USA Today (2/9, Hassanein) reports, “Suicide rates increased and disparities widened in 2021, returning to pre-pandemic rates after two years of decline, a federal analysis” concluded.

ABC News (2/9, Kekatos) reports, “The number of suicides increased in 2021 to the highest levels seen in four years, according to” findings published Feb. 10 in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. The CDC’s report examined “how many people died by suicide between 2018 and 2021 as well as breaking down the chart by race and ethnicity.” Researchers found that “48,183 Americans died by suicide in 2021 with a rate of 14.1 suicides per 100,000 people,” which “are the highest numbers recorded since 2018 when 48,344 Americans died by suicide with a rate of 14.2 per 100,000, and comes after two consecutive years of decreases in 2019 and 2020.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide rates increase after 2 years of decline, with disparities widening “Nada Hassanein, USA TODAY, February 9, 2023

USA Today (2/8, Weintraub) reports “signs of autism can be picked up as early as the first month of life, according to a” study that used “electronic medical records of 45,000 children” to “train and evaluate machine-learning models.” The “final algorithm was able to predict the babies who later developed autism, distinguishing them from those who later developed ADHD or other neurodevelopmental diagnoses.” These findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “New algorithm detects autism in infants. How might that change care? “Karen Weintraub, USA TODAY, February 8, 2023

Psychiatric News (2/8) reports, “In his State of the Union address” on Feb. 7, “President Joe Biden pointed to numerous health policies, including improving mental health and addressing the opioid epidemic, that represent opportunities for members of both parties to work together.” In a Feb. 7 news release, “APA applauded the inclusion of mental health in Biden’s address,” saying, “While the nation faces the opioid epidemic, an ongoing crisis in youth mental health, and barriers to access, mental health is truly an issue where bipartisan progress can and must be made.”

Related Links:

— “Biden Urges Bipartisan Efforts on Mental Health in State of the Union Address, Psychiatric News, February 8, 2023

Healio (2/8, Bascom) reports, “From 2006 to 2018, the proportion of primary care visits addressing mental health concerns jumped by almost 50%, highlighting the need for resources that support behavioral health integration into primary care,” researchers concluded in a study that “used nationally representative serial cross-sectional data from the 2006-2018 National Medical Surveys to characterize temporal trends in primary care visits that addressed a mental health concern.” The study “sample consisted of 109,898 visits representing 3,891,233,060 weighted visits.” The findings were published in the February issue of the journal Health Affairs.

According to HealthDay (2/8, Norton), while “the study cannot pinpoint the reasons” for the increased visits, they are “probably a combination of” factors, such as increased mental health screening and patients being more likely to bring up mental health problems. Robert Trestman, MD, PhD, who chairs “the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, agreed,” and “noted that the Affordable Care Act…was passed during the study period, which reduced the ranks of the uninsured nationwide” at a time when “the stigma around mental health” also lessened. Dr. Trestman, who had no involvement in the study, stated, “People are more comfortable talking about mental health and addiction,” adding, “It’s a very big deal that the stigma is being reduced.”

Related Links:

— “Primary care providers increasingly addressing mental health concerns “Emma Bascom, Healio, February 8, 2023

The Washington Post (2/7, Searing) reports that “in search of a good night’s sleep, 18% of U.S. adults use some type of medication to help them snooze, according to” an NHCS Data Brief. This figure “includes those who say they take sleep medication most nights (6%), every night (2%) or some nights (10%).” The report (PDF) found that “more women than men take sleep medication, and usage overall increases with age.”

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)