Kaiser Health News (3/30, Galewitz) reported that “after more than 2,000 Missouri children diagnosed with mental illness were shifted from traditional Medicaid into three for-profit managed-care companies,” there was “a doubling in the percentage who had thoughts of suicide or attempted suicide,” according to a report from the Missouri Hospital Association. The report also found that “the average length of stay for these children in psychiatric hospitals dropped from 10 days to seven following the Medicaid change in May 2017.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide risk great after Missouri Medicaid kids shifted to managed care, hospitals say, “Phil Galewitz, Kaiser Health News, March 30, 2019

HealthDay (3/28, Preidt) reports, “Children with autism may have trouble interpreting facial emotions in strangers, but” research indicates “some are as ‘in-tune’ with their mother’s expressions as kids without autism.” Included in the study were four- to eight-year-olds “with and without autism who viewed five facial expressions – happy, sad, angry, fearful and neutral – on both familiar and unfamiliar faces.” The study fond that youngsters “with high-functioning autism could read emotions on their mother’s faces just as well as those without autism.” The article does not disclose the number of study participants. The findings were published online in the journal Child Psychiatry & Human Development.

Related Links:

— “Kids With Autism ‘In Tune’ With Mom’s Feelings: Study, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 28, 2019

HealthDay (3/28) reports, “The risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among children and teens is higher if they think their response to a traumatic event is abnormal,” researchers concluded in a study that “included more than 200 children, aged eight to 17, treated at a hospital emergency department after traumatic incidents, such as car crashes, assaults and dog attacks.” The findings were published online March 25 in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Kids Can Get ‘Stuck’ on Traumatic Event, Leading to PTSD, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 28, 2019

CBS News (3/27, Welch) reports on its website researchers found “that women who use [marijuana] while pregnant could be putting their child at a slightly increased risk of psychosis.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Smoking marijuana while pregnant may raise risks for baby, “Ashley Welch, CBS News, March 27, 2019

In “Health & Science,” the Washington Post (3/26, Achenbach, Wan, Mettler) reports that 20 years ago, “about 29,000 people in the U.S. killed themselves, and by 2017 the toll had grown to more than 47,000.” Three recent high-profile suicides now “provide an opportunity to confront a national public health crisis as suicides become more common.” Investigators “who study suicide say the field is grossly underfunded,” and they also “say they have minimal understanding of who, exactly, is most at risk of suicide.” Commenting on two suicides among teen “survivors of the Parkland, Fla., school shooting of 2018,” Jane Pearson, “a suicide researcher at the National Institute of Mental Health,” observed that the “Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School students’” campaign “to end gun violence” was “an experience unique among mass shooting survivors, and the students operate amid great expectations and with many people watching them.”

Related Links:

— “Three tragic deaths reverberate across U.S. amid steady rise in suicides, “Achenbach, Wan, Mettler, The Washington Post, March 26, 2019