Congressional Quarterly (2/21, Raman, Subscription Publication) reports, “Average Medