Psychiatric News (3/29) reports, “Pennsylvania patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) were more likely to receive a prescription for buprenorphine within 30 days of a visit to the emergency department (ED) if they were seen at a hospital participating in the state’s Opioid Hospital Quality Improvement Program than those seen at a hospital that did not participate in this program,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data on 17,428 adults (about 57% male) who were enrolled in Medicaid and were seen in an ED for an opioid-related cause (for example, opioid withdrawal or opioid overdose) between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020.” The findings were published online March 24 in JAMA Health Forum.

Related Links:

— “Hospital Incentive Program Found to Increase Buprenorphine Prescriptions for Patients With OUD, Psychiatric News, March 29, 2023

According to HCPlive (3/28, Grossi), research published online March 28 in JAMA Network Open “provides important insights into the prevalence and characteristics of tobacco use among adults with a history of psychosis.” After analyzing “data from 29,045 adults who participated in the PATH Study’s Wave 5 survey between December 2018-November 2019 and were 18 years or older,” researchers found “a higher prevalence of tobacco use, polytobacco use, and severity of nicotine dependence among adults with psychosis compared with those without psychosis.”

Related Links:

— “Addressing Tobacco Use in Adults with Psychotic Disorders “Giuliana Grossi, HCPlive, March 28, 2023

MedPage Today (3/28, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “Pediatric hospitalizations for mental health diagnoses increased significantly from 2009 to 2019, with most cases in 2019 involving attempted suicide or self-injury,” investigators concluded in “a retrospective analysis” that included “over 200,000 pediatric hospitalizations.” The analysis revealed that “the proportion of those involving attempted suicide, suicidal ideation, or self-injury diagnoses significantly increased from 30.7% in 2009 to 64.2% in 2019,” and “the overall number of mental health hospitalizations increased by 25.8% over this time period.” The findings were published online March 28 in JAMA. HealthDay (3/28, Reinberg) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (3/28, George) reports, “Two groups of long COVID patients – those hospitalized for acute COVID, and those with mild SARS-CoV-2 infection who weren’t hospitalized – had different neurologic manifestations,” investigators concluded. The study revealed that “long COVID patients who were hospitalized with acute infection more frequently had an abnormal neurologic exam…and performed worse on processing speed, attention, and working memory tasks than patients who weren’t hospitalized,” whereas patients “with mild infection who weren’t hospitalized had brain fog (81%), headache (70%), anosmia (56%), dysgeusia (55%), and dizziness (50%) as their main neurologic long COVID symptoms.” The findings were published online in the Annals of Neurology.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

mHealth Intelligence (3/27, Melchionna) reports a studypublished online in the American Journal of Managed Care “found that although the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic led to a large increase in the odds of telehealth provision in mental healthcare facilities, various organizational and state-level factors have affected its implementation.” While “telehealth was being used prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, in-person restrictions that began during this period led to a sharp increase in its use, particularly among those in need of mental healthcare.”
“ Mental health care facilities had 4 times the odds of telemedicine provision post pandemic in 2020 compared with prepandemic in 2019. In 2020, facilities that accepted Medicaid and Medicare were more likely to provide telemedicine than those that did not. Facilities that offered American Sign Language and non–English language services were more likely to provide telemedicine than facilities that did not. Facilities located in states with payment parity laws were more likely to offer telemedicine than states without.”

Related Links:

— “Telemental Health Grew After Onset of COVID-19, But Varies Across US “Mark Melchionna, mHealth Intelligence, March 27, 2023