CNN (7/13, Viswanathan) reports, “Over the past few years, marijuana use has been landing more young people in the hospital, according to a new study, by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Released “on Thursday in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, the report analyzed nearly 540,000 cases nationwide where people under 25 years old wound up in a hospital due to complications from cannabis use.” Between 2019 and 2022, “researchers found that cannabis-related emergency department [ED] visits increased overall among kids, teens, and young adults.” Over the course of “the study period, the researchers also noted large increases in cannabis-related ED visits among kids less than ten years old.”

ABC News (7/13, Kekatos) reports, “Researchers found the largest increases in visits were among children aged 10 and younger as well as adolescents between ages 11 and 14.”

The Hill (7/13, Choi) also reports.

Related Links:

— “Cannabis use landing more young people in emergency departments, study finds,”Giri Viswanathan, CNN, July 13, 2023

MedPage Today (7/13, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “When added to stable selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) treatment, transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) was not superior to sham stimulation for major depressive disorder (MDD),” investigators concluded in a 150-patient study that randomized 77 patients “to the active tDCS group and 73 to sham stimulation.” The findings were published online July 3 in The Lancet.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (7/12, Grossi) reports, “Sleep disturbances have a significant impact on individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD),” investigators concluded in the findings of a 16-study systematic review published online July 1 in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. Additionally, “despite the association with higher overall PTSD severity, the effectiveness of trauma-focused psychotherapy was not inhibited when treating sleep disorder symptoms, with the exception of sleep-disordered breathing,” the review concluded.

Related Links:

— “Trauma-Focused Psychotherapy Effective in Adults with PTSD Despite Sleep Disturbances,”Giuliana Grossi, HCPlive, July 12, 2023

Healio (7/12, Young) reports, “In the year since its launch, the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline has provided millions of Americans with timely, lifesaving care, according to a” July 11 press release from the National Council for Mental Wellbeing. Going forward, “the National Council for Mental Wellbeing plans to further establish the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic model to ensure comprehensive crisis services are available to those in need of them, according to the release.” Additionally, “the mental health and substance use care workforce will require increases and diversification to keep up with the current increase in 988 calls, texts and chats.”

Related Links:

— “‘988’ suicide hotline sees growth in first year,”Kate Young, Healio, July 12, 2023

The New York Times (7/12, Barry) reports, “As the coronavirus pandemic dragged through its second year, an increasing number of American families were so desperate to get help for depressed or suicidal children that they brought them to emergency” departments (EDs), and now, “a large-scale analysis of private insurance claims shows that this surge in acute mental health crises was driven largely by a single group – girls aged 13 to 17,” according to findings published online July 12 in JAMA Psychiatry. The study revealed that “during the second year of the pandemic, there was a 22 percent increase in teenage girls who visited” EDs “with a mental health emergency compared with a prepandemic baseline, with rises in patients with suicidal behavior and eating disorders, according to the study of 4.1 million patients.” The “proportion of teen boys visiting declined,” however.

Related Links:

— “https://www.nytimes.com/2023/07/12/health/teen-girls-depression-suicide.html,”Ellen Barry, The New York Times, July 12, 2023