Psychiatric News (2/27) reports, “Patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) who receive treatment with methadone or buprenorphine” appear to have an 80 percent “lower risk of dying from an opioid overdose compared with patients receiving nonmedication treatment,” researchers concluded after examining “outpatient substance use specialty treatment records from 48,274 patients in Maryland from 2015 to 2016 and” then cross-referencing “the data with opioid overdose death records.” The findings were published online Feb. 24 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Medication Treatment for OUD Linked With 80% Lower Risk of Fatal Overdose, Psychiatric New, February 27, 2020

In a nearly 3,000-word special piece for USA Today (2/27), Alia E. Dastagir, a “recipient of a Rosalynn Carter fellowship for mental health journalism,” writes that according to “suicide prevention experts…outside of psychiatrists, the majority of mental health professionals have minimal to no formal training in how to effectively treat suicidal people.” In fact, “suicide-specific training is not commonly offered as part of college curriculums, optional post-graduate training opportunities are limited, costly and time-consuming, and experts say some therapists may not be aware they even need the education.”

Related Links:

— “We tell suicidal people to go to therapy. So why are therapists rarely trained in suicide?, “Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY, February 27, 2020

Newsweek (2/27, Gander) reports researchers at the University of Rochester examined “data on people who died of drug overdoses between 1999 to 2016 from a database kept by the National Center for Health Statistics in the U.S., which included a total of 632,331 cases,” and concluded that “the number of deaths linked to opioids in the U.S. over the past two decades could be almost 30 percent higher than previously thought.” The researchers published their findings in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Opioid-related deaths in the u.s. could be far higher than previously thought, study suggests, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, February 27, 2020

CNN (2/27, Rogers) reports, “Around one in six US youth ages six to 17 has a mental, behavioral or developmental disorder such as anxiety, depression or attention-deficit/hyperactive disorder,” researchers concluded in a research letter published last February in JAMA Pediatrics. However, “less than 20% of these youth receive the care they need, meaning many of them likely go into adulthood with undiagnosed mental illness.” Child psychologist Rebecca Berry, PhD, a “clinical associate professor in the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at New York University Langone Health,” stated, “It is important for parents to notice whether the behaviors are excessive, cause distress, are consistent and unrelenting and lead to problems in key life areas.”

Related Links:

— “Moodiness or more? How to tell if your kid’s suffering from a mental disorder, “Kristen Rogers, CNN, February 27, 2020

Reuters (2/26, Crist) reports that “parents of children with food allergies should acknowledge their kids’ anxiety, as well as their own, a group of allergy experts advises” in an article published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology. Dr. Ruchi Gupta, director of Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine’s Center for Food Allergy and Asthma Research and one of the authors of the article, said, “Coping with food allergies impacts relationship skills with peers and classmates, emerging independence and sense of self-efficacy, social skills and confidence, willingness to participate in sports teams, dating and more. Coping is an individual internal experience, too: Feelings of worry and anxiety can color all thinking and generate anxiety about many life experiences.”

Related Links:

— “Allergists offer advice to parents of kids with food allergies, “Carolyn Crist,  Reuters, February 26, 2020

Healio (2/26, Gramigna) reports, “A cognitive test identified individuals aged 100 years or older who had high levels of cognitive performance,” researchers concluded after analyzing data on “340 centenarians” whose cognition was evaluated by using the Mini-Mental State Examination. Investigators then “posited that investigation of these individuals may reveal the mechanisms underlying resilience against cognitive decline risk factors.” The findings were published online Feb. 26 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Centenarians with high cognitive test scores may ward off dementia, decline, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 26, 2020

CNN (2/26, LaMotte) reports researchers found that over a period of three years that “cognitive abilities declined three times faster in widowed adults with high levels of beta-amyloid – a key marker for Alzheimer’s – than in married people with equally high levels,” suggesting that losing a spouse may accelerate cognitive decline. The researchers also found that “even for those without beta-amyloid accumulation and no signs of cognitive decline, the risk for dementia was greater for men and women who were widowed.” The findingswere published in JAMA Network Open.Related Links:

— “Widowhood increases risk of Alzheimer’s, study says, “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, February 26, 2020

MD Magazine (2/25, Walter) reports research indicates that nearly two out of every three “young mothers reported at least one mental health problem, with almost 40% of the study population having more than one mental health disorder.” Included in the study were “450 mothers younger than 21 and 100 comparison mothers older than 30 years old at their first delivery living in urban and rural central-west Ontario.” Researchers then “compared I the age-matched young mothers with 15-17 year old women without children (n = 630) from the 2014 Ontario Child Health Study.” The study revealed that “young mothers were” two to four “times as likely to have an anxiety disorder, such as generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder, social phobia, and specific phobia, as well as” AD/HD, “oppositional defiant disorder, or conduct disorder.” In addition, they were two to four “times more likely to have more than one psychiatric problem when compared to the older control group of mothers or the women between 15-17 years old.” The findings were published online Feb. 10 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Related Links:

— “Young Mothers Face More Mental Health Hurdles, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, February 25, 2020

Psychiatric News (2/25) reports that US deaths attributable to “alcohol consumption appear to be rising,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the death certificates of U.S. residents (older than 15 years) who died between 2000 and 2016.” The study revealed that “the rate of death due to alcohol-induced causes increased overall from 2000 to 2016 at an average annual percentage change of 1.4% among men and 3.1% among women,” with the “largest increases in alcohol-induced deaths…observed among American Indian and Alaska Native men (average annual percentage change, 3.3%), American Indian and Alaska Native women (average annual percentage change, 4.2%), and white women (average annual percentage change, 4.1%).” The findings were published online Feb. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Report Finds Rates of U.S. Deaths From Alcohol Use ‘Accelerating’, Psychiatric News, February 25, 2020

Healio (2/24, Gramigna) reports, “The number of patients with dementia will likely double in Europe by 2050…a recent report by Alzheimer Europe” concludes. For that report, investigators “based their findings on a collaborative analysis of prevalence studies published after the conclusion of Alzheimer Europe’s previous project conducted between 2006 and 2008 and called the European Collaboration on Dementia.” In their report, “researchers noted the number of people within the European Union with dementia will double from the current estimate of 7,853,705 to 14,298,671 by 2050.”

Related Links:

— “Dementia rates set to double in Europe by 2050, echoing US estimates, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 24, 2020