MedPage Today (8/19, George) reports a study found that “people with hearing loss who started using hearing aids in their 60s had less dementia risk for up to two decades.” Researchers observed that “over up to 20 years of follow-up, participants ages 60 to 69 who used hearing aids had a 61% lower risk of incident dementia than their counterparts with hearing loss who didn’t use a hearing aid.” Furthermore, “people in their 60s with no hearing loss also had a lower risk of dementia over time compared with those who had hearing loss and no hearing aid.” According to MedPage Today, “The analysis may be the first to identify that reduced risk depends on early intervention for hearing loss, the researchers noted.” The study was discussed in a JAMA Neurology research letter.

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MedPage Today (8/20, Bankhead) reports, “Cancer survivors had disproportionately higher rates of drug prescriptions for antidepressants and anxiolytics in a survey of more than 50,000 people.” Researchers found that “individuals who reported a personal history of cancer had a 32% higher rate of prescriptions for medications used to treat depression, increasing to almost 40% higher for anti-anxiety medications, compared with the general population.” MedPage Today adds, “In particular, patients on Medicare or Medicaid had more prescriptions for anxiolytics, and those with a history of certain poor-prognosis cancers more often reported prescriptions for antidepressants.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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Managed Healthcare Executive (8/20, Lutton) reports a study found that “artificial intelligence large language models (LLMs) showed the most racial bias when dealing with” patients with schizophrenia “when compared with patients with eating disorders, depression, anxiety or attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).” Researchers asked “four of the most popular LLMs in psychiatry (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini and NewMes-1) for a diagnosis and treatment plan for 10 hypothetical patient cases. For each case, race was either explicitly stated, implied or left ambiguous. Responses were then rated by a clinical neuropsychologist and a social psychologist using a 0-3 assessment scale, with 3 indicating the highest bias.” The researchers observed that “LLMs were more likely to propose inferior treatments when patient race was explicitly or implicitly indicated. Diagnostic decisions showed less bias, with most scores at a 1.5 or below.” The study was published in npj Digital Medicine.

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— “Schizophrenia Diagnoses Have Highest Likelihood of AI Racial Bias, Study Shows,” Logan Lutton, Managed Healthcare Executive, August 20, 2025

Healio (8/20, Gawel) reports a study found that “routine psychological therapy for depression and anxiety is less effective for young adults compared with older adults.” Researchers noted that “prior to treatment, younger adults had lower mean scores on the Patient Health Questionnaire 9-item (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale 7-item (GAD-7), compared with older adults.” Later, they observed that “mean PHQ-9 scores fell from 15.7 before treatment to 10.2 afterward for young adults and from 15.9 to 9.4for older adults. Mean GAD-7 scores fell from 14.4 to 9.2 for young adults and from 14.5 to 8.5 for older adults. As patients got older, mean changes in PHQ-9 and GAD-7 symptom scores increased.” Based on the findings, “researchers concluded that younger adults had worse outcomes with psychological treatment than older adults.” The study was published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

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— “Psychological therapy less effective among younger adults,” Richard Gawel, Healio, August 20, 2025

HealthDay (8/18, Gotkine) reports a study found a “weak correlation between change in cognitive impairment and change in work productivity loss in adults with bipolar disorder.” For the study, 179 adults with bipolar disorder “responded to all the study questionnaires and were included in this 48-week analysis. The researchers identified a weak correlation between change in cognitive impairment and change in work productivity loss (presenteeism) from baseline to week 48, but no association was seen on the multiple regression analysis.” Furthermore, they noted a “significant association seen between change in work productivity loss and change in depressive symptoms. A significant association was seen between change in QOL with change in insomnia.” The study was published in Neuropsychopharmacology Reports.

