Psychiatric News (8/29) reports, “Roughly 30% of people who participate in studies of in-person psychosocial treatment programs for substance use disorders (SUDs) drop out,” researchers concluded in a 151-study meta-analysis that encompassed “a total of 26,243 participants.” The findings were published online Aug. 27 in the journal Addiction.
Related Links:
— “1 of 3 Study Participants Found to Drop Out of SUD Treatment Studies, , August 29, 2019
Healio (8/29, Demko) reports, “Individuals whose childhood” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “persists into adulthood appear to be at increased risk for motor vehicle crashes,” researchers concluded after examining “the risk for motor vehicle crashes…in 441 adults with” AD/HD and “239 controls without” the disorder. The findings were published online Aug. 22 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Adult ADHD persistence may increase car crash risk, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 29, 2019
STAT (8/28, Robbins) reports the FDA “has been quietly pressuring a handful of companies to stop reporting results to patients about how their genes may interact with specific drugs.” The agency is concerned that “amid a boom in genetic testing that aims to predict a person’s response to medication,…unsupported claims about gene-drug links could be dangerous, if they spur patients to start, stop, or switch medications in ways that aren’t appropriate.” The article highlights several examples of companies that have fallen under the FDA’s new scrutiny of pharmacogenetic testing.
Related Links:
— “FDA warns testing companies: Don’t tell patients how their DNA influences response to specific drugs, “Rebecca Robbins, STAT, August 28, 2019
The Wall Street Journal (8/28, Petersen, Subscription Publication) reports physicians are increasingly concerned that patients taking antidepressants may be subjecting themselves to unnecessary side effects and risks over the long term. Research indicated that people taking such medications were at a 14 percent higher risk of strokes and heart attacks, and a 33 percent higher risk of death.
Related Links:
— “New Concerns Emerge About Long-Term Antidepressant Use, “Andrea Petersen, The Wall Street Journal, August 28, 2019
Reuters (8/28, Emery) reports, “The combined results of 61 studies conducted in 19 countries suggest that when a woman gives birth by cesarean section, autism in the child is 33% more likely and the odds of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “increase by 17%.” The findings of the systematic review and meta-analysis were published online in JAMA Network Open.
According to Healio (8/28, Demko), even though investigators “reported similar estimates for some other neurodevelopmental and psychiatric outcomes – including intellectual disabilities, obsessive-compulsive disorders, tic disorders and eating disorders – the associations were not statistically significant, possibly due to the limited number of studies.
Related Links:
— “Possible link between C-section and autism, ADHD, “Gene Emery, Reuters, August 28, 2019
Psychiatric News (8/28) reports, “As the percentage of U.S. adults older than 65 years continues to grow, so too does the need for preventing mental illness among older adults as well as improving clinical services and outcomes for older patients with psychiatric disorders,” posited “psychiatrists Warren D. Taylor, M.D., M.H.Sc., of Vanderbilt University Medical Center and Charles F. Reynolds III, M.D., of the University of Pittsburgh in” a viewpoint published online Aug. 28 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Psychiatrists Offer Recommendations to Help Older Adults With Mental Disorders, Psychiatric News, August 28, 2019
Healio (8/27, Demko) reports, “Differences between individuals with autism and those without have lessened over time, which may be tied to changes in diagnostic practices,” researchers concluded in an 11-study meta-analysis that “included data on 27,723 individuals.” The findings were published online Aug. 21 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “Effect sizes of studies comparing individuals with, without autism decrease over time, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 27, 2019
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