According to HealthDay (9/18, Mundell), “seniors who develop dementia begin to lose their wealth in the eight years before a definitive diagnosis,” according to findings published online in a research letter in JAMA Neurology. Examining “medical records, researchers compared the financial health of two groups of participants: One group of about 5,400 people whose mental capacity (and that of their spouse) remained stable throughout those two decades, and another group of nearly 2,700 people where dementia was probable and then at some point definitively diagnosed.” The study revealed that “in the years leading up to a dementia diagnosis, average net worth fell by more than half.”

Related Links:

— “Older Americans’ Finances Decline in Years Before Dementia Diagnosis,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, September 18, 2023

Healio (9/18, Herpen) reports, “Patients with a psychotic-spectrum disorder may be more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease” (PD), “especially if they have an additional diagnosis of anxiety,” investigators concluded in a case-control study that examined “the prevalence of psychotic-spectrum disorders before development of PD in a cohort of Kaiser Permanente members in northern California, as well as the prevalence of comorbid anxiety or depression before PD diagnosis.” The study, which included “13,998 patients, including 3,501 with Parkinson’s disease,” revealed that the “odds of a PD diagnosis were 76% higher among those with a psychotic-spectrum disorder.” The findings were presented at the American Neurological Association annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “Odds of PD diagnosis significantly higher among those with psychotic-spectrum disorders,”Robert Herpen, Healio, September 18, 2023

PatientEngagementHIT (9/15, Heath) reported, “The appointment scheduling process is proving not ideal, especially for Spanish-speaking or limited English proficiency (LEP) patients, according to data from RAND.” Published in Health Affairs, the study “showed that it’s harder for Spanish-speaking patients to get to the appointment scheduling process with front office staff in safety-net behavioral health clinics, let alone book the spot.” Rather, “Spanish-speaking patients are more likely than their White peers to be hung up on or told that nobody in the clinic could help them, posing serious barriers to treatment, the secret shopper survey showed.”

Related Links:

— “Appointment Scheduling Fixes Needed for LEP Patient Access,” Sara Heath, PatientEngagementHIT, September 15, 2023

Psychiatric News (9/15) reported, “Youth who are cyberbullied or cyberbully others may be more likely to report disordered eating behaviors than those who are not involved with such bullying,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from 10,258 participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development” study. The findings were published online Sept. 6 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying Linked to Eating Disorder Symptoms in Youth, Psychiatric News, September 15, 2023

HCPlive (9/16, Kunzmann) reported, “Sexual dysfunction is highly prevalent among individuals with schizophrenia relative to the general population,” investigators concluded in the findings of a 72-study systematic review and meta-analysis published online Sept. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Sexual Dysfunction “Extremely Frequent” in Patients with Schizophrenia,”Kevin Kunzmann, HCPlive, September 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (9/14) reports researchers posit that “mental health disorders may be a stronger factor than substance use disorders in” people with recent criminal legal involvement “seeking health services,” according to findings published online Sept. 7 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. The study of “9,039 community-dwelling adults 18 years and over who indicated they had been arrested, on probation, and/or on parole/supervised release in the past year” revealed that “compared with individuals with neither disorder, those with mental illness had an average of 1.46 times as many outpatient visits, 1.43 times as many emergency department visits, and 2.14 times as many days spent in inpatient care.” What’s more, people “with comorbid mental illness and substance use disorder had 1.62 times as many emergency department visits and 4.16 times as many inpatient days as those with neither disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Study Explores Factors Driving Health Care Use Among Those Involved With Criminal Legal System, Psychiatric News , September 14, 2023

CNN (9/14, Shoichet) reports, “A smaller share of Gen Z is thriving compared to millennials at the same age, and members of Gen Z are far less likely to describe their mental health as ‘excellent,’” according to a reportthat “surveyed more than 3,000 people aged 12-26 in April and May of this year.” The report revealed that just “41% of Gen Z members aged 18 to 26 are thriving…while millennials at the same age were thriving at a rate of about 60%.”

Related Links:

— “Does Gen Z struggle more with mental health than millennials? New polling shows signs of a shift,” Catherine E. Shoichet, CNN , September 14, 2023

NBC News (9/14, Sullivan) reports, “The U.S. is in the throes of what researchers have deemed a ‘fourth wave’ of the opioid crisis, a phase characterized by overdose deaths caused by the combination of stimulants and the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.” Drug “overdose deaths in the U.S. surpassed 100,000 for the first time in 2021, fueled by the rise of synthetic opioids” like fentanyl, “which accounted for 75% of those deaths.” However, “now it has taken on a new challenge: so-called polysubstance overdoses, which include more than one drug.” The share “of overdoses involving fentanyl and a stimulant – most commonly cocaine and methamphetamine – increased more than 50 fold from 2010 to 2021, a study published Thursday in the journal Addiction found.”

ABC News (9/14, Koirala, Aggarwal) reports, “In 2010, only .6% of overdose deaths involved fentanyl combined with stimulants, according to the analysis.” And “that year, fentanyl was most commonly found mixed in with prescription opioids and benzodiazepines.” However, “by 2021, 32.3% of overdose deaths involved the combination of fentanyl and stimulants.”

Related Links:

— “Fentanyl plus stimulants drives ‘fourth wave’ of overdose epidemic in the U.S.,” Kaitlin Sullivan, NBC News, September 14, 2023

CNN (9/13, McPhillips) reports, “Drug overdose deaths reached another record level in the United States this spring, new data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows, as 2023 is on track to be another devastating year amid the drug epidemic.” Over “111,000 people died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in April, according to the new estimates.” The prior “record from March 2022 was first surpassed in December, and deaths have been ticking up since.” However, “the pace of the increase is much slower than it’s been in recent years, especially compared with the steep rise in the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic.” Nonetheless, “the latest data through April shows that about a thousand more lives were lost in the past 12 months than in the year before that.”

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths continue to rise in the US, reaching another record level, provisional data shows,”Deidre McPhillips, CNN, September 13, 2023

Healio (9/13, Bascom) reports, “Mothers in Greece who strongly adhered to a Mediterranean diet had a significantly reduced risk for postpartum depression,” according to the findings of a 3,491-postpartum woman study published online Sept. 4 in the journal Nutrients. Investigators assessed “postpartum depression with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale and adherence to the Mediterranean diet with the MedDietScore.”

Related Links:

— “Mediterranean diet may reduce postpartum depression,”Emma Bascom, Healio, September 13, 2023