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— “Cognitive Impairment, Work Productivity Loss Linked in Bipolar Disorder,” Elena Gotkine, HeakthDay, August 18, 2025

MedPage Today (8/18, Firth) reports a study found that “a large proportion of opioid use disorder (OUD) patients getting care via telemedicine reported missed buprenorphine doses over the past year due to pharmacy-related barriers.” Among 601 patients with OUD “who responded to a survey, 31.9% reported missing buprenorphine doses due to problems filling their prescriptions.” The primary “reason (54.5%) for a fill problem was pharmacies’ need for additional stock of buprenorphine.” Other top reasons for a fill problem include “insurance issues, including prior authorization or other coverage problems: 22.4%,” and a “pharmacy’s hesitance to fill due to use of a telemedicine [professional]: 19.4%.” Furthermore, the researchers “reported wide variation by state, with 22% of respondents experiencing a fill problem at the pharmacy in Ohio compared to 45.5% of respondents in Florida.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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HealthDay (8/18, Thompson) reports a study found that “nearly two-thirds (65%) of college students with autism suffer from anxiety, compared with just over 9% of their peers without autism,” while 48% “report depression, compared to nearly 8% of their peers.” The data included survey results from “nearly 150,000 students from 342 universities, including about 1,400 students with autism.” The results highlight “that teens with autism face special challenges in the transition to college and need more mental health support, researchers said.” The study was published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

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— “College Students With Autism Have Much Greater Rates Of Anxiety, Depression,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, August 18, 2025

HealthDay (8/15, Thompson) said that people with substance use disorders “who quit smoking have up to 42% better odds of recovery, researchers reported.” For this “study, researchers analyzed data for nearly 2,700 adults with a history of substance use disorder who were tracked from 2013 to 2018.” The findings “indicate that smoking cessation programs should be made part of virtually all substance [use] treatment, researchers concluded.” The study was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Psychiatric News (8/15) added the researchers observed that “participants whose smoking status changed from current to former between assessments were 42% more likely to be in recovery from an SUD, meaning they had zero substance use or SUD symptoms in the past year. After adjusting for potential confounders, such as changes in mental health, the odds of SUD recovery after smoking cessation remained significantly higher, at 30%.”

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— “Taking One Step Can Boost Your Odds Of Kicking A Drug Habit,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, August 15, 2025

HealthDay (8/14, Solomon) reports a study found that “a mobile phone app designed to deliver suicide-specific therapy reduces suicidal behavior among high-risk psychiatric inpatients.” The researchers evaluated the efficacy of OTX-202, a smartphone-based digital therapeutic intervention that delivers “suicide-focused cognitive behavioral therapy in reducing suicidal behavior among patients hospitalized for a suicide attempt or suicidal ideation.”

They found that “time to first actual suicide attempt (the primary end point) was not significantly different across treatment groups. Among the 170 participants with prior suicide attempts, the adjusted rate of follow-up suicide attempts was 58.3% lower in the digital therapeutic group versus the control application group and the odds of clinical improvement were higher in the digital therapeutic group than the control application group.”

They also observed “decreased suicidal ideation through week 24 in the digital therapeutic group, while suicidal ideation decreased through week 12 and then increased at week 24 in the control group.” The study was published in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Suicide-Specific Therapy App Effectively Cuts Suicidal Behavior in High-Risk Inpatients,” Lori Solomon, HealthDay, August 14, 2025

Psychiatric News (8/14) reports a study found that US adults “with depression had a 29% increased risk of developing asthma compared with those without depression.” According to the unadjusted analysis, “researchers found that U.S. adults with depression were twice as likely to develop asthma compared with those without depression, while English adults had a 75% greater risk. The increased risk remained significant even after researchers adjusted for confounding variables, such as differences in demographics, smoking, drinking, body mass index (BMI), and serious chronic illnesses.” In addition, researchers found “a positive genetic correlation between depression and asthma as well as a genetically predicted causal effect of depression on asthma, indicating that depression could be a potential risk factor for asthma.” The study was published in BMC Psychiatry.

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— “Association between depression and asthma: insight from observational and genetic evidence,” Tanao Ji, Yue Lv, Jianan Yang, Xianping Diao & Jun Gu, BMC Psychiatry, August 12, 2025