Healio (9/6, Welsh) reports, “Use of postnatal selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors” (SSRIs) “was associated with reduced risks for maternal depression and unfavorable outcomes associated with postnatal depression, researchers reported in” the findings of a “large prospective cohort study of 61,081 mother-child groups using longitudinal data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study” published online Aug. 29 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “SSRIs may lower risk for postnatal depression-associated outcomes for mother and child,”Erin T. Welsh, Healio , September 6, 2023

HealthDay (9/5, Mundell) reports, “Suicides by Americans aged 10 to 24 are continuing to climb and guns are increasingly the method of choice in these tragedies,” according to a study that examined “U.S. federal data on all suicide deaths among people ages 10 through 24 from 2013 to the end of 2020.” The study encompassed “a total of more than 49,500 suicides…recorded during that time for this age group.” The findings were published online in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Gun Suicides Keep Rising Among U.S. Youth,”Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, September 5, 2023

NBC News (9/5, Lovelace) reports, “Patients could save millions of dollars by buying prescription drugs through online pharmacy discount programs instead of through traditional insurance plans, a study published Monday in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine finds.” Researchers “looked at 20 commonly prescribed generic drugs, including statins, heart failure medications and antidepressants,” and “found that at least 1 out of 5 prescriptions were cheaper through the Amazon or GoodRx discount card programs compared to what patients actually paid out of pocket for the drugs.”

Related Links:

— “Online pharmacy programs can save patients millions in prescription drug costs, study finds,”Berkeley Lovelace Jr., NBC News, September 5, 2023

CNN (9/4, Bonifield) reported on how medication shortages for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are affecting high school and college students as this year’s school season begins. Currently, 11 pharmaceutical makers “are listed as making Adderall” (amphetamine/dextroamphetamine salts) “or its generic versions on the FDA’s shortages website, and while some say the medicine is available, others don’t foresee an end to the shortage until December.” Consequently, “‘a lot of the young people that I’ve been treating have had difficulties getting their medications month to month,’ said…Warren Ng,” MD, “a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center who also serves as president for the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.” If they cannot get medication, many young people with ADHD “fail classes, are held back from going to the next grade, get sent to the principal’s office and have trouble doing homework, Ng said.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD drug shortage stresses families during back-to-school season,”Meg Tirrell and Amanda Sealy, CNN, September 4, 2023

Psychiatric News (9/1) reported, “The percentage of overdose deaths involving counterfeit” medications “in the United States more than doubled between late 2019 and late 2021, according to findings (8/31)” published online Sept. 1 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study team came to this conclusion after calculating “quarterly percentages of overdose deaths with evidence of counterfeit pill use from July 2019 to December 2021 based on information provided by officials from 29 states and the District of Columbia,” then “also examined information about the demographics of the people who died by overdose, the circumstances of the death, and the” counterfeit pills involved.

Related Links:

— “Counterfeit Pills Increasingly Involved in U.S. Overdose Deaths, Psychiatric News, September 1, 2023