Psychiatric News (5/3) reports, “There is still not enough evidence to support the use of pharmacogenetic tests in the treatment of depression, according to updated recommendations from APA’s Workgroup on Biomarkers and Novel Treatments.” For the recommendations published in AJP in Advance, “the workgroup examined data from 11 pharmacogenetic clinical trials conducted between 2017 and 2022, as well as six meta-analyses that combined individual results.” Workgroup members wrote in the updated recommendations, “Despite expert opinions, warnings, and policy statements regarding their limitations for predicting antidepressant treatment response, the popularity of [pharmacogenetic] testing products has grown, with at least 35 U.S. commercial entities providing them by 2020.”

Related Links:

— “Evidence Base for Pharmacogenetic Tests Still Lacking, APA Workgroup Finds, Psychiatric News, May 3, 2024

Medscape (5/3, Bender, Subscription Publication) reports, “Serious mental illness (SMI), including bipolar disorder or schizophrenia spectrum disorders, is associated with a twofold increased risk for comorbid physical illness, results of a new meta-analysis showed.” Researchers “conducted a meta-analysis of 82 observational studies comprising 1.6 million individuals with SMI and 13.2 million control subjects to determine the risk for physical or psychiatric multimorbidity.”The results were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The New York Times (5/2, Philipps) reports that a “120-millimeter heavy mortar…unleashes enough explosive force to hurl a 31-pound bomb four miles,” and “the heads of the soldiers who fire it are just inches from the blast.” Yet, “the military says that those blasts are not powerful enough to cause brain injuries.” Meanwhile, “soldiers say that the Army is not seeing the evidence sitting in its own hospital waiting rooms.” In more than two dozen interviews, the Times found that “soldiers who served at different bases and in different eras said that over the course of firing thousands of mortar rounds in training, they developed symptoms that match those of traumatic brain injury, including headaches, insomnia, confusion, frayed memory, bad balance, racing hearts, paranoia, depression and random eruptions of rage or tears.” However, nothing was reported.

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

CNN (5/1, Holcombe ) reports, “Does it ever feel as if your anger courses through your veins? Well, that isn’t too far off, according to new research.” Angry feelings “adversely affect blood vessel health, according to a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.” In the study, “researchers divided 280 participants and gave them a task that made them recall feelings of anger, sadness, anxiety or neutrality for eight minutes. Before and several times after the task, the researchers took measures of the individuals’ vascular health.”
NBC News (5/1, Mantel ) reports, “The researchers found blood vessels’ ability to dilate was significantly reduced among people in the angry group compared with those in the control group. Blood vessel dilation wasn’t affected in the sadness and anxiety groups.” Impairment of blood vessel dilation “is an early marker for atherosclerosis, which is the buildup of fats and cholesterol, called plaque, on artery walls that make the arteries stiff. Atherosclerosis can lead to coronary heart disease, heart attack, stroke and kidney disorders.”

Related Links:

— “Anger can harm your blood vessel function, study shows,”Madeline Holcombe , CNN, May 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/1) reports, “Forty-three percent of US adults said that they feel more anxious now than they did last year, compared with 37% in 2023 and 32% in 2022, according to APA’s 2024 annual mental health poll” based on responses from 2,204 adults surveyed online. The poll found “70% of respondents said they were somewhat or very concerned about current events, especially the economy (77%), the upcoming US election (73%), gun violence (69%), hate speech/crimes (65%), and climate change (56%).”

Related Links:

— “Many U.S. Adults Anxious Over Election, Other Current Events, APA Poll Finds, Psychiatric News, May 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (4/30) reports, “While clozapine increases an individual’s risk of agranulocytosis (a drop in a type of white blood cell that can be life threatening) more than other antipsychotics, the risk of a serious adverse event is minimal and drops steeply after the first year of use, according to” researchers who “tracked nearly 62,000 people in Finland for up to 22 years” and “also found that the fatality rate among individuals who develop agranulocytosis is very low.” The results were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Risks of Clozapine Decline Sharply After Six Months, May Warrant Reduced Monitoring, Psychiatric News, April 30, 2024

CNN (4/30, Rogers ) reports that researchers have “quantified the risk of depression during the transition” to menopause, “known as perimenopause – showing that women in this stage are about 40% more likely to experience the mental health condition than premenopausal women.” The investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing data from “seven studies totaling 9,141 women.” The findings were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Perimenopause may raise risk of one mental health condition by 40%, study finds,”Kristen Rogers, CNN, April 30, 2024

Psychiatric News (4/1) reports a study found that “people who gamble on sports are disproportionately more likely to engage in binge drinking.” The study included “data from 4,363 adults about their gambling and drinking habits.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Sports Gamblers More Likely to Binge Drink, Study Shows, Psychiatric News, April 1, 2024

KFF Health News (4/1, Leys ) reports that privately-run psychiatric hospitals are part of “a national trend toward having such hospitals owned by investors instead of by state governments or nonprofit health systems.” In Iowa, “two out-of-state companies have developed psychiatric hospitals” since 2020, “and now a third company has obtained a state ‘certificate of need’ to open a 60-bed facility in Grinnell.” Before 2020, there were “no privately owned, free-standing psychiatric hospitals” in Iowa. Universal Health Services “says it has mental health facilities in 39 states” including Iowa.

Related Links:

— “For-Profit Companies Open Psychiatric Hospitals in Areas Clamoring for Care,”Tony Leys, KFF Health News, April 1, 2024

The Wall Street Journal (4/1, Armour , Subscription Publication) reports on urgent care clinics developed to treat young people facing mental health crises, which are growing given the rising number of patients needing mental healthcare. According to a letter in Psychiatric Services, there were at least 77 such clinics in the US in 2021, and over 20 have opened in the past year east of the Rockies.

Related Links:

— “America’s Mental Health Is Worsening. Special Urgent-Care Clinics Step In.,”Stephanie Armour, HealthDay, April 1, 2024