MD Magazine (5/3, Rosenfeld) reported research indicates that “older adults with depression” may be “at a higher risk of remaining depressed if they experienced persistent or worsening sleep problems.” Investigators arrived at this conclusion after analyzing “data from nearly 600 older adults who visited primary care centers in the Northeast US to determine the association between sleep difficulties and outcomes of depression and suicidal ideation.” The study revealed that “adults >60 years old who had a pattern of worsening insomnia symptoms over the following year had almost 30 times the odds of having a major depression diagnosis at the end of the year compared to those who had improving sleep.” The findings from the “PROSPECT study” were published online April 2 in the journal Sleep.

Related Links:

— “Worsening Sleep Increases Depression Persistence in Older Patients, “Samara Rosenfeld, MD Magazine, May 3, 2020

The Hill (4/30, Axelrod) reports, “Seventy-six lawmakers from both chambers of Congress are lobbying leadership to include funding for mental health in the next coronavirus stimulus package.” The “lawmakers called for the next coronavirus stimulus to include at least $38.5 billion for behavior health organizations (BHOs), which they say are at risk of being shuttered as part of the pandemic’s economic fallout.” They wrote that “many organizations that primarily treat individuals with mental health and/or substance use disorders…are at risk of closing their doors as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The immediate and long-term effects of this cannot be overstated as millions of Americans rely on BHOs to address their mental health and substance use disorder treatment needs.”

Related Links:

— “6 lawmakers urge emergency funding for mental health in next coronavirus stimulus package, “Tal Axelrod, The Hill, April 30, 2020

Psychiatric News (4/30) reports, “People with mental illness reported that the COVID-19 pandemic has led them to feel greater feelings of isolation, less connected with others, and increasingly worried that their illnesses may worsen,” investigators concluded after analyzing “survey data collected” from 214 respondents “by the online community ForLikeMinds, which is dedicated to promoting mental health recovery and wellness.” The findings (PDF) will be published online in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “People With Mental Illness Say COVID-19 Pandemic Has Led To Greater Feelings Of Isolation And Increased Worry About Worsening Illness, Study Data Suggest, Psychiatric News, April 30, 2020

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