MedPage Today (1/14, George) reported “hospitalized patients with COVID-19 and no prior history of dementia had elevated levels of brain injury biomarkers,” according to an observational study published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia. Investigators examined “data from 251 hospitalized COVID-19 patients without a history of dementia, assessing seven serum markers of neurodegeneration: t-tau, p-tau181, GFAP, NfL, UCHL1, amyloid beta 40, and amyloid beta 42,” and then compared the biomarker levels “with 161 controls without COVID-19, including 54 people with no cognitive impairment, 54 people with mild cognitive impairment, and 53 people with Alzheimer’s disease dementia.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

According to Psychiatric News (1/14), the FDA “has issued a Drug Safety Communication [PDF] about dental problems associated with the use of buprenorphine products that dissolve in the mouth (transmucosal) and is requiring that a new warning about the risk of dental problems be added to the prescribing information and patient medication guides for these products.” Among these dental problems are “tooth decay, cavities, dental abscesses/infection, tooth erosion, or tooth loss.”

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— “FDA Issues Warning About Dental Risk With Transmucosal Buprenorphine, Psychiatric News, January 14, 2022

Reuters (1/14, Goldberg) reported, “In just six months, 988 goes live as the shortcut to call or text the U.S. suicide hotline at a time when the pandemic is ramping up the need for mental health services,” however, “many states are lagging on the rollout, and some were struggling to cope with pleas for help even before the three-digit number was envisioned.”

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— “U.S. suicide hotline 988 is set to go live, but many states may not be ready “Barbara Goldberg, Reuters, January 14, 2022

The New York Times (1/13, Ghorayshi) reports, “Clinicians are divided over new” draft guidelines saying that transgender “teens should undergo mental health screenings before receiving hormones or gender surgeries.” This comes as “an upsurge in teenagers requesting hormones or surgeries to better align their bodies with their gender identities has ignited a debate among” physicians and other healthcare professionals “over when to provide these treatments.” In the new 350-page guidelines, a “chapter dedicated to adolescents says that they must undergo mental health assessments and must have questioned their gender identity for ‘several years’ before receiving” surgeries or medications, a stance that has divided “experts in transgender health” and reflects “a fraught debate over how to weigh conflicting risks for young people, who typically can’t give full legal consent until they are 18 and who may be in emotional distress or more vulnerable to peer influence than adults are.”

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— “Doctors Debate Whether Trans Teens Need Therapy Before Hormones “Azeen Ghorayshi, The New York Times, January 13, 2022

Healio (1/13, Herpen) reports, “The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic saw a drop in hospitalization for self-harm or overdose in adolescents and young adults compared to the two years before,” researchers concluded after culling “information from 1,690,733 young persons born between 1990 and 2006, in Ontario, Canada, aged 14 to 24 years between March 1, 2018, and June 30. 2021,” then breaking down data by frequency of emergency department “visits or hospitalizations due to either self-harm or overdose.” The findings were published online Jan. 12 in JAMA Network Open.

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— “Hospitalization for self-harm, overdose lower during start of pandemic vs. before “Robert Herpen, Healio, January 13, 2022