The Washington Post (5/19, Hensley-Clancy) reports on the recent suicides of five NCAA athletes. Some “current and former college athletes and advocates told The Washington Post they see the moment as a mental health crisis for college athletes,” and “the factors that have exacerbated it – the pandemic, social media, the rising pressures on young people – are shared by many college students, experts say.” For many athletes, “concern has sharpened into anger at a system they say is inherently harmful to college athletes’ mental health.” In addition to challenges faced by other young people, college athletes also face “relentless hours, physical injury, limits on social circles that are confined to teams and can disappear with injury or poor performance.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (5/19) reports, “Adolescents who prefer going to sleep later in the evening, are sleepy during the day, and sleep for shorter periods of time are more likely to participate in severe binge drinking the following year,” researchers concluded after using “data from six annual assessments from 801 participants enrolled in the National Consortium on Alcohol and Neurodevelopment in Adolescence (NCANDA) study.” The findings were published online May 17 in the journal Alcoholism.

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— “Poor Sleep Habits Linked to Binge Drinking Among Adolescents, Psychiatric News, May 19, 2022

ABC News (5/18, Livingston, Green) reported, “May is Mental Health Awareness Month, and two years into a global pandemic that has highlighted the need for increased access to mental health care, 570 counties across the United States” are mental healthcare deserts that “have no psychologists, psychiatrists or counselors.” Saul Levin, MD, MPA, FRCP-E, FRC, “chief executive officer and medical director for the American Psychiatric Association,” stated, “While this country has given resources for healthcare over the decades, it has never been enough.” Dr. Levin added that “rural areas, in particular…’have not gotten the resources to keep up.’” In fact, 75% “of rural counties across the country have no mental health” clinicians “or fewer than 50 per 100,000 people, according to an ABC News analysis of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services data.”

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— “America’s mental health care deserts: Where is it hard to access care? “Kelly Livingston and Maggie Green, ABC News, May 18, 2022

MedPage Today (5/18, DePeau-Wilson) reports, “People diagnosed with schizophrenia showed early signs of cognitive decline as well as rapid declines later in life,” researchers concluded in a study revealing that “on average, individuals diagnosed with schizophrenia experienced a 16-point drop in IQ from early adolescence through adulthood, as compared with a nine-point decline for people with other psychotic disorders.” Included in the study were “428 individuals (212 with schizophrenia and 216 with other psychotic disorders).” The findings were published online May 18 in JAMA Psychiatry.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthPayerIntelligence (5/17, Bailey) reports, “Nearly a quarter of individuals receiving coverage from employer-sponsored health plans accessed mental health support in 2020,” a report from AHIP reveals. That report “reflects medical and pharmacy claims data related to mental health support from the IBM MarketScan Commercial Database between January 1, 2016, and December 31, 2020.”

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— “Employer-Sponsored Health Plans Facilitated Mental Health Access “Victoria Bailey, HealthPayerIntelligence, May 17, 2022