KFF Health News (9/13, Saint Louis) reports, “Family-based residential treatment” for addiction “has been recognized by behavioral health professionals as having better outcomes for women and their children,” but these “programs often struggle to stay afloat because of staffing shortages and volatile funding.” As a result, “families in rural areas are less likely to find such a residential treatment program in their communities.”

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— “Despite Successes, Addiction Treatment Programs for Families Struggle to Stay Open,”Christina Saint Louis, KFF Health News, September 13, 2023

HealthDay (9/13, Reinberg) reports, “Using both tobacco and marijuana is tied to significantly higher odds for depression and anxiety,” according to findings published online Sept. 13 in the journal PLOS One. After collecting “data on 53,843 adults who participated in online surveys as part of the COVID-19 Citizen Science Study from 2020 to 2022,” researchers found that “those who used both substances experienced anxiety or depression at nearly twice the rate of nonusers.” Healio (9/13, Rhoades) also covers the study.

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— “Depression Risk Rises in Folks Who Use Both Marijuana & Tobacco,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 13, 2023

The Washington Post (9/12, A1, Rich, Ovalle) reports, “The number of prescription opioid pain pills shipped in the United States plummeted nearly 45% between 2011 and 2019, new federal data shows, even as fatal overdoses rose to record levels as users increasingly used heroin, and then illegal fentanyl.” This indicates “users first got hooked by pain pills saturating the nation, then turned to cheaper and more readily available street drugs after law-enforcement crackdowns, public outcry and changes in how the medical community views prescribing opioids to treat pain.” In 2011, “the number of prescription hydrocodone and oxycodone pills peaked…at 12.8 billion pills,” then “dropped to less than 7.1 billion by 2019.” The only prescription opioid that saw increased use in this time period was buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid addiction, increasing “from 42 million doses in 2006 to 577 million in 2019.”

The AP (9/12, Mulvihill) reports, “The fentanyl-driven crisis is more deadly than any other drug tragedy the nation has ever seen. In 2010, opioids were linked to just over 21,000 deaths in the U.S. In 2022, the opioid-related death toll was more than 82,000.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (9/12, Monaco) reports, “Care for new depression was more commonly delivered by primary care providers (PCPs) than psychiatric” clinicians, investigators concluded in findings presented in a poster at Psych Congress 2023. The “review of adults newly diagnosed with major depressive disorder, 16,987 patients were under the care of a PCP compared with 1,780 who were managed by a psychiatrist at the time of diagnosis, and only 6.2% of PCP-managed patients transitioned to a psychiatrist for their care,” the study found.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

According to HealthDay (9/12, Mozes), “new research indicates that the more inactive seniors are, the higher their risk for dementia,” investigators concluded after examining “the onset of dementia among nearly 50,000” citizens of the UK who “were at least 60 years old when information about typical daily activity routines was entered into the UK Biobank database at some point between 2006 and 2010.” The study revealed that “seniors who clocked 12 hours a day of inactivity – be it at one stretch, or over 24 hours – saw their risk for dementia spike by 63%,” while “those who sat around for 15 hours a day had a stunning 320% increase in dementia risk.” The findings were published in JAMA.

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— “Dementia Risk Rises as Activity Rates Fall,”Alan Mozes, HealthDay, September 12, 2023

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 (requires login and subscription)

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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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

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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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)