Psychiatric News (7/9) reports, “COVID-19–associated discrimination disproportionately impacted members of racial and ethnic minorities in the United States in March and April, and those individuals experienced increased mental distress,” investigators concluded in a 3,665-participant survey that revealed that “the overall percentage who said they had experienced COVID-19–associated discrimination doubled from 4% in March to 10% in April.” Researchers also found that “Asian Americans were at higher risk of COVID-19–associated discrimination in March, and the risk of COVID-19 discrimination among Black individuals increased from March to April.” The findings were published online July 6 in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Racial, Ethnic Minorities in United States More Likely to Experience COVID-19 Discrimination, Psychiatric News, July 9, 2020

Healio (7/7, Laday) reports, “Patients with fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis [OA] or rheumatoid arthritis [RA] are at an increased risk for self-harm, compared with those without these diseases,” investigators concluded after identifying “10,484 adults with ankylosing spondylitis, 17,546 with fibromyalgia, 410,384 with OA and 23,205 with RA,” then matching these cases “to an unexposed cohort of the same size for each condition.” The findings were published online in Arthritis Care & Research.

Related Links:

— “Patients with fibromyalgia, OA, RA at increased risk for self-harm, “Jason Laday, Healio, July 7, 2020

Cancer Network (7/8, Slater) reports, “An article published in Cancer discussed the risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in patients with breast cancer, as well as the role of inflammation and endocrine function.” In the “meta-analysis of 38 studies evaluating breast cancer diagnoses and treatment, it was determined that 10% of women develop PTSD after a diagnosis of breast cancer.” Furthermore, “a cancer diagnosis increases the lifetime risk of PTSD by a factor of 1.66 compared with those who have never been diagnosed with cancer.”

Related Links:

— “Recognizing Factors Contributing to PTSD May Improve Clinical Care in Patients with Breast Cancer, “Hannah Slater, Cancer Network, July 8, 2020

In a piece discussing pandemic-related mental health, The Atlantic (7/7, Stern) says that “one thing that is certain about the current pandemic is that we are not doing enough to address its mental-health effects. Usually, says Joshua Morganstein, the chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on the Psychiatric Dimensions of Disaster, the damage a disaster does to mental health ends up costing more than the damage it does to physical health.” But “in any case, the full extent of the fallout will not come into focus for some time. Psychological disorders can be slow to develop, and as a result, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry, which Morganstein helped write, warns that demand for mental-health care may spike even as a pandemic subsides.” Of COVID-19, Morganstein says, “If history is any indicator, we should expect a significant tail of mental-health effects, and those could be extraordinary.”

Related Links:

— “This Is Not a Normal Mental-Health Disaster , “Jacob Stern, The Atlantic, July 7, 2020

Healio (7/6, Gramigna) reports, “Physicians appeared more likely to exhibit resilience than the general U.S. working population,” investigators concluded after conducting “a cross-sectional national survey study of 5,445 U.S. physicians and a probability-based sample of 5198 individuals in the U.S. working population.” Researchers also “observed an inverse association with burnout symptoms; however, even among the most resilient physicians, burnout rates were substantial.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Physicians resilient, but still suffer burnout, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, July 6, 2020