Psychiatric News (10/24) reported a study presented at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry’s 2025 annual meeting found that “children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are more than seven times as likely to be prescribed antipsychotics as a child without ASD, but they are not more likely to be diagnosed with a psychotic disorder later in life.” The researchers “used the TriNetX health care database to analyze five years of electronic medical record data among patients 18 and younger without a history of schizophrenia.” They observed that “children with ASD were two-and-a-half times more likely to experience hallucinations as the control group and three-and-a-half times more likely to experience aggression. Youth with ASD were also nearly eight times more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics and more than five times more likely to be prescribed nonstimulant attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) medications. However, there was no statistically significant difference in the risk of developing a primary psychotic disorder later in life between those with or without ASD.”

Related Links:

— “Children With Autism More Likely to Experience Hallucinations but Not to Develop Psychosis, Psychiatric News , October 24, 2025

HealthDay (10/24, Thompson) reported a study found that “teenagers who didn’t get enough sleep on school nights or suffered from interrupted sleep had a significantly higher risk of suicide.” Study results indicated that “sleep problems at age 14 were linked to an increased likelihood of a suicide attempt at age 17, even after accounting for other suicide risk factors. In fact, poor sleep amounted to a stronger risk factor than depressive symptoms or other known risk factors, researchers said.” They theorized “sleep might increase a teenager’s impulsivity,” noting that “teens with stronger decision-making skills appeared protected against the impact of poor sleep on suicide risk, at least at first.” The study was published in Sleep Advances.

Related Links:

— “Bad Sleep Could Be A Warning Sign For Suicide Among Teens,”Dennis Thompson, HealthDay , October 24, 2025

Psychiatric News (10/23) reports that “tools using large language models (LLMs) to provide psychotherapy – even those prompted to adhere to an evidence-based model – are prone to a slew of ethical violations, according to a new study [PDF] issued…at the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and Association for Computing Machinery’s Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society.” The researchers “had conversations with peer counselors who conducted 110 self-counseling sessions with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)–prompted LLMs.” The researchers next “simulated 27 therapy sessions with an LLM counselor using publicly available transcripts of sessions with human therapists.” Afterwards, “three licensed clinical psychologists with CBT experience independently evaluated these simulations to explore how the LLMs might violate ethical standards.” Researchers ultimately found several ethical violations, including: rigid methodological adherence, poor therapeutic collaboration, deceptive empathy, unfair discrimination, and lack of safety and crisis management.

Related Links:

— “Chatbot Psychotherapists Prone to Serious Ethical Violations,” Psychiatric News, October 23, 2025

MedPage Today (10/23, Firth) reports a study found that “adolescents and young adults were at greater risk of using opioids if their parents had multiple opioid prescriptions.” Researchers observed that “for more than 21,000 adolescents and young adults participating in a population health survey, those who had mothers who received two or more opioid prescriptions had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.34 for any opioid prescription over 7-year follow-up, while those who had fathers with two or more opioid prescriptions had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.19.” Furthermore, they found that “those with a mother or father who received two or more opioid prescriptions had more than double the risk of persistent opioid use compared with those whose parents did not receive any opioid prescriptions.” The study was published in PLOS Medicine.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The American Journal of Managed Care (10/22, Jeremias) reports, “Financial hardship – including poverty, food insecurity, and housing instability – was found to be common among US health care workers, particularly those in direct care and support roles, according to a new research letter.” The investigators “highlighted inequities within the workforce, noting that racial and ethnic minority groups were overrepresented in the lowest-paid health care occupations.” The findings were published in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Many US Health Care Workers Face Poverty, Food Insecurity, and Housing Instability,”Skylar Jeremias, The American Journal of Managed Care , October 22, 2025