mHealth Intelligence (12/1, Vaidya) reported that “while telehealth use has dropped nearly 25 percentage points from peak usage in 2020, certain specialties, like mental health, infectious disease, and obstetrics, still have higher-than-average telehealth use, according to new data” from Epic Research.

Usage of telehealth “skyrocketed during the initial peak early in the pandemic but has since declined, though usage remains higher than pre-pandemic levels.” The data show “telehealth use encompassed less than 1 percent of all visits in the last three quarters of 2019,” but that “figure jumped to 31.2 percent in Q2 2020 before dropping to 5.8 percent in Q3 2023.”

Related Links:

— “Telehealth Use Remains High in Mental Health, Infectious Disease Care,” Anuja Vaidya, mHealth Intelligence, December 1, 2023

Psychiatric News (12/1) reported “alcohol intoxication is associated with an increased risk of suicide death by firearms compared with other methods, especially among males and among young and middle-aged females, a study” suggests. The study found “young and middle-aged females who were intoxicated at the time of death had a 31% and 34% greater risk of using a firearm compared with their non-intoxicated peers, respectively.”

Meanwhile, “young, middle-aged, and older intoxicated males had a 28%, 17%, and 4% increased risk of using a firearm compared with their non-intoxicated peers, respectively.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Study Highlights Relationship Between Alcohol, Suicide, and Firearms,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, December 1, 2023

The New York Times (11/30, Barry) reports that a group of researchers at Yale University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai “conducted brain scans of 28 people with PTSD” in an attempt to find empirical evidence that “traumatic memories function differently from other memories.”

The scans “found clear differences, the researchers reported,” demonstrating that people listening to sad memories “showed consistently high engagement of the hippocampus.” However, when “the same people listened to their traumatic memories … the hippocampus was not involved.” The findings were published in Nature.

Related Links:

— “Brain Study Suggests Traumatic Memories Are Processed as Present Experience,” Ellen Barry, New York Times, November 30, 2023

Psychiatric News (11/30) reports, “Callers posing as mothers of adolescents with trauma symptoms who tried scheduling outpatient appointments at safety-net mental health centers were successful during only 17% of calls,” according to a study. Additionally, researchers also “identified a bias against non-White callers.” The findings were published in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Moms Encounter Barriers, Discrimination to Accessing MH Care for Traumatized Youth,” APA Psychiatric News Alert, November 30, 2023

The New York Times (11/30, Baumgaertner) says that according to a new CDC report, “the rate of suicides involving guns in the United States has reached the highest level since officials began tracking it more than 50 years ago.” Notably, “about 27,000 of 50,000 suicides were carried out by gun in 2022,” with the rise “significantly steeper” in some racial and ethnic groups. CDC researchers “suggested that the coronavirus pandemic might have exacerbated many of the known risk factors for suicide generally, which include social isolation, strained relationships, and drug and alcohol disorders.”

Related Links:

— U.S. Rate of Suicide by Firearm Reaches Record Level,” Emily Baumgaertner, New York Times, November 30, 2023