NBC News (5/21, Sullivan) reports, “Combined deaths from alcohol, drugs and suicide in the U.S. plateaued in 2018 for the first time in two decades, according to a” report (PDF) from Trust for America’s Health and the Well Being Trust. NBC News adds, “The so-called deaths of despair reached a high in 2017, and the leveling off in 2018 was driven by a decrease in overall drug overdose deaths – the first such decrease in a decade.”

However, CNN (5/21, Erdman) reports “that deaths of despair increased in some minority communities during the same time period. And separately alcohol-related deaths were up 4% and suicides were up 2%.”

Medscape (5/21, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports experts warn that deaths of despair “may well increase in the wake of COVID-19.”

Related Links:

— “Drug overdose deaths drop in U.S. as other deaths of despair rise, report finds, “Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC News, May 21, 2020

Psychiatric News (5/21) reports the leaders of the National Academy of Medicine Action Collaborative on Clinician Well-Being and Resilience wrote an article published in the New England Journal of Medicine arguing that organizations must take actions to protect healthcare workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic. The authors wrote, “Before the virus struck, the U.S. clinical workforce was already experiencing a crisis of burnout. We are now facing a surge of physical and emotional harm that amounts to a parallel pandemic. Tragically, we are already seeing reports of clinicians dying by suicide amid the pandemic, including the highly publicized death of a prominent emergency medicine physician in Manhattan, the epicenter of the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak.”

Related Links:

— “Five Actions to Promote Well-Being of Health Care Workers During, After COVID-19, Psychiatric News, May 21, 2020

Psychiatric News (5/20) reports, “The stresses on older people and their caregivers associated with COVID-19 – social isolation, financial hardship, difficulties accessing needed care and supplies, and anxiety about infection – may increase the risk of elder abuse,” experts concluded in an article published online May 18 in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “How to Identify, Help Older People in Potentially Abusive Situations, Psychiatric News , May 20, 2020

Healio (5/20, Gramigna) reports, “Patients with major depressive disorder [MDD] were more likely to receive effective treatment if they persisted beyond early unhelpful treatment,” investigators concluded after analyzing “the results of a coordinated series of community epidemiologic surveys of noninstitutionalized adults using 17 WHO World Mental Health surveys, of which eight were conducted in high-income countries and nine in low- and middle-income countries.” The findings were published online May 20 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “‘Trial and error’ treatment approach for major depressive disorder has pros and cons, experts say, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 20, 2020

Healio (5/20) reports that “from 2009 to 2017, the proportion of teens who identified as a sexual minority nearly doubled to more than 14%, according to researchers, who found that these teens are still more than three times as likely to attempt suicide compared with heterosexual youths.” For the studypublished in Pediatrics, researchers “analyzed data from six states that collected information on sexual orientation identity and four states that collected information on the sex of sexual contacts through the Youth Risk Behavioral Surveillance Survey.” According to the data, “the proportion of participants who identified as heterosexual declined from 92.7% in 2009 to 85.7% in 2017, whereas the proportion of youths who identified as a sexual minority increased from 7.3% in 2009 to 14.3% in 2017.” Meanwhile, they “observed a decline in suicide attempts by sexual minorities over time…but not by heterosexual students, although sexual minorities remained more than three times more likely to attempt suicide.”

Related Links:

— “As more teens identify as sexual minority, suicide rate remains disproportionately high, Healio, May 20, 2020

CNN International (5/18, Wolf) publishes a telephonic question-and-answer session with California surgeon general Dr. Nadine Burke Harris about the COVID-19 pandemic’s effect on children. Harris mentions the 10 criteria for adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) that were identified in a CDC Kaiser study. According to Harris, “What we’re seeing in the Covid pandemic is that intimate partner violence is increasing, substance use is increasing, mental health disorders are increasing. And because of that on the one hand, we are seeing an increase in the traditional ACEs and that’s of really significant concern.” Harris adds, “What we understand about the way in which activation of the stress response system leads to long-term health risks, there’s one piece of that that’s really, really important – which is that if kids get adequate buffering caregiving, that can biologically buffer that stress response and prevent those harms.”

Related Links:

— “For some kids, the effects of this pandemic will last forever, “Zachary B. Wolf, CNN, May 18, 2020

Psychiatric News (5/18) reports, “Among the many ways COVID-19 has adversely impacted mental health is via the economic recession” the pandemic has caused. Now, utilizing “gleamed from previous economic crises, a team of specialists has suggested several health policy actions that may mitigate some of the impact of this recession.” The experts recommended increased “investment in suicide depression,” extended “expansion of telehealth services,” development of “support systems that connect patients to social services,” and “health insurance coverage for people who lose coverage through their employer.” Their recommendations (pdf) were published online ahead of print in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Researchers Recommend Strategies to Mitigate Risks Due to COVID-19 Economic Impact, Psychiatric News , May 18, 2020

CNN (5/18, Azad, Lamotte) reports that “delirium, confusion and agitation may be common in severe coronavirus infections while patients are hospitalized, according to a new review of studies published Monday.” The study said “long-term, psychiatric problems after battling Covid-19 may not occur in the majority of patients, although much more research is still needed.” The study, published in the journal Lancet Psychiatry, “looked at 72 different studies on two historical coronaviruses, as well as current studies on Covid-19, trying to hone in on any links between the diseases and psychiatric problems.” However, “information on post-recovery of patients is scarce at this time, so the study had no data on the long-term mental impact of Covid-19, and only 12 low-to-moderate quality studies on hospitalized patients to analyze, seven of which have not been scientifically vetted.” Meanwhile, “the study only looked at severe Covid-19 cases in which individuals have been treated in a hospital, and therefore doesn’t address the possible impact of milder or asymptomatic cases of the disease.”

Related Links:

— “Delirium and agitation may follow Covid-19 infection, study says, “Arman Azad and Sandee LaMotte, CNN, May 18, 2020

NPR (5/14, Dembosky) reports that some people are newly motivated to quit smoking based on reports of smokers being more likely to become infected with SARS-CoV-2 and more likely to develop severe symptoms. For example, “early studies suggest that smokers who develop COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, are 14 times more likely to need intensive treatment compared with nonsmokers.”

Related Links:

— “Fear Of Contracting Coronavirus Propels Some Smokers To Quit, “April Dembosky, NPR, May 14, 2020

CNN (5/14, Alfonso) reports that fears of contracting COVID-19 “have infected thousands of people suffering with substance abuse disorders around the Appalachian region, where substance abuse experts, doctors and state officials have seen a rise in relapses as the US struggles with the coronavirus pandemic.” Public health officials also “say the pandemic is aggravating the problem by forcing people in recovery into isolation, stripping them of crucial support systems and causing some to relapse.” In response “to this grim reality, officials in the region are developing new medical practices and guidelines to help an already at-risk community cope with the pandemic.”

Related Links:

— “The pandemic is triggering opioid relapses across Appalachia, “Fernando Alfonso III, CNN, May 14, 2020