The New York Times (7/16, Weiland ) reports, “More than 10 million calls, texts and chat messages have been answered by counselors working for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline’s three-digit hotline in the two years since it debuted, federal officials said on Tuesday.” Almost “two million of the 10 million interactions were text messages, while 1.2 million were calls answered by the Veterans Crisis Line, an option that allows service members and veterans to press 1 on a phone’s dial pad to reach help.” So far, “the Biden administration has funneled almost $1.5 billion into 988, federal officials said on Tuesday, and more than $200 million in grants will be given to states in the 2024 fiscal year to support the work.”

CNN (7/16, Davis) reports that “this year, text messages to 988 have increased 51% and calls 34% from the year before, a sign of the effects of expanded services, according to senior administration officials.”

The Hill (7/16, O’Connell-Domenech ) reports the hotline “has also answered roughly 20,000 chats and texts in Spanish, 20,000 video calls in American Sign Language and more than 475,000 calls, texts and chats from LGBTQ Americans since last year, according to” HHS.

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

The Washington Post (7/15, McMahan) says, “About 7 percent of U.S. adults – nearly 18 million people – had suffered from long covid as of early last year, according to a recent report.” The survey also found “just 6 percent of the vaccinated and boosted respondents reported long covid symptoms vs. 8 percent of those who weren’t vaccinated.” The findings were published in JAMA. (One of the symptoms of long covid is depression.)

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

HealthPayerIntelligence (7/15, Waddill ) reports, “CMS released a brief [PDF] exploring the status of children with autism or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in Medicaid and CHIP.” About “5% of children between the ages of three and seventeen who are under public coverage have autism or ASD.” Meanwhile, “2% of children with private coverage and 2% of children without coverage were reported as having autism or ASD.” The federal agency “found that 8% of boys ages three to eleven and 8% of boys ages twelve to seventeen had autism or ASD, compared to 3% and 2% of female children respectively.”

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— “CMS shares Medicaid, CHIP data on children with ASD, autism,”Kelsey Waddill, HealthPayerIntelligence, July 15, 2024

Psychiatric News (7/12) reported study results show that youth who took part “in a two-week family intervention to reduce time spent on smartphones and other screen media showed improved behaviors relative to youth that did not participate.” Psychiatric News added, “While acknowledging that ‘more research is needed to confirm whether these effects are sustainable in the long term,’ the study authors noted that this clinical trial data provides a causal link between a reduction in screen time and improvements in psychological symptoms.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Short-Term Digital Break Improves Child Behavior, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, July 12, 2024

The Washington Post (7/13, Blakemore) reported research examined “the reasons young adults give for not drinking, which researchers say could help in crafting public health messaging aimed at reducing alcohol abuse.” Researchers concentrated on 614 individuals who did online surveys regarding their utilization of alcohol. Of the participants, the average age of whom was 21.5, 64.5% were White and 54.2% were male. The leading reasons participants provided for abstaining from consuming alcohol “on a given day were ‘I wasn’t interested in drinking’ (83.4 percent of non-drinking days), followed by ‘I didn’t want to get drunk’ (81.8 percent) and ‘I don’t usually drink on this night of the week’ (58.7 percent, mostly Sunday through Thursday).” The findings were published in Alcohol: Clinical & Experimental Research.

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mHealthIntelligence (7/10, Vaidya ) reports, “Telemental healthcare service availability has declined since the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE), with only 79 percent of mental health treatment facilities offering telehealth after May 2023 compared to 81 percent before then, new research shows.” The study also found “the availability of audio-only telehealth declined from” 49.3% of facilities to 34.1%, “and the availability of telehealth for comorbid mental health and alcohol use disorder declined from” 76.3% of facilities to 66.5%. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Telemental health service availability declined post-PHE,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealthIntelligence, July 10, 2024

Healio (7/10, Weldon) says, “Adolescents who experienced housing insecurity beginning in infancy reported worse overall health outcomes, including anxiety and depressive symptoms, according to study results.” The study’s “findings indicate a need for screening methods that identify housing insecurity at the start, as well as policies to prevent housing insecurity and associated health outcomes in this population, researchers concluded.” The findings were published in Pediatrics.

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— “Unstable housing in childhood associated with anxiety in adolescence,”Rose Weldon, Healio, July 10, 2024

The New York Times (7/9, Abelson, Robbins ) says, “The Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday sharply criticized pharmacy benefit managers, saying in a scathing 71-page report that ‘these powerful middlemen may be profiting by inflating drug costs and squeezing Main Street pharmacies.’” FTC Chair Lina Khan “said the agency’s inquiry had shown ‘how dominant pharmacy benefit managers can hike the cost of drugs – including overcharging patients for cancer drugs.’” Khan “went on to say that the agency found evidence of ‘how PBMs can squeeze independent pharmacies that many Americans – especially those in rural communities – depend on for essential care.’”

Reuters (7/9, Aboulenein, Godoy , Wingrove, Niasse) reports, “The consolidation of pharmacies and health insurance companies through years of deal making has led to a handful of pharmacy benefit managers exercising outsized influence over prescription drug prices, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said on Tuesday.” The agency “argues the three biggest PBMs – managing 79% of U.S. prescription drug claims – have greatly enriched themselves at the expense of smaller pharmacies and consumers, according to an interim staff report calling for possible greater regulation.”

The Hill (7/9, Weixel ) says, “Six of the largest PBMs control nearly 95% of all prescriptions, according to the report.”

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MedPage Today (7/9, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Almost half of youths who boarded in the emergency department awaiting inpatient psychiatric care were never admitted to such a facility, according to a cross-sectional study from Massachusetts.” The research found that “of 4,942 episodes of youth boarding in the ED for 3 or more midnights, just 56% resulted in inpatient admission, and certain groups were less likely to get to that point.” The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics. “ In this cross-sectional study including 4942 episodes of youth boarding for at least 3 midnights, transgender and nonbinary youth were 9.1% less likely to be admitted and boarded 2.2 days longer than cisgender females; these differences were statistically significant. Black youth were 4.3% less likely to be admitted than their White peers, also statistically significant… A total of 1337 youth (27%) were younger than 13 years. Depression was the most common diagnosis (2138 [43%]).”

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Healio (7/9, Rhoades) reports research suggests that “in the United States, 41,116 people died by suicide in 2021, making suicides the leading type of violent death that year.” The research found that “among suicide victims, when the circumstances were known (84.4%), the suicide was often preceded by mental health conditions, as 49% of victims were currently diagnosed with a mental health problem and 29.2% experienced a depressed mood at the time of death.” The findings were published in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Related Links:

— “CDC: Suicides made up majority of violent deaths in 2021/a>,”Andrew (Drew) Rhoades , Healio, July 9, 2024