HealthDay (10/17, Gotkine) reports, “The rates of major depressive disorder (MDD) vary from 14.5 to 26.5percent among adolescents by race and ethnicity,” researchers concluded after conducting “a cross-sectional analysis of the nationally representative 2021 National Survey on Drug Use and Health, including 10,743 U.S. adolescents aged 12 to 17 years.” The findings were published online Oct. 9 in JAMA Pediatrics. “During the first full calendar year of the pandemic, approximately 1 in 5 adolescents had MDD, and less than half of adolescents who needed treatment had any mental health treatment. Adolescents in racial and ethnic minority groups, particularly Latinx, experienced the lowest treatment rates.”

Related Links:

— “Among Adolescents, Major Depressive Disorder Prevalence Varies by Race, Ethnicity,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , October 17, 2023

HealthDay (10/17, Gotkine) reports, “Depressive symptoms in adults are associated with mortality in a graded association,” investigators concluded after conducting “a prospective cohort study to examine the association between depressive symptoms and mortality in a large, nationally representative sample of 23,694 U.S. adults.” The findings were published online Oct. 9 in JAMA Network Open. “ Risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and ischemic fears disease (IHD) mortality was 62%, 79%, and 121% higher, respectively, for those with moderate to severe depressive symptoms compared to those without depressive symptoms. Associations were largely consistent across subgroups and in all sensitivity analyses.”

Related Links:

— “Graded Association ID’d for Depressive Symptoms With Mortality Risk,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , October 17, 2023

According to HealthDay (10/16), “For women with myocardial infarction (MI), stress and depression are common at the time of MI and two months later,” a study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology shows. Investigators “found that women with MINOCA (myocardial infarction with nonobstructive coronary arteries) were younger and more diverse than women with MI-CAD (myocardial infarction-coronary artery disease).”

Related Links:

— “Stress, Depression Common Among Women With Myocardial Infarction,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay , October 16, 2023

Medscape (10/16, Banks, Subscription Publication) reports, “Patients who need medications for opioid use disorder (OUD) should continue to receive them prior to surgery, rather than stopping those drugs, as has been the convention,” according to findings from “a new analysis of more than five million surgeries presented at Anesthesiology 2023.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (10/16, Haelle) reports, “People taking antidepressants lost a similar amount of weight on semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy) compared with those not taking antidepressants, according to a post-hoc analysis of four STEP trials” presented at the ObesityWeek annual meeting. The study revealed that “participants on antidepressants taking the GLP-1 receptor agonist lost an average 10.7% to 19% of their baseline body weight compared to a 9.5% to 15.9% loss in participants not taking antidepressants.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (10/16, Brooks) reports, “Hospitalized patients using mirtazapine, nortriptyline, and trazodone are at a greater risk of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI),” researchers concluded in a study that compared “48,720 patients developed CDI…to 55,615,700 who did not.” The findings were published in the July-Sept. Issue of the journal Arquivos de Gastroenterologia.

Related Links:

— “Antidepressant Use Linked to Increased Risk of Hospital-Onset C Diff,”Abigail Brooks, HCPlive, October 16, 2023

MedPage Today (10/16, Henderson) reports, “A substantial proportion of young kids from low-income families had elevated levels of emotional and behavioral health problems seen in pediatric primary care, researchers” concluded in findings published online in JAMA Pediatrics. In the “retrospective cohort study of 15,218 children ages two to six years, fully one-third of children had screening tool scores reflecting clinically elevated levels of emotional and behavioral problems over time.” Additionally, “relative to those whose scores remained low over time, kids in the elevated score groups were more likely to be male, white, have public insurance, have had a social need, and a caregiver with depression,” the study revealed.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (10/13, Steenhuysen) reported, “U.S. health officials on Friday lifted curbs on reimbursement of a non-invasive imaging test called amyloid PET used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, ending a once-per-lifetime limitation that clears the way for its use to determine eligibility for new treatments.” These new medications “include Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi [lecanemab], and an experimental drug from Eli Lilly known as donanemab, which work by removing a protein called beta amyloid from the brain.” The protein clumps “are considered an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease that gradually destroy memory and thinking skills. Previously, amyloid positron emission tomography, or PET, scans were only accessible for use in a clinical trial or patient registry.”

Related Links:

— “US removes coverage curb on PET scans for Alzheimer’s patients,”Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, October 13, 2023

HealthDay (10/13, Solomon) reported, “Internalizing symptoms among Latinx youth during early adolescence relate to health behaviors and outcomes underlying cardiometabolic risk during middle and late adolescence,” investigators concluded in the findings of a 547-Hispanic adolescent survey study published online in the Journal of Adolescent: “ Kathleen M. Roche, Ph.D., from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues examined how Latinx youth’s internalizing symptoms during early adolescence are related to sleep problems, overweight/obesity, sedentary behavior, physical activity, healthy diet, and hypertension or diabetes risk during middle and late adolescence.”

Related Links:

— “Internalizing Symptoms in Early Teens Tied to Later Cardiometabolic Risk Factors,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, October 13, 2023

Healio (10/12, Martin) reports, “The prevalence of neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases is significantly ‘higher and more wide-ranging’ than previously recognized, according to” findings published online in the journal Rheumatology. After analyzing data from the INSPIRE project, investigators concluded that “barriers to reporting neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with systemic autoimmune rheumatic diseases include limited knowledge and subjectivity.” What’s more, “most patients reported not being asked about their mental health by physicians.”

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric symptom burden in SARDs higher, ‘more wide-ranging’ than previously recorded,”Erich Martin, Healio , October 12, 2023