MD Magazine (8/27, Walter) reports research indicates that “individuals taking antidepressants and/or antipsychotics in weight management programs will lose weight regardless of their medication use.” Investigators arrived at that finding after analyzing data on “17,519 adults enrolled in a lifestyle weight loss intervention at the Wharton Medical Clinic in Ontario using a sex-stratified multivariable linear regression analysis to discover the association of taking antidepressants and/or antipsychotics with weight loss when adjusting for age, initial weight, and treatment time.” The findings were published online Aug. 23 in the journal Obesity.

Related Links:

— “Individuals Lose Weight Regardless of Antidepressant, Antipsychotic Use, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, August 27, 2019

Healio (8/27, Demko) reports, “Thyroid-stimulating hormone [TSH] concentrations were abnormal in about 6% of psychiatrically hospitalized youth with significant mood and anxiety disorders, but thyroid disease was present in less than 1% of the total sample,” researchers concluded in a study involving “1,017 hospitalized youth.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Thyroid function abnormal in some youth with mood, anxiety disorders, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 27, 2019

The Washington Post (8/20, Abutaleb, Wan) reports, “When President Trump targeted mental illness as the cause of the mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton that killed 31 people, federal health officials made sure no government experts might contradict him.” An August 5 HHS directive “warned communication staffers not to post anything on social media related to mental health, violence and mass shootings without prior approval,” which “alarmed some government mental health experts who said they felt muzzled.”

Editorial: Better Mental Healthcare Preferable To Increasing Large Mental Health Institutions In an editorial, the Bangor (ME) Daily News (8/20) writes, “President Donald Trump reiterated the flawed notion that mental illness is the root cause of gun violence in America.” The Daily News says Trump’s statements are “a perilous scapegoating that falsely stigmatizes the millions of Americans with mental health concerns.” The editorial references statistics from the US Department of Health and Human Services to say that people with mental illness are more likely to be a victim of a violent crime rather than being perpetrators. However, the editorial agrees with Trump that mental health services “in America need dramatic improvement,” but they want Trump to remember “why mental health institutions were closed or downsized.” It said at these large institutions, patients “often received little treatment and were sometimes abused.” It advocates for legislators and community advocates to be concerned with mental healthcare reimbursement rates and the shortage of mental health professionals.

Related Links:

— “After Trump blames mental illness for mass shootings, health agencies ordered to hold all posts on issue, “Yasmeen Abutaleb and William Wan, The Washington Post, August 20, 2019

The NBC News (8/26, Carroll) website reports, “Teens who used a concentrated form of marijuana – sometimes called dabs, wax, shatter or crumble – are more likely to also use other drugs than kids who avoid marijuana,” researchers concluded after surveying nearly “50,000 adolescents in Arizona.” Investigators “found that among teens who used any form of cannabis, 72 percent had experience with the more potent products.” The findings were published online in Pediatrics. HealthDay (8/26, Thompson) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Teens who use concentrated marijuana more likely to use other drugs, “Linda Carroll, NBC, August 26, 2019

Medscape (8/26, Subscription Publication) features a transcript of a discussion on suicide prevention at the American Psychiatric Association meeting in San Francisco between Dr. Jeffrey A. Lieberman and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention Medical Director Dr. Christine Moutier. Dr. Moutier said science is “shedding light” on “what drives suicide risk and what really constitutes effective suicide prevention efforts.” She adds, “Once we know that there are effective treatments and system change that works, it is so important that we translate that science into clinical practice and scale it around the nation.” Dr. Moutier also advocates for safety planning for those with suicidal ideation, in which a doctor “teams up with the patient to help them identify their own warning signs and triggers for crisis and suicide risk, and it outlines a series of steps they can take.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (8/26, Demko) reports, “Depression-related cognitive deficits in selective attention, working memory and long-term memory persisted into remission from a major depressive episode and worsened with repeated episodes,” research indicated. Included in the meta-analysis were “75 cognitive variables from 252 studies encompassing 11,882 major depressive episode remitters and 8,533 healthy controls.” The findings were published online Aug. 15 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive deficits persist into remission of major depressive episodes, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 26, 2019

HealthDay (8/23) reported a new study by researchers at Penn State suggests that “people with restless legs syndrome (RLS) have nearly three times the risk of suicide and self-harm, which indicates that there may be a link between the physical condition and mental health.” Investigators “analyzed data on more than 24,000 people with RLS and about 145,000 people without the neurological condition. None had a history of suicide attempts or self-harm.” Results indicate that “during the study period, people with RLS had a 2.7-fold higher risk of suicide or self-harm than people without the condition.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Restless Legs Syndrome Might Raise Risk of Suicide, Self-Harm, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 23, 2019

Pulmonology Advisor (8/23) reported a new study by researchers at University of Massachusetts Amherst indicates that “following medical marijuana legalization (MML) in Massachusetts in 2012, there was an increase in pediatric cannabis exposure.” Study authors wrote, “The increase occurred despite the cannabis product packaging being designed to be difficult for young children to open, being unappealing to the youth, and requiring warning labels instructing that the product be kept away from children.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Pediatric Exposure to Cannabis Has Increased Since Medical Legalization, Pulmonology Advisor, August 23, 2019

Medscape (8/23, Parry, Subscription Publication) reported a new study suggests that “psychiatric illnesses are common in children and adults with end-stage renal disease (ESRD) who are receiving dialysis.” Specifically, while “only approximately 2% of all adults and 1% of children had been hospitalized with a primary psychiatric diagnosis, these amounted to a large number of patients (9058 elderly adults, 8570 middle-aged adults, and 122 children).” Also, researchers saw “that the rate of hospitalizations with psychiatric diagnoses increased over the course of the study period, predominantly attributed to secondary diagnoses.” The findings were published online in the Clinical Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Healio (8/23) also reported.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (8/23, Boyles) reported, “The prevalence of depression, marijuana use, and alcohol abuse among former cigarette smokers in the U.S. have all increased since the mid-2000s, according to data through 2016 from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH)” analyzed by researchers at City University of New York. Data indicate that “prevalence of past-year major depressive episodes among former smokers rose from 4.88% to 6.04% from 2002 to 2016.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)