In a 1,200-word article focused on mental health in the workplace, USA Today (7/11, Dastagir) reports that “approximately one in five” US adults “experiences mental illness in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).” What’s more, “according to the World Health Organization, what happens in the workplace is key to a person’s overall mental health.” An increasing number of “employers acknowledge the connection between their employees’ well-being and their bottom line.”

Related Links:

— “A woman’s tweet about taking a mental health day went viral. Here’s why it shouldn’t have,” Alia E. Dastagir, USA Today, July 11, 2017.

The Washington Times (7/6, Kelly) reports a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that “rates of suicide remain high for many years after discharge” from psychiatric facilities based on data from 100 worldwide studies between 1948 and 2016. Researchers suggest the study data shows “that hospitalized treatment, while providing a safe place for patients to explore the triggering factors that lead to their attempt of suicide or thoughts to attempt suicide, does not offer a quick fix in countering the multiple elements that drive people to the extreme of suicide.”

They instead advocate for long-term care methods. In an accompanying editorial, psychology professor Dr. Mark Olfson argues that “universal and continuing suicide prevention interventions are needed for patients after psychiatric hospital discharge.”

Related Links:

— “Lack of follow-up visits a factor in increase in suicide rates, study shows,” Laura Kelly , Washington Times, July 6, 2017.

NBC Nightly News (7/6, story 7, 1:50, Guthrie) reported, “As this country battles the opioid drug crisis, the CDC reported today that far too many people are still being prescribed those highly addictive painkillers and for too long. The warning came despite the fact that the number of prescriptions was down actually over a five-year period.”

In “Health & Science,” the Washington Post (7/6, Bernstein) reports that the number of prescriptions written for opioid pain medications “declined between 2012 and 2015,” according to data by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. According to the Post, the data introduce “a glimmer of progress in efforts to quell the worst drug epidemic in US history.” According to CDC Acting Director Dr. Anne Schuchat, “It looks a little bit better, but you really have to put that in context. We’re still seeing too many people get too much for too long.”

The New York Times (7/6, Goodnough, Subscription Publication) reports that the CDC analysis found that the prescribing rate “fell by 18 percent between 2010 and 2015, though it increased in 23 percent of counties,” and is still “three times as high as in 1999, when the nation’s problem with opioid addiction was just getting started.” The analysis found “tremendous regional variation” in the prescription of opioids.

STAT (7/6, Joseph) reports that the analysis “found that every part of the country had counties that had much higher prescribing rates than others, which officials said was a sign that clinicians did not have standards to use or disregarded them when prescribing opioids for pain.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid prescriptions dropped for the first time in the modern drug crisis,” Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post, July 6, 2017.

NPR (7/9, Smart) reports in its “Shots” blog that a “little-talked-about” aspect of the Affordable Care Act was increased “access to mental health care for the poor.” The author says that for some individuals, “access to mental health care can mean the difference between” working and not working. In the article, several members of the mental health industry express concern that Medicaid “rollbacks” proposed by Congress could reverse the progress made for people suffering from mental illness.

Related Links:

— “For Many, Medicaid Provides The Only Route To Mental Health Care,” ALISON KODJAK, NPR, July 9, 2017.

MD Magazine (7/9, Bender) reported, “Patients with severe affective disorder are less likely to require psychiatric inpatient readmission within 30 days of discharge if they have received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT),” researchers found after analyzing data from “inpatient databases across nine states in” the US. The findings of the study, which included data on some 162,691 patients, were published online June 28 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “ECT Reduces Hospitalizations Along with Depression,” Kenneth Bender, MD Magazine, July 9, 2017.

Healio (6/30, Oldt) reported that “lithium, but not valproate, significantly reduced suicidal behavior among individuals with bipolar disorder [BD],” researchers concluded after using “Swedish national register data to follow 51,535 individuals with bipolar disorder from 2005 to 2013 for treatment with lithium and valproate,” then tracking the number of “suicide-related events.” The findings were published online June 9 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Lithium superior to valproate for suicide in bipolar disorder,” Song J, et al., Healio, June 30, 2017.

On the front of its Real Estate section, the New York Times (7/2, RE1, Laterman, Subscription Publication) reported in a 1,900-word article that it appears compulsive hoarding “may be more widespread than previously believed, and that dealing with hoarders requires not just caution and care but special expertise.” For this reason, “many building managers and co-op boards confronted with this problem are now turning to clinicians for help.”

The Times pointed out, “The American Psychiatric Association estimates that 2 to 5 percent of the population could be classified as compulsive hoarders.” The Times added, “Once a subcategory of obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding received its own designation in the 2013 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the go-to reference book for mental health professionals published annually by the” APA.

Related Links:

— “Helping Those Who Hoard,” KAYA LATERMAN, New York Times, June 30, 2017.

The New York Times (6/30, Goodnough, Subscription Publication) reported that although the Senate is considering “adding $45 billion for states to spend on opioid addiction treatment” to shore up GOP support for the healthcare bill, “addiction specialists said it was drastically short of what would be needed to make up for the legislation’s deep cuts to Medicaid, which has provided treatment for hundreds of thousands of people caught up in a national epidemic of opioid abuse.” The Times added that public health experts are particularly “concerned that grants aimed at treatment and recovery would not address a multitude of other physical health problems associated with addiction.”

Related Links:

— “$45 Billion to Fight Opioid Abuse? That’s Much Too Little, Experts Sayhttps://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/30/health/drug-treatment-opioid-abuse-heroin-medicaid.html,” ABBY GOODNOUGH, New York Times, June 30, 2017.

The Wall Street Journal (6/29, Steele, Subscription Publication) reports a Blue Cross Blue Shield Association analysis of more than 30 million claims shows opioid use disorder diagnoses increased nearly 500% between 2010 and 2016. The analysis, which reviewed BCBS claims, also shows that patients who were prescribed high opioid doses were much more likely to develop the disorder.

NBC News (6/29, Fox) reports on its website that over one in five patients with Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance were prescribed an opioid pain medication during 2015, according to the company. In addition, “claims for opioid addiction and dependence spiked nearly six-fold between 2010 and 2016, the company said.”

Vox (6/29, Lopez) reports that the same data from Blue Cross and Blue Shield reveal “a 493 percent increase in people diagnosed with opioid use disorders from 2010 through 2016,” compared to only a 65 percent increase “in the number of people using medication-assisted treatment” during the same time period. Modern Healthcare (6/29, Livingston, Subscription Publication) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Lots of Americans Prescribed Opioids, Insurance Survey Shows,” MAGGIE FOX, NBC News, June 29, 2017.

Fortune (6/29) reports, “A recent study presented at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting found that inpatients at a psychiatric hospital were prone to cyberbullying, and that the bullying was associated with an increased risk for mental health disorders among” those who were bullied.

Related Links:

— “How Cyberbullying and Twitter Attacks Can Wreck Your Mental Health,” Sy Mukherjee, Fortune, June 29, 2017.