Psychiatric News (1/19) reports, “Black and Native American/Alaska Native patients are less likely to attend follow-up outpatient mental health visits 30 days after discharge from hospital psychiatric units compared with white patients,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from 2012-2013 New York state Medicaid claims.” The findings were published online Jan. 18 in the journal Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Black, Native American/Alaska Native Patients Less Likely to Receive Follow-Up MH Care, Psychiatric News, January 19, 2023

Healio (1/19, Downey) reports, “The percentage of those with schizophrenia who were uninsured decreased after the Affordable Care Act” (ACA) “provisions were implemented, researchers” concluded in a study that “used the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey from 2008 to 2020 to identify” 9,173,644 people with schizophrenia. Next, “the authors calculated descriptive statistics for the sample to assess differences in pre-ACA compared with post-ACA periods,” then “calculated probabilities of insurance coverage using a logistic regression analysis.” The findings were published online Jan. 18 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Affordable Care Act provisions reduced percentage of uninsured people with schizophrenia “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, January 19, 2023

Psychiatric News (1/18) reports, “Some individuals who undergo surgery for cancer may be more likely to die by suicide than the general population,” according to a study that found “the highest rates of death by suicide were among patients who underwent surgery for cancers of the head and neck, bladder, esophagus, and pancreas.” This study also found that “patients who were male, White, and divorced or single were at greatest risk of death by suicide.” The findingsof the study that “included 1,811,397 patients” were published online Jan. 12 in JAMA Oncology.

Related Links:

— “Suicide Risk Higher for Some Patients Following Cancer Surgery, Psychiatric News , January 18, 2023

Healio (1/18, Downey) reports research indicates that sleep disturbances appear “to be prevalent throughout the course of psychosis, and different psychosis stages showed shared and distinct abnormalities.” Investigators arrived at these conclusions in a 59-study systematic review and meta-analysis encompassing “6,710 patients and 977 controls.” The findings were published online Jan. 18 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Sleep disturbances prevalent during psychosis “Ken Downey Jr., Healio, January 18, 2023

According to USA Today (1/18, Alltucker), this month, “the Biden administration…will begin spot audits of nursing home use of antipsychotic” medications “in an effort to cut down on inappropriate prescriptions.” Specifically, “the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will conduct ‘targeted, off-site audits’ to check whether nursing home patients who are prescribed” these medications “have a schizophrenia diagnosis.” The audit “initiative is part of the Biden administration’s larger effort to address long-standing patient safety and staffing shortcomings at nursing homes.”

The AP (1/18, Seitz) reports, “Evidence has mounted over decades that some facilities wrongly diagnose residents with schizophrenia or administer antipsychotic” medicines “to sedate them, despite dangerous side effects that could include death, according to the agency.” What’s more, “some facilities may be dodging increased scrutiny around gratuitous use of antipsychotic medications by coding residents as having schizophrenia, even when they do not show signs of the extremely rare disorder, a government report last year found.”

According to The Hill (1/18, Weixel), that “government watchdog report issued in November found about 80 percent of Medicare’s long-stay nursing home residents were prescribed a psychotropic” medication “from 2011 through 2019.” Meanwhile, “despite efforts to reduce the use of antipsychotic medicines, the prescribing of another type of psychotropic” medication, anti-seizure medicines, “increased, likely in an effort to reduce regulatory scrutiny, the report from the HHS Office of Inspector General found.” Modern Healthcare (1/18, Berryman, Subscription Publication) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “‘A red flag’: Biden administration targets antipsychotic drugs dispensed in nursing homes “Ken Alltucker, USA Today, January 18, 2023