Medical Daily (9/28) reports, “Alcohol use during pregnancy causes problems with the baby’s brain as it develops,” research indicates. The study revealed that “children whose mothers drank even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy had behavior and emotional problems.” The findings were published online Sept. 25 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Psychiatric News (9/28) reports investigators came to the study’s conclusion after analyzing “data from 9,719 children aged 9 to 11 who are part of the Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development” study.

Related Links:

— “Think 1 Drink Won’t Harm Your Unborn Baby? Think Again Medical Daily, September 28, 2020

According to Healio (9/28, Gramigna), “young adults with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), especially “women, were at increased risk for depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts vs. those without” the disorder, investigators concluded after analyzing “commercial claims data to determine the impact of” AD/HD and gender “on risk for depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts among 162,263 and 22,705 young adult women and men, respectively.” The findings were published online Sept. 22 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Young adults with ADHD at increased risk for depression, suicidal behavior “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 28, 2020

Healio (9/25, Gramigna) reported, “Monitoring of cognitive function may be warranted among middle- and older-aged individuals who sleep for four or fewer or 10 or more hours per night,” investigators concluded after “evaluating the link between sleep duration and cognitive decline by analyzing data of several waves of the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing and the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study among a population-based setting.” The findings of the “pooled cohort study” were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Insufficient, excess sleep may cause cognitive decline among middle-, older-aged people “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 25, 2020

The AP (9/27, Baldor, Burns) reports military suicides “have increased by as much as 20% this year compared to the same period in 2019, and some incidents of violent behavior have spiked as service members struggle under COVID-19, war-zone deployments, national disasters and civil unrest.” While the data “is incomplete and causes of suicide are complex, Army and Air Force officials say they believe the pandemic is adding stress to an already strained force.” And senior Army leaders “– who say they’ve seen about a 30% jump in active duty suicides so far this year – told The Associated Press that they are looking at shortening combat deployments.”

Forbes (9/27, Reimann) also reports.

Related Links:

— “Military suicides up as much as 20% in COVID era “Lolita C. Baldor and Robert Burns, AP, September 27, 2020

Psychiatric News (9/25) reported, “The prevalence of serious mental illness (SMI) among people who live in assisted-living communities is rising faster than in the community at large,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the Medicare Master Beneficiary Summary File, a ZIP code history file, OASIS home health assessment data, Medicare Part B claims, a national list of state licensed assisted-living communities, and a Residential History File.” The data revealed that “over the 10-year period studied, the prevalence of SMI in assisted living increased by 54%, compared with an increase of 39% in the community at large.” The findings were published online Sept. 18 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Serious Mental Illness on Rise Among Residents of Assisted-Living Communities, Psychiatric News, September 25, 2020

Healio (9/25, Gramigna) reported, “Youth who experienced sexual exploitation exhibited high levels of sexual risk taking, multiple sexual partners, PTSD, child pornography exposure and childhood trauma,” investigators concluded in a “systematic review and meta-analysis” that synthesized “evidence of risk and protective factors linked to child sexual exploitation and their estimated effect sizes.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Specific youth behaviors linked to risk for sexual exploitation “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 25, 2020

Dr. Saul Levin, CEO and Medical Director of the APA, wrote a letter to the editor of the New York Times (9/24) in response to an article about nursing homes evicting poor patients in need of psychiatric care. Dr. Levin wrote, “The allegations in the article are deeply troubling” and that “evicting older Americans from nursing homes and into psychiatric hospitals or emergency rooms is inhumane and a disturbing exploitation of psychiatric evaluations.” Dr. Levin continues, “Mental health diagnoses are not weapons, and using them as such increases the stigma and prejudice against people who need treatment.” Dr. Levin concludes by calling for nursing homes to “ensure that their patients have access to mental health treatment while in residence,” and calling for state officials to “thoroughly investigate these claims.”

Related Links:

— “In Cities, No Place for Partisan Politics The New York Times, September 24, 2020

USA Today (9/24, Rodriguez) reports the FDA is requiring a “Boxed Warning” on all benzodiazepine products, which include Xanax (alprazolam) and Valium (diazepam), the agency announced Wednesday. These products must now include “warning labels that spell out the risks of abuse, misuse, addiction, physical dependence and withdrawal.” The agency, “in addition to the warning label…is also requiring changes to prescribing information on all products and existing patient Medication Guides.”

Medscape (9/24, Brooks, Subscription Publication) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “FDA requires stronger warning label for Xanax, Valium and other similar benzodiazepine drugs “Adrianna Rodriguez, USA Today, September 24, 2020

TIME (9/24, Kluger) reports the COVID-19 pandemic “has been devastating to mental health, and in many cases, the most vulnerable group is women.” Researchers at the non-profit international aid organization CARE “found that while almost nobody is spared from the anxiety, worry and overall emotional fatigue of the coronavirus pandemic, women are almost three times as likely as men to report suffering from significant mental health consequences (27% compared to 10%), including anxiety, loss of appetite, inability to sleep and trouble completing everyday tasks.

Related Links:

— “The Coronavirus Pandemic’s Outsized Effect on Women’s Mental Health Around the World “Jeffrey Kluger, TIME, September 24, 2020

Healio (9/24, Gramigna) reports, “Scheduling a mental health outpatient appointment following psychiatric discharge increased the odds of successful transition from hospital to community-based care,” investigators concluded in a study that “analyzed data of 15,520 inpatient psychiatric discharges included in the 2012 to 2013 New York State Medicaid and other administrative databases.” The findings were published online Sept. 15 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Scheduling mental health outpatient appointment beneficial following psychiatric discharge “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 24, 2020