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.

Related Links:

— “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.”

Related Links:

— “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.

Related Links:

— 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.”

Related Links:

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

Psychiatric News (5/17) reports, “State policies that criminalize or punish pregnant women and adolescent girls for prenatal substance abuse may have a negative impact on outcomes such as opioid overdose and seeking treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD),” researchers concluded after having “analyzed data from 164,538 females between the ages of 15 and 45 years who had a diagnosis of OUD between 2006 and 2019, of which 13% were pregnant at least once during that time.” The study team then “compared changes in outcomes in pregnant women and adolescent girls in states with and without…prenatal substance use policies, before and after the implementation of the policies.” The findings were published online May 10 ahead of print in the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Related Links:

— “Policies That Criminalize Perinatal Substance Use Linked to Poor Outcomes in Mothers, Psychiatric News, May 17, 2022