Psychiatric News (3/20) reports, “Older adults who develop delirium after a surgery may experience faster cognitive decline than those who do not develop post-surgery delirium,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the Successful Aging after Elective Surgery…cohort, which included 560 adults aged 70 years and older who showed no signs of dementia and were scheduled for an elective surgery.” The study team examined “cognitive data collected up to six years after the participants’ elective surgeries.” The findingswere published online March 20 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Postoperative Delirium Associated With Accelerated Cognitive Decline, Study Finds, Psychiatric News, March 20, 2023

Healio (3/20, Weldon) reports, “For the first time, a study found a link between the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on family finances and children’s mental health, researchers” concluded in a study that “used data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development…study to examine 6,030 children aged between 12 and 14 years.” The study revealed that “financial disruptions during the pandemic worsened children’s levels of stress, sadness and worries related to COVID-19, with no similar impact seen from school closures.” The findings were published online March 13 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: Pandemic-related impact on family finances worsened child mental health “Rose Weldon, Healio, March 20, 2023

The Hill (3/16, Choi) reported, “Federal actions during the pandemic led to uninsured rates falling to record lows, especially among Black and Hispanic people, but a new report released by the Commonwealth Fund suggests these improvements are vulnerable to being lost once the COVID-19 public health emergency officially ends in less than two months.”

Related Links:

— “Coverage gains for Black and Hispanic people during pandemic could be lost with end of public health emergency “Joseph Choi, The Hill , March 16, 2023

Psychiatric News (3/17) reported, “One in five deaths by suicide is related to problems with current or former intimate partners such as divorce, separation, romantic breakups, arguments, jealousy, conflicts, and intimate partner violence,” CDC investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the National Violent Death Reporting System for 402,391 adults who died by suicide between 2003 and 2020.” The findingswere published online March 15 ahead of print in American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 5 Deaths by Suicide Related to Intimate Partner Problems, Psychiatric News , March 17, 2023

Healio (3/17, VanDeWater) reported, “Self- and reflected appraisals differed over time between people with depression and people with euthymic mood,” which “indicate people’s alignment of self-perception and others’ perception of them.” The study, which “recruited 252 adults with either depression (n = 76) or euthymic mood (n = 176),” revealed that “temporal self-appraisals and reflected appraisals were not similar in people with depression, but were similar in people with euthymic mood.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the April issue of the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Temporal self-, reflected appraisal differs between people with depression, euthymic mood “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, March 17, 2023