CNN (8/6, Thomas) reports the US has the most cases of SARS-CoV-2 and deaths from COVID-19. In addition, “the US population is also suffering more mental health consequences than people in other countries, according to a new report from the Commonwealth Fund released on Thursday.” Dr. David Blumenthal, president of the Commonwealth Fund, said, “As our country struggles with the surging number of cases and the economic havoc that the pandemic is wreaking, people in other countries are living a different, better reality. Americans should realize that our country can do better, too.”

Related Links:

— “Coronavirus stresses Americans more than others, study finds, “Naomi Thomas, CNN, August 6, 2020

Psychiatric News (8/6) reports, “The factors impacting adults’ feelings of loneliness change depending on their phase in life, suggesting there is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ intervention to reduce loneliness,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from the Adult Health Monitor Limburg 2016, a population-based health survey that monitors the self-reported health of adults in the Netherlands between the ages of 19 and 65.” Researchers “split the 26,342 adult participants into three groups: young (19 to 34 years), early middle-aged (35 to 49 years), and late middle-aged (50 to 65 years).” The findings were published online Aug. 6 in BMC Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Adults May Require Different Interventions for Loneliness Depending on Age, Psychiatric News, August 6, 2020

STAT (8/5, Isselbacher) reports, “As [COVID-19] drives many patients away from in-person care and toward virtual visits, experts warn that the nation’s most vulnerable members may be shut out of … telehealth.” “A pair of new studies published this week show that there are barriers to virtual visits that regulatory changes alone can’t fix.” One “paper, published in JAMA Internal Medicine, found that 1 in 4 Medicare beneficiaries were stranded on the far side of the digital divide in 2018, with neither a home computer with a high-speed internet connection or a smartphone with a wireless plan.” Another study, also published in JAMA Internal Medicine, “looked at [2018] data from more than [4,500] Medicare beneficiaries over 65 who were part of a national dataset,” and “found that 20% of those individuals were ‘unready’ to use telemedicine services due to difficulty hearing, seeing, or communicating, in addition to dementia.”

Related Links:

— “Telemedicine is booming — but many people still face huge barriers to virtual care, “Juliet Isselbacher, STAT, August 5, 2020

Psychiatric News (8/5) reports, “Children or teenagers with depression are more likely to have higher rates of anxiety and worse social functioning as adults than those without a history of depression,” researchers concluded in a study that interviewed “a total of 1,420 participants…up to eight times between the ages nine and 16 to assess for depressive disorders, associated psychiatric comorbidities, and childhood adversities (including low socioeconomic status, family dysfunction, abuse and neglect, and peer victimization) using the structured Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment.” Participants “were interviewed again at ages 19, 21, 25, and 30 using the structured Young Adult Psychiatric Assessment Interview for psychiatric outcomes and functional outcomes.” The findings were published online Aug. 3 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Adult Anxiety and Poorer Function Linked to Childhood Depression But Can Be Prevented, Psychiatric News, August 5, 2020

CQ Roll Call (8/5, Raman) reports there has been an increase in deaths by suicide in many communities across the US. Prior to the pandemic, “the nation’s suicide rate reached historic highs…with rates at the highest levels since World War II.” Back in April, a viewpoint piece published in JAMA Psychiatry described the prior trend of rising suicide rates and the coronavirus pandemic as a “perfect storm.” APA President Jeffrey Geller said, “We have people now who don’t know how to feed their family who have not had that thought for a very long time. That’s different than the last recession. There are masses of people who are quite worried today because they don’t know what is going to happen to their benefits. That kind of anxiety exacerbates fragility.”

Related Links:

— “Pandemic’s effect on already rising suicide rates heightens worry, “Sandhya Raman, CQ Roll Call, August 5, 2020