Healio (10/24, Downey) reports, “Telepsychiatry creates opportunities to increase access to treatment, flexibility, convenience of routine care and the potential of increased privacy,” according to a viewpoint authored by Carlos Blanco, MD, PhD, of the Division of Epidemiology at the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and colleagues, and published Oct. 19 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Telepsychiatry offers access, flexibility, convenience, increased privacy “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, October 24, 2022

MedPage Today (10/22, Dotinga) reported, “Staff training in implicit bias curbed racial disparities in the use of mechanical restraints at one Seattle hospital,” according to a presentation given by Timothy Meeks, MN, RN, the Clinical Director at Harborview Medical Center, at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association annual meeting. The 4,506-patient study revealed that “from 2015-2017, about 13% of ethnic minority patients were restrained in the psychiatric units at Harborview Medical Center versus just over 8% of white patients,” but “after training began in 2017, the 2018-2020 numbers were about 9% for both groups.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (10/21, Swift Yasgur, Subscription Publication) reported, “Menopause appears to be an independent risk factor for relapse in women with schizophrenia spectrum disorders (SSDs),” investigators concluded after having “studied a cohort of close to 62,000 people with SSDs, stratifying individuals by sex and age.” The study revealed that beginning “between the ages of 45 and 50 years – when the menopausal transition is underway – women were more frequently hospitalized for psychosis compared with men and women younger than 45 years.” What’s more, the “protective effect of antipsychotic medication was highest in women younger than 45 years and lowest in women aged 45 years or older, even at higher doses.” The findings were published online Oct. 5 in the journal Schizophrenia Bulletin.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

According to the AP (10/22, Ungar), “a growing body of research shows that bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and the in-between diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder share common genetic underpinnings as well as overlapping symptoms and signs.” Some investigators, however, “while acknowledging common genetic underpinnings of bipolar, schizoaffective disorder and schizophrenia, are skeptical about framing them as on a psychosis continuum, particularly if that leads to changing categories” used “to diagnose people with each disorder.” Those experts “say the current criteria are useful in deciding treatment and care.”

Related Links:

— “Genes link bipolar, schizophrenia, once thought unrelated “Laura Ungar , AP , October 22, 2022

NBC News (10/20, McShane) reports “emergency department visits related to sexual assault increased more than tenfold over a span of 13 years, according to” a study that “showed that those visits increased 1,533% from 2006 to 2019 – a jump from 3,600 annual visits to 55,200.” The findings published in JAMA Network Open revealed that “the largest increase occurred between 2015 and 2016.” Furthermore, most ED visits “following sexual assault were by young adult women,” and “lower-income people were also an overrepresented group, the study found.”

Related Links:

— “Sexual assault-related ER visits increased more than tenfold since 2006, study finds “Julianne McShane, NBC News, October 20, 2022