MedPage Today (2/2, Grant) reports, “Experts are warning that without urgent intervention, the U.S. will see more than 1.2 million fatal opioid-related overdoses during the next decade,” and consequently “are calling for immediate action to curtail the epidemic in North America.” The Stanford-Lancet Commission on the North American Opioid Crisis has created a “model of the opioid crisis” estimating that “there will be 1,220,000 fatal opioid overdoses in the U.S. from 2020 to 2029, underlining the value of their evaluations of the current crisis and recommendations for the future.” The commission has also “identified unique ‘domains’ of the epidemic and provided tailored recommendations for each one.” The executive summary, supporting documents, and a related editorial were published online Feb. 2 in The Lancet.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The Hill (2/2, Ali) reports, “Understanding rates of suicide can be tricky, as researchers in a new study initially found there was a decline in the overall number of intentional drug overdoses,” but after they isolated “data more finely, they found suicide rates actually went up for young people, Black women and the elderly.”

HealthDay (2/2, Thompson) reports, “Suicides by drug overdose have increased among teens, young adults and seniors, even as they declined for the overall population,” investigators from the US National Institute on Drug Abuse concluded. While “drug-related suicides declined for Americans in general during the latter part of the 2010s,” the “rates of suicide by overdose among 15- to 24-year-olds rose, as did those for 75- to 84-year-olds.” The findings were published online Feb. 2 in a research letter in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association (APA). HealthDay quotes Smita Das, MD, PhD, MPH, chair of the APA’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry, who said, “Young people are in a vulnerable age range, where their brains are still developing and factors like executive function and control are not in place yet,” which “can affect impulsivity and coping.”

Related Links:

— “Suicides by drug overdose increased among youth, elderly and Black women in last five years: study “Shirin Ali, The Hill, February 2, 2022

Modern Healthcare (2/1, Hellmann, Subscription Publication) reports, “More needs to be done to bolster the health workforce in response to a growing mental health and substance use crisis that the pandemic worsened, senators said during a hearing on Capitol Hill” on Feb. 1. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), “chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee” said, “If we keep stretching without taking action, something is going to break.” Legislators “have not yet issued a mental health bill, but it will likely address barriers to care including high costs, the dearth of health professionals and health insurance practices that limit access.”

Related Links:

— “Senators eye workforce fixes to improve mental health access “Jessie Hellmann, Modern Healthcare, February 1, 2022

Healio (2/1, Herpen) reports, “Biological rhythm factors unrelated to sleep influenced severity of symptoms of depression and anxiety for the period around childbirth,” investigators concluded in a study that “recruited 100 women, aged 16 years and older, in their third trimester of pregnancy, with no prior history of head trauma involving loss of consciousness or current major manic or depressive episodes, from Ontario between November 2015 and May 2018.” The study revealed that “higher symptoms for depression and anxiety were observed in the pre-birth interval and were most strongly associated with changes in biorhythm boundaries, such as strength of circadian rhythm, amount of activity during nightly rest and likelihood of smooth transition at night from resting to activity.” The findings were published online Jan. 18 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Lack of stable biorhythms linked to depression, anxiety in peripartum population “Robert Herpen, Healio, February 1, 2022

Kaiser Health News (2/1, Kreidler) reports that across the US, “college students are seeking mental health therapy on campus in droves, part of a 15-year upswing that has spiked during the” COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, “colleges and universities are struggling to keep up with the demand for mental health services.” At a time of “a nationwide shortage of mental health professionals,” institutions of higher learning are “competing with hospital systems, private practices, and the burgeoning telehealth industry to recruit and retain counselors.”

Related Links:

— “Colleges Struggle to Recruit Therapists for Students in Crisis ” Mark Kreidler, Kaiser Health News, February 1, 2022