Healio (2/2, Weldon) reports, “Universal screening helped identify high school students at risk for suicide and made them more likely to engage in mental health treatment,” researchers concluded in a study that “included 12,909 students in 14 high schools in Pennsylvania.” The findings were published in the December 2022 issue of the Journal of Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Universal screening helps identify adolescents at risk for suicide “Rose Weldon, Healio, February 2, 2023

HealthDay (2/1, Mozes) reports, “Seniors who frequently take sleeping medications may be raising their risk for developing” dementia, investigators concluded in a study that “enlisted roughly 3,000 seniors to share their sleep medication routines starting in 1997.” The study also revealed that “among white and Black participants, frequent usage was highest among women, those struggling with depression and the more highly educated.” Even though “white seniors who used sleeping pills frequently faced a 79% higher risk for dementia, that was not the case among Black seniors.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Sleeping Pills Linked to Higher Risk for Dementia “Alan Mozes, HealthDay, February 1, 2023

According to Psychiatric News (2/1), on Jan. 30, “the Biden administration announced” (PDF) that “the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE), first issued in March 2020, will end on May 11.” The PHE “waived a host of restrictions on the use of telehealth to help patients receive services, including mental health services, without leaving their homes,” but “with the end of the emergency, those waivers will be lifted, and several pre-pandemic regulations will be back in effect.” However, “some states and health care plans…may continue certain flexibilities and coverage; commercial and Medicaid payers may vary widely in their telehealth policies.”

Related Links:

— “Biden Announces End of COVID Public Health Emergency in May, Psychiatric News, February 1, 2023

“The fear and lack of understanding of mental illness can lead to stigma. The stigma of mental illness affects not only individuals who suffer from it, but also the caregivers. Stigma among caregivers can lead to delay in seeking care, poor adherence to treatment and a high risk of relapse. Caregivers of patients with mental illness are at an increased risk of distress due to the burden to stigma and caregiving burden. An increase in caregivers’ burden can lead to a reduction in caregivers’ involvement. There is a relationship between caregivers’ involvement, burden, and affiliated stigma. The present study examined the mediating role of affiliated stigma in the relationship between caregivers’ burden and involvement among informal caregivers of hospital-admitted patients with mental illness in Uganda.” In a “cross-sectional study…conducted among 428 adult caregivers” of “individuals diagnosed with mental illness and admitted to the Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital’s psychiatry unit between July 2020 and November 2020.” The findings were published online Jan. 26 in BMC Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Involvement and burden of informal caregivers of patients with mental illness: the mediating role of affiliated stigma, BMC Psychiatry, January 26, 2023

Medscape (2/1, Tucker, Subscription Publication) reports, “Oral vitamin D supplementation nearly halved the rates of suicide and intentional self-harm in a study of US veterans, with an even stronger effect among Black veterans,” investigators concluded in findings published online Feb. 1 in PLOS ONE. Additionally, “the retrospective cohort study,” which involved “about 490,885 veterans who received vitamin D3 (cholecalciferol) and 169,241 veterans who received vitamin D2 (ergocalciferol)” who “were compared one-on-one with veterans of similar demographics and medical histories who didn’t receive supplementation,” revealed that “higher daily vitamin D supplement dosages appeared to offer greater protection against suicide and self-harm risk than lower doses, that the effect was greater among those with baseline vitamin D deficiency or insufficiency, and that both” ergocalciferol and cholecalciferol “supplements were effective.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)