HealthDay (4/30, Holmes) reports, “Marijuana dependence goes hand in hand with poor mental health, and problems may persist long after stopping the drug,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from more than 20,000 respondents to a 2012 Canadian health survey.” The findings were published online April 15 in the journal Advances in Preventive Medicine. Jill Williams, MD, “head of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, reviewed the findings and said heavy pot use is associated with such problems as a lack of achievement and possibly a slight lowering of IQ. Users who self-medicate may increase their existing psychiatric problems, she added.” She stated, “THC [the ingredient in marijuana that gets users high] may be making things worse – specifically, psychosis.”

Related Links:

— “Heavy Pot Use Linked to Mental Problems, Even After Quitting, “Rich Holmes, HealthDay , April 30, 2020

Psychiatric News (4/29) reports the FCC’s COVID Telehealth Program “is offering funding to community mental health centers, teaching hospitals, medical schools, and other eligible nonprofit health systems seeking to adopt and integrate telehealth technology into their practices.” Under the CARES Act, the program has $200 million in funding and “is designed to help eligible practices, hospitals, and other organizations provide and maintain telemedicine/telepsychiatry services so they can continue to provide care during the COVID-19 pandemic, while many states are still enforcing stay-at-home orders.”

Related Links:

— “Funding for Telehealth Available Under FCC’s COVID-19 Program, Psychiatric News, April 29, 2020

MedPage Today (4/29, Hlavinka) reports, “Patients with any of 10 mental disorders had increased risk for most of 31 medical conditions, including circulatory, pulmonary, or neurologic disease,” investigators concluded in a “study aimed at developing an ‘atlas’ of connections between psychiatric and somatic illnesses.” For the study, researchers “obtained data coded in inpatient or outpatient visits, prescriptions, or diagnosis recorded in death certificates across Danish national registries,” including “31 medical conditions in nine subcategories: circulatory, endocrine, pulmonary, gastrointestinal, urogenital, musculoskeletal, hematologic, neurologic, and cancer.” Next, “they coded 10 mental disorders: organic disorders, substance use disorder, schizophrenia, mood disorders, neurotic disorders, eating disorders, personality disorders, intellectual disabilities, developmental disorders, and behavioral disorders.” The findings of the 5,940,299-patient study were published online April 30 in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Brian Barnett, a psychiatrist in Cleveland, and Jack Turban, a resident physician in psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, wrote in an op-ed for The Hill (4/27) that the coronavirus pandemic is raving psychiatric facilities in the US at a time when “we need the services of psychiatric facilities more than ever.” Barnett and Turban say, “Recent outbreaks in psychiatric facilities – many fatal – have occurred in Connecticut, Delaware, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Missouri, Michigan, Nevada, New Jersey, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C. At least 63 state psychiatric hospitals – which can house thousands of patients with the most severe forms of mental illness – are known to be afflicted across the country.” At the beginning of this month, the APA and other groups sent a letter to Vice President Mike Pence urging him to help secure PPE for workers at psychiatric hospitals and residential treatment facilities, but the letter received no response, and earlier this week, the APA and other groups wrote a letter to leaders in Congress stating that the mental healthcare system in the US is “crumbling.” Barnett and Turban conclude, “We’ll always need psychiatric facilities for those who’ve become too mentally ill to remain at home safely. And though we’ve long overlooked the important work these places do, now is the time to give them the attention they deserve. In our fight against this new threat, the needs of their patients and those caring for them shouldn’t be ignored.”

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 is ravaging America’s psychiatric facilities
, “Brian Barnett and Jack Turban, The Hill, April 30, 2020

NPR (4/28, Kamenetz) reports, “There has been a rise in the number of minors contacting the National Sexual Assault Hotline to report abuse. That’s according to RAINN, the Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network, which runs the hotline.” According to NPR, “by the end of March, with much of the country under lockdown, there was a 22% increase in monthly calls from people younger than 18, and half of all incoming contacts were from minors.” Among the “young people who contacted the hotline in March, 67% identified their perpetrator as a family member and 79% said they were currently living with that perpetrator.”

