Reuters (5/10, Rapaport) reported that states which “require adults on Medicaid to work a set number of hours to get benefits may find many people lose coverage because behavioral health conditions and other chronic health problems make it hard for them to work,” according to a study published in Health Affairs. Data show only “23 percent of people with serious mental illnesses worked at least 20 hours a week, while only 43 percent of people with substance use disorders achieved this minimum number of work hours.” Among recipients “with both mental illness and substance use issues, only 32 percent worked at least 20 hours a week.” Meanwhile, “almost half of Medicaid enrollees without any identified health problems worked at least 20 hours a week.”

Related Links:

— “Medicaid work rules likely to penalize chronically ill: study, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, May 10, 2019

HealthDay (5/9, Reinberg) reports researchers found in two studies published in JAMA Dermatology that psoriasis “is often coupled with depression, anxiety and even bipolar disease, schizophrenia and dementia.” In one study, “Danish researchers collected data on more than 13,600 men and women with psoriasis,” and “over five years of follow-up, 2.6% developed mental problems, and over 10 years, that number rose to nearly 5%.” In the other study, “Korean researchers looked at more than 12,700 psoriasis patients,” and “found that the risk for anxiety, phantom medical problems, neurotic disorders and sleep problems was doubled and tripled among psoriasis sufferers compared to those without the disease.”

Related Links:

— “Psoriasis, Mental Ills Can Go Hand in Hand, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, May 9, 2019

U.S. News & World Report (5/8, Howley) explains what delusions and hallucinations are and how they differ. Hallucinations “are based in the senses,” while “delusions revolve around concepts, ideas and beliefs that are strongly held in the mind.” Psychiatrist Philip R. Muskin, MD, “outgoing secretary of the American Psychiatric Association, describes delusions as ‘a fixed idea that’s not consensually held’ in the person’s culture, and ‘is not consistent with the world at large.’” Both “delusions and hallucinations” are “two facets of psychosis, a condition the National Institute of Mental Health defines as ‘conditions that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality.’”

Related Links:

— “What’s the Difference Between Delusions and Hallucinations?, “Elaine K. Howley, U.S. News & World Report, May 8, 2019

The Detroit Free Press (5/8, Kovanis) reports on a study published in the JAMA Psychiatry which found that buprenorphine treatment is prescribed 35 times more frequently to white patients. The article says that the findings are “especially interesting because research revealed earlier this year showed a spike in the number of African American deaths tied to fentanyl, the ultra powerful opioid that’s being cut into heroin, cocaine and other drugs.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (5/8, Whelan) reports that the study examined over 13 million doctors’ visits during which the drug was prescribed from 2012 through 2015, and “found that 12.7 million of those visits were by white patients, compared to just 363,000 for all other races.”

HealthDay (5/8, Preidt) reports that investigators found “a large increase in the overall number of buprenorphine prescriptions written at outpatient clinic visits over the previous decade, but a decrease in the percentage of those visits where the patients were black.”

Related Links:

— “Poor, Minorities Shortchanged on Opioid Addiction Treatments, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May , 2019

Kaiser Health News (5/7, Dembosky) reports that methamphetamine use “is surging in parts of the US, particularly the West,” but policymakers “haven’t kept up, continuing to direct the bulk of funding and attention to opioids.” According to UCLA addiction psychologist Steve Shoptaw, stories regarding methamphetamine overdoses “are very much muffled by the much louder story about the opioid epidemic” among congressional lawmakers. Deaths related to methamphetamine use in San Francisco have doubled since 2011, and the city’s meth-related emergency room visits “have jumped 600% to 1,965 visits in 2016, the last year for which ER data is available.”

Related Links:

— “Meth Vs. Opioids: America Has Two Drug Epidemics, But Focuses On One, “April Dembosky, Kaiser Health News, May 7, 2019

Reuters (5/6, Rapaport) reports that “transgender adolescents may be less likely to be sexually assaulted when they can use school bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth,” according to a study published online in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Trans teens face higher sexual assault risk when schools restrict bathrooms, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, May 6, 2019

The New York Times (5/7, Lucchesi) reports that “mental health experts now recognize that PTSD can indeed affect nurses, both military and civilian.” Specifically, “as many as 28 percent of nurses experience PTSD at some point in their careers, said Meredith Mealer, an associate professor at the Anschutz Medical Campus at the University of Colorado, Denver, though health care providers still often struggle to treat it.” One “recent study in the Journal of Heart and Lung Transplantation found as many as 48 percent of nurses working in a critical care transplant unit met the criteria for PTSD symptoms included upsetting dreams about a traumatic event, difficulty falling asleep, irritability or outbursts of anger, and upsetting memories about the event that arose against the person’s will.”

Related Links:

— “For Nurses, Trauma Can Come With the Job, “Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, The New York Times, May 7, 2019

Healio (5/6, Demko) reports that “history of engaging in injurious violence in the six months before baseline assessment and recent violent victimization were the most powerful predictors of later injurious violent behavior in individuals with schizophrenia,” researchers concluded after examining “18-month data from 1,435 individuals with schizophrenia who participated in the NIMH’s Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness (CATIE) study.” The findings were published online April 24 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “History of violence, victimization predicts later violence in schizophrenia, “Savannah Demko, Healio, May 6, 2019

In “Health & Science,” the Washington Post (5/3, Opar) reported in a nearly 2,000-word article on “a deep divide in the autism community: On one side are parents of” children with autism “with severe traits – including intellectual disability, limited language ability and self-harm – who say autism is a medical condition that needs often-intense treatment.” The “other side” is made up of “supporters of ‘neurodiversity,’ who maintain that the condition represents a neurological difference and a disability – one that society should accept and accommodate rather than try to prevent or cure.”

Related Links:

— “A medical condition or just a difference? The question roils autism community, “Alisa Opar, The Washington Post, May 3, 2019

Reuters (5/3, Carroll) reported that “a tiny percentage of people at high risk for opioid overdose are getting prescriptions for naloxone, a medication that could potentially save their lives, a new study” published in JAMA Network Open suggests. Specifically, “researchers determined that a mere 1.5 percent of high-risk patients were prescribed naloxone, which can reverse an overdose, according to the study.” People “were more likely to receive a naloxone prescription if they had a prior diagnosis of opioid misuse or dependence along with an overdose compared to individuals who had those diagnoses without an overdose, the researchers reported.”

U.S. News & World Report (5/3, Newman) reported that “among those who had overdosed before but did not have a misuse or dependence diagnosis, only 0.8% received naloxone.” Further, “people from the Midwest or West also had a lower likelihood of being prescribed naloxone compared with those in the Northeast and the South, according to the report.” US News & World Report added that “the time frame analyzed in the study…predates a December decision by a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel in favor of recommending that naloxone be dispensed along with prescription opioids,” and “in April 2018, the U.S. surgeon general issued an advisory calling for the prescription of naloxone to those at high risk of an opioid overdose, as well as to their friends and family members.”

Related Links:

— “Few at risk for opioid overdose get potentially life-saving naloxone, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, May 3, 2019