Psychiatric News (7/13) reports, “Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) does not appear to significantly increase the risk of serious medical events in adults who are hospitalized for depression,” investigators concluded in a study that “compared more than 10,000 hospitalization records for adults with depression who received treatment at psychiatric inpatient facilities in Ontario, Canada, for more than three days between April 1, 2007, and February 28, 2017.” The findings were published online July 12 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Benefits of ECT May Outweigh Risks for Patients Hospitalized for Depression, Psychiatric News, July 13, 2021

HealthDay (7/13, Murez) reports, “Marriages can remain stable after something as challenging as a brain injury for one of the spouses,” investigators concluded even though “past reports have suggested that divorce rates were high among those who experienced traumatic brain injury (TBI).” In the study, researchers examined “more than 1,400 patients from a database of people hospitalized with TBI” and found that “66% of the patients with TBI remained married to the same person 10 years after the injury.” Approximately “68% of the marriages that did end did so within five years of the injury, including 39% within that first year.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.

Related Links:

— “Most Marriages Survive a Spouse’s Brain Injury “Cara Murez, HealthDay, July 13, 2021

MedPage Today (7/13, Grant) reports, “Opioid use disorder (OUD) treatment increased in Medicaid recipients from 2014 to 2018,” investigators concluded in an “analysis of Medicaid data from the 11 states that participated in the Medicaid Outcomes Distributed Research Network (MODRN) – Delaware, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wisconsin.” That analysis “included six of the 10 states that ranked highest in the nation for overdose deaths.” The study revealed that “the proportion of people with opioid use disorder who received buprenorphine (Buprenex), methadone, or naltrexone (Revia) increased from 47.8% to 57.1% across that period.” The findings of the “exploratory serial cross-sectional study” were published June 13 in JAMA.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (7/13, Preidt) reports that during the first 12 months of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S., “more than twice as many young people as is normal were hospitalized with eating disorders,” with the “highest rates of admissions per month” occurring “between nine and 12 months after the start of the pandemic,” according to data published in Pediatrics. Study researchers wrote, “These findings emphasize how profoundly the pandemic has affected young people, who experienced school closures, canceled extracurricular activities, and social isolation. Their entire worlds were turned upside down overnight.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitalizations for Teens With Eating Disorders Rose Sharply During Pandemic ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 13, 2021

HealthDay (7/12, Murez) reports researchers have “identified higher risks in nervous system, respiratory, musculoskeletal and metabolic diseases among individuals who have” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). For the study, investigators “identified more than four million full-sibling and maternal half-sibling pairs born between 1932 and 1995 through Swedish registers,” and these “participants were followed between 1973 and 2013.” The study revealed that “most strongly associated with” AD/HD “were alcohol-related liver disease, sleep disorders, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), epilepsy, fatty liver disease and obesity.” In addition, AD/HD was also associated with “a slightly increased risk of cardiovascular disease, Parkinson’s disease and dementia.” The findings were published online July 6 in The Lancet Psychiatry. HealthDay adds, “The American Psychiatric Association has more on” AD/HD.

Related Links:

— “Adults With ADHD May Face Higher Odds for Physical Illnesses: Study “Cara Murez, HealthDay, July 12, 2021