In an opinion piece for The Hill (6/11), psychiatrists Brian Barnett and Andrew Carlo, along with American Psychiatric Association immediate past president Bruce Schwartz, write that Americans now must “contend with a deadly virus, the worst unemployment since the Great Depression and isolating lockdown measures, as well as the national trauma of George Floyd’s horrific death at the hands of police.” They continue, “To help overcome the effects of this emotional onslaught on our minds, making high-quality mental health and addiction treatment services available to anyone who needs them is essential. For this to occur, insurers’ longstanding discrimination against those with mental illness and addiction must end. Now, as Congress considers passage of the Mental Health Parity Compliance Act, bipartisan legislation to improve mental health parity law enforcement and transparency, reaching that goal might soon become easier.”

Related Links:

— “America’s mental health is under siege — Congress can help now, “Brian Barnett, Andrew Carlo And Bruce Schwartz, The Hill, June 11, 2020

Medscape (6/11, Boerner, Subscription Publication) reports, “Women pregnant during the pandemic are twice as likely as their pre-COVID-19 counterparts to meet the criteria for major depressive disorder or anxiety disorder, according to a recent study conducted in Quebec, Canada.” The study published in Acta Obstetricia et Gynecologica Scandinavica “found that women pregnant during the pandemic were more likely to experience symptoms of severe depression and anxiety, more negativity and less positivity, and greater changes in cognition and mood than women who were pregnant before the pandemic, even after they controlled for gestational age, income, history of psychiatric diagnoses, and education.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Hill (6/9, Hellmann) reports researchers found “some people with substance use disorders have increased their usage during the pandemic, according to a survey” conducted by the Addiction Policy Forum. In the survey, 20 percent of respondents “said they or a family member have increased substance use since COVID-19 began.”

Related Links:

— “Substance use up amid pandemic: survey, “Jessie Hellmann, The Hill, June 9, 2020

Psychiatric News (6/9) reports, “Taking choline supplements during pregnancy may reduce the negative impact of viral respiratory infections on offspring,” investigators concluded after comparing “choline levels measured at 16 weeks’ gestation in 36 pregnant women who had developed moderate to severe respiratory infections by week 16 with 53 mothers who reported no” infections. The findings were published online ahead of print in the September issue of the Journal of Psychiatric Research.

Related Links:

— “Prenatal Choline Supplements May Protect Offspring if Mother Contracts Viral Infection, Psychiatric News, June 9, 2020

HealthDay (6/8, Norton) reports researchers found that visits to the emergency department at the Cleveland Clinic “for suicidal ideation dropped by over 60% in the month after [Ohio] instituted its stay-at-home order.” Dr. Baruch Fertel of the Cleveland Clinic, the study’s senior researcher, said, “The question is: Where are these patients now? Are they just brushing off their problems? Are they getting help through telemedicine instead?” The findings were published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Fewer Suicide-Related ER Visits in COVID Era, and That Has Experts Worried, ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, June 8, 2020