MedPage Today (5/20, Monaco) reports, “Self-reported questionnaire data predicted difficult-to-treat depression, even in patients who weren’t considered treatment-resistant, observational data showed.” Investigators found, “in a sample of 550 hospitalized patients – including those who had or had not failed multiple trials of antidepressant medications – higher scores on the Difficult-to-Treat Depression Questionnaire (DTDQ) correlated with Remission from Depression Questionnaire (RDQ) total discharge scores (r=0.28).” The data indicated that “every RDQ subscale measure correlated with DTDQ scores.” The findings were presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (5/19, Gibson) reports a study found that “teens averaged over 50 minutes of smartphone use between the hours of 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. on school nights…and nearly half of the teens used their phones between midnight and 4 a.m.” The researchers “followed the screen use of 657 adolescents, a cohort with an average age of 15. All are participants in the national Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which includes a racially and economically diverse sample of children and is the largest long-term study of brain development and child health in the United States.” The findings “build on prior research showing that bedtime screen use can degrade sleep quality – and that even short intervals of extra sleep can make a significant impact for adolescents.” The study was discussed in a JAMA Pediatrics research letter.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatry Advisor (5/19, Goldberg) reports a study found that “patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) vs those without are more likely to have chronic overlapping pain conditions (COPCs) among both populations with commercial insurance and Medicaid.” They found that “individuals with vs without PTSD with commercial insurance had on average 2.07 times the rate of COPCs; and those with Medicaid insurance had on average 3.54 times the rate of COPCs. Among those who received commercial insurance with PTSD, 10.85% had 2 co-occurring COPCs vs 2.30% of those without PTSD (prevalence ratio [PR], 4.72), and 1.80% of those with PTSD had 4 or more COPCs vs 0.13% of those without PTSD (PR, 13.55).” The study was published in General Hospital Psychiatry.

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— “PTSD Linked to Increased Rates of Chronic Overlapping Pain Conditions,”Ron Goldberg, Psychiatry Advisor, May 19, 2026

The AP (5/18, Sherman, Swenson) reports, “The Supreme Court on Monday rejected appeals from pharmaceutical companies that object to negotiating Medicare drug prices with the federal government.” The high court’s “justices did not comment in leaving in place rulings from the federal appeals court in Philadelphia that dismissed the drug manufacturers’ claims.”

Reuters (5/18, Chung) reports drugmakers argued the negotiations illegally force “them to accept steep discounts and” jeopardize innovation. The Supreme Court “justices turned away appeals by Novo Nordisk, AstraZeneca, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Bristol Myers Squibb, Novartis and Boehringer Ingelheim.” The justices “left in place decisions by lower courts rejecting various legal claims against the drug price negotiation plan.”

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— “Supreme Court rejects appeals from drug manufacturers over Medicare price negotiations,”Mark Sherman and Ali Swenson , AP, May 18, 2026

The New York Times (5/18, Barry) reports that a “study of insurance claims for 1.8 million children found that the number of families raising mental health issues at visits to general practitioners rose sharply over a decade, with anxiety by far the fastest-growing complaint.” According to the study, “the number of pediatric visits rose to 9.7 percent in 2023 from 5.7 percent in 2014.” Researchers noted that “visits for anxiety rose by more than 250 percent during that period, to 6.1 percent in 2023 from 1.7 percent in 2014.” Additionally, “smaller increases were seen for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder…which rose to 6.7 percent from 5.0 percent; depression, which rose to 1.6 percent from 1.2 percent over the same period; autism spectrum disorder, which rose to 2.0 percent from 0.5 percent; and trauma, which rose to 1.6 percent from 0.8 percent.” The study was discussed in a JAMA Network Open research letter.

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)