HealthDay (7/11) reports gardening may help people “reap mental health benefits, even for first-time gardeners.” In the 32-woman study, “the activity was linked to decreased stress, anxiety and depression in healthy women who attended twice-weekly gardening classes.” The findings were published online July 6 in the journal PLOS One.

Related Links:

— “Gardening Can Blossom Into Better Mental Health “Ellie Quinlan Houghtaling, HealthDay, July 11, 2022

Psychiatric News (7/11) reports, “A safety planning framework that focuses on one’s strengths can improve the outcomes of patients admitted to an emergency department (ED) with psychiatric distress,” according to findings published online July 7 in the journal Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Planning Around Patient Strengths Can Reduce Emergency Department Stays for Psychiatric Problems, Psychiatric News, July 11, 2022

CNN (7/11, LaMotte) reports, “Drinking alone during adolescence and young adulthood can strongly increase the risk for alcohol abuse later in life, especially if you are a woman, a…study finds.” Researchers “analyzed data from the Monitoring the Future study, an ongoing investigation of 4,500 teens who were asked about their drinking habits while high school seniors.” The findings were published online in Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

The Hill (7/11, Barnes) reports, “Young people who drank alone at age 18 were 35 percent more likely to report symptoms of alcohol use disorder, while people who reported drinking by themselves in their early twenties were 60 percent more likely to report these symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Drinking alone when younger linked to alcoholism in mid-30s “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, July 11, 2022

Healio (7/8, Weldon) reported, “Researchers estimated that the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, among children and adolescents in the United States was 3.14% in 2019 and 2020 overall, up from 2.24% in 2014.” The researchers “found that 410 of 12,554 children and adolescents between the ages of 3 and 17 years were reported to have a diagnosis of ASD, with a higher prevalence in boys than in girls and a higher incidence in poverty-stricken families.” These findings were published in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Prevalence of autism among US children, teens on the rise “Rose Weldon, Healio, July 8, 2022

Kaiser Health News (7/8, Meyer) reported, “Research suggests therapy delivered online can be effective,” but “the rapid proliferation of the online commercial therapy industry worries some traditional mental health professionals who have raised concerns about aggressive advertising for online services and whether patient care is compromised by inadequate training and pay for therapists working at some digital companies.” John Torous, MD, MBI, who chairs the American Psychiatric Association’s Health Information Technology Committee, said, “There are fundamental questions about what these companies are doing and whether they are reaching people who really need help.” Dr. Torous added, “They may be doing wonderful work, but it’s hard to know when we don’t have that data.”

Related Links:

— “Digital Mental Health Companies Draw Scrutiny and Growing Concerns “Harris Meyer, Kaiser Health News, July 8, 2022