Healio (11/2, Michael) reports, “High school students with nonmedical opioid misuse may have an increased risk for heroin use later in life,” researchers concluded after conducting “a prospective study using a nationally representative sample of adolescents from 25 cohorts of 12th-graders who participated in the Monitoring the Future study and completed self-administered questionnaires from 1976 to 2000.” The 11,012 “participants were followed from 1993 through 2017, or from the ages of 18 years to 35 years.” The findings were published online Sept. 24 in a brief report in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Opioid misuse in high school linked to heroin use in adulthood “Erin Michael, Healio, October 2, 2020

Healio (11/2, Gramigna) reports, “Male and female youth with bipolar disorder had similar outcomes, despite substantial literature on sex differences among adults with bipolar disorder,” investigators concluded in a study that sought “to pinpoint potential sex differences in psychiatric comorbidity and mood symptomatology among 199 female and 171 male youth with bipolar 1 disorder, bipolar 2 disorder or operationalized bipolar disorder not otherwise specified according to DSM-4 criteria.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Sex differences not significant for youth bipolar disorder outcomes “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 2, 2020

MedPage Today (10/30, Dotinga) reported that in a presentation given at the virtual American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP) annual meeting, “a team of emergency physicians urged colleagues to cast off their hesitation and start initiating treatment with the opioid withdrawal drug buprenorphine in the emergency department [ED].”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (10/30, Ernst) reported researchers found “SARS-CoV-2 spike proteins triggered a proinflammatory response in brain endothelial cells that may influence a change in the function of the blood-brain barrier.” The findings were published in Neurobiology of Disease.

Related Links:

— “Spike proteins provide ‘plausible explanation’ for neurological complications of COVID-19 “Julia Ernst, MS, Healio, October 30, 2020

During this election year, many people are feeling stress and anxiety. Taking care of your mental well-being is very important. The American Psychiatric Association has put a page online providing resources to assist you in finding the help you need:

“Address Your Feelings During This Election Cycle and Seek Medical Care if Needed”

It provides four online resources and four crisis and support phone numbers to assist you.

We have added the link to the Featured section of our Links & Publications page, too.

Healio (10/29, Weller) reports, “Stigma and potential career consequences may prevent ED physicians from seeking mental healthcare…poll data discussed during an American College of Emergency Physicians’ teleconference” indicated. Currently, “depression and burnout are common among ED physicians, according to Mark Rosenberg, DO, MBA, FACEP, president-elect of ACEP,” who “cited research indicating about 6,000 ED physicians in the U.S. contemplated suicide and almost 400 had a suicide attempt in 2018.”

Related Links:

— “ED physician’s death by suicide sparks dialogue on culture, policy changes “Madison Weller, Healio, October 29, 2020

HealthDay (10/29) reports, “Maternal use of valproic acid, but not lamotrigine, is associated with an increased risk for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “among children,” investigators concluded after using “Swedish-registry data to examine the risks for ASD and” AD/HD “in 14,614 children born from 1996 to 2011 to women with epilepsy.” Researchers then examined “maternal-reported first-trimester use of any antiseizure medications and the three most commonly reported individual” medicines “(valproic acid, lamotrigine, and carbamazepine).” The findings were published online Oct. 28 in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Maternal Use of Valproic Acid Linked to ASD, ADHD in Offspring, HealthDay, October 29, 2020

Psychiatric News (10/29) reports, “Patients with co-occurring depression and substance use disorders may be less likely to receive optimal depression treatment than those with depression alone,” investigators concluded after analyzing data on 53,034 patients who were diagnosed with a depressive disorder in fiscal year 2017 in the US Veterans Health Administration. The findings were published online Oct. 29 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Depression Care Suboptimal for Patients With Comorbid Substance Use Disorders, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, October 29, 2020

Healio (10/28, Gramigna) reports, “Transgender or gender-nonconforming adolescents may have increased risk for various mental health challenges,” investigators concluded after seeking “to compare the mental health status of” transgender or nonconforming “adolescents in China with that of their cisgender peers.” They did so by analyzing “questionnaire data of 12,108 adolescents from 18 secondary schools in one city in China.” The findings of the “cross-sectional survey study” were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Transgender adolescents at increased risk for numerous mental health challenges “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 28, 2020

MedPage Today (10/28, Hlavinka) reports researchers surveyed 543 Chinese-American parents and found that “Chinese Americans are experiencing more racial discrimination and it appears to be affecting their mental health.” In the survey, “the proportion who reported experiencing racial discrimination in-person and online due to COVID-19 was 50.9% and 31.7%, respectively.” The findings were published in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)