STAT (9/13) carried an opinion piece by DJ Jaffe, executive director of Mental Illness Policy Org., who argues for greater utilization of assisted outpatient treatment. Jaffe wrote, “the most important and compassionate change the Trump administration and the federal government can make is to increase the number of psychiatric beds available to those who need them.” Furthermore, Jaffe advocates for eliminating Medicaid’s Institutes for Mental Disease exclusion, which “creates a financial incentive for states to deny hospital admission to people with serious mental illness, discharge them before they are ready, and close psychiatric hospital beds.” Jaffe adds that “extensive research shows that assisted outpatient treatment reduces homelessness, arrest, incarceration, and hospitalization by 70% or so and cuts costs to taxpayers by 50%,” and “is widely supported by advocates for the seriously mentally ill.” Assisted outpatient treatment “has been endorsed by the…American Psychiatric Association,” and other groups.

Related Links:

— “Wider use of assisted outpatient treatment could help individuals with mental illness, “DJ Jaffe, STAT, September 13, 2019

Psychiatric News (9/13) reported a study found “methamphetamine is involved in an increasing number of treatment admissions for heroin, especially among adolescents.” The findings, published in Addiction, involve “data from more than 3.5 million treatment admissions for heroin between 2008 and 2017.” The data show “in 2017, individuals aged 12 to 24 had the highest rates of admissions for heroin use involving methamphetamine of all the age groups examined: 27.8% of heroin treatment admissions for adolescents aged 12 to 17 years involved methamphetamine, and 17.4% of heroin treatment admissions for young adults aged 18 to 24 involved methamphetamine.” Heroin treatment admissions involving methamphetamine were higher for women than men, at 15.1 percent and 10.8 percent, respectively.

Related Links:

— “Methamphetamine Involved in Rising Number of Heroin Treatment Admissions, Psychiatric News, September 13, 2019

Reuters (9/12, Carroll) reports a new study suggests that “the sum total of taxes on alcohol doesn’t come close to paying the bills associated with excessive alcohol consumption in the U.S. The total damages from excess consumption add up to $2.05 per drink, while state and federal taxes bring in about $0.21 per drink, according to an analysis published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.”

Related Links:

— “Alcohol taxes not close to covering cost of drinking harms in the U.S., “Linda Carrol, Reuters, September 12, 2019

Psychiatry Advisor (9/12, Ranger) reports a study suggests “a pattern of increasing psychotic-like experiences (PLEs) during adolescence predicts greater risk of developing a mental disorder, particularly psychosis.” The study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry “discerned two clear-cut patterns: stable low levels of PLE frequency and a growing frequency of PLEs. In the latter group, 3.39% of patients transitioned to a mental disorder compared with 1.28% of the stable PLE group.” Meanwhile, “in individuals with increasingly frequent PLEs, the odds ratio (OR) was 2.7 for transition to any mental health disorder, while the OR for transition to psychosis was 22.14.”

Related Links:

— “Frequent Psychotic-Like Experiences in Youth Predict Future Psychiatric Illness, “Laurel Ranger, Psychiatry Advisor, September 12, 2019

HealthDay (9/12) reports a study indicates “autism rates among U.S. children are rising fastest among blacks and Hispanics.” The analysis showed “among children born between 2007 and 2013, autism rates at ages 3 to 5 rose 73% among Hispanics, 44% among blacks and 25% among whites.” The findings were published in Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Related Links:

— “U.S. Autism Rates Rising Fastest for Hispanics, Blacks, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 12, 2019