U.S. News & World Report (1/2, Newman) reports US adults “diagnosed with arthritis commonly reported frequent mental distress and depression in 2017, according to a new federal study.” Patients in Kentucky “reported the highest frequency of mental distress, those in Oklahoma had the highest history of depression, and those in Hawaii had the lowest prevalences for both.” Researchers “used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to ‘estimate state-specific prevalence of frequent mental distress and history of depression among adults with arthritis’ in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the study” published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Related Links:

— “Mental Distress Most Common Among Arthritic Adults in Appalachia, South, ” Katelyn Newman, U.S. News, January 2, 2020

The AP (1/1) reports that CMS has “approved Indiana’s request to use Medicaid funding to provide expanded services to residents diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.” The agency “authorized the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to use those funds to pay for short term care for patients admitted at large institutions for mental disease, rather than continuing to limit treatment to facilities with fewer than 16 beds.”

Related Links:

— “US OKs Medicaid funds for large mental health facilities, AP, January , 2020

The Christian Science Monitor (12/31, Kuz) reported that currently, nearly “70% of veterans who take their own lives use a firearm…and one-third of former service members store guns loaded and unlocked in their homes.” Because of this, “the VA has sought to promote firearm safety as part of its campaign to reduce suicide risk, urging veterans to consider precautions that include gun locks, removing a gun’s firing pin, or storing firearms outside the home.” Such “safety measures can slow a person’s ability to follow through on suicidal thoughts and preempt an irrevocable choice, explains Matt Miller, the VA’s acting director for suicide prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Can veterans lead the way on preventing suicide?, ” Martin Kuz , The Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 2019

HealthDay (12/31, Preidt) reported that on its own, “opioid addiction is tough enough to beat, but new research shows that having an accompanying methamphetamine habit may make quitting” much harder. After looking at “799 people receiving opioid addiction treatment at three sites in Washington State,” investigators “found that methamphetamine use was associated with a more than twofold higher risk of dropping out of treatment for opioid addiction.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the February issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Related Links:

— “Opioid-Meth Habit Particularly Hard to Break, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 31, 2019

The New York Times (12/30, Chokshi) reports researchers “found that opioid deaths were about 85 percent higher among people of prime working age – 16 to 65 – in counties where automotive assembly plants had closed five years earlier, compared with counties where such factories remained open.” The study, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggests that the closure of automotive factories “may have contributed to a rise in local opioid overdose deaths in recent years.”

Newsweek (12/30, Gander) reports researchers examined data between 1999 and 2016 from 112 industrial counties largely in the Midwest and the South. During the study period, “29 counties were affected by a plant closure, while 83 counties weren’t.” The researchers found that “plant closures were followed by a statistically significant increase in deaths due to opioids overdoses. After five years, mortality rates increased by 8.6 deaths…per 100,000 in such regions, compared with areas not hit by a factory shutting down,” which “amounted to an 85 percent increase.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Deaths Rise When Auto Plants Close, Study Shows, ” Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times, December 30, 2019