The Hill (10/19, Prieb) reports, “A group of pediatric organizations have declared a national emergency in children’s mental health,” drawing on “statistics from March through October 2020, which showed that the percentage of emergency” department “visits for mental health emergencies among children ages 5-11 rose by 24 percent – and by 31 percent for children ages 12-17.”

Modern Healthcare (10/19, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reports, “The American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s Hospital Association declared a national emergency in children’s mental health on” Oct. 19, asking “for more federal funding to ensure access to mental healthcare services, telemedicine, and more support for school-based care which often is the first point of care.”

Related Links:

— “Pediatric groups declare national emergency over children’s mental health “Natalie Prieb, The Hill, October 19, 2021

HealthDay (10/19, Thompson) reports, “Preschoolers with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “rarely receive the gold-standard treatment recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for their condition,” researchers concluded. That group “recommends a behavioral therapy technique called ‘parent training in behavior management,’ or PTBM, as first-line treatment for” AD/HD in children “ages four and five.” Just one of “every 10 children in that age group with an” AD/HD “diagnosis” or AD/HD-like “symptoms actually receive a referral for PTBM therapy, however,” researchers concluded after reviewing “medical records for more than 22,700 four- and five-year-olds treated by primary care” physicians. The findings were published online Oct. 18 in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Most Kids Newly Diagnosed With ADHD Aren’t Getting Best Care “Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, October 19, 2021

Healio (10/19, DeFino) reports, “A longitudinal study assessing illness progression in” 231 “patients with bipolar disorder [BD] and major depressive disorder [MDD]” revealed “a worsening of patient function with depressive episodes, but an overall improvement in functioning over five years.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the December issue of the journal Psychiatry Research.

Related Links:

— “Functioning worsens in patients with bipolar, MDD only during depressive episodes “Anthony DeFino, Healio, October 19, 2021

Healio (10/18, VanDewater) reports, “Depressive symptoms and clinically significant depression were frequent more than 12 weeks after SARS-CoV-2 infection,” researchers concluded after reviewing “six uncontrolled observational studies and two prospective cohort studies published between Jan. 1, 2020, and June 5, 2021, that examined reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction…-confirmed COVID-19 in conjunction with depressive symptoms and clinical depression.” The findings of the systematic review were published online ahead of print in the December issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Depression, depressive symptoms common in long COVID “Kalie VanDewater, Healio, October 18, 2021

Healio (10/18, Keenan) reports, “When observed over a 17-year period, the hospitalization and in-hospital mortality of hospitalizations with cocaine use disorder remained stable,” researchers concluded after “using the U.S. National Inpatient Sample…data from 1998 to 2014” to evaluate “time-trends in hospitalization rates and the predictors of health care utilization (total hospital charges, discharge destination, length of hospital stay) and in-hospital mortality for” cocaine use hospitalization. The findings were published online ahead of print in the December issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Rates of cocaine use disorder hospitalizations across 17 years were stable “Julie S Keenan, Healio, October 18, 2021