Support Our Work

Please donate so we can continue our work to reduce the stigma of psychiatric illness, encourage research, and support educational activities for behavioral health professionals and the public. Ways you can donate and help are on our Support and Donations page. Thank you!

More Info

Latest News Around the Web

Local Changes In Opioid Prescription Rates Appear Not To Affect Odds Of Heroin Misuse Or Dependence, Data Suggest

Psychiatric News (12/8) reports, “Local changes in opioid-dispensing rates have a direct effect on individuals’ misuse and dependence on prescription opioids, but they do not affect the odds of heroin misuse or dependence,” investigators concluded after analyzing “2006-2016 data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which surveys about 70,000 individuals aged 12 and older annually, as well as CDC data on county-level opioid dispensing.” The study team then “specifically focused on whether county-level dispensing rates affected respondents’ substance use, frequency of use, and prescription opioid or heroin dependence.” The findings were published online Dec. 8 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Reduced Opioid Dispensing Found to Stem Opioid Misuse While Not Increasing Heroin Use, Psychiatric News, December 8, 2021

Suicidal Ideation Increasingly Affecting Younger Children Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, Data Show

USA Today (12/8, Keveney) reports suicidal ideation “is increasingly affecting young children.” USA Today adds, “At emergency rooms in 38 children’s hospitals across the nation, the number of suicide and self-injury cases in the first three quarters of 2021 was 47% higher among 5- to 8-year-olds and 182% higher among 9- to 12-year-olds than they were for the same period in 2016, according to statistics compiled by the Children’s Hospital Association.” The increasing rates “among children reflect a growth in the suicide rate among Americans of all age groups, which rose every year from 2006 to 2019, when more than 47,000 people died from suicide, according to the American Psychiatric Association.”

Related Links:

— “More young children are killing themselves: The COVID-19 pandemic is making the problem worse “Bill Keveney, USA TODAY, December 8, 2021

Surgeon General Warns On “Devastating” Mental Health Effects Young People Are Facing

According to the New York Times (12/7, Richtel), on Dec. 7, in a “rare public advisory,” US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy, MD, MBA, “warned that young people are facing ‘devastating’ mental health effects as a result of the challenges experienced by their generation, including the coronavirus pandemic.” Murthy, “in a 53-page report [PDF],” delineated how “the pandemic intensified mental health issues that were already widespread by the spring of 2020,” citing “significant increases in self-reports of depression, anxiety and emergency-room visits for mental health challenges.” For example, in the US, emergency department “visits for suicide attempts rose 51 percent for adolescent girls in early 2021 as compared to the same period in 2019,” while “the figure rose four percent for boys.”

Related Links:

— “The pandemic worsened young people’s mental health crisis. ” Matt Richtel, The New York Times, December 7, 2021

Harm Reduction Strategies Will Be Eligible For Federal Grants Under $30M, Three-Year Program Announced By Biden Administration

MedPage Today (12/8, Frieden) reports, “Harm reduction strategies, including syringe service programs and use of fentanyl test strips, will be eligible for federal grants under a $30 million, three-year program announced” on Dec. 8 “by the Biden administration.” What’s more, “in addition to the harm reduction grants – which will be given at a rate of $10 million per year for three years – the administration also released model legislation for states that want to start up or refine their syringe service programs, formerly known as needle exchange programs.” Click here to read more about the grant funding opportunities.

Related Links:

MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Anorexia Nervosa Diagnoses, Hospitalizations Among Children And Adolescents Rising During COVID-19 Pandemic, Research Indicates

Forbes (12/7) contributor Anuradha Varanasi writes research “shows there was an almost 66 percent jump per month in anorexia diagnoses among girls between the ages of 9 to 18 years during the first wave of the pandemic.” What’s more, researchers “further observed that the number of hospitalizations for” patients newly diagnosed with anorexia “nearly tripled compared with pre-pandemic rates.” The study, published in JAMA Network Open, included “1883 children and adolescents with newly diagnosed anorexia nervosa.”

Related Links:

— “Anorexia Cases Among Children & Teens Have Risen During Covid-19: Study “Anuradha Varanasi, Forbes, December 7, 2021

Foundation News

Nothing Found

It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.