Healio (12/22, Gramigna) reports, “Anxiety and depression levels during the COVID-19 pandemic reached their peak at its early stages then declined rapidly, likely because people adapted to circumstances,” investigators concluded after assessing “the trajectories of depression and anxiety over the 20 weeks following announcement of widespread lockdowns in England,” analyzing “data of 36,520 participants with three follow-up measures and no missing values who were included in the UCL COVID-19 Social Study. Weekly U.K. data from March 21 on anxiety were available from the Generalized Anxiety Disorder assessment and on depressive symptoms from the Patient Health Questionnaire.” The findings were published online Dec. 9 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Anxiety, depression highest during COVID-19 pandemic’s early stages, decreased since “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 22, 2020

Psychiatric News (12/21) reports, “Adults with no history of unhealthy alcohol use who undergo bariatric surgery to promote weight loss may be more likely to develop unhealthy alcohol use compared with adults who do not receive surgery,” investigators concluded after analyzing “electronic health record data from 2,608 veterans (75% male) who underwent a bariatric surgical procedure between October 1, 2008, and September 30, 2016.” The findings were published online Dec. 21 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Bariatric Surgery May Increase Risk of Unhealthy Alcohol Use, Psychiatric News, December 21, 2020

The Washington Post (12/18, Chiu) reports, “Headache specialists say many of their patients have reported new or worsening symptoms this year – an increase that is believed to be largely triggered by the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on stress, daily routines and access to care.” In addition, “headaches are also the most common neurological symptom of” COVID-19.

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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (12/21, George) reports researchers found in a retrospective study that people hospitalized with COVID-19 “who presented with altered mental state had significantly higher risk of in-hospital death, even when pulmonary problems were not severe.” The study was published in Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (12/18) reported, “Rates of comorbid major depressive disorder [MDD] and generalized anxiety disorder [GAD] are three times higher in people who have cannabis use disorder,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from eight articles from six epidemiological surveys published from January 1980 through July 2020” that included some “177,000 respondents.” The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Dec. 16 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Depression, Anxiety Three Times More Likely in People with Cannabis Use Disorder, Psychiatric News, December 18, 2020