HealthDay (5/9, Reinberg) reports researchers found in two studies published in JAMA Dermatology that psoriasis “is often coupled with depression, anxiety and even bipolar disease, schizophrenia and dementia.” In one study, “Danish researchers collected data on more than 13,600 men and women with psoriasis,” and “over five years of follow-up, 2.6% developed mental problems, and over 10 years, that number rose to nearly 5%.” In the other study, “Korean researchers looked at more than 12,700 psoriasis patients,” and “found that the risk for anxiety, phantom medical problems, neurotic disorders and sleep problems was doubled and tripled among psoriasis sufferers compared to those without the disease.”

Related Links:

— “Psoriasis, Mental Ills Can Go Hand in Hand, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, May 9, 2019

U.S. News & World Report (5/8, Howley) explains what delusions and hallucinations are and how they differ. Hallucinations “are based in the senses,” while “delusions revolve around concepts, ideas and beliefs that are strongly held in the mind.” Psychiatrist Philip R. Muskin, MD, “outgoing secretary of the American Psychiatric Association, describes delusions as ‘a fixed idea that’s not consensually held’ in the person’s culture, and ‘is not consistent with the world at large.’” Both “delusions and hallucinations” are “two facets of psychosis, a condition the National Institute of Mental Health defines as ‘conditions that affect the mind, where there has been some loss of contact with reality.’”

Related Links:

— “What’s the Difference Between Delusions and Hallucinations?, “Elaine K. Howley, U.S. News & World Report, May 8, 2019

The Detroit Free Press (5/8, Kovanis) reports on a study published in the JAMA Psychiatry which found that buprenorphine treatment is prescribed 35 times more frequently to white patients. The article says that the findings are “especially interesting because research revealed earlier this year showed a spike in the number of African American deaths tied to fentanyl, the ultra powerful opioid that’s being cut into heroin, cocaine and other drugs.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (5/8, Whelan) reports that the study examined over 13 million doctors’ visits during which the drug was prescribed from 2012 through 2015, and “found that 12.7 million of those visits were by white patients, compared to just 363,000 for all other races.”

HealthDay (5/8, Preidt) reports that investigators found “a large increase in the overall number of buprenorphine prescriptions written at outpatient clinic visits over the previous decade, but a decrease in the percentage of those visits where the patients were black.”

Related Links:

— “Poor, Minorities Shortchanged on Opioid Addiction Treatments, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May , 2019

Kaiser Health News (5/7, Dembosky) reports that methamphetamine use “is surging in parts of the US, particularly the West,” but policymakers “haven’t kept up, continuing to direct the bulk of funding and attention to opioids.” According to UCLA addiction psychologist Steve Shoptaw, stories regarding methamphetamine overdoses “are very much muffled by the much louder story about the opioid epidemic” among congressional lawmakers. Deaths related to methamphetamine use in San Francisco have doubled since 2011, and the city’s meth-related emergency room visits “have jumped 600% to 1,965 visits in 2016, the last year for which ER data is available.”

Related Links:

— “Meth Vs. Opioids: America Has Two Drug Epidemics, But Focuses On One, “April Dembosky, Kaiser Health News, May 7, 2019

Reuters (5/6, Rapaport) reports that “transgender adolescents may be less likely to be sexually assaulted when they can use school bathrooms and locker rooms that match their gender identity rather than their sex assigned at birth,” according to a study published online in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Trans teens face higher sexual assault risk when schools restrict bathrooms, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, May 6, 2019