HealthDay (9/22, Reinberg) said, “While the start of the school year can give kids and teens the chance to reconnect with friends and enjoy school sports and activities, it can also trigger stressors that send many to the emergency [department] for mental health woes, a…report shows.” For children between 5 and 17, “emergency department visits for depression, suicidal thoughts, stress and substance abuse increased significantly in the fall and remained high through the spring, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.”

Related Links:

— “Kids’ ER Visits for Mental Health Crises Rise When School Term Begins,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 22, 2023

The Washington Post (9/21, Goldstein) reports that “nearly half a million children and other individuals in 30 states have been improperly dropped from Medicaid rolls, prompting federal health officials to halt in more than half the country a large portion of the massive campaign to figure out who qualifies for the safety-net health insurance.” On Thursday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services “revealed the scope of the trouble, caused by computer systems failing to determine whether individual family members qualify for Medicaid.” CMS officials “said Thursday that states are in the process of reinstating everyone who should not have been cut off from Medicaid.”

The New York Times (9/21, Weiland) reports that last month, the Biden Administration “warned states about the problem, giving them two weeks to report whether they had improperly disenrolled people.” In response to the errors, “nearly 500,000 people, many of them children, will keep Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage…federal officials said on Thursday.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (9/21, Schaffer) reports, “Use of any substance during pregnancy, including alcohol and cannabis but especially methamphetamines, is associated with increased risk for acute CV outcomes during delivery hospitalization, according to” the findings of “a nationwide database analysis” published online ahead of print in Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) Advances. The “analysis of more than 60 million delivery hospitalizations across the U.S…also found that the risk was greatest for deliveries with documented amphetamine/methamphetamine use, with a ninefold increased risk for acute cardiomyopathy or Heart Failure and a sevenfold increased risk for acute heart attacks (MI) and cardiac arrest.” HealthDay (9/21, Murez) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Any substance use during pregnancy ups risk for acute heart events during delivery,”Regina Schaffer, Healio, September 21, 2023

KFF Health News (9/21, Weinstock) reports, “Suicide ranks as either the seventh- or eighth-leading cause of death among children ages five to 11, according to the” CDC “and recent studies.” What’s more, “numbers show the rates among younger kids appear to have increased in the past decade, especially among Black males.”

Related Links:

— “As Younger Children Increasingly Die by Suicide, Better Tracking and Prevention Is Sought,” Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, KFF Health News , September 21, 2023

CNN (9/20, LaMotte) reports, “Eating greater amounts of ultraprocessed food and drinks, especially if those items are artificially sweetened, may be linked to the development of depression,” investigators concluded in a study suggesting “an association between consumption of ultra-processed foods and depression, with an about 50% higher risk for those consuming 9 portions (per day) or more (the top 20%) compared to those consuming four portions or less.”

NBC News (9/20, Sullivan) reports, “The study” examined “the eating habits and mental health status of more than 31,000 women between the ages of 42 and 62,” all of whom were participants in the Nurses’ Health Study II study. The findings were published online Sept. 20 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Artificially sweetened ultraprocessed foods linked to depression in women, study finds,”Sandee LaMotte, CNN, September 20, 2023