Healio (9/23) reports that according to a Sept. 22 press release (9/22) from the “online behavioral healthcare company” Talkspace, responses from “a nationwide survey showed most employees who were considering leaving their jobs felt their employer had not properly focused on mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic.” The company “partnered with The Harris Poll to conduct the survey of 1,015 full-time employed adults aged 18 years or older in the U.S. between July 29 and Aug. 2.” The survey revealed that 67% “of participants considering leaving their job felt their employer had not met early pandemic promises to emphasize employee mental health, with 68% endorsing the statement, ‘My employer [said] employees should focus on ‘self-care’ but doesn’t provide the resources to do so.’”

Related Links:

— “Lack of mental health focus at work large factor when employees consider quittinge, Healio, September 23, 2021

USA Today (9/22, Hauck) reports, “More than 18 months into the COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., nearly 1 in 5 Americans is consuming an unhealthy amount of alcohol, a new survey suggests.” Approximately 17% of the respondents “reported ‘heavy drinking’ in the past 30 days, according to the survey commissioned by Alkermes, an Ireland-based biopharmaceutical company.” Experts say “stress of world events and anxiety about the future can increase drinking and exacerbate symptoms of alcohol use disorder, as seen in the wake of previous disasters such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.”

The Hill (9/22, Lonas) reports, “The survey defined ‘heavy drinking’ as having two days a week where a woman drank more than four drinks or a man drank more than five drinks.” Respondents “who said they drank heavily in the past year also reported a decline in mental, psychosocial and physical health.”

Related Links:

— “Americans are using alcohol to cope with pandemic stress: Nearly 1 in 5 report ‘heavy drinking’ “Grace Hauck, USA TODAY, September 22, 2021

According to Healio (9/22, Miller), deaths from overdose in the US “that involved psychostimulants other than cocaine – mostly methamphetamine – rose 180% in the last five full years before the COVID-19 pandemic,” researchers concluded after reviewing “data on methamphetamine use, methamphetamine use disorder…injection and frequency of use from 195,711 individuals aged 18 to 64 years…who participated in the 2015 to 2019 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.” The findings of the cross-sectional analysis were published online Sept. 22 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths involving methamphetamine nearly tripled prior to COVID-19 pandemic “Janel Miller, Healio, September 22, 2021

Healio (9/22, Gramigna) reports research indicates that “antipsychotic treatment did not increase risk for mortality among adults with serious mental illness diagnosed with COVID-19 infection.”

Psychiatric News (9/22) reports that included in the analysis were 464 adult patients “who were diagnosed with COVID-19 infection between March 3, 2020, and February 17, 2021, and who had a preexisting diagnosis of schizophrenia, schizoaffective disorder, or bipolar disorder.” Of this group, 196 were “treated with antipsychotic medication.” The findings were published online Sept. 22 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotics do not increase COVID-19 mortality risk “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 22, 2021

The Hill (9/21, Coleman) reports, “Physicians have prescribed 44 percent” fewer “opioids over the past decade, yet fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses have continued to climb, according to a new report [PDF] from the American Medical Association (AMA)” that “documented a 44.4 percent decrease in opioid prescriptions between 2011 and 2020, with a 6.9 percent reduction between 2019 and last year, with more” physicians “using prescription drug monitoring programs.” Nevertheless, CDC data revealed that “more than 93,000 people died of drug overdoses in 2020, including about 69,000 from opioid overdoses,” representing “a record high and an almost 30 percent increase in overall fatal overdoses from the prior year.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid prescriptions fell over past decade while drug overdose deaths climbed: AMA report “Justine Coleman, The Hill, September 21, 2021