The New York Times (2/29, Jewett , Hoffman ) reports, “Alcohol-related deaths surged in the United States by nearly 30 percent in recent years…according to a new studypublished by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

CNN (2/29, Christensen ) reports, “In 2020-21, at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, there were an average of about 488 deaths per day from excessive alcohol drinking, according to” the report. The data indicated that “the average number of deaths related to excessive alcohol use increased more than 29% from 2016-17 to 2020-21.” The report found that “during 2016-2017 there were 137,927 alcohol-related deaths, but for 2020-2021, there were 178,307.” This “increase in deaths related to excessive alcohol seemed to hit all ages.”

HealthDay (2/29, Mundell ) reports that the study found that “men continue to lose their lives to alcohol in greater numbers than women,” but “the rate at which women are dying from excessive drinking is rising faster than that of men.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (2/28, Mundell ) reports Kundalini yoga “appears to have bolstered the brain health of older women who had risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers concluded in a study of “more than 60 women” who practiced either Kundalini yoga or “memory enhancement training.” The benefits of yoga “included significant improvement in subjective memory complaints, prevention in brain matter declines, increased connectivity in the hippocampus which manages stress-related memories, and improvement in the peripheral cytokines and gene expression of anti-inflammatory and anti-aging molecules,” researchers said. The study was published in Translational Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Yoga Brings Brain Benefits to Women at Risk for Alzheimer’s,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, February 28, 2024

The New York Times (2/28, Belluck ) reports patients with long COVID may experience “measurable cognitive decline, especially in the ability to remember, reason and plan, a large new study suggests.” Cognitive tests of nearly 113,000 UK patients “found that those with persistent post-COVID symptoms scored the equivalent of 6 I.Q. points lower than people who had never been infected with the coronavirus, according to the study, published Wednesday in The New England Journal of Medicine.” In addition, people “who had been infected and no longer had symptoms also scored slightly lower than people who had never been infected, by the equivalent of 3 I.Q. points, even if they were ill for only a short time.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (2/28, Henderson ) reports the CDC on Wednesday issued new guidance “on identifying and responding to clusters of suicide, as tens of thousands of lives are lost to suicide each year in the U.S.” The agency recommended “three primary steps,” including “conducting a preliminary assessment to determine if a formal assessment is warranted; a formal assessment of the suspected cluster to determine whether it meets the definition of a cluster; and an investigation to identify similarities in cases that can guide community response.” CDC researchers wrote that while rare, suicide clusters “can have unique characteristics and challenges” and “can have considerable negative effects on the community, including prolonged grief and elevated fear and anxiety about further deaths.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Wall Street Journal (2/27, Mathews , Michaels, Subscription Publication) reports that the Justice Department has launched an antitrust investigation into U.S. health insurer UnitedHealth.
Bloomberg (2/27, Tozzi, Strohm , Nylen , Subscription Publication) reports, “The probe opens a new layer of scrutiny on the largest U.S. health insurer that operates in pharmacy benefits, medical care, technology and other services.” The investigation “emerged out of concerns about UnitedHealth’s acquisitions of health-care providers and data companies, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified discussing information that isn’t public.”

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— “U.S. Opens UnitedHealth Antitrust Probe,”Anna Wilde Mathews, The Wall Street Journal, February 27, 2024

Psychiatric News (2/27) reports, “Children whose parents experience parenting stress and other parenting issues may have a higher risk of nonsuicidal self-injury in adolescence, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry has found.” According to the study, “adolescents who perceived parental hostility and negativity at 6 years old had 1.8 times the odds of nonsuicidal self-injury compared with adolescents who did not. However, child characteristics and negative events did not appear to increase the odds of adolescents reporting nonsuicidal self-injury.”

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— “Risk of Self-Harm Higher in Adolescents With Stressed Parents, Psychiatric News , February 27, 2024

NPR (2/27, Archie ) reports, “The monthly rate of antidepressants being dispensed to young people increased about 64% more quickly during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.” The IQVIA Longitudinal Prescription Database was used by researchers “to examine a sample of about 221 million prescriptions written for millions of Americans between the ages 12 to 25, and from 2016 to 2022.” Researchers “separated the data into before and after March 2020, when the pandemic started.”

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— “The rate of antidepressants prescribed to young people surged during the pandemic,”Ayana Archie, NPR, February 27, 2024

HealthDay (2/26, Thompson ) reports, “Hormone replacement therapy might help women avoid depression as they go through menopause, a new study” in Menopause found. Women “treated with hormone therapy at a menopause clinic in Ontario, Canada, experienced a reduction in their symptoms of depression” – an improvement that “occurred whether or not antidepressants were also described, results showed.”

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— “Hormone Replacement Therapy Could Ease Depression Around Menopause,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay , February 26, 2024

HealthDay (2/26, Mundell ) reports that data “from dozens of studies supports the notion that mental health crises are a big factor behind rising rates of maternal deaths during and around pregnancy in the United States,” according to a study published in JAMA Psychiatry. Researchers “looked at data from 30 recent studies and 15 historical references,” and found that the period in and around pregnancy is “associated with elevated risk for new-onset or relapse of maternal psychiatric disorders.” The team also found that a growing number of American women are living in “maternity care deserts,” which is preventing pregnant women from being screened for health issues during their pregnancies.

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— “Mental Health Issues a Prime Driver of Deaths for New Moms: Study,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay , February 26, 2024

Psychiatric News (2/26) reports, “Since 2019, calls to U.S. poison centers involving youth or young adults who took the psychedelic psilocybin have risen sharply, according to a study.” Investigators “examined all cases of psilocybin exposure between 2013 and 2022 involving young people aged 13 to 25.” During “the 10-year period, the researchers identified 4,055 calls for psilocybin exposure, of which about 66% involved psilocybin alone.” The article adds, “The timing is notable as 2019 was the start of a psilocybin decriminalizatio n movement across numerous states and cities.” The findings were published in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Related Links:

— “Calls to Poison Centers Involving Psilocybin on the Rise Among Young People, Psychiatric News, February 26, 2024