According to MedPage Today (9/12, DePeau-Wilson), psychiatric care professionals “most often ranked the side effect profile of long-acting injectables (LAIs) for schizophrenia as the top consideration when prescribing the antipsychotics to patients,” researchers concluded in the findings of a 380-respondent, “survey-based study” presented in a poster at Psych Congress 2023. Among those respondents, “33% cited the safety/tolerability profile as key when selecting an LAI, with 16% to 21% of the respondents citing patient preference, the particular molecule in the LAI, access, or product attributes like dosing intervals or injection site as most important.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (9/11, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “Every-six-month dosing of the long-acting injectable paliperidone palmitate (Invega Hafyera) for schizophrenia was effective and safe up to three years, researchers reported” in “an intention-to-treat analysis that included 121 patients.” The study revealed that “95.9% on the twice-a-year dose of the atypical antipsychotic remained relapse-free.” The findings were presented in a poster at Psych Congress 2023.

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MedPage Today (9/11, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “People with narcolepsy frequently had mood and pain comorbidities that complicated diagnosis and treatment plans,” investigators concluded. In “a propensity-matched cohort analysis of more than 4,000 individuals,” researchers found that “people with narcolepsy were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with depression” or “chronic pain syndrome.” The findings were presented at Psych Congress 2023.

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Healio (9/11, Weldon) reports, “Both victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying are more likely than other youths to experience eating disorder symptoms,” researchers concluded after studying “responses from 10,258 adolescents in the U.S. aged 10 to 14 years who answered questions about whether they had experienced cyberbullying – as a victim or perpetrator – and whether they had experienced eating disorder symptoms.” The findings were published online Sept. 6 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

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— “Eating disorders affect victims and perpetrators of cyberbullying,”Rose Weldon, Healio, September 11, 2023

MedPage Today (9/9, Monaco) reported, “Youth with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “saw mildly different growth trajectories with certain popular medications, researchers reported” in findings presented in a poster at Psych Congress 2023. The study revealed that when “compared with youth prescribed lisdexamfetamine dimesylate (LDX; Vyvanse), those who took delayed release/extended-release methylphenidate (DR/ER-MPH; Jornay PM) saw a greater weight trajectory in the first year after starting treatment.” Included in the final study sample were “83 patients on DR/ER-MPH, 240 on OROS MPH, and 403 on LDX.”

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Newsday (NY) (9/10, Spangler) reports, “More than 20 years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the volume of research on responders and survivors is substantial and growing, yielding sometimes unexpected, potentially powerful revelations about the long-term physical and mental effects of exposure to disaster.” The National database of the National Library of Medicine, PubMed, “lists roughly 1,300 scientific papers about the World Trade Center with close to 60 published in the last year alone.” Some of the most recent “papers examine links between exposure to what doctors have called the ‘toxic cocktail’ of gas and dust at Ground Zero and cancer, pulmonary and cardiovascular conditions, along with trends in substance use and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

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— “9/11 first responders health: Study of how Ground Zero exposure affected workers yields powerful results, Newsday , September 10, 2023

CNN (9/8, Musa) reported, “The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline will now be available to the millions of people across the US who use American Sign Language (ASL), according to” HHS. These “ASL services launched” Sept. 8 “will be available for callers who are deaf, deaf-blind or hard of hearing using a videophone,” and “callers can now be connected to a 988 Lifeline counselor trained in ASL by clicking on the ‘ASL Now’ button on 988lifeline.org and following the prompts.”

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— “988 mental health crisis line launches American Sign Language services for callers who are deaf and hard of hearing,”Amanda Musa, CNN, September 8, 2023

Bloomberg Law (9/7, Lopez, Subscription Publication) reports that on Thursday, the administration “proposed regulatory revisions to curb disability discrimination in government-funded programs, aiming to update a decades-old regulation that is out of step with the Americans With Disabilities Act and other federal laws.” The HHS “Department’s Office for Civil Rights previously weighed issuing guidance on the matter,” but “the OCR, the administration arm that issued the proposed rule, said on Reginfo.gov that ‘not taking regulatory action could result in continued discrimination, inequitable treatment and even untimely deaths of people with disabilities.’”

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— “Updated Disability Protections Proposed by Biden HHS Agency (2),”Ian Lopez , Bloomberg Law, September 7, 2023

KFF Health News (9/7, Saint Louis) reports, “Since the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline transitioned a year ago to the three-digit crisis phone number 988, there has been a 33% increase in the number of calls, chats, and texts to the hotline,” but “even with that early sign of success, the program’s financial future is shaky.” For the past “two years, the federal government has provided about $1 billion from the American Rescue Plan and Bipartisan Safer Communities acts to launch the number, designed as an alternative to 911 for those experiencing a mental health crisis.” But, “after that infusion runs out, it’s up to states to foot the bill for their call centers,” and many states, particularly “predominantly rural ones” where 988 is particularly needed, “have not made long-term plans to provide support.”

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— “Most States Have Yet to Permanently Fund 988. Call Centers Want Certainty,”Christina Saint Louis, KFF Health News, September 7, 2023

According to Psychiatric News (9/7), findings from an umbrella systematic review and meta-analysis published online Sept. 6 in “JAMA Psychiatry suggest antidepressants are as safe and effective for people with comorbid depression as those with depression only.” After examining “52 meta-analyses involving 27 medical diseases,” the study team concluded that “the efficacy of antidepressants (relative to placebo) in patients with depression and comorbid medical diseases is comparable to their efficacy in people with depression alone.”

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— “Antidepressants Found Effective for Depressed Patients With Other Medical Disorders, Psychiatric News, September 7, 2023