Medwire News (4/22, McDermid) reports, “A Mendelian randomization analysis supports a direct effect of major depressive disorder (MDD) on type 2 diabetes [T2D] risk, but produces no evidence for the reverse scenario,” researchers concluded after considering “89 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) with an established association with the risk for MDD.” The study team learned that “as people’s chances of developing MDD increased, based on their genetic liability, so too did their chances of having” T2D. After examining “the reverse situation, using 184 SNPs with a role in the risk for” T2D, investigators “found no association with the likelihood of developing MDD.” The findings were published online April 8 in the journal Diabetologia.

Related Links:

— “Genetics casts doubt on bidirectional depression, diabetes association, “Eleanor McDermid, Medwire News, April 22, 2020

MedPage Today (4/22, Hlavinka) reports that the “increasing national suicide rate may be attributable to individuals using more lethal means when attempting suicide, according to CDC data.” From 2006 to 2015, suicide attempts “increased by 10%, from 175 to 193 per 100,000 persons, and the case fatality rate of suicidal acts increased from 7.3% to 8.3%, reported Jing Wang, MD, MPH, of the CDC in Atlanta, and colleagues.” Their findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (4/22, Gramigna) reports, “Community racial/ethnic composition appeared associated with residents’ access to specific medications for opioid use disorder [OUD],” investigators concluded in a “cross-sectional study.”

MD Magazine (4/22, Rosenfeld) reports researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining “the extent that racial and ethnic segregation played a role in who received methadone and buprenorphine.” Included in the study were “all counties and county-equivalent divisions in the US in 2016,” as well as “data on racial and ethnic population distribution from the American Community Survey.” The study revealed “an association between less interaction with African American residents and more methadone facilities,” while “every 1% decrease in the probability of an interaction of a white resident with an African American resident was linked with 8.17 more buprenorphine facilities and the probability of an interaction of a white and Hispanic resident was associated with 1.61 more facilities providing buprenorphine.” The findings were published online April 22 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Access to medications for opioid use disorder linked to community racial/ethnic segregation, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, April 22, 2020

The Wall Street Journal (4/21, MacDonald, Subscription Publication) reports coronavirus lockdowns have disrupted the routines, therapy, and special education that many people with autism depend on, which has increased anxiety for many of them and their families.

Related Links:

— “For People With Autism, Lockdowns Shatter Routine, Heighten Anxiety, “Alistair MacDonald, The Wall Street Journal, April 21, 2020

Healio (4/20, Gramigna) reports, “Opioid-involved overdose deaths commonly featured alcohol and benzodiazepine co-involvement,” investigators concluded in a “repeated cross-section analysis” involving data on “399,230 opioid-involved poisoning deaths from 1999 to 2017.” The findings were published online April 9 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Alcohol, benzodiazepines often co-involved in opioid overdose deaths
, “Joe Gramigna , Healio, April 20, 2020

Healio (4/20, Gramigna) reports, “Risk factors for first nonfatal suicide attempt likely differ by age,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the second wave of the National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions – a nationally representative sample of 34,629 U.S. adults.” The findings of the “nationally representative study” were published online April 7 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “First nonfatal suicide attempt risk factors differ significantly by age, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, April 20, 2020

NPR (4/20) reports that “under the national emergency declared by the Trump Administration in March, the government has suspended a federal law that required patients to have an in-person visit with a physician before they could be prescribed drugs that help quell withdrawal symptoms, such as Suboxone [buprenorphine/naloxone]. Patients can now get those prescriptions via a phone call or videoconference with a doctor.” NPR says that “addiction experts have been calling for that change for years to help expand access for patients in many parts of the country that have shortages of physicians eligible to prescribe these medication-assisted treatments.”

Related Links:

— “Coronavirus Crisis Spurs Access To Online Treatment For Opioid Addiction, “Phil Galewitz, NPR, April 20, 2020

The Washington Post (4/18, Goldstein) reported that just as millions of people in the US have lost their jobs amid the pandemic, many of them have also lost their health insurance. The Washington Post said “in a nation where most health coverage is hinged to employment, the economy’s vanishing jobs are wiping out insurance in the midst of a pandemic.”

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— “The Washington Post, (Requires Login and Subscription), April 18, 2020

Healio (4/17, Gramigna) reported a paper published in Brain, Behavior, and Immunity suggests that patients who recover from a coronavirus infection “may experience a significant neuropsychiatric burden long after the current pandemic.” The paper’s authors suggest, in the words of Healio, “researchers should conduct prospective neuropsychiatric and neuroimmune monitoring of those exposed to SARS-CoV-2 at various points in the life course to better understand the long-term impact of COVID-19, as well as to create a framework for the integration of psychoneuroimmunology into epidemiologic studies of pandemics.” The paper’s authors “wrote that influenza pandemics in the 18th and 19th centuries were followed by increased rates of insomnia, anxiety, depression, mania, suicidality and delirium,” while “outbreaks during the 21st century, such as SARS-CoV-1 in 2003, H1N1 in 2009 and MERS-CoV in 2012, were followed by increased rates of narcolepsy, seizures, encephalitis, Guillain-Barre syndrome and other neuromuscular and demyelinating conditions.”

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 survivors may face ‘significant neuropsychiatric burden,’ experts suggest, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, April 17, 2020

NBC News (4/17, Ramgopal) reported on the presence of coronavirus at the Western State Hospital psychiatric facility near Tacoma, Washington. According to NBC News, “thirty-four patients and staffers have tested positive at Western State since the outbreak began, and one patient has died.” NBC News said, “The challenges are different in psychiatric wards,” as “alcohol-based hand sanitizer is an ingestion hazard,” and “isolation can be dangerous.” American Psychiatric Association council member and Chair of psychiatry at the Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine Dr. Robert Trestman said, “Our facilities are designed to encourage people getting together, not to keep people apart.” He added “that the coronavirus outbreak has created major challenges around the nation,” stating, “We are forced to deliver care in ways that historically none of us have ever tried to practice and which are by no means optimum.”

Related Links:

— “Coronavirus in a psychiatric hospital: ‘It’s the worst of all worlds’, “Kit Ramgopal, NBC News, April 17, 2020