MD Magazine (6/15) reports, “Familial psychiatric history could correlate with the risk of severe bipolar disorder activity in an individual,” investigators concluded after examining “both the Bipolar CHOICE (Clinical Health Outcomes Initiative in Comparative Effectiveness) comparing lithium with quetiapine and the LiTMUS trial, which compared optimized treatment with and without lithium.” In the trials were “a total of 757 patients.” The study revealed that “familial psychiatric history correlated with several disease severity measures, including hospitalizations, suicide attempts, and earlier onset.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the August issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Family History Link Found in Bipolar Disorder, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, June 15, 2020

Psychiatric News (6/12) reported, “Volunteering at least two hours a week may increase longevity and improve mental health in adults over age 50,” investigators concluded after examining “data from approximately 13,000 participants in the Health and Retirement Study, a large, ongoing study of adults aged 50 years and older in the United States that began in 2006.” The findings were published online June 11 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Volunteering May Boost Longevity, Mental Health in Adults Over 50, Psychiatric News , June 12, 2020

NBC News (6/13, Fitzsimons) reported, “The United Nations released a report [PDF] documenting the global reach and impact of gay and transgender ‘conversion therapy,’ calling for nations around the” globe “to work to ban the scientifically discredited practice.” Jack Turban, an LGBTQ youth mental health researcher at Harvard Medical School, stated, “There is broad consensus among the medical community, including the American Medical Association, the American Psychiatric Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics, and the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, that conversion therapy for gender identity or sexual orientation is dangerous and should be banned.

Related Links:

— “U.N. calls for global end to conversion therapy, says it ‘may amount to torture’, “Tim Fitzsimons, NBC News, June 13, 2020

MedPage Today (6/12, Lou) reported, “Behavioral counseling and multidisciplinary care coordination together helped lower cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in people with serious mental illness,” investigators concluded.

Healio (6/12, Dobkowski) reported that “in the IDEAL trial…researchers analyzed data from 269 patients…who attended outpatient psychiatric rehabilitation programs and clinics and had dyslipidemia (n = 175), hypertension (n = 142), diabetes (n = 93), overweight/obesity (n = 242) and/or were current tobacco smokers (n = 138).” Patients were randomized to “the intervention (n = 132; mean age, 49 years; 47% men) or control (n = 137; mean age, 49 years; 48% men).” The study revealed that patients who had the intervention ended up having “a net percentage reduction of 12.7% for the 10-year global Framingham Risk Score.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Care Coordination Intervention Cuts Heart Risk Among the Mentally Ill, ” Nicole Lou, MedPage Today, June 15, 2020

Psychiatric News (6/11) reports research indicates that “handgun ownership is associated with an elevated risk of suicide by firearm, particularly immediately after the gun is acquired.” For the study, investigators “tracked firearm ownership and mortality over 12 years (2004-2016) among 26.3 million adults in California.” The findings were published online June 4 in the New England Journal of Medicine. According to Psychiatric News, the authors of an accompanying editorial posited that “assessments of suicide risk should include questions about recent gun ownership and access to firearms, for example, and women, as well as men, should be questioned about gun ownership.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Risk Increases Immediately After Gun Purchase, Psychiatric News, June 11, 2020

NPR (6/11, McCammon) reports that physicians “should start screening all women and girls for anxiety, according” to “guidelines issued by the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative.” Those guidelines “advise primary care doctors and other” healthcare professionals “to screen all female patients for anxiety disorders beginning at age 13.” NPR adds, “Dr. Jeanne Conry chairs the Women’s Preventive Services Initiative, a federally funded initiative administered by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.” She “says the group is recommending routine screening because patients who struggle with anxiety often don’t raise the issue with their” physicians. The clinical guideline recommendation was published online June 9 in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “All Women Should Be Screened For Anxiety Disorders, Health Group Says, “Sarah McCammon, NPR, June 11, 2020

STAT (6/11, Glaser) reports that while the coronavirus pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of many Americans, it has been particularly distressing for young black people, especially when combined with recent events. STAT adds, “Black adults have been 10% to 26% more likely than white adults to report symptoms of psychological distress in a mental health survey conducted weekly since late April by the” CDC and Census Bureau. STAT interviews four young black Americans who “are navigating far more than a disrupted senior year and a collapsed job market: Covid-19 hit their communities especially hard, and then that was compounded by seemingly limitless videos of police brutalizing people who look like them.”

Related Links:

— “For Black youth, a time of upheaval takes a toll on mental health, “Gabrielle Glaser, STAT, June 11, 2020

In an opinion piece for The Hill (6/11), psychiatrists Brian Barnett and Andrew Carlo, along with American Psychiatric Association immediate past president Bruce Schwartz, write that Americans now must “contend with a deadly virus, the worst unemployment since the Great Depression and isolating lockdown measures, as well as the national trauma of George Floyd’s horrific death at the hands of police.” They continue, “To help overcome the effects of this emotional onslaught on our minds, making high-quality mental health and addiction treatment services available to anyone who needs them is essential. For this to occur, insurers’ longstanding discrimination against those with mental illness and addiction must end. Now, as Congress considers passage of the Mental Health Parity Compliance Act, bipartisan legislation to improve mental health parity law enforcement and transparency, reaching that goal might soon become easier.”

Related Links:

— “America’s mental health is under siege — Congress can help now, “Brian Barnett, Andrew Carlo And Bruce Schwartz, The Hill, June 11, 2020

Medscape (6/11, Boerner, Subscription Publication) reports, “Women pregnant during the pandemic are twice as likely as their pre-COVID-19 counterparts to meet the criteria for major depressive disorder or anxiety disorder, according to a recent study conducted in Quebec, Canada.” The study published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica “found that women pregnant during the pandemic were more likely to experience symptoms of severe depression and anxiety, more negativity and less positivity, and greater changes in cognition and mood than women who were pregnant before the pandemic, even after they controlled for gestational age, income, history of psychiatric diagnoses, and education.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Hill (6/9, Hellmann) reports researchers found “some people with substance use disorders have increased their usage during the pandemic, according to a survey” conducted by the Addiction Policy Forum. In the survey, 20 percent of respondents “said they or a family member have increased substance use since COVID-19 began.”

Related Links:

— “Substance use up amid pandemic: survey, “Jessie Hellmann, The Hill, June 9, 2020