Related Links:

— “Child Sexual Abuse Reports Are On The Rise Amid Lockdown Orders, “Anya Kamenetz, NPR, April 28, 2020

Medscape (4/28, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports “calls to a mental health crisis hotline in New York City have soared during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has closed schools and businesses, put millions out of work, and ushered in stay-at-home orders,” according to a presentation given at the American Psychiatric Association’s Virtual Spring Highlights Meeting. During the presentation, Kimberly Williams, CEO of Vibrant Emotional Health, which “provides crisis line services,” said, “Crisis hotlines are a core part of our nation’s mental health safety net, ensuring that care is available when and where needed during a crisis, whether that be an individual crisis, a local community crisis, or a national mental health crisis like we are facing right now.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (4/28, Gramigna) reports, “Among matched full and half siblings at high risk for major depression, those raised in adoptive homes had a significantly reduced risk compared with those raised in their home environment,” researchers concluded after identifying “a Swedish national sample of 666 high-risk full sibships and 2,596 high-risk half sibships that contained at least one adopted-away sibling and one home-reared sibling and used national medical registries to assess major depression.” For study purposes, investigators then “defined high risk as having at least one biological parent with major depression.”

Psychiatric News (4/28) reports, “The environment in which a child is raised may influence his or her risk of developing depression later in life,” researchers concluded in a study that revealed that “compared with home-reared full and half siblings, children who had been adopted had a 23% and 19% decreased risk of major depression,” a conclusion that may “demonstrate the strong impact of the rearing environment on risk for major depression.” The findings were published online April 28 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Adoption may significantly decrease major depression risk among high-risk youth, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, April 28, 2020

HealthDay (4/27, Norton) reports research suggests the movie “Joker” stoked “prejudices against people with mental illnesses.” After randomizing “164 adults to watch either ‘Joker’ or the movie ‘Terminator: Dark Fate,’” investigators “found that shortly after viewing “Joker,” moviegoers showed an uptick in negative feelings toward” people with mental illnesses, while “there was no such change among people who saw a film that was similarly violent, but had no depiction of mental illness.” The findings were published online April 24 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Did the Movie ‘Joker’ Reinforce Prejudice Against Mentally Ill?,  “Amy Norton, HealthDay, April 27, 2020

MD Magazine (4/27, Walter) reports NIDA Director Dr. Nora D. Volkow spoke at the American Psychiatric Association Spring Highlights Meeting 2020 about the risk of coronavirus infection for people with substance abuse disorders. Dr. Volkow “said because of the COVID-19 pandemic there is concern over a surge and increase in drug use.” Dr. Volkow compared the lung pathologies seen in some coronavirus cases to those seen in people with vaping-associated lung injuries. Dr. Volkow also said that some people with substance use disorder may be at increased risk for the transmission of other infectious diseases for certain groups.

Related Links:

— “Substance Abuse Disorders Particularly Concerning During COVID-19 Pandemic, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, April 27, 2020

Healio (4/27, Gramigna) reports that even though “substance use is less prevalent among pregnant women than nonpregnant women, use during pregnancy has significant adverse effects on maternal, as well as fetal, neonatal and childhood health outcomes, according to” a presentation given by Kimberly Yonkers, MD, director of psychological medicine and the Center for Wellbeing of Women and Mothers at Yale School of Medicine, at the American Psychiatric Association Spring Highlights Meeting. In addition, “the legalization of cannabis…has directly affected pregnant women, since this population has exhibited significant preconception, prenatal and postpartum prevalence rates, according to Yonkers.” Finally, “maternal nicotine use also presents significant perinatal risks, including fetal growth restriction, ectopic pregnancy, placental disorders and fetal or infant death, Yonkers said.”

Related Links:

— “The landscape of perinatal substance use: Prevalence, outcomes and interventions, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, April 27, 2020