KFF Health News (5/15) reports, “Over the past two years, rural Greene County in northeastern Tennessee has collected more than $2.7 million from regional and national settlements with opioid manufacturers and distributors,” but rather than “helping people harmed by addiction, county officials are finding other ways to spend it.” This issue “is reverberating nationwide as state and local governments receive billions of dollars from companies that made, distributed, or sold opioid” analgesics. Monies received from these companies “is meant to remediate that harm.” So far, “about $3 billion has already landed in state, county, and city coffers, and about $50 billion more is expected in the coming decade and beyond.”

Related Links:

— “County with high rate of overdose deaths doesn’t use opioid settlement funds for addiction program “Aneri Pattani, KFF Health News, May 15, 2023

Parkinson’s News Today (5/12, Shapiro) reported, “People with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were found to be at a higher risk of Parkinson’s disease or related neurodegenerative conditions,” researchers concluded in the findings of a six-study, 1,747,378-individual systematic review and meta-analysis published online ahead of print in the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “PTSD linked to increased risk of Parkinson’s in meta-analysis “Lindsey Shapiro, Parkinson’s News Today, May 12, 2023

In a parenting column for CNBC (5/12), Jen Zamzow, an adjunct professor of healthcare ethics at Concordia University Irvine, wrote, “It’s hard for parents to give kids the mental health support they need without affordable and accessible mental health services.” Currently, the United States “has ‘a chronic shortage of psychiatrists, and it’s going to keep growing, says Saul Levin,” MD, MPA, FRCP-E, FRCPsych, “medical director of the American Psychiatric Association.” This “situation is even worse for rural areas: 60% of rural Americans live in an area with” a shortage of mental health clinicians.

Related Links:

— “Here’s the No. 1 phrase moms are ‘sick of hearing’ on Mother’s Day, says parenting expert—what to say instead “Jen Zamzow, CNBC, May 12, 2023

HealthDay (5/12, Solomon) reported, “Among U.S. youth ages 13 and 14 years, suicide rates more than doubled from 2008 to 2018,” researchers concluded in a study that “used death certificate data collected by the” CDC “to explore trends in suicide by sex, race, level of urbanization, census region, month of the year, and day of the week among U.S. youths aged 13 to 14 years.” The findings were published online April 19 in the Annals of Pediatrics and Child Health.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Rates for 13- and 14-Year-Olds Doubled From 2008 to 2018 “Lori Solomon, HealthDay, May 12, 2023

Medscape (5/11, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports, “Most adults in the United States (70%) are anxious or extremely anxious about keeping themselves or their families safe, with 42% very anxious about gun violence,” according to findings from “a national mental health poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association (APA)” that “was conducted between April 20-22 among a nationally representative sample of 2201 adults.” Additionally, the analysis “tracks data from a poll conducted between April 23-24, 2022, among a sample of 2210 adults.” In a May 10 press briefing, APA President Rebecca W. Brendel, MD, JD, “said the results are an important reminder and opportunity for psychiatrists to put their finger on the pulse of Americans’ mental health.” In that briefing, Saul Levin, MD, MPA, chief executive officer and medical director at the APA, stated, “The majority of the public understands something we’ve been saying for a long time: your mental health is about your health.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)