HealthIT Security (10/19, McKeon) reports, “The HHS Office for Civil Rights (OCR) unveiled two resource documents to help [clinicians] communicate telehealth privacy and security risks to patients.” The documents “each aim to convey risks to patients in plain language and help them reduce risk using fundamental cyber hygiene practices.” They “stress the importance of supporting the continued use of telehealth while still communicating risks effectively. The HIPAA Privacy, Security, and Breach Notification Rules do not require” clinicians “to inform or educate patients about these risks, but the documents give [clinicians] the ability to do so if they wish.”

Related Links:

— “OCR Publishes Resources On Telehealth Privacy, Security Risks,” Jill McKeon, HealthIT Security, October 19, 2023

mHealth Intelligence (10/19, Vaidya) reports, “Using telehealth to begin opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment is linked to high retention in treatment among Medicaid beneficiaries, according to a…study.” In the study, published in JAMA Network Open, “initiating buprenorphine treatment through telehealth was associated with better odds of 90-day retention in treatment in both” Kentucky and Ohio “compared with not starting treatment through telehealth. Among the individuals who initiated buprenorphine via telehealth in the second or third quarter of 2020, the proportion that continued treatment for at least 90 days was 45 percent in Kentucky and 28.5 percent in Ohio.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth Supports OUD Treatment Retention Among Medicaid Enrollees,”Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence , October 19, 2023

HealthDay (10/19, Murez) reports, “Stigma can take a toll on lesbian, gay and bisexual teens, leading to high rates of binge-eating disorders, researchers” concluded after analyzing “data from more than 10,000 adolescents aged 10 to 14 years old who were part of the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study.” Researchers discovered that “compared to their non-LGBTQ peers, lesbian, gay and bisexual teens are more than twice as likely to report binge eating.” The findings were published online Oct. 13 in the Journal of Eating Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Lesbian & Gay Teens Have Twice the Odds for Binge-Eating Disorders,”Cara Murez, HealthDay , October 19, 2023

NPR (10/18, Godoy) reports, “Teaching middle schoolers bike riding skills as part of physical education classes may help improve their mental health,” according to “a new study that looked at the effects of a six- to eight-week cycling class taught in schools across the U.S.” and that “involved more than 1,200 students.” The findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Sports and Active Living.

Related Links:

— “Bike riding in middle school may boost mental health, study finds,”Maria Godoy, NPR, October 18, 2023

HealthDay (10/18, Gotkine) reports, “ChatGPT provides recommendations that align with accepted guidelines for management of mild and severe depression, according to” findings published online Oct. 4 in Family Medicine and Community Health. After presenting vignettes about depression ten times to Chat GPT-3.5 and Chat GPT-4, researchers concluded that “ChatGPT-3.5 and ChatGPT-4 recommended psychotherapy in 95.0 and 97.5 percent of cases, respectively, for mild depression, while primary care physicians recommended psychotherapy in 4.3 percent of cases.” Additionally, “for severe cases, primary care physicians mostly recommended ‘referral for psychotherapy and prescription of pharmacological treatment,’” while “ChatGPT favored this approach more frequently.”

Related Links:

— “ChatGPT Potentially Beneficial for Treating Depression,”Elana Gotkine, HealthDay, October 18, 2023

Psychiatric News (10/18) reports, “States vary widely in the reporting of mental health data to the federal system known as NICS that conducts background checks on people who want to own a firearm,” researchers concluded in a study that “used the Thomson Reuters Westlaw database to identify and collect data on each state’s laws regarding mental health reporting requirements between February and April 2022.” The study team “analyzed data on whether the states required reporting to NICS, how many requirements the states imposed, and the type of mental health and/or substance use-related events that were required to be reported.” The findings were published online Oct. 16 in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “State MH Reporting Requirements Vary for Firearm Background Checks, Psychiatric News , October 18, 2023

PatientEngagementHIT (10/17, Heath) reports, “A dementia diagnosis is going to cost you, with new data from the University of Michigan showing that individual personal wealth dropped after a diagnosis while out-of-pocket health care costs nearly doubled.” Published in JAMA Internal Medicine, the data “showed personal wealth decreasing from around $79,000 at diagnosis to $58,000 two years after. Meanwhile, out-of-pocket health care costs soared from $4,000 at diagnosis to $8,000 after a dementia diagnosis.” As time wore on, the trend continued: “after eight years, people with dementia saw their wealth drop to an average of $30,500 and had spent twice as much as their peers on health care expenses.”

Related Links:

— “Out-of-Pocket Healthcare Costs Double with Dementia Diagnosis,” Sara Heath, PatientEngagementHIT , October 17, 2023

HealthDay (10/17, Reinberg) reports, “Women are more likely to develop depression after suffering a traumatic brain injury (TBI),” investigators concluded after analyzing data from “nine published studies” that “included nearly 700,000 people.” The systematic review revealed that “the risk for depression among women after a TBI was nearly 50% higher than it is for men.” The findings were presented Monday at the annual meeting of the American Society of Anesthesiologists.

Related Links:

— “Women Face Higher Odds of Depression After Head Injury Than Men,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay , October 17, 2023

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