Healio (5/28, Gramigna) reports researchers in Japan found “postpartum women were more likely to use fatal suicide attempt methods and have more distinct and serious psychopathology than pregnant women.” The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Postpartum women at greater risk for fatal suicide attempt than pregnant women, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, May 28, 2020
USA Today (5/28, Dastagir) reports on the impact of black deaths on the African-American community. USA Today quotes experts discussing how the deaths of black people at the hands of police and from COVID-19 are taking a toll on the mental health of many black people in the US. For example, Dr. Danielle Jackson, a psychiatry resident and a board member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Caucus of Black Psychiatrists, said, “I can only describe the continued viewing of racial violence, torture, murder and disregard for the humanity of black bodies as repetitive trauma. Perpetrators of racial violence may have changed uniforms, speech, and coded message, but the message remains the same, ‘you – black person – are other, you are less than.’” Meanwhile, Dr. Roberto Montenegro, a chief fellow in psychiatry at Seattle Children’s Hospital who studies the impact of discrimination, “says living in a world where your body is a threat is painful and taxing.”
Related Links:
— “George Floyd video adds to trauma: ‘When is the last time you saw a white person killed online?’, “Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY, May 28, 2020
Psychiatric News (5/28) reports, “During a virtual Congressional briefing on Wednesday, APA President Jeffrey Geller, M.D., M.P.H., and members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry emphasized the need for expanded access to mental health care through telehealth not only during the COVID-19 pandemic, but afterward as well.” The APA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness hosted the briefing titled, “Collective Crisis: Preparing for America’s Next Wave of Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Needs With Telehealth.” Peter Yellowlees, M.B.B.S., M.D., of UC Davis, and Shabana Khan, M.D., of NYU Langone Health, both of whom are members of APA’s Committee on Telepsychiatry, also spoke during the briefing sharing “stories about how the loosening of telehealth regulations have helped them reach more patients and continue care for others during the pandemic.”
Related Links:
— “Relaxed Telehealth Regulations Need to Continue Post Pandemic, Experts Tell Congressional Leaders, Psychiatric News, May 28, 2020
Psychiatric News (5/27) reports, “Patients with acute psychiatric needs who are COVID-19 positive can be safely cared for in a COVID-specific psychiatric unit, but determining when they can be discharged can be challenging, wrote Luming Li, M.D., and colleagues at the Yale New Haven Psychiatric Hospital in Psychiatric Services article in press.” The authors wrote, “Emerging evidence suggests that positive test[s] can endure for weeks after a person is no longer infectious. Although every patient required a COVID+ test … for admission, many patients continue to remain positive or have testing courses with a negative test, positive test, and then inconclusive test, making testing results difficult to interpret.”
Related Links:
— “Experience in COVID-Specific Psychiatric Unit Highlights Challenges Related to Discharging Patients, Psychiatric News, May 27, 2020
CNN (5/27, Lamotte) reports researchers “surveyed more than 1,000 UK residents who reported marijuana use in the past year,” finding that “high-potency weed users appear to have a significant increase in the likelihood of developing generalized anxiety disorder [GAD] than those who smoke less robust strains of marijuana.” What’s more, “high-potency weed users are more likely to use weed at least once a week, twice as likely to have used illicit drugs within the past 12 months, and more than three times as likely to be tobacco smokers,” the study revealed. The findings were published online May 27 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Today’s high potency weed raises risk of anxiety and addiction, study says, “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, May 27, 2020
Healio (5/27, Michael) reports, “Just 16.6% of commercially insured patients receive follow-up care after being released from the” emergency department (ED) “for a nonfatal opioid overdose,” investigators concluded after examining “insurance claims data from a large commercial insurer in the United States from October 2011 through September 2016 to assess follow-up treatment 90 days after an ED visit for an opioid overdose.” The findings of the 6,451-patient study were published online in JAMA Network Open.
Related Links:
— “Few patients receive follow-up after opioid overdose, “Erin Michael, Healio, May 27, 2020
The New York Times (5/26, Cramer) reports addiction experts say that people who are drinking more during the pandemic may develop drinking problems that they did not have before. The New York Times adds that “alcohol sales have spiked” and “addiction experts say they are worried” that habits developed during the pandemic “could also trigger more serious drinking problems and even create new ones for people who have never struggled with alcohol dependency before.” For example, Dr. Sarah Wakeman, an addiction medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, said, “I expect we’re going to see pretty significant increases in what I call unhealthy alcohol use, which means drinking above recommended limits.”
Related Links:
— “Could All Those ‘Quarantinis’ Lead to Drinking Problems?, “Maria Cramer, The New York Times, May 26, 2020
CNN (5/26, Azad) reports, “A new study looking at hundreds of LGBTQ youth who died by suicide finds that many were bullied before their death.”
MedPage Today (5/26, Hlavinka) reports, “Bullying was common among LGBTQ youth who died by suicide between 2003 and 2017, especially among younger children,” investigators found. In fact, “among 9,884 children ages 10-19 who died by suicide, a far greater proportion of LGBTQ youth were bullied compared with their heterosexual peers (20.7% vs 4.4%), and LGBTQ decedents had nearly five times the odds of experiencing bullying after adjusting for depression, mental health problems, and family or relationship problems.” The findings were published online in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics. HealthDay(5/26, Mozes) also covers the study.
Related Links:
— “Many LGTBQ youth who die by suicide are bullied before their death, study finds, “Arman Azad, CNN, May 26, 2020
Psychiatric News (5/26) highlights a case report published in Schizophrenia Bulletin, which “suggests that patients who are taking clozapine may be at risk of clozapine toxicity if they become infected with” coronavirus. Psychiatric News adds, “Clozapine is considered the best option for patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia, but patients taking the medication are at heightened risk of a rare but serious condition known as neutropenia, which can increase risk of severe infections.”
Related Links:
— “Potential Risk of Clozapine Toxicity May Occur in Patients With COVID-19, Psychiatric News, May 26, 2020
The Washington Post (5/26, Fowers, Wan) reports, “A third of Americans are showing signs of clinical anxiety or depression, Census Bureau data shows, the most definitive and alarming sign yet of the psychological toll exacted by the coronavirus pandemic.” Maria A. Oquendo, a psychiatry professor at the University of Pennsylvania and a former president of the APA, said, “It’s understandable given what’s happening. It would be strange if you didn’t feel anxious and depressed. This virus is not like a hurricane or earthquake or even terrorist attack. It’s not something you can see or touch, and yet the fear of it is everywhere.”
Related Links:
— “A third of Americans now show signs of clinical anxiety or depression, Census Bureau finds amid coronavirus pandemic, ” Alyssa Fowers and
William Wan, The Washington Post, May 26, 2020