CNN (2/15, Christensen ) reports, “The percentage of overdose deaths linked to smoking drugs rose sharply in recent years, overtaking injection as the leading route of drug use involved in such deaths, according to a new report from the” CDC. Investigators “compared data on drug deaths from January to June 2020 with data from July to December 2022.” The data indicated that “the percentage of overdose deaths that involved smoking increased almost 74% – from 13.3% to 23.1% – between 2020 and 2022.” Over that “same time period, the percentage of overdose deaths involving injections fell from 22.7% to 16.1%.”

The AP (2/15, Stobbe ) reports, “The number and percentage of deaths with evidence of snorting also increased, though not as dramatically as smoking-related deaths, the study found.”

Related Links:

— “Smoking drugs now linked to more overdose deaths than injecting drugs, report finds,”Jen Christensen, CNN, February 15, 2024

The New York Times (2/14, Jewett ) reports, “The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Health and Human Services said on Wednesday that they would examine the causes of generic drug shortages and the practices of ‘powerful middlemen’ that are involved in the supply chain.” The investigation “is aimed at the group purchasing organizations and drug distributors that have been in the spotlight in recent months as drug shortages reached a 10-year peak.” FTC and HHS “want to examine the companies’ influence on how the drugs are sold to hospitals and other health facilities, assessing whether the middlemen put pressure on pricing and manufacturing that led to breakdowns.”

Reuters (2/14, Leo) reports, “The FTC will seek information about drug distributors and hospital purchasing groups and their contracting practices, market concentration and compensation.” The agency “will examine if these companies have misused their market power to push down prices of generic drugs so much that some manufacturers cannot profit and have stopped production, in turn causing the shortages.”

Related Links:

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

MedPage Today (2/14, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Patients hospitalized for depression had a very high risk of suicide in the first few days after discharge, a longitudinal Finnish registry study showed.” The “analysis of nearly 200,000 hospitalizations for depression from 1996 to 2017 revealed a suicide incidence rate of 6,062 per 100,000 person-years during days 0-3 following discharge.” The data indicated that “suicide incidence remained high but fell to 3,884 per 100,000 person-years in the 4-7 days after discharge…and continued to fall thereafter.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (2/14, Miller) reports, “When bullies destroy a young victim’s trust, mental health problems are likely to follow them into adulthood, a new study warns.” Investigators “looked at data from 10,000 children in the U.K. who were followed for nearly 20 years.” The “researchers found that kids who were bullied at age 11 and then became distrustful by age 14 were roughly 3.5 times more likely to have mental health problems by age 17 than those who were more trusting.” The research was published in Nature Mental Health.

Related Links:

— “Being Bullied in Childhood More Than Triples Risk of Mental Health Struggles Later,”Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay, February 14, 2024

HCP Live (2/13, Derman) reports, “Video and phone telehealth appointments, non-English speakers, older adults > 75 years old, and patients on Medicaid were less likely to have depression screenings during” the COVID-19 pandemic “than in-person visits, English speakers, patients aged 18 – 30 years, and patients with private insurance, a new study found.” This study, which “examined 57,301 eligible visits with 37,250 patients,” was published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Depression Screening Rates during COVID-19 Low Among Telehealth Appointments,”Chelsie Derman, HCP Live , February 13, 2024

Healio (2/13, Rhoades) reports, “A greater daily intake of sugar in people’s diets was associated with a higher prevalence of depression, according to a study.” Investigators “found that, after adjusting for several confounders, a 100 g per day increase in sugar was associated with a 28% higher prevalence of depression.” The researchers also found that “compared with participants in the first quartile of daily sugar intake — meaning, those who consumed the least amount of sugar each day — participants in the fourth quartile had an OR of 1.33…for depression.” The findings were published in BMC Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Study: High daily sugar intake increases risk for depression,”Andrew (Drew) Rhoades, Healio, February 13, 2024

NBC News (2/13, Bendix ) reports that a study “suggests that familiar scents could help unlock” specific memories in people with depression. Investigators found that “people with depression recalled more specific memories when they were exposed to familiar scents — such as ground coffee or tobacco — than when they heard words that corresponded to those smells, such as ‘coffee’ or ‘cigarette.’” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Familiar scents unlock memories in people with depression. Could ‘smell therapy’ help patients?,”Aria Bendix, NBC News, February 13, 2024

Healthcare Finance News (2/12, Lagasse ) reports, “The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, through its Office for Civil Rights and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has finalized modifications to the Confidentiality of Substance Use Disorder Patient Records regulations, which protect the privacy of patients’ SUD treatment records.” In particular, “the final rule increases coordination among [healthcare professionals] treating patients for SUDs, strengthens confidentiality protections through civil enforcement, and enhances the integration of behavioral health information with other medical records to improve patient health outcomes.”

Related Links:

— “HHS seeks to enhance care for substance use disorder,”Jeff Lagasse, Healthcare Finance News, February 12, 2024

The Washington Post (2/12, Searing ) reports 55% of mental health appointments “are being conducted remotely, mainly via videoconferencing rather than in-person visits, according to a brief research report.” The research found “that the volume of telemedicine visits overall increased dramatically once the coronavirus pandemic began, becoming far more common than in-person visits.” The findings were published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

mHealth Intelligence (2/12, Vaidya ) reports, “Patterns in the use of audio-only or video-based telehealth to receive mental healthcare are mixed, differing based on age, sex, education, income, and location, according to new research by the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and Columbia University Irving Medical Center.” Notably, “adjusted percentages of video visits were higher for younger adults than for middle-aged or older adults, women than men, and college graduates than adults without a high school diploma.” The findings were published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Telemental Healthcare Use Varies Across Sociodemographic Lines,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence, February 12, 2024