HealthDay (2/1, Thompson ) reports that research finds “drug overdoses resulting in cardiac arrest occur most often among young adults.” The study showed that “people tend to have OD-related cardiac arrests at an average age of 39, compared to an average age of 64 for those suffering cardiac arrests not related to opioids.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Cardiac Arrests Linked to Drug ODs Are Killing the Healthy Young,”Dennis Thompson
, HealthDay, January 1, 2024

MedPage Today (2/1, George ) reports, “Pronounced cognitive slowing distinguished people with long COVID from others, a cross-sectional study showed.” Investigators found that, “on a 30-second task measuring simple reaction time, moderate-to-severe cognitive slowing was evident among long COVID patients compared with age-matched healthy individuals who had previous symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 infection and recovered.” The findings were published in eClinicalMedicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

STAT (2/1, Facher, Subscription Publication) reports, “The federal government is unveiling new regulations meant to modernize methadone treatment, the first major update to patient care standards at methadone clinics in more than 20 years.” The new regulations “are aimed at increasing access to methadone.” Starting in April, “patients and clinicians at methadone clinics will enjoy far greater flexibility.” Amid criticisms “that methadone doses are too low to stave off withdrawal, clinic” physicians “will have flexibility to prescribe methadone in larger doses to new patients.” Furthermore, clinics will “be permitted to prescribe patients ‘take-home’ medication, meaning they would be required to show up at the clinic less often.”

Related Links:

— “Methadone treatment gets first major update in over 20 years,”Lev Facher, STAT, January 1, 2024

Medscape (2/1, Bender, Subscription Publication) reports, “In patients with stimulant use disorder (SUD), even slight reductions in drug use can lessen depression and reduce cravings, a new analysis showed.” The researchers said the “findings suggest that reduced frequency of stimulant use is also associated with improved psychosocial functioning.” The findings were published in Addiction.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (1/31, Weldon) says, “Hospitalizations for eating disorders have increased steadily among adolescents in the United States, including a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers reported in Hospital Pediatrics.” Specifically, “hospitalizations increased more than sevenfold from 294 in 2010 to 2,135 in 2021, which was the highest yearly total. Hospitalizations increased more than 70% from 2019 – the year before the pandemic – to 2021. They decreased slightly after that to 1,783 cases in 2022.”

Related Links:

— “Adolescent eating disorder hospitalizations increasing in US,”Rose Weldon, Healio, January 31, 2024

Psychiatric News (1/31) reports, “Spanish-speaking adults may be less likely to receive a timely diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment compared with their English-speaking peers, suggests a study.” After analyzing data from more than 12,000 patients, investigators found that “Spanish speakers were 45% less likely to receive a timely diagnosis when compared with English speakers after adjusting for covariates.” Meanwhile, “despite being three years younger at presentation on average, only 18.6% of Spanish-speaking patients received a mild cognitive impairment diagnosis, compared with 26.0% of English-speaking patients.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Spanish Speakers Less Likely to Receive Timely Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment, Spanish Speakers Less Likely to Receive Timely Diagnosis of Mild Cognitive Impairment, January 31, 2024

Bloomberg Law (1/31, Lopez , Subscription Publication) reports, “Restrictions on take-home drugs for treating opioid addiction will be permanently eased under a Biden administration regulation announced Wednesday.” The final rule, issued by HHS, “builds upon practices deployed during the Covid-19 pandemic. It would maintain regulatory flexibilities for programs treating opioid addiction and lower other barriers to accessing the opioid treatment drug methadone for take-home use.”

Related Links:

— “At-Home Opioid Treatment Restrictions Eased by Biden HHS (1),”Ian Lopez, Bloomberg Law, January 31, 2024

HCP Live (1/31, Derman) reports, “Antipsychotic injections are linked to a 75% reduction in 30-day rehospitalizations compared with other oral antipsychotics, according to a…study.” Investigators came to this conclusion after comparing “30-day readmission rates for all patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder discharged from a single academic hospital from August 2019 – June 2022.” The findings were published in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotic Injections for Schizophrenia Linked to Decline in Hospital Readmissions,”Chelsie Derman, HCP Live, January 31, 2024

Maryland’s Lieutenant Governor Aruna Miller talks about growing up in an immigrant family and with a father with bipolar disorder. She is dedicated to combating the stigma against mental illness. Ms. Miller is an example of how one can grow up with a parent who has a serious mental illness, and not just survive, but thrive and achieve great things, perhaps empowered and inspired by your challenging life experiences.

“Just like myself, everybody’s been touched with a mental health disorder, whether it’s at a personal level or someone that we know and love,” Miller told 11 News.

For Miller, that someone was a central figure in her life.

“Ever since I was a child, I’ve been touched by it by the fact that my father suffered from bipolar disorder,” she said.

Not as much was known about mental health when Rao Katragadda immigrated to the U.S. from India. Miller described how, as a young child, she thought it was normal to have the extreme highs and lows her father would go through.

Read the full article here:
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/mental-health-priority-maryland-lt-gov-aruna-miller/43976449#

Neurology Advisor (1/30, Nye) reports that a study found that “early life adversity…is associated with sleep disturbance and depressive symptoms during the transition to adolescence among girls but not boys.” The findings were published in The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “For Girls, Early Life Adversity Tied to Sleep Disturbance, Depressive Symptoms,” Jessica Nye, PhD, Neurology Advisor, January 30, 2024