Healio (7/7, Laday) reports, “Patients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis [OA] or rheumatoid arthritis [RA] are at an increased risk for self-harm, compared with those without these diseases,” investigators concluded after identifying “10,484 adults with ankylosing spondylitis, 17,546 with fibromyalgia, 410,384 with OA and 23,205 with RA,” then matching these cases “to an unexposed cohort of the same size for each condition.” The findings were published online in Arthritis Care & Research.

Related Links:

— “Patients with fibromyalgia, OA, RA at increased risk for self-harm, “Jason Laday, Healio, July 7, 2020

Cancer Network (7/8, Slater) reports, “An article published in Cancer discussed the risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with breast cancer, as well as the role of inflammation and endocrine function.” In the “meta-analysis of 38 studies evaluating breast cancer diagnoses and treatment, it was determined that 10% of women develop PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer.” Furthermore, “a cancer diagnosis increases the lifetime risk of PTSD by a factor of 1.66 compared with those who have never been diagnosed with cancer.”

Related Links:

— “Recognizing Factors Contributing to PTSD May Improve Clinical Care in Patients with Breast Cancer, “Hannah Slater, Cancer Network, July 8, 2020

In a piece discussing pandemic-related mental health, The Atlantic (7/7, Stern) says that “one thing that is certain about the current pandemic is that we are not doing enough to address its mental-health effects. Usually, says Joshua Morganstein, the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, the damage a disaster does to mental health ends up costing more than the damage it does to physical health.” But “in any case, the full extent of the fallout will not come into focus for some time. Psychological disorders can be slow to develop, and as a result, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, which Morganstein helped write, warns that demand for mental-health care may spike even as a pandemic subsides.” Of COVID-19, Morganstein says, “If history is any indicator, we should expect a significant tail of mental-health effects, and those could be extraordinary.”

Related Links:

— “This Is Not a Normal Mental-Health Disaster , “Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, July 7, 2020

Healio (7/6, Gramigna) reports, “Physicians appeared more likely to exhibit resilience than the general U.S. working population,” investigators concluded after conducting “a cross-sectional national survey study of 5,445 U.S. physicians and a probability-based sample of 5198 individuals in the U.S. working population.” Researchers also “observed an inverse association with burnout symptoms; however, even among the most resilient physicians, burnout rates were substantial.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Physicians resilient, but still suffer burnout, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, July 6, 2020

Medwire News (7/6, McDermid) reports researchers analyzed “data from the AGES-Reykjavik Study” and identified “accumulating cerebral small vessel disease as a contributing factor to the increased risk for depression in people with” T2D. The findings of the 2,135-participant study were published online in Diabetes Care.

Related Links:

— “Vascular depression hypothesis upheld in type 2 diabetes, “Eleanor McDermid, Medwire News, July 6, 2020

Psychiatric News (7/6) reports that in a viewpoint published online July 1 in JAMA Psychiatry, Lewei (Allison) Lin, MD, MS, of the Veteran Affairs Center for Clinical Management Research, in Ann Arbor, MI, makes the case that “telehealth urgently needs to be adapted for the treatment of people with substance use disorders (SUDs) in light of the global COVID-19 pandemic.”

Related Links:

— “Changes Urged to Facilitate Telehealth in Treatment of Patients With Substance Use Disorders, Psychiatric News, July 6, 2020

Healio (7/2, Gramigna) reported, “Sleep problems during early childhood may be associated with the onset of psychosis and borderline personality disorder, or BPD, in adolescence,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data of 13,488 participants of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children birth cohort who had data available for more than 13 years.” The findings of the “cohort study” were published online June 30 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Childhood sleep problems linked to adolescent psychosis, borderline personality disorder, “Joe Gramigna , Healio, July 2, 2020

HealthDay (7/3, Preidt) reported, “Having multiple surgeries for cleft lip and palate doesn’t appear to have a major impact on children’s mental health,” investigators concluded. The 55-teen study, however, did reveal there could be “one three-year period” between ages eight to ten “that ups the odds for anxiety and depression.” The findings were published in the July issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Related Links:

— “Multiple Surgeries for Cleft Lip, Palate Won’t Cause Major Psychological Damage, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 3, 2020

The Washington Post (7/1, Wan, Long) reports, “Nationwide, federal and local officials are reporting alarming spikes in drug overdoses – a hidden epidemic within the coronavirus pandemic.” Now, “emerging evidence suggests that the continued isolation, economic devastation and disruptions to the drug trade in recent months are fueling the surge.” Due to “how slowly the government collects data, it could be five to six months before definitive numbers exist on the change in overdoses during the pandemic,” but the “data obtained by The Washington Post from a real-time tracker of drug-related emergency calls and interviews with coroners suggest that overdoses have not just increased since the pandemic began but are accelerating as it persists.” Recently, “the American Medical Association…issued a warning, citing reports from officials in 34 states of rising overdoses and the increased spread of…synthetic drugs.”

Related Links:

— “‘Cries for help’: Drug overdoses are soaring during the coronavirus pandemic, ”
William Wan and Heather Long, The Washington Post, July 1, 2020

PatientEngagementHIT (7/1, Heath) reports a survey of 1,000 patients conducted by Wakefield Research shows that “nearly three-quarters of patients accessed their first-ever telehealth visit during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, and most of them [75%] reported high patient satisfaction with the experience.” Of those who accessed telehealth, 41% used it “for a wellness visit and 30 percent for chronic disease management,” while 20% used it for “acute care needs or mental health” and 14% used it “to check in on COVID-19 symptoms.” In addition, the survey shows that “patients expect telehealth to become a standard part of healthcare,” and 50% “would be willing to switch healthcare providers if it meant they would be able to continue accessing telehealth regularly.” Furthermore, 21% said they would use it “on a limited basis even if their insurance did not cover it, while 28 percent said they would whenever possible.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth Patient Satisfaction High, Paves Path for Future Access, “Sara Heath, PatientEngagementHIT, July 1, 2020