Reuters (3/20, Emery) reports, “Children and young adults with” attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “who are treated with the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate face a small but significant risk of developing psychosis, with amphetamine products twice as likely to spark a problem,” researchers concluded. The study revealed that “among 110,923 patients getting amphetamine (Adderall, Adzenys XR-ODT, others), 237 subsequently received a psychosis diagnosis, or 0.21 percent.” Meanwhile, “in the same-sized group prescribed methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin, Daytrana, others), there were 106 episodes, or 0.10 percent,” the study revealed. According to HealthDay, 12 years ago, “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required stimulant manufacturers to warn that their products might unexpectedly cause psychotic or manic symptoms.” The findings were published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

MedPage Today (3/20, Hlavinka) reports the author of an accompanying editorial “emphasized this study’s findings ‘should not be considered definitive,’ as it was not possible to exclude certain confounding factors.” For instance, “certain individuals might have lower or higher vulnerabilities to the onset of psychosis when taking stimulants, he wrote.” As a result, “whether psychosis is due to stimulant use, to inherent vulnerability to psychosis, or to the interaction of those two factors remains unclear,’” the editorialist observed. Also covering the story are CNBC (3/20, Bursztynsky), Medscape (3/20, Brauser, Subscription Publication), and HealthDay (3/20, Norton).

Related Links:

— “With ADHD, amphetamine has double the psychosis risk of methylphenidate, “Gene Emery, Reuters, March 20, 2019

HealthDay (3/19, Norton) reports, “Some toddlers thought to have mild autism ‘outgrow’ the diagnosis, but most continue to struggle with language and behavior,” researchers concluded after examining “records for 569 children who were diagnosed with autism at the researchers’ center between 2003 and 2013.” Thirty-eight of these children “no longer met the diagnostic criteria” for autism “four years later.” The findings were published online March 12 in the Journal of Child Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Can Some Children Outgrow Autism?, ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, March 19, 2019

Bloomberg (3/19, Tanzi) reports more than one third of adults in the US between the ages of 18 and 64 who did not have health insurance “did not take their prescription medication as prescribed in the past 12 months in order to reduce costs, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Furthermore, about one fifth of all US adults “asked their doctor for alternative medication to lower the cost.”

Additional coverage is provided by CNN (3/19, Luhby), Fortune (3/19, Sherman), FierceHealthcare (3/19, Landi), and The Hill (3/19, Sullivan).

Related Links:

— “One in Five U.S. Adults Ask Doctor for Lower Cost Medication, “Alexandre Tanzi, Bloomberg, March 19, 2019

The AP (3/19, Cheng) reports, “Smoking high-potency marijuana every day could increase the chances of developing psychosis by nearly five times,” researchers concluded in a study comprised of “about 900 people who were diagnosed with a first episode of the disorder at a mental health clinic, including those with delusions and hallucinations,” who “were compared with more than 1,200 healthy patients.” The findings were published online March 19 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Also covering the study are Reuters (3/19, Kelland), The Guardian (UK) (3/19, Davis), BBC News Online (UK) (3/20, Roberts), the Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer (3/19, Wood), The Hill (3/19, Burke), the NPR (3/19, Chatterjee) “Shots” blog, NBC News (3/19), and HealthDay (3/19, Thompson).

Related Links:

— “Smoking strong pot daily raises psychosis risk, study finds, “Maria Cheng, AP, March 19, 2019

Psychiatric News (3/18) reports, “About 12% of adolescents who had suicidal thoughts or engaged in self-harm at age 16 went on to attempt suicide by age 21, but the risk factors for transition differed from established thinking on the subject,” investigators concluded in “a large, longitudinal study of adolescents” published online March 14 in The Lancet Psychiatry. In “participants with suicidal thoughts at age 16, the following factors strongly predicted a suicide attempt by age 21, all of which were associated with two to three times higher risk of suicide attempt: Nonsuicidal self-harm; cannabis use; other illicit drug use,” and “higher levels of the personality type intellect/openness.”

Related Links:

— “Study Suggests Factors Linked to Teens’ Suicide Attempts, Psychiatric News, March 18, 2019

Reuters (3/18, Rapaport) reports a study suggests “the number of young people visiting U.S. emergency rooms with psychiatric problems is rising, driven largely by a surge in teens and minority youth seeking urgent help for mental illnesses.” The study found a 28 percent increase between 2011 and 2015 among young people aged six to 24 visiting psychiatric emergency departments.

HealthDay (3/18, Mozes) reports the findings were published online March 18 in the journal Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “More U.S. youth seeking help during psychiatric emergencies, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, March 18, 2019

Healio (3/15, Demko) reported, “A cross-validated model that included self-reported history and severity of suicidality, positive screens for mental disorders and Army career characteristics was associated with suicide attempts 18 to 45 months later among soldiers with suicide ideation,” researchers concluded after following “3,649 soldiers – from baseline to 18-45 months – who completed surveys in Army STARRS and reported lifetime suicidal ideation.” The study also revealed that “10% of soldiers with suicidal ideation who had the highest predicted risk accounted for 39.2% of later suicide attempts.” The findings were published online March 15 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Self-report battery may improve risk assessment in soldiers with suicidal ideation, “Savannah Demko, Healio, March 15, 2019

In an opinion piece for the New York Times (3/15), author, physician, and psychiatrist in training Lisa Pryor observed, “With [its] focus on diagnosis and classification, you would be forgiven for thinking that psychiatry is a profession devoted merely to sorting and labeling humans,” as is “highlighted by the common description of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the thick volume published by the American Psychiatric Association listing the various diseases of the mind – as the ‘bible’ of psychiatry.” In real life, however, the DSM “is an explanation of the human mind no more than a dictionary is an explanation of literature,” Dr. Pryor wrote. Instead, she promoted the concept of “psychiatric formulation.” Under that concept, “a formulation gathers up all the biological, psychological and social factors that have led to a person becoming unwell and considers how these factors interconnect,” and in so doing, “provides clues to the pathway out of suffering.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness Isn’t All in Your Head, “Lisa Pryor, The New York Times, March 15, 2019

U.S. News & World Report (3/14, Newman) reports, “An estimated two million children visited an emergency department [ED] for a traumatic brain injury [TBI] sustained during sports- and recreation-related activities between 2010 and 2016,” research indicated. What’s more, “football, bicycling, playground activities and soccer were the activities most likely to cause a brain injury in” children, “researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” concluded after examining “data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–All Injury Program.” The study “found an average of 283,000 children under the age of 18 sought care in emergency departments each year for sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries, with the highest rates among males and children between the ages of 10 and 17 years old.”

Related Links:

— “Football, Soccer Lead to the Most Brain Injuries in Kids, “Katelyn Newman, U.S. News & World Report, March 14, 2019

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (3/14, Healy) reports research reveals “that U.S. teens and young adults in 2017 were more distressed, more likely to suffer from major depression, and more prone to suicide than their counterparts in the millennial generation were at the same age.” In addition, investigators “found that between 2008 and 2017, Gen Z’s emotional distress and its propensity toward self-harm grew more than for any other generation of Americans during the same period.” What’s more, “by 2017, just over 13% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 25 had symptoms consistent with an episode of major depression in the previous year – a 62% increase in eight years.”

The Washington Post (3/14, Bahrampour) reports the study, which “used data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health and also relied on suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found the greatest upticks in young people who were wealthier and female.” The study authors attributed the increases in mental health disorders “to increased time spent on social media and electronic communication, along with a decrease in the hours of sleep young people are getting.” Not getting enough “sleep is associated with depression and anxiety.” The findings were published online March 14 in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Related Links:

— “Mental health problems are on rise among American teens and young adults, study finds, “Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2019