KFF Health News (8/25, Szabo) reported on the problem of social media’s “role in escalating gun violence.” The article interviewed a number of experts who “note that social media can have a particularly pernicious effect in communities with high rates of gun violence.” Now, “at a time when virtually every teen has a cellphone, many have access to guns, and many are coping with mental and emotional health crises, some say it’s not surprising that violence features so heavily in children’s social media feeds.” For that reason, police departments “search social media after the fact to gather evidence against those involved in violence,” and certain programs “monitor influential social media accounts in their communities to de-escalate conflicts.”

Related Links:

— “‘All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens,”Liz Szabo, KFF Health News , August 25, 2023

The New York Times (8/25, Barry) reported, “Use of mental healthcare increased substantially during the coronavirus pandemic, as teletherapy lowered barriers to regular visits, according to a large study of insurance claims published” online Aug. 25 in a research letter in JAMA Health Forum. The study revealed that “from March 2020 to August 2022, mental health visits increased by 39 percent, and spending increased by 54 percent.” Additionally, the “examination of 1,554,895 claims for clinician visits…identified a tenfold increase in the use of telehealth.” This “rise in use of mental health services reflects both receding stigma and a lowering of practical barriers to mental health visits, said” Robert L. Trestman, PhD, MD, “chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s council on healthcare systems and financing.”

Psychiatric News (8/25) quoted the study’s authors, who concluded, “These findings suggest that telehealth utilization for mental health services remains persistent and elevated.” But, should “this increased utilization” affect “spending, insurers may begin rejecting the new status quo,” a concern that “is particularly relevant when considered against the backdrop of telehealth policies that expired alongside the national [public health emergency] declaration.”

HCPlive (8/25, Kunzmann) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Spending Surged During the Pandemic,”Ellen Barry, The New York Times , August 26, 2023

MedPage Today (8/24, George) reports, “A novel 14-year risk score helped identify people from age 50 onward at risk for all-cause dementia, a large U.K. study” revealed. The “U.K. Biobank Dementia Risk Score (UKBDRS), was developed and validated in two U.K. cohorts.” Included in the UKBDRS are “11 predictive variables: age, education, parental history of dementia, material deprivation, history of diabetes, stroke, depression, hypertension, high cholesterol, household occupancy (living alone), and sex.” The findingswere published online in BMJ Mental Health.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (8/23, George) reports, “High-performance brain-computer interfaces…decoded brain activity into speech faster, more accurately, and with a bigger vocabulary than existing technologies, two early trials…showed.” Researchers found “in the BrainGate2 study, speech-to-text BCI that recorded activity from intracortical microelectrode arrays…decoded the speech of a woman with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis…at 62 words per minute, more than 3 times faster than the previous record.” Meanwhile, “in the BRAVO study,” investigators “reported success in three modalities – text, speech audio, and facial-avatar animation – using high-density surface recordings of the speech cortex.” MedPage Today adds, “Decoding the text of a woman with a brainstem stroke reached a median rate of 78 words per minute, and the participant was able to ‘speak’ through a digital avatar with software that simulated facial movements.” The findings were published in Nature.

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Psychiatric News (8/23) reports, “Youth in the foster care system are more likely to be prescribed two or more psychiatric medications than other youth covered by Medicaid,” investigators in a study that “included 719,908 youth in foster care and 31,473,608 youth covered by Medicaid who were not in foster care.” The findingswere published online Aug. 21 in a research letter in the journal JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Youth in Foster Care More Likely Than Peers to Be Prescribed Multiple Psychiatric Medications, Psychiatric News , August 23, 2023

Healio (8/22, Leiser) reported, “Anxiety and depression are prevalent psychiatric comorbidities among individuals with hemophilia, according to study results.” The research “included 90 patients who underwent screening for anxiety and depression during annual clinic visits.” Researchers found that “three-quarters…of patients met criteria for significant anxiety symptoms and one-quarter…met criteria for significant depressive symptoms.” The findings were published in The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, depression prevalent among people with hemophilia,”Mark Leiser, Healio, August 22, 2023

MedPage Today (8/22, Ingram) reports, “States that recently adopted less-restrictive policies surrounding the use of telepharmacy had fewer pharmacy deserts in the following year, a cohort study involving a dozen states showed.” Published in JAMA Network Open, the study found that “of the 80 pharmacy deserts where a telepharmacy opened during the study period, 37.5% no longer met that definition a year later; of the 3,892 pharmacy deserts where a telepharmacy did not open, only 1.8% no longer had that designation the following year.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (8/22, Kunzmann) reports, “Contrary to popular belief, rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and workplace trauma exposure was lower among first-year medical residents during the COVID-19 pandemic than in years prior,” investigators concluded in a study that “sought to analyze differences in PSTD symptoms among first-year medical residents training during versus before the first COVID-19 pandemic wave, defined as March – June 2020.” Included in the study were 1957 residents who “completed the PC-PTSD-5 survey.” The findings were published online Aug. 22 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “PTSD, Workplace Trauma Lower Among First-Year Residents During COVID-19,”Kevin Kunzmann, HCPlive, August 22, 2023

The Hill (8/21, Sforza) reports, “A record number of U.S. children were killed by firearms in 2021,” researchers concluded in findings published online in the journal Pediatrics.
HealthDay (8/21, Mann) reports, “Guns are now the leading cause of death among kids in the United States,” according to the “study that looked at numbers of U.S. children killed by guns from 2018 to 2021,” a time period during which “there was close to a 42% jump in firearm-caused deaths.”

Related Links:

— “Record number of children killed by firearms in 2021: research,”Lauren Sforza, The Hill, August 21, 2023

The New York Times (8/21, Richtel) reports, “One-year-olds exposed to more than four hours of screen time a day experienced developmental delays in communication and problem-solving skills at ages two and four, according to” findings published online in JAMA Pediatrics. The study also revealed that “one-year-olds who were exposed to more screen time than their peers showed delays at age two in the development of fine motor and personal and social skills,” delays which “appeared to dissipate by age four.” Researchers did “not find that the screen time caused the developmental delays but, rather, found an association between babies who were exposed to more screen time and delays in their development.”

Related Links:

— “More Screen Time Linked to Delayed Development in Babies, Study Finds,”Matt Richtel, The New York Times, August 21, 2023