Psychiatric News (11/25) reported, “Older adults may be more resilient to the anxiety, depression, and stress-related mental disorders that are being reported by younger adults during the COVID-19 pandemic,” investigators concluded after citing “a survey of 5,412 community-dwelling adults conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from June 24 to 30.” The findings were published online Nov. 20 in a viewpoint in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Older Adults May Be More Resilient During Pandemic Than Younger People Psychiatric News, November 25, 2020

CNN (11/25, Kim) reported, “The early stages of the coronavirus pandemic and the first Covid-19 lockdown caused the number of young people with anxiety to nearly double, according to a study from the University of Bristol.” The study“found that the number of people with anxiety jumped from 13% to 24% in young people between the ages of 27 and 29, and that number was higher than their parents.”

Related Links:

— “Young people’s anxiety levels nearly doubled during first Covid-19 lockdown, study says “Allen Kim, CNN, November 25, 2020

Healio (11/24, Gramigna) reports, “A significant proportion of U.S. adults reported serious psychological distress related to the COVID-19 pandemic,” investigators concluded after receiving and analyzing “online survey data from 1,337 individuals aged 18 years or older who were included in NORC’s AmeriSpeak panel, with second wave data fielded between July 7 and July 22.” The findings were published Nov. 23 in a research letter in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Many U.S. adults experienced serious psychological distress related to COVID-19 pandemic “Joe Gramigna, Healio, November 24, 2020

Psychiatric News (11/23) reports, “Prazosin is effective at reducing alcohol consumption in adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) and severe withdrawal symptoms such as sweating, headache, and nausea,” investigators concluded in a “12-week, randomized clinical trial of 112 treatment-seeking adults with AUD.” The study revealed that “those with severe withdrawal symptoms who took prazosin had half as many drinking days and only one-fifth the number of heavy drinking days as adults with severe withdrawal symptoms taking placebo.” The findings were published online Nov. 19 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Prazosin Can Reduce Drinking in AUD Patients With Severe Withdrawal Symptoms, Psychiatric News, November 23, 2020

The New York Times (11/23, Carey) reports, “The Department of Veterans Affairs [VA] has turned to machine-learning to help identify vets at risk of taking their own lives.” Suicide rates among veterans have risen by 30% since 2000, and are generally higher than the civilian population. The VA has developed a program called Reach Vet which deploys an algorithm that “updates continually, generating a new list of high-risk veterans each month.” The VA will reach out to a vet to make an appointment if their name appears on the list.

Related Links:

— “Department Of Veterans Affairs Employing New Algorithm To Identify Veterans At Risk Of Suicide “Benedict Carey, The New York Times, November 23, 2020

Healio (11/20, Gramigna) reported, “Older adults with higher levels of loneliness were at increased risk for more severe depression symptoms,” investigators concluded after “analyzing seven waves of data collected once every two years between 2004 and 2017 of adults aged 50 years and older who were included in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.” The findings of the 4,211-participant, “population-based cohort study” were published online Nov. 9 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Reducing loneliness among older adults may prevent future depressive symptoms “Joe Gramigna, Healio, November 20, 2020

HealthDay (11/20, Murez) reported research indicates that “severe emotional distress and anxiety for those who have lived through major disasters can…lead to suicide.” Investigators arrived at that conclusion after examining data on “281 natural disasters during a 12-year period and their impact on suicide rates in those communities.” The study revealed that “suicide rates increased by 23% when compared to rates before and after the disaster.” The findings were published online Oct. 9 in the Journal of Crisis Intervention and Suicide Prevention.

Related Links:

— “Disasters Leave a Rise in Suicides in Their Wake: Study ” Cara Murez, HealthDay, November 20, 2020

HealthDay (11/20, Norton) reported, “The number of women who contemplate suicide or self-harm during or after pregnancy may be on the rise,” investigators concluded in a study revealing that “among nearly 600,000 U.S. childbearing women, researchers found that close to 2,700 were diagnosed with suicidality in the year before or after giving birth.” The findings were published online Nov. 18 in JAMA Psychiatry.

According to Psychiatric News (11/20), the study “authors noted that Black women, those with lower incomes, and younger women experienced the larger increases in suicidality.” They wrote, “Given the severe maternal mortality crisis among racial/ethnic minority individuals, especially Black women, it is imperative to include psychiatric risks in predictive models and practice guidelines.”

Related Links:

— “Suicidality Among Childbearing Women Found to Increase Over 12-Year Period, Psychiatric News, November 20, 2020

Modern Healthcare (11/19, Castellucci, Subscription Publication) reports researchers found “patients with coronavirus – particularly those over 65 – may present to healthcare settings with only symptoms of delirium rather than well-known signs of the virus like fever and shortness of breath.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

STAT (11/19, Cooney) reports that in the study, “more than one-fourth of older patients…arrived at hospital emergency rooms with delirium, and 37% of these patients had no typical Covid-19 signs, such as fever or shortness or breath.”

Psychiatric News (11/19). also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Modern Healthcare Requires Subscription

The Washington Post (11/19, A1, Shammas) reports, “With Thanksgiving a week away and coronavirus cases exploding nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday recommended against traveling or gathering for the holiday, urging Americans to consider celebrating in their own households instead.” In the agency’s “first news briefing in months, officials said they were alarmed to see 1 million new cases reported across the United States within the past week.” As the nation’s death toll “since the start of the pandemic reached 250,000, officials spoke of the risks in stark terms, warning that as friends and relatives get together over the holidays, they could inadvertently bring the coronavirus with them.”

Related Links:

— “CDC recommends against Thanksgiving travel amid surge of coronavirus cases “Brittany Shammas, The Washington Post, November 19, 2020