According to HealthDay (9/14), “Transgender people have an elevated risk for chronic conditions versus their cisgender counterparts,” a report published in Health Affairs suggests. Investigators “found that disparities were documented between transgender and cisgender people across most conditions, with an elevated risk for all chronic conditions for transgender people versus their cisgender counterparts.”

Related Links:

— “Elevated Risk for Chronic Conditions Found for Transgender People, HealthDay, September 14, 2021

Healio (9/14, Keenan) reports, “When used correctly, electroconvulsive therapy can be associated with lower all-cause mortality,” suggests “the first nationwide cohort study using Medicare claims data.”

Psychiatric News reports research indicates that “patients aged 65 or older who received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) while hospitalized for a psychiatric disorder” appeared “to have a lower rate of death in the year following discharge than similar patients who did not receive ECT while hospitalized.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion in a study that “included 10,460 ECT patients and 31,160 control patients who were matched based on such characteristics as age, gender, and number of psychiatric hospitalizations in the previous year.” The findingswere published online Sept. 10 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Electroconvulsive therapy correlates with lower all-cause mortality “Julie S Keenan, Healio, September 14, 2021

NPR (9/9, Hanson) reports a recent Center for American Progress report found “that nearly half of transgender people have experienced mistreatment at the hands of a medical provider.” Study researchers said transgender people are systemically underserved by the U.S. medical system.

Related Links:

— “The Pervasiveness Of Transgender Health Care Discrimination “Brit Hanson, NPR, September 9, 2021

Healio (9/13, Gramigna) reports, “Opioid overdose death rates increased among non-Hispanic Black individuals between 2018 and 2019, despite having leveled off overall,” investigators concluded after evaluating “trends in opioid overdose deaths according to race/ethnicity between 2018 and 2019 across 67…communities in Kentucky, New York, Massachusetts and Ohio, for which they determined opioid overdose death rates per 100,000 adult residents using state death certificate records.” The findings were published online Sept. 9 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Opioid overdose death rate increases 40% among Black individuals “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 13, 2021

The Washington Post (9/13, Paúl) reports research indicates that “nearly half of the country’s college-age students said they consumed marijuana last year, leading researchers to wonder whether the pandemic may have spurred the record in cannabis consumption.” Investigators arrived at this conclusion after conducting the 2020 “Monitoring the Future” survey “online, querying about 1,550 young adults between March 20, 2020, and Nov. 30, 2020 – after the coronavirus pandemic had hit the United States.” Investigators found that “44 percent of college students reported using marijuana in 2020, an increase from 38 percent in 2015,” while “reported alcohol use among college students dipped from 62 percent in 2019 to 56 percent, with the number of them reporting being drunk in the past month decreasing to 28 percent from 35 percent last year.” The Hill (9/13, Oshin) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)