Healio (5/13, Young) reports, “Vaccination for SARS-CoV-2 before and during pregnancy was not significantly associated with symptoms of postpartum depression, according to research.” Investigators came to this conclusion after evaluating “627 participants…from the CDC-funded Generation C…and NIH-funded Generation CSF…prospective pregnancy cohorts at Mount Sinai Health System.” The findings were presented at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “COVID-19 vaccination before, during pregnancy not linked to postpartum depression,”Kate Young, Healio, May 13, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/13) reports, “Adults who are incarcerated have nearly nine times the risk of dying by suicide within a year of their release than those who have never been in jail, according to a study.” Additionally, “the study…found that people who were released from jail within the year accounted for nearly 20% of all adult deaths by suicide.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Adults Recently Released from Jail Account for One in Five Adult Suicide Deaths, Psychiatric News, May 13, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/10) reported, “By combining high-powered microscopy with AI-guided illustration software, researchers reconstructed a 1 cubic millimeter fragment of living human brain tissue; these findingswere published in…Science.” The “detailed 3D rendering required 1,400 terabytes of data. By comparison, today’s high-end computer games typically contain around 0.1-0.2 terabytes of data.”

Related Links:

— “Researchers Reconstruct 3D Fragment of Human Brain, Psychiatric News, May 10, 2024

HealthDay (5/10, Miller) reported, “When folks in rural America need treatment for a substance use disorder, significant obstacles stand in their way, researchers say.” Specifically, “they are more likely to have to look outside their insurance network for care, resulting in higher out-of-pocket costs, according to a recent study published in the journal Health Services Review.” In the study, “compared to those in urban areas, rural patients were less likely to initiate treatment for disorders involving alcohol (37% versus 38%), opioids (41% versus 44%) or other drugs (38% versus 40%).”

Related Links:

— “Getting Help for Alcohol, Drug Abuse Tougher for Rural Americans,”Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay , May 10, 2024

Psychiatric News (5/9) reports that on Wednesday, “as the 2024 Annual Meeting wound down, outgoing APA President Petros Levounis, M.D., M.A., capped his presidential theme of ‘confronting addiction’ with a presentation titled ‘Technological Addictions: The New Frontier in Addiction Medicine.’” Levounis “outlined some of the parallels between technological addictions and substance use disorder (SUD) in terms of assessment, diagnosis, and treatment.” Levounis “said that technological addictions (such as video/internet gaming, cybersex, and online gambling addiction) have several characteristics in common with other addictions such as SUD.” Levounis “said that cognitive behavioral therapy is better suited to patients who already recognize they have a problem and want to address it.”

Related Links:

— “https://alert.psychnews.org/2024/05/technology-addictions-are-real-but.html, Psychiatric News, May 9, 2024