Bloomberg Law (12/28, Reed, Subscription Publication) reports behind a paywall, “States can integrate behavioral health services into their Medicaid programs under a new option meant to help people experiencing mental health or substance use crises,” the Biden Administration announced on Tuesday. Furthermore, the option “will allow states to support mobile crisis intervention services, which connect users to a behavioral health specialist on call.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Support to Get Expansion Under New Medicaid Option “Allie Reed, Bloomberg Law, December 28, 2021

MedPage Today (12/28, Gever) reports government survey data indicate that “among daily smokers followed for up to 5 years – all reporting at study enrollment that they intended to keep smoking and that they weren’t using e-cigarettes – 28% of those who started daily e-cigarette use then discontinued regular cigarettes…compared with a 5.8% quit rate…for those who never used nicotine vaping products.” According to the findings, published in JAMA Network Open, “a similar pattern was seen for the outcome of stopping daily cigarette smoking…with some 46% of those who took up e-cigarettes becoming intermittent smokers, versus 10% of smokers who avoided e-cigarette use during follow-up.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (12/23) reported, “Black patients continue to be at greater risk of physical or chemical restraint during an emergency psychiatric evaluation than white patients,” researchers concluded after analyzing data from “electronic medical records of adults 18 years and older who received an emergency psychiatric evaluation at Duke University Hospital in Durham, N.C., over a six-year period.” Included in the study were “a total of 12,977 unique emergency psychiatric encounters.” The findings were published online Dec. 21 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Black Patients More Likely to Be Restrained During Emergency Psychiatric Evaluation, Psychiatric News, December 23, 2021

Healio (12/27, Gramigna) reports, “People with schizophrenia spectrum disorders appeared to have increased risk for perpetrating violent outcomes compared with community control individuals,” investigators concluded in a 24-study, 51,309-participant systematic review and meta-analysis, the findings of which were published online Dec. 22 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Schizophrenia spectrum disorders tied to increased risk for perpetrating violence “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 27, 2021

Healio (12/23, Herpen) reported, “Use of antipsychotic medication in psychiatric patients led to decreases in assault risk against personnel within emergency settings,” researches concluded after analyzing data on medication orders “as well as assault incident reports…culled from electronic health records based on 17,056 total visits by 9,870 individual patients to urban psychiatric emergency locations over more than 1.3 million hours during a five-year period from January 2014 to December 2019.” The findings were published online Dec. 14 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotics linked to decreased assault risk for emergency personnel “Robert Herpen, Healio, December 23, 2021