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How Extreme Weather Changes Affect Mental HealthHow Extreme Weather Changes Affect Mental Health, MP3, 1.0MB
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Latest News Around the Web
Cannabis Use During Adolescence, Young Adulthood Linked To Lower Academic Performance, Research Suggests
MedPage Today (10/7, Henderson ) reports, “Cannabis use during adolescence and young adulthood was linked to lower academic performance, a systematic review and meta-analysis suggested.” Researchers found that “among 63 studies that comprised 438,329 participants, moderate-certainty evidence indicated that cannabis use among individuals ages 24 years and younger was likely associated with lower school grades…as well as less likelihood of high school completion…university enrollment…and postsecondary degree.
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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)
Overdose Deaths Declining Sharply In US, Data Show
The Washington Post (10/7, Ovalle ) reports, “Overdose deaths appear to be declining sharply in the United States, a sign that efforts to combat the scourge of lethal fentanyl may be paying off even as experts caution that the toll remains unacceptably high and could rise again.” Preliminary data that were “compiled by states and released by the” CDC “show a 10 percent drop in deaths during the 12-month period ending in April, with about 101,000 people succumbing to overdoses.”
Researchers and public health officials “said the decline could reflect multiple forces, including widespread availability of the overdose-reversal medication naloxone, greater access to opioid addiction treatment, and law enforcement crackdowns on illicitly manufactured fentanyl, which had become the leading killer of 18-to-49-year-olds.”
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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)
Fatal, Nonfatal Drug Overdoses Experienced Decreases Of 10% To 20% From Last Year, Research Finds
Healio (10/4, Rhoades) reported, “Fatal and nonfatal drug overdoses experienced ‘unprecedented’ decreases of 10% to 20% from last year, which could be due to factors like increased naloxone availability, according to researchers.” The study findings “showed a precipitous decline in state-level overdose-related mortality figures, especially among states in the Eastern region.” The findings were published in a blog post in Opioid Data Lab.
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— “Fatal drug overdose deaths down as much as 10%, although reasons why remain unclear,” Andrew Rhoades, Healio, October 4, 2024
Minority Youth At High Risk Of Psychosis Who Live In More Diverse Neighborhoods Tend To Have Less Severe Positive Symptoms Than Those Surrounded By Less Diversity, Study Finds
Psychiatric News (10/4) said, “Minority youth at high risk of psychosis who live in more diverse neighborhoods tend to have less severe positive symptoms – such as unusual thoughts or grandiose ideas – than those surrounded by less diversity, reports a study.” The investigators “found that part of this association was because youth in diverse neighborhoods experience less perceived discrimination and less peer victimization such as bullying.” The findings were published in Psychiatry Research.
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— “Study Finds Neighborhood Diversity May Lessen Symptoms in Youth At Risk of Psychosis,” Psychiatric News, October 4, 2024
Growing Number Of Cannabis Users Enduring Serious Health Consequences
The New York Times (10/4, A1, Twohey , Ivory, Kessler ) reported that “from Washington State to West Virginia, psychiatrists treat rising numbers of people whose” cannabis use “has brought on delusions, paranoia and other symptoms of psychosis.” Meanwhile, “in the emergency departments of small community hospitals and large academic medical centers alike, physicians encounter patients with severe vomiting induced by the drug – a potentially devastating condition that once was rare but now, they say, is common.” According to the Times, “as marijuana legalization has accelerated across the country,” physicians “are contending with the effects of an explosion in the use of the drug and its intensity.” With more Americans “consuming more potent cannabis more often, a growing number, mostly chronic users, are enduring serious health consequences.”
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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)
Foundation News
Latest Foundation Ad Examines Reliving Trauma Via News and Events
Events and reports in the news can activate painful memories, causing people to relive and have to deal with abuse years after they thought they had successfully handled it via therapy or repression. A new public service ad by the Foundation is airing now that explores how someone to talk to, particularly a psychiatrist, can help cope.
Trauma: Never too late to speak, especially to a psychiatristTrauma: Never too late to speak, especially to a psychiatrist, MP3, 2.5MB
You can listen to the ad using the player in the upper right of the website’s homepage. All past public service spots are also available for listening or to download on our Radio Advertisements page.
This Is My Brave Project Added to Featured Websites
This Is My Brave (TIMB) has been added to our Links & Publications page. The goal of the non-profit aligns directly with our own here at the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry: to end the stigma surrounding mental health issues. They focus on sharing personal stories of individuals living successful, full lives despite mental illness through poetry, essay and original music, on stage in front of a live audience, through stories submitted and published to their blog, and via their YouTube channel.
Two of our directors, Dr. Komrad and Mr. Wiggins, recently attended a local event and reported the program was well-attended and very moving. TIMB has 17 more shows planned across the United states and 2 upcoming in Australia. You can find more information about the organization via their web site: https://thisismybrave.org/
Dr. Daniel Hale to Receive Anti-Stigma Advocacy Award
W. Daniel Hale, Ph.D. has been awarded the 2018 Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry Anti-Stigma Advocacy Prize for his op-ed, “We need to talk about depression” in the June 13, 2016 Baltimore Sun. The Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry Board of Directors chose the piece from among several nominees. Dr. Hale eloquently writes in a very personal way about his daughter’s depression and suicide and his own depression and successful recovery. His courage to speak openly about suffering may give others the courage to speak about their own, or their family’s experiences. Hiding depression only makes it harder to get help and delays recovery.
The award carries a $500 prize, which will be formally presented at the Maryland Psychiatric Society annual meeting on April 26.
The Foundation established this annual prize for a worthy piece published in a major newspaper (preferably local or regional) that accomplishes one or more of the following:
• Shares with the public their experience with mental illness in themselves, a family member, or simply in the community.
• Helps others to overcome their inability to talk about mental illness or their own mental illness.
• Imparts particularly insightful observations on the general subject of mental illness.
Foundation Radio Ad Looks At Mental Health after School Shootings
To date in 2018 there have been 18 school shootings, and the effects upon those who experience them as well as those fearing such a thing might happen to their school are real and long term. A new public service ad by the Foundation is airing now that explores how and why student, teachers, and parents may be acting as they are and how psychiatry can help them heal and get beyond the trauma.
Anxiety and Mental Health in Wake of School ShootingsAnxiety and Mental Health in Wake of School Shootings, MP3, 1.5MB
You can listen to the ad using the player in the upper right of the website’s homepage. All past public service spots are also available for listening or to download on our Radio Advertisements page.
PRMS Highlights Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry
Professional Risk Management Services, Inc. (PRMS) just posted a wonderful piece on its blog noting the many successful initiatives of the Maryland Foundation for Psychiatry. The information is also included in their Twitter and LinkedIn (see links below). PRMS has been a generous donor to the Foundation in addition to this excellent promotion of the significant role that it plays in our state.
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