Congressional Quarterly (10/4, Williams, Subscription Publication) reports “opioid use among Medicare patients has fallen by 18 percent in recent years but remains widespread.” Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC) experts reviewed data “showing nearly one in three enrollees in the government health program filled at least one opioid prescription in 2016.” Rachel Schmidt, a principal policy analyst for MedPAC, said, “Even though it’s cut back some, it’s still a lot of people.” The commission sees a need for better opioid tracking at hospitals and is expected to final recommendations due to Congress in March.

Related Links:

— “Congressional Quarterly, Subscription Publication, October 4, 2018.

Oncology Nurse Advisor (10/2, Garbutt) reports on a study presented at 2018 ASCO Quality Care Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, finding that integrating “mental health professionals into the cancer care team can improve recognition and management of delirium in cancer patients.” For the study at the Cleveland Clinic, “psychiatrists, psychologists, and clinical social workers accompanied caregivers on multidisciplinary rounds to facilitate discussions about delirium and its management.” The findings appear in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Related Links:

— “Integrating Mental Health Into Multidisciplinary Oncology Care Improves Inpatient Care, “Tiffany Garbutt, PhD, Oncology Nurse Advisor, October 02, 2018.

Marc Siegel MD, professor of medicine and medical director of Doctor Radio at NYU Langone Health writes in an op-ed for The Hill (10/1) to discuss the rising suicide rates in the US, saying “the numbers are not subtle.” A report by the CDC found that “between 1999 and 2016 suicide rates increased in almost all states, with a greater than 30 percent increase in 25 states.” CDC’s Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control Dev Houry says research “demonstrates that many factors contribute to suicide beyond mental health conditions alone,” adding that “overdose misuse associated with the opioid overdose epidemic could be driving the suicide rate higher.” Siegel adds that “research has shown that talking about suicide not only doesn’t cause it to occur, but can also help prevent it, by breaking through an individual’s isolation and decreasing associated stigma.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide rates are rising across the US and the numbers are not subtle, “Dr. Marc Siegel, The Hill, October 01, 2018.

HealthDay (9/28, Dallas) reported, “For middle school students, witnessing school violence can be as bad as being bullied,” researchers concluded in a study that “involved nearly 4,000 students in Quebec.” The study revealed that children “who had seen physical assaults or someone carrying weapons in the eighth grade had a higher risk of drug use and delinquency later on.” The findings were published online Sept. 5 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Related Links:

— “Just Witnessing School Violence Can Leave Psychic Scars, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 28, 2018.

STAT (9/28, Robbins) reported that “several dozen companies” are now “probing patients’ DNA in search of insights to help inform decisions about what psychiatry medications patients should take,” and are even “touting applications for depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder.” Now, “some top psychiatrists say the evidence doesn’t support the commercial rush.” In fact, in a review published online April 25 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “a task force of the American Psychiatric Association’s research council concluded that such genetic testing is not ready for prime time in their field.” The members of the task force wrote, “Although some of the preliminary published data sound promising…there is insufficient evidence to support widespread use of combinatorial pharmacogenetic decision support tools at this point in time.”

Related Links:

— “In the race to use genetic tests to predict whether antidepressants will work, science might be getting left behind, “Rebecca Robbins, STAT, September 28, 2018.