MedPage Today (3/28, Bassett) reports that patients with cancer “are at a particularly high risk of mental health disorders and suicide, two studies showed.” In one study, investigators found that patients with cancer “have nearly twice the risk of suicide compared with the general population, and about a 3.5 times greater risk if their cancers are known to have a poor prognosis.” The other study “showed that the high proportion of” patients with cancer “with psychological disorders subsequently have a higher risk of self-harm and mortality, compared with other patients with cancer.” The studies were published in Nature Medicine.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Hill (3/28, Barnes) reports, “Thirty-two percent of U.S. adults in a YouGov poll released Monday said the pandemic had a ‘very negative effect’ on children’s mental health, while another 39 percent said the pandemic’s mental toll on kids was ‘somewhat negative.’” The poll “follows recent survey data that shows a quarter of adolescent children between the ages of 11 and 18 had seen a mental health specialist over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

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— “A third of Americans say pandemic had ‘very negative effect’ on children’s mental health “Adam Barnes, The Hill, March 28, 2022

HealthDay (3/25) reported, “Psilocybin…is generating lots of interest as a potential treatment for a host of mental” health conditions, but a 40-study systematic review and meta-analysis revealed “there is little data on how it might interact with more traditional psychiatric medications.” The findings were published online March 7 in the journal Psychopharmacology. “ The current standard of care for these disorders involves treatment with psychiatric medications (e.g., selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), so it will be important to understand drug-drug interactions between MDMA or psilocybin and psychiatric medications.”

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— “‘Magic Mushroom’ Therapy: Does It Interact With Other Medicines? “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 25, 2022

The Washington Post (3/26, Harris) reported that based on a study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, “Medicare’s hospice regulations are not working as intended for many people with dementia, says” one of the study authors. According to the “study of 3,837 hospice patients with dementia, about 5% are pulled from hospice when their condition seems to have stabilized.” With no amendment to CMS’ current rules “in sight, hospice and palliative care workers are pushing for a different end-of-life model for people with dementia.”

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

Healio (3/25, Herpen) reported, “An analysis of more than 350,000 posts on the social media platform Reddit found many individuals used language to discuss non-suicidal self-injury similar to language used in diagnoses of substance use disorder,” investigators concluded. The findings were published online March 21 in the Journal of Behavioral Addictions. “ A majority (76.8%) of users endorsed at least two adapted SUD criteria in their posts, indicative of mild, moderate, or severe addiction. The most frequently endorsed criteria were urges or cravings (67.6%), escalating severity or tolerance (46.7%), and NSSI that is particularly hazardous. User-level addictive features positively predicted number of methods used for NSSI, number of psychiatric disorders, and particularly hazardous NSSI, but not suicidality.”

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— “Social media posters describe non-suicidal self-harm in similar terms to addiction “Robert Herpen, Healio, March 25, 2022