HealthDay (12/29, Mundell) reported, “Suicide rates for Vietnam veterans over the past four decades were no higher than that of the general population.” Nonetheless, “between 1979 and 2019 – the period covered by the new study – almost 100,000 Vietnam War vets did lose their lives to suicide, the researchers noted.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Vietnam War Veterans at No Higher Risk for Suicide: Study,” Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, December 29, 2023

Politico (1/1, Paun) reports, “Nearly 60 years after Congress barred Medicaid from treating people in what were then derided as insane asylums, lawmakers are on the verge of reversing course.” The House passed a bill in December that “would give states the option to treat Medicaid patients suffering from addiction for up to a month in a mental hospital on the government’s dime,” while “the Senate Finance Committee approved a similar provision in November.”

However, “fears of reinstitutionalization have also animated civil rights advocates” who “fear a slippery slope back to warehousing the sick and point to states like California and New York that are already experimenting with forcing patients into care.”

Related Links:

— “Mental hospitals warehoused the sick. Congress wants to let them try again.,” Carmen Paul, Politico, January 1, 2024

Psychiatric News (12/28) reports, “Living with an adult with depressive symptoms is linked to substantially lower average yearly income and employment rates as well as reduced quality of life for adults who do not have depressive symptoms, a study…has found.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “data from The Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Household Component…which collects data on demographics, health conditions, health status, use of health care services, income, and employment for each person in a household.” The findings were published in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Living With Adults With Depressive Symptoms Linked to Lower Income, Quality of Life,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, December 28, 2023

The AP (12/29, Schoenbaum) reports transgender-identifying youths are sometimes sent to inpatient wards inconsistent with their gender identities. Notably, “North Carolina lacks uniform treatment standards across hospitals and runs low on money and staff with proper training to treat transgender kids in crisis,” while “last-resort measures to support patients…often fail to help them, and sometimes make things worse.”

Meanwhile, “a nationwide dearth of pediatric psychiatric beds was compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw an unprecedented number of people seeking emergency mental health services, according to a report by the American Psychiatric Association.”

Related Links:

— “For transgender youth in crisis, hospitals sometimes compound the trauma,” Hannah SchoenBaum, Associated Press, December 29, 2023

KFF Health News (12/28, Whitehead) reports mental health courts aim to divert people with mental illnesses from the criminal justice system, but they often struggle to fulfill this promise. According to critics, the diversion programs “are often expensive and resource-intensive, and serve fewer than 1% of the more than 2 million people who have a serious mental illness and are booked into U.S. jails each year.”

Additionally, “there is a lack of conclusive evidence on whether the courts help participants long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Courts Can Struggle to Fulfill Decades-Old Promise,” Sam Whitehead, KFF Health News, December 28, 2023

HealthDay (12/27, Mundell) reports, “For the growing number of American seniors who live alone, having a beloved dog or cat by their side could help them maintain a healthy brain.” According to new research involving more than 7,900 people averaging 66 years of age, “those who lived alone were able to stave off losses in memory and thinking if they had a pet,” although “pet ownership didn’t seem to affect the cognition of older folks who lived with others.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Pets Bring Health Boost to Single Seniors’ Brains: Study,” Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, December 27, 2023

Psychiatric News (12/27) reports, “A volunteer program that engages lonely older adults in delivering psychosocial interventions to other lonely older adults benefited the volunteers themselves by reducing their loneliness, stress, and depressive symptoms and increasing their social engagement, according to study.” Researchers found that “volunteers reported medium-sized reductions in their loneliness on the UCLA and De Long Gierveld scales compared with the control group.”

Additionally, “the volunteer group reported increased engagement with their social network (small effect), decreased perceived stress (medium effect), and depressive symptoms after six months (small effect).” The findings were published in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Older Volunteers Delivering Loneliness Interventions Found to Be Less Lonely Themselves,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, December 27, 2023

The New York Times (12/28, Caron, G. Smith) reports, “Since the height of the pandemic, there has been a cultural shift in the way we talk about mental health.” And “now that we’re paying more attention to our inner lives, it’s also essential that we take action.

Fortunately, there are a number of things that everyone can do to nourish their mental health and find moments of joy.” The Times outlines several “tips from the past year” to do so “as we prepare to enter 2024.” For example, while “it’s normal to feel anxious from time to time,” having “some anxiety can actually be useful.”

When asked “how much anxiety is too much,” American Psychiatric Association President Petros Levounis, MD, MA, said, “If you start to notice that worry and fear are there constantly, that is a signal that you need some help.”

Related Links:

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

HealthDay (12/27, Thompson) reports, “A rising tide of cannabis-related mental health problems is resulting from the widespread legalization of recreational weed in the United States, warns a new evidence review.” Researchers found that “nearly one in five Americans aged 12 and older used marijuana in 2021, and more than 16 million meet the criteria for a diagnosis of cannabis use disorder.” Additionally, “nearly half of those with cannabis use disorder have another psychiatric condition like anxiety, major depression or post-traumatic stress disorder, said review author Dr. David Gorelick.” The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana Use Increasingly Linked to Addiction, Psychosis,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, December 27, 2023

MedPage Today (12/26, George) reports, “Four new risk factors for young-onset dementia were identified in the prospective U.K. Biobank study.” According to the findings, “orthostatic hypotension, vitamin D deficiency, high C-reactive protein levels, and social isolation emerged as new risk factors for dementia before age 65.” The results were published in JAMA Neurology.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)