According to the New York Times (2/14, Alcorn), new research “adds to the evidence that people who binge-drink may benefit from taking a dose of the medication naltrexone before consuming alcohol.” In the “randomized,” double-blinded study, the findings of which were “published in December in the American Journal of Psychiatry,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, “120 men who wanted to reduce bingeing but were not severely dependent on alcohol were given naltrexone to take whenever they felt a craving for alcohol or anticipated a period of heavy drinking.” At “the end of the 12-week study, those given naltrexone reported bingeing less frequently and consuming less alcohol than those who had been given a placebo, a change that lasted for up to six months.”

Related Links:

— “Binge Drinking May Be Curbed With a Pill “Ted Alcorn, The New York Times, February 14, 2023

Reuters (2/14, Bektas) reports, “Doctors in a Turkish field hospital in the southern city of Iskenderun said they are treating increasing numbers of patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder and panic attacks after last week’s earthquake.” Indian Army Major Beena Tiwari said, “Initially the patients…were those who sustained injuries under the rubble,” but “now more of the patients are coming with post-traumatic stress disorder, following all the shock that they’ve gone through during the earthquake and what they have seen.” A Turkish medical official stated, “People only now are starting to realise what happened to them after this shock period.”

Related Links:

— “Following Earthquake, Physicians Say They Are Treating Increasing Number Of Patients At Turkish Hospitals Suffering From PTSD “Umit Bektas, Reuters, February 14, 2023

NBC News (2/13, Collier) reports “sensitive mental health data is for sale by little-known data brokers, at times for a few hundred dollars and with little effort to hide personal information such as names and addresses, according to research” conducted at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy. The research “consisted of asking 37 data brokers for bulk data on people’s mental health.” Eleven data brokers “agreed to sell information that identified people by issues, including depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder, and often sorted them by demographic information such as age, race, credit score and location.” The researchers did not purchase “the data, but in many cases received free samples to prove that the broker was legitimate.”

Related Links:

— “A researcher tried to buy mental health data. It was surprisingly easy ” Kevin Collier, NBC News, February 13, 2023

Psychiatric News (2/13) reports, “Patients with mental illness who receive services delivered by individuals with lived experience of mental illness (peer support services) may experience greater personal recovery (for example, life satisfaction and hopefulness) than those patients who do not receive peer support services,” investigators concluded in the findings of a 49-trial systematic review and meta-analysis that “included 12,477 patients with a range of conditions including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.” The findings were published online Feb. 8 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Life Outlook Improves When Patients Work With Peers, Meta-Analysis Suggests, Psychiatric News, February 13, 2023

The New York Times (2/13, Ghorayshi, Rabin) reports, “Nearly three in five teenage girls felt persistent sadness in 2021, double the rate of boys, and one in three girls seriously considered attempting suicide, according to data” (PDF) released Feb. 13 by the CDC. These “findings, based on surveys given to teenagers across the country, also showed high levels of violence, depression and suicidal thoughts among lesbian, gay and bisexual youth.” The CDC report found that “more than one in five of these students reported attempting suicide in the year before the survey.”

The Washington Post (2/13, A1, St. George) reports, “In 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association together declared ‘a national state of emergency’ in children’s mental health,” and “a year later, the organizations sounded the alarm again.”

According to Healio (2/13, Weldon), the survey data also revealed that “in all categories…girls fared worse than their male peers in 2021, with…14% reporting ever being forced to have sex – a statistic that Kathleen Ethier, PhD, director of the CDC’s Division of Adolescent and School Health, called ‘truly alarming.’”

Also covering the story are USA Today (2/13, Rodriguez), Reuters (2/13, Srinivasan), and NBC News(2/13, Edwards).

Related Links:

— “CDC: Teen girls experiencing record level of sadness, hopelessness “Rose Weldon, Healio, February 13, 2023