Psychiatric News (11/8) reports that “APA’s most recent Healthy Minds Poll, which asked 2,210 adults living in the United States about the ways in which they practice kindness, most often see others practicing acts of kindness, and more,” found that 89% of respondents “said that showing others kindness made them feel better, and 90% said receiving an act of kindness made them feel better.” When “polled were also asked to reflect on their feelings of anxiety over current events,” the data indicated that “two-thirds of respondents (67%) reported feeling anxious about international conflict—up 12% from last month’s poll.”

Related Links:

— “Practicing Kindness Has Positive Impact on Mental Health, APA Poll Finds, Psychiatric News, November 8, 2023

The New York Times (11/9, Ghorayshi) reports, “Antidepressants have long been among the most widely prescribed drugs in the U.S.” However, “many of the most popular antidepressants, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or S.S.R.I.s, come with sexual side effects.” When the “S.S.R.I.s went on the market in the late 1980s, patients began telling their psychiatrists that they were having sexual problems.” American Psychiatric Association Council on Research Chair Jonathan Alpert, MD, PhD, said, “Only in going back and looking more carefully and gathering more data did we realize that actually those serotonergic drugs, the older ones, also caused sexual dysfunction.” Still, “in many cases, the problems caused by the medications can be managed.” For instance, “adding the non-S.S.R.I. antidepressant Wellbutrin, which acts on norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, has been shown to diminish sexual symptoms in many patients, Dr. Alpert said.”

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

HealthDay (11/7, Murez) reports, “Many people with type 2 diabetes also struggle with depression, and this combination can lead to premature death, researchers say.” In a study published in Diabetes & Metabolic Syndrome: Clinical Research & Reviews, researchers found that “overall, participants with diabetes were 1.7 times more likely to die prematurely than those without diabetes, the data showed.” And “the risk of death more than quadrupled for participants with both diabetes and depression compared to those without diabetes or depression.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Can Be a Killer for People With Diabetes,”Cara Murez, HealthDay, November 7, 2023

The Washington Post (11/6, Searing) reports, “People who experienced trauma as a child or adolescent were found to be 48 percent more likely to have serious and recurrent headaches as an adult than were those who had not experienced trauma in their early years.” The findings, published in Neurology, are the result of an “analysis of data from 28 studies, involving 154,739 people.” Overall, 31 percent “reported having experienced a traumatic event at least once before age 18.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (11/6) reports, “The Food and Drug Administration’s decision to approve brexpiprazole (Rexulti) for the treatment of agitation related to Alzheimer’s disease in May was met with a mixed response.” However, “JAMA Neurology published the results of a key phase 3 clinical trial used in the FDA’s decision.” The study found that after 12 weeks, participants’ average Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) scores “dropped by 22.6 points in the combined brexpiprazole groups and 17.3 points in the placebo group, which was a statistically significant difference.”

Related Links:

— “Clinical Trial Supports Use of Brexpiprazole for Alzheimer’s Agitation, Study Suggests , Psychiatric News, November 6, 2023

The AP (11/6, Perrone) reports, “As U.S. doctors scale back their use of opioid painkillers, a new option for hard-to-treat pain is taking root: ketamine, the decades-old surgical drug that is now a trendy psychedelic therapy.” Ketamine prescriptions “have soared in recent years, driven by for-profit clinics and telehealth services offering the medication as a treatment for pain, depression, anxiety and other conditions.” However, “with limited research on its effectiveness against pain, some experts worry the U.S. may be repeating mistakes that gave rise to the opioid crisis: overprescribing a questionable drug that carries significant safety and abuse risks.”

Related Links:

— “Mind-altering ketamine becomes latest pain treatment, despite little research or regulation,”Matthew Perrone , AP, November 6, 2023

The New York Times (11/6, Barry) reports, “With each mass shooting, Americans look to one grim indicator – the number of dead – as a measure of the destructive impact.” However, “damage left behind by gunshot wounds reverberates among survivors and families, sending mental health disorders soaring and shifting huge burdens onto the health care system, a new analysis of private health insurance claims shows.” The analysis published in Health Affairs found that “for families in which a child died of a gunshot wound, surviving family members experienced a sharp increase in psychiatric disorders, taking more psychiatric medications and making more visits to mental health professionals: Fathers had a 5.3-fold increase in treatment for psychiatric disorders in the year after the death; mothers had a 3.6-fold increase; and surviving siblings had a 2.3-fold increase.”

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

The Hill (11/3, Weixel) reported Republican lawmakers in the House “are launching a probe into how the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responding to a growing number of prescription drug shortages in the country.” House Committee on Oversight and Accountability members wrote a letter to FDA Commissioner Robert Califf, MD, that “requested documents and a staff-level briefing to understand the agency’s role in monitoring drug shortages and mitigation strategies.” According to the FDA “drug tracker,” there are “nearly 130 drugs currently in short supply, including generic cancer drugs, amoxicillin, albuterol and Adderall. Earlier this year, there was a shortage of children’s acetaminophen and ibuprofen.”

Related Links:

— “House GOP opens probe into FDA response to drug shortages,”Nathaniel Weixel, The Hill, November 3, 2023

The Hill (11/3, Choi) reported drugmakers “have agreed to increase their production of stimulant medications like Adderall to help address the ongoing shortage in the U.S., with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) making changes to its quota process.” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the agency contacted 18 drugmakers and got positive responses from 17 of them to increase production under higher quotas. Additionally, Milgram “shared steps the DEA was taking to increase transparency among drugmakers including requiring them to submit anticipated production timelines to the DEA before they receive their quota allotments; requiring manufacturers to apply for such allotments on a quarterly basis as opposed to annually; requiring digital reporting on how much of a drug is being produced and shipped; [and] specifying whether a company’s quota allotment is for domestic production or export.”

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— “Adderall makers agree to increase production: DEA,”Joseph Choi , The Hill, November 3, 2023

NBC News (11/5, Bendix, Lozano) reports that “more than two months after a ferocious wildfire burned” a “West Maui community to the ground, killing at least 97 people…survivors say the trauma is as real now as the day it sent hundreds of people fleeing for their lives as flames chewed through their neighborhoods and thick, black smoke filled the skies.” Many residents “have trouble eating, sleeping or getting out of bed, and experience nightmares or flashbacks triggered by noises like the sound of a fire engine or a gust of strong wind. They describe a profound sadness, or heaviness – what Native Hawaiians call kaumaha.”

Related Links:

— “Maui wildfires lead to dire mental health crisis in Lahaina,”Alicia Victoria Lozano and Aria Bendix, NBC News, November 5, 2023