According to MedPage Today (5/10, Ruprecht), “over the last decade, more than half of young adults with depression reported not receiving treatment…and important reasons were related to cost and stigma.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after examining survey data from “more than 21,000 patients diagnosed with a” major depressive episode (MDE) “over the previous 12 months using DSM-IV criteria.” While “cost of care was the most common problem for young patients with” MDEs, during this same period, “the proportion of young people saying they had inadequate insurance for treatment also increased from 7.2% to 15.8%.” Further “barriers to care included people not knowing where to go for treatment, worrying about confidentiality, not wanting to take medication, and not having the time.” The findings were published online May 10 in a research letter in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (5/10, Berman) reports, “The surge in gun violence across the United States in 2020 pushed the firearm homicide rate that year to its highest level in a quarter-century, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday.” The “rise in fatal shootings affected communities nationwide, but there were wide gaps across racial, ethnic and economic lines, with the increases in 2020 broadening already existing disparities, the CDC found.”

The New York Times (5/10, Rabin) reports, “Homicides involving firearms were generally highest, and showed the largest increases, in poor communities, and exacted a disproportionate toll on younger Black men in particular.” Over “half of gun deaths were suicides, however.”

The Hill (5/10, Weixel) reports, “Firearms were involved in 79 percent of all homicides in 2020, an increase of nearly 35 percent from 2019.”

The Wall Street Journal (5/10, Elinson, Subscription Publication) also reports.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (5/9, George) reports, “Eight modifiable risk factors were linked to more than one in three cases of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia in the U.S.,” investigators concluded in a study that “gathered risk factor prevalence information from 378,615 participants in the 2018 CDC Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System and extracted relative risks for each factor from recent meta-analyses.” These “eight risk factors – midlife obesity, midlife hypertension, physical inactivity, depression, smoking, low education, diabetes, and hearing loss – were associated with 36.9%…of Alzheimer’s and dementia cases,” investigators found, and “risk factors differed based on sex, race, and ethnicity.” The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

According to CNN (5/6, Howard), beginning “this summer, every state will be rolling out 988 as the new National Suicide Prevention Lifeline number to call for mental health crises.” In some states, however, “questions remain around funding the transition, staffing call centers and having response teams ready.” In fact, “no more than half of states have enacted or introduced legislation in preparation for 988’s debut, scheduled for July 16, according to data from the National Academy for State Health Policy.” Despite some states’ lack of preparation, “the transition to 988 is “not optional,” according to the US Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.”

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— “States prepare for summer launch of new 988 suicide prevention number “Jacqueline Howard, CNN, May 6, 2022

According to the New York Times (5/8, A1, Richtel, Flanagan), across the US, “hospital emergency departments have become boarding wards for teenagers who pose too great a risk to themselves or others to go home.” Teens who are in danger of dying by suicide “have nowhere else to go; even as the crisis has intensified, the medical system has failed to keep up, and options for inpatient and intensive outpatient psychiatric treatment have eroded sharply.” In a recent study involving “88 pediatric hospitals around the country,” researchers “found that 87 of them regularly board children and adolescents overnight in the” ED, and “on average, any given hospital saw four boarders per day, with an average stay of 48 hours.”

Related Links:

— “Hundreds of Suicidal Teens Sleep in Emergency Rooms. Every Night. “Matt Richtel, The New York Times, May 8, 2022