According to Psychiatric News (6/1), the American Psychiatric Association (APA) “has issued statements in response to the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man in police custody in Minneapolis, and the resulting civil unrest this past weekend as demonstrators across the nation protested police brutality and institutional racism.” APA President Jeffrey Geller, MD, MPH, stated, “The demonstrations are a result of racism against Black people that has gone unchecked – and at times has been fostered by leaders of this country. APA will not stand for racism against Black Americans.” APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, said, “APA stands with the Black community and all those opposed to racism to protect and improve the lives of those who have experienced discrimination and the associated trauma.”

Related Links:

— “APA Condemns Racism, Police Brutality and Calls for End to Racial Inequities, Psychiatric News, June 1, 2020

Modern Healthcare (5/29, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reported, “Experts fear the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s surveillance of COVID-19 cases and deaths among healthcare workers are under-counting the impact on the front lines, which could obscure the scope of the pandemic as it hits the front lines.” CDC numbers show “more than 63,000 healthcare workers have been infected with COVID-19 and 307 have died from the virus as of Friday.” However, “those figures are based on information received from a relatively small pool of test reports,” as “the vast majority of the data collected lacks key information about the occupational status of those getting tested for the coronavirus.”

Related Links:

— “CDC underestimates COVID’s toll on healthcare workers, experts say, “Steven Ross Johnson, Modern Healthcare, May 29, 2020

CNN (5/31, Lamotte) reports, “Witnessing acts of racism via video, radio or social media can produce fear, anger and outrage, but even those who don’t take to the streets can experience significant emotional distress.” According to experts, this is called “vicarious racism,” and people can be harmed without being the victim. Studies have shown “that race-related stress is a significantly more powerful risk factor for poor mental health than stressful life events.” This “can contribute to anxiety disorders and depression.”

Related Links:

— “Vicarious racism: You don’t have to be the target to be harmed, “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, May 31, 2020

Healio (5/28, Gramigna) reports researchers in Japan found “postpartum women were more likely to use fatal suicide attempt methods and have more distinct and serious psychopathology than pregnant women.” The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Postpartum women at greater risk for fatal suicide attempt than pregnant women, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 28, 2020

USA Today (5/28, Dastagir) reports on the impact of black deaths on the African-American community. USA Today quotes experts discussing how the deaths of black people at the hands of police and from COVID-19 are taking a toll on the mental health of many black people in the US. For example, Dr. Danielle Jackson, a psychiatry resident and a board member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Caucus of Black Psychiatrists, said, “I can only describe the continued viewing of racial violence, torture, murder and disregard for the humanity of black bodies as repetitive trauma. Perpetrators of racial violence may have changed uniforms, speech, and coded message, but the message remains the same, ‘you – black person – are other, you are less than.’” Meanwhile, Dr. Roberto Montenegro, a chief fellow in psychiatry at Seattle Children’s Hospital who studies the impact of discrimination, “says living in a world where your body is a threat is painful and taxing.”

Related Links:

— “George Floyd video adds to trauma: ‘When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?’, “Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY, May 28, 2020

Psychiatric News (5/28) reports, “During a virtual Congressional briefing on Wednesday, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., and members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry emphasized the need for expanded access to mental health care through telehealth not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterward as well.” The APA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness hosted the briefing titled, “Collective Crisis: Preparing for America’s Next Wave of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs With Telehealth.” Peter Yellowlees, M.B.B.S., M.D., of UC Davis, and Shabana Khan, M.D., of NYU Langone Health, both of whom are members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry, also spoke during the briefing sharing “stories about how the loosening of telehealth regulations have helped them reach more patients and continue care for others during the pandemic.”

Related Links:

— “Relaxed Telehealth Regulations Need to Continue Post Pandemic, Experts Tell Congressional Leaders, Psychiatric News, May 28, 2020

Psychiatric News (5/27) reports, “Patients with acute psychiatric needs who are COVID-19 positive can be safely cared for in a COVID-specific psychiatric unit, but determining when they can be discharged can be challenging, wrote Luming Li, M.D., and colleagues at the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital in Psychiatric Services article in press.” The authors wrote, “Emerging evidence suggests that positive test[s] can endure for weeks after a person is no longer infectious. Although every patient required a COVID+ test … for admission, many patients continue to remain positive or have testing courses with a negative test, positive test, and then inconclusive test, making testing results difficult to interpret.”

Related Links:

— “Experience in COVID-Specific Psychiatric Unit Highlights Challenges Related to Discharging Patients, Psychiatric News, May 27, 2020

CNN (5/27, Lamotte) reports researchers “surveyed more than 1,000 UK residents who reported marijuana use in the past year,” finding that “high-potency weed users appear to have a significant increase in the likelihood of developing generalized anxiety disorder [GAD] than those who smoke less robust strains of marijuana.” What’s more, “high-potency weed users are more likely to use weed at least once a week, twice as likely to have used illicit drugs within the past 12 months, and more than three times as likely to be tobacco smokers,” the study revealed. The findings were published online May 27 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Today’s high potency weed raises risk of anxiety and addiction, study says, “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, May 27, 2020

Healio (5/27, Michael) reports, “Just 16.6% of commercially insured patients receive follow-up care after being released from the” emergency department (ED) “for a nonfatal opioid overdose,” investigators concluded after examining “insurance claims data from a large commercial insurer in the United States from October 2011 through September 2016 to assess follow-up treatment 90 days after an ED visit for an opioid overdose.” The findings of the 6,451-patient study were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Few patients receive follow-up after opioid overdose, “Erin Michael, Healio, May 27, 2020

The New York Times (5/26, Cramer) reports addiction experts say that people who are drinking more during the pandemic may develop drinking problems that they did not have before. The New York Times adds that “alcohol sales have spiked” and “addiction experts say they are worried” that habits developed during the pandemic “could also trigger more serious drinking problems and even create new ones for people who have never struggled with alcohol dependency before.” For example, Dr. Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “I expect we’re going to see pretty significant increases in what I call unhealthy alcohol use, which means drinking above recommended limits.”

Related Links:

— “Could All Those ‘Quarantinis’ Lead to Drinking Problems?, “Maria Cramer, The New York Times, May 26, 2020