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

Psychiatric News (1/31) reports, “There was a significant drop in the rate of mental health care use among adults with severe mental illness during the first months of the pandemic, according to a report in JAMA Network Open.” These study “findings were based [on] data collected from more than 650,000 Medicare beneficiaries with schizophrenia or bipolar I disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Pandemic Disrupted Mental Health Care for Medicare Beneficiaries With Severe Mental Illness, Psychiatric News, January 31, 2022

MedPage Today (1/31, Wu) reports, “Young people in the U.S. lost more than 1 million cumulative years of life to unintentional drug overdoses from 2015 to 2019, according to a new analysis.” The findings were published in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (1/28) reported, “Recreational ketamine use appears to be associated with depressive symptoms in youth,” researchers concluded after examining “data from 15,673 youth who participated in the Monitoring the Future survey, an annual survey administered to middle- and high-school students in approximately 130 public and private schools in the 48 contiguous states.” The study also revealed that “the higher the dose of ketamine and more frequent use, the higher the risk of depression.” The findings were published online Jan. 25 in the American Journal on Addictions.

Related Links:

— “Illicit Ketamine Use Linked to Depression in Youth, Psychiatric News, January 28, 2022

NBC News (1/30, Carroll) reports a systematic review involving 10 meta-analyses “on the impact of cannabis on young’s people’s cognition found that many of the known learning and memory difficulties – such as slowed processing speed, and difficulties in focusing – could linger for weeks.” The review revealed that “verbal learning, retention and recall were especially affected for longer periods when the person was no longer high.” The findings were published online in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Marijuana use may cause cognitive impairment even when not still high “Linda Carroll, NBC News, January 30, 2022