The New York Times (2/21, Wolverton) reports that “colleges are struggling to keep up with an increase in requests for mental health counseling,” so “many have hired additional staff members and are experimenting with new approaches to treatment.” The article discusses three colleges taking “new approaches to treatment”: UCLA, Kent State, and Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY. Some treatment techniques include “internet-based screenings and online mental health treatment,” as well as “‘resilience peers’ who are not licensed to provide counseling but who offer a release valve for stressed-out students.” The article also highlights “a ‘wraparound’ model” that provides “an assortment of services outside of traditional talk therapy that help students address their overall well-being.”

Related Links:

— “Colleges Expand Their Reach to Address Mental Health Issues, “Brad Wolverton, The New York Times, February 21, 2019

Congressional Quarterly (2/21, Raman, Subscription Publication) reports, “Average Medicaid spending on opioid use disorder treatment increased 25.1 percent per year” since 2010, “with the fastest growth from 2014 to 2016,” according to an analysis conducted by the Urban Institute. The article says a contributing factor “is the expansion of eligibility.” Some 37 states have expanded Medicaid under the ACA. Data show that “between 2013 and 2017 in Medicaid expansion states, the amount Medicaid spent on opioid use disorder nearly tripled.” Meanwhile, Medicaid spending doubled in non-expansion states. The piece adds that between 2010 and 2017, “Medicaid spending on two of the three most common types of medication-assisted treatment to help people using opioids – buprenorphine and naltrexone – and the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone jumped from $190 million to $887.6 million.”

Related Links:

— “Congresional Quarterly (Requires Login and Subscription)

The New York Times (2/20, Zraick) reports “most American teenagers — across demographic groups — see depression and anxiety as major problems among their peers, a new survey [of 920 teens] by the Pew Research Center found.” Results show “that 70 percent of teenagers saw mental health as a big issue,” and that “fewer teenagers cited bullying, drug addiction or gangs as major problems; those from low-income households were more likely to do so.”

Newsweek (2/20, Fearnow) says, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in five American kids ages 3 through 17 – or about 15 million people – have a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in any given year.”

Related Links:

— “Teenagers Say Depression and Anxiety Are Major Issues Among Their Peers, ” Karen Zraick, The New York Times, February 20, 2019

Healio (2/20) reports, “Adults with body dysmorphic disorder benefited from both cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] and supportive psychotherapy,” even though “CBT for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) was associated with more consistent improvement in symptom severity and quality of life,” researchers found. The findings of the 120-patient study were published online Feb. 20 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed, “Important next steps for ensuring durable outcomes for the most people will be determining the essential elements for clinically significant improvement and how these elements produce change for different patients.”

Related Links:

— “CBT, supportive psychotherapy improve body dysmorphia severity,Healio, February 20, 2019

TIME (2/20, Park) reports Swedish researchers found that “mentally stimulating activities and physical exercise can independently lower people’s chances of developing many types of dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease.”

MedPage Today (2/20, George) reports, “Women who frequently engaged in cognitive activities – including artistic endeavors, reading, needlework, or social clubs – when they were ages 38 to 54 years were 46% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease in late life and 34% less likely to develop dementia,” researchers concluded in a “longitudinal study that spanned 44 years.” MedPage Today adds, “At multiple points in the study, psychiatrists or psychiatric research nurses performed neuropsychiatric examinations, using criteria from the” American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition Revised (DSM-III-R).”

HealthDay (2/20, Thompson) reports in the 800-woman study, researchers also found that “higher levels of physical activity reduced the risk of more vascular forms of dementia, regardless of how mentally active the women were,” whereas greater “levels of mental activity in midlife reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, regardless of how physically active the women were.” The findings were published online Feb. 20 in Neurology. Also covering the study are Newsweek (2/20, Gander) and Healio (2/20, Tedesco).

Related Links:

— “Doing Physical and Mental Exercise When You’re Younger May Help Ward Off Dementia, “Alice Park, TIME, February 20, 2019

The AP (2/14, Neergaard) reports that researchers in a study “used a new technique to scan the brains of living people – and discovered that patients with depression had a lower density of synapses than healthy people the same age.” The AP adds, “The lower the density, the more severe the depression symptoms, particularly problems with attention and loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities, Yale neuroscientist Irina Esterlis said…at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.” The article does not disclose the number of study participants.

Related Links:

— “Researchers find clues that depression may speed brain aging, “Lauran Neergaard , AP, February 14, 2019

The AP (2/14, Alonso-Zaldivar) reports that on Thursday, HHS officials said “Medicare wants to change how it pays for emergency ambulance services to give seniors more options besides going to a hospital emergency department.” Alternatives “could include going to an urgent care center, a doctor’s office, or even treatment at home under supervision of a doctor via telehealth links.” The article says this is only “a pilot project for now, but if adopted nationwide, the idea could save Medicare more than $500 million a year.”

Modern Healthcare (2/14, King, Subscription Publication) reports that the pilot would only “apply to Medicare fee-for-service beneficiaries.” The piece adds that HHS expects to request “applications to participate in the model by summer 2019.”

Related Links:

— “Medicare ambulance rides may no longer end up at ER, “Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, AP, February 14, 2019

The New York Times (2/13, Reynolds) reports, “Jogging for 15 minutes a day, or walking or gardening for somewhat longer, could help protect people against developing depression,” researchers concluded in a study published online Jan. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry. For the study, investigators turned “to the UK Biobank, an enormous database of genetic and health information for almost 400,000 men and women.” Next, the study team “identified people who carried at least one of several gene variants believed to increase the likelihood someone will be active. Most of those people were active, and few of them had experienced depression.” Using “Mendelian randomization,” the study authors found that, “statistically, the ideal amount of exercise to prevent depression started at about 15 minutes a day of running or other strenuous exercise,” while “less-taxing activities like fast walking, housework and so on also afforded protection against depression, but it took about an hour a day to have an effect.”

Related Links:

— “Exercise May Help to Fend Off Depression, ” Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, February 13, 2019

Reuters (2/13, Kate, Kelland) reports researchers found in a medical literature review that “teenagers who use cannabis have a higher risk of developing depression and suicidal thoughts as young adults and should be made aware of those risks by parents and” physicians. The findings were published online Feb. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry.

The Philadelphia Inquirer (2/13, Pattani) reports researchers “reviewed data from nearly a dozen studies that included more than 23,000 people,” and “found that marijuana use in adolescence is linked with an increased risk of depression, as well as suicidal thoughts and attempts, before age 32.” The article adds that “the researchers concluded that about 400,000 cases of adolescent depression in the U.S. are potentially attributable to marijuana.”

Healio (2/13, Demko) reports Gabriella Gobbi, MD, PhD, of McGill University’s department of psychiatry, one of the study’s authors, said, “Little attention has been specifically paid in the public health discourse as to the impact of adolescent cannabis use on the risk of developing depressive symptoms and mood disorders, even though researchers have published on this topic since the 1970s. The adolescent brain is indeed still under development and psychotropic drugs used at this time may thus alter the physiological neurodevelopment, especially of the frontal cortex and limbic system.”

Also covering the study are HealthDay (2/13, Gordon), Newsweek (2/13, Gander), U.S. News & World Report (2/13, Lardieri), BBC News Online (UK) (2/13), The Guardian (UK) (2/13, Davis), and the Telegraph (UK) (2/13, Donnelly).

Related Links:

— “Teen cannabis use linked to higher risk of adolescent depression, “Kate, Kelland, Reuters, February 13, 2019

The Wall Street Journal (2/12, Subscription Publication) reports that if veterans do not have honorable discharges, they have to wait around four years before even signing up for benefits or healthcare because they have to wait for the VA to determine whether or not they are still considered veterans. Such veterans often exhibited characteristic behaviors attributed to PTSD, and due to these actions, their ability to receive VA healthcare and other benefits is put into peril.

Related Links:

— “He Has a Purple Heart, but the VA Wouldn’t Call Him a Veteran, “Rose Carmen Goldberg, The Wall Street Journal, February 12, 2019