The New York Times (2/18, Richtel) said U.S. emergency departments during the pandemic “reported an increase in visits from teenage girls dealing with eating and other disorders, including anxiety, depression and stress, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The CDC “said that the proportion of eating disorder visits doubled among teenage girls, set off by pandemic-related risk factors, like the ‘lack of structure in daily routine, emotional distress and changes in food availability.’”

Related Links:

— “More Teenage Girls With Eating Disorders Wound Up in the E.R. During the Pandemic “Matt Richtel, The New York Times, February 18, 2022

Healio (2/17) reports, “Diagnosis of mental disorders was associated with an increased risk for the onset of dementia later in life, according to results of a population-based administrative register study.” The findingswere published in JAMA Psychiatry.

MedPage Today (2/17, George) reports, “This association was not explained by pre-existing chronic physical illness or socioeconomic deprivation, the researchers said.” Furthermore, “The connection was seen for both men and women, for both Alzheimer’s and non-Alzheimer’s dementia, and for different types of mental disorders.”

Related Links:

— “Diagnosis of mental disorders linked to higher risk for dementia “Robert Herpen, Healio, February 17, 2022

The Hill (2/17, Ali) reports “the coronavirus pandemic upended most students’ school routines across the country,” but research published in Frontiers in Education “shows that children with autism suffered greatly.” Investigators “surveyed parents of school-aged children, between the ages of 4-15-years-old, from May to August 2020,” and found that “overall, parents of children with autism were more than three times as likely to report negative changes in their child compared to parents of neurotypical children.” Specifically, parents “reported concerns related to their child’s hygiene, behavioral regression, therapy disruption, meltdowns and returning to school.”

Related Links:

— “Autistic children three times more likely to report negative changes during pandemic, study says “Shirin Ali, The Hill, February 17, 2022

Healio (2/17) reports, “Patients with mood or anxiety disorders had significant rates of PTSD, depressive and anxiety symptoms that often persisted beyond 3 months following lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic, according to study results.” The findings were published in The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Lockdown, COVID-19 incidence worsened outcomes in patients with mood, anxiety disorders “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 17, 2022

MedPage Today (2/16, Monaco) reports “people who battled COVID-19…had a higher risk of multiple mental health conditions,” according to researchers who found that “among those who survived the first 30 days of COVID-19 infection, there was a 60%…increased risk for having any new mental health diagnosis or a new mental health-related drug prescription compared with those who were never infected.” This risk “was largely driven by an uptick in mental health-related drug prescriptions, which increased by 86%,” the study published in The BMJ found. Moreover, “COVID-19 survivors saw significantly higher risks for developing anxiety disorders…which included a higher risk for generalized anxiety disorder, mixed anxiety disorder, and panic disorder.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)