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.”

Related Links:

— 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