Psychiatric News (10/11) reported, “Individuals with intellectual disability (ID) who do not live with their family are not more likely to be prescribed antipsychotics to manage challenging behaviors like aggression,” a recent study found.

Investigators “analyzed medical chart data from 112 adults with ID who received care at a regional health system from 2019 to 2021” and found that “about 60% of all patients were prescribed antipsychotics, with the highest proportion of prescribing found for adults in group homes or other supported living.” The research was published in Psychiatric Research and Clinical Practice.

Related Links:

— “Living Situation of People With ID Does Not Appear to Influence Antipsychotic Prescribing Decisions,” Psychiatric News, October 11, 2024

HCPlive (10/10, Brooks) reports, “New research is calling attention to the burden of schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, providing new evidence highlighting various unmet needs for patients with these conditions.” Using “data from the Healthcare Integrated Research Database, the study found patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder had high levels of comorbidities and healthcare resource utilization, frequently incurring elevated costs but receiving suboptimal treatment that they often discontinued, leading to relapse.” The findings were published in Schizophrenia.

Related Links:

— “Study Describes Unmet Needs in Schizophrenia, Schizoaffective Disorder Management,” Abigail Brooks, MA, HCP Live, October 10, 2024

HealthDay (10/10, Mundell ) reports, “A new study finds persistent loneliness taking a toll on aging brains and significantly raising a person’s odds for dementia.” Researchers “found loneliness was linked to a 31% rise in the likelihood that a person would go on to develop any form of dementia.” Additionally, loneliness “raised the chances of cognitive impairment in people by 15%.” The findings were published in Nature Mental Health.

Related Links:

— “Loneliness Raises Odds for Dementia by 31%,” Ernie Mundell, HealthDay, October 10, 2024

Reuters (10/10, Singh) reports, “Roughly 15.5 million U.S. adults have attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, and most of them struggle with gaining access to treatment for the condition, according to data from a U.S. study released on Thursday.” Approximately “one-third of those reporting a diagnosis of ADHD said they had received a prescription for a stimulant drug used to treat it in the previous year, researchers reported in the” CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The study also found that “nearly three quarters of those with a prescription for a stimulant drug reported difficulty getting it filled because the medication was unavailable.”

Related Links:

— “More than 15 million US adults have ADHD, new study estimates,” Puyaan Singh, Reuters, October 10, 2024