Healio (1/18, Downey) reports research indicates that sleep disturbances appear “to be prevalent throughout the course of psychosis, and different psychosis stages showed shared and distinct abnormalities.” Investigators arrived at these conclusions in a 59-study systematic review and meta-analysis encompassing “6,710 patients and 977 controls.” The findings were published online Jan. 18 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Sleep disturbances prevalent during psychosis “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, January 18, 2023

According to USA Today (1/18, Alltucker), this month, “the Biden administration…will begin spot audits of nursing home use of antipsychotic” medications “in an effort to cut down on inappropriate prescriptions.” Specifically, “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will conduct ‘targeted, off-site audits’ to check whether nursing home patients who are prescribed” these medications “have a schizophrenia diagnosis.” The audit “initiative is part of the Biden administration’s larger effort to address long-standing patient safety and staffing shortcomings at nursing homes.”

The AP (1/18, Seitz) reports, “Evidence has mounted over decades that some facilities wrongly diagnose residents with schizophrenia or administer antipsychotic” medicines “to sedate them, despite dangerous side effects that could include death, according to the agency.” What’s more, “some facilities may be dodging increased scrutiny around gratuitous use of antipsychotic medications by coding residents as having schizophrenia, even when they do not show signs of the extremely rare disorder, a government report last year found.”

According to The Hill (1/18, Weixel), that “government watchdog report issued in November found about 80 percent of Medicare’s long-stay nursing home residents were prescribed a psychotropic” medication “from 2011 through 2019.” Meanwhile, “despite efforts to reduce the use of antipsychotic medicines, the prescribing of another type of psychotropic” medication, anti-seizure medicines, “increased, likely in an effort to reduce regulatory scrutiny, the report from the HHS Office of Inspector General found.” Modern Healthcare (1/18, Berryman, Subscription Publication) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “‘A red flag’: Biden administration targets antipsychotic drugs dispensed in nursing homes “Ken Alltucker, USA Today, January 18, 2023

According to The Hill (1/17, Dress), starting Jan. 17, “veterans who are in a suicidal crisis can now seek emergency care at any medical facility at no cost to them.” Effective that date, they “will have free access to inpatient care or crisis residential care for up to 30 days and outpatient care for up to 90 days, the Department of Veterans Affairs” (VA) “said in a” Jan. 13 press release.

Related Links:

— “Veterans in suicidal crisis can now seek care at no cost “Brad Dress, The Hill, January 17, 2023

MedPage Today (1/17, Firth) reports, “Changes to Medicare policy that lowered out-of-pocket costs for outpatient mental health and substance use disorder (MHSUD) care, to achieve parity with typical cost-sharing under Medicare, were associated with uneven improvements in the use of these services across racial and ethnic groups,” researchers concluded in a study that “included 286,276 traditional Medicare beneficiaries with the cost-sharing reduction who had incomes at 100% to 135% of the federal poverty level…and 734,280 beneficiaries who received free care in 2008 who had incomes below 100% of the federal poverty level.” The study revealed that “improvements in access to care” were “largely only significant for white beneficiaries.” The findings were published in the January issue of the journal Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (1/17) reports investigators sought to find out what US religious “leaders believe about the cause and treatment of depression,” focusing “specifically on the data obtained from the 890 primary leaders of religious congregations who predominantly completed the survey online between February 2019 and June 2020.” The study revealed that “most of the religious leaders indicated that they would be moderately or very likely to encourage a congregant with depression to seek help from a mental health professional (90%) and take prescribed medications (87%).” The study authors concluded, “These results suggest that medical professionals should view the vast majority of religious leaders as allies in identifying and properly treating depression.” The findings were published online Jan. 11 in a brief report in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Most U.S. Religious Leaders Endorse Medical Understanding of Depression, Survey Finds, Psychiatric News, January 17, 2023