percent and deaths from meth rose 2 percent.”

The Washington Post (5/15, Ovalle ) reports, “Overdose deaths have surpassed 100,000 for the third straight year…a reminder that the nation remains mired in an intractable epidemic fueled by the potent street drug fentanyl.” Despite the decrease in deaths, “experts cautioned that the numbers could rise in ensuing years and that the toll remains unacceptably high.”

Reuters (5/15, Jain) reports, “States including Nebraska, Kansas, Indiana and Maine saw declines of 15% or more in such deaths, mostly from opioids, while Alaska, Washington and Oregon reported notable increases of at least 27% compared to 2022, the data showed.”

Related Links:

— “Fewer US overdose deaths were reported last year, but experts are still cautious,”Mike Stobbe, AP, May 15, 2024

KFF Health News (5/14, Chang ) reports, “Medicaid’s home and community-based services are designed to help people…who have disabilities and need help with everyday activities stay out of a nursing facility.” However, due to Medicaid “unwinding” following the pandemic, “people are losing benefits with little or no notice, getting bad advice when they call for information, and facing major disruptions in care while they wait for the issue to get sorted out, according to attorneys and advocates who are hearing from patients.” One nonprofit, the National Health Law Program, “has filed civil rights complaints with two federal agencies alleging discrimination against people with disabilities.”

Related Links:

— “Medicaid ‘Unwinding’ Decried as Biased Against Disabled People,”Daniel Chang, KFF Health News, May 14, 2024

HealthDay (5/14, Mundell ) says, “Vaping rates among U.S. kids in grades 9 through 12 fell to 5% in 2021, the latest year for which data is available. That’s down from a peak of 7.2% of teens who vaped in 2019, a new report finds.” But “the 5% vaping rate observed in 2021 is still more than double the 2% rate observed among teens in 2015, the study authors noted” in the Ochsner Journal.

Related Links:

— “Vaping Rates Fall Among Teens, But Still Too High,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay , May 14, 2024

Healio (5/13, Young) reports, “Vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 before and during pregnancy was not significantly associated with symptoms of postpartum depression, according to research.” Investigators came to this conclusion after evaluating “627 participants…from the CDC-funded Generation C…and NIH-funded Generation CSF…prospective pregnancy cohorts at Mount Sinai Health System.” The findings were presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 vaccination before, during pregnancy not linked to postpartum depression,”Kate Young, Healio, May 13, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/13) reports, “Adults who are incarcerated have nearly nine times the risk of dying by suicide within a year of their release than those who have never been in jail, according to a study.” Additionally, “the study…found that people who were released from jail within the year accounted for nearly 20% of all adult deaths by suicide.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Adults Recently Released from Jail Account for One in Five Adult Suicide Deaths, Psychiatric News, May 13, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/10) reported, “By combining high-powered microscopy with AI-guided illustration software, researchers reconstructed a 1 cubic millimeter fragment of living human brain tissue; these findingswere published in…Science.” The “detailed 3D rendering required 1,400 terabytes of data. By comparison, today’s high-end computer games typically contain around 0.1-0.2 terabytes of data.”

Related Links:

— “Researchers Reconstruct 3D Fragment of Human Brain, Psychiatric News, May 10, 2024

HealthDay (5/10, Miller) reported, “When folks in rural America need treatment for a substance use disorder, significant obstacles stand in their way, researchers say.” Specifically, “they are more likely to have to look outside their insurance network for care, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs, according to a recent study published in the journal Health Services Review.” In the study, “compared to those in urban areas, rural patients were less likely to initiate treatment for disorders involving alcohol (37% versus 38%), opioids (41% versus 44%) or other drugs (38% versus 40%).”

Related Links:

— “Getting Help for Alcohol, Drug Abuse Tougher for Rural Americans,”Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay , May 10, 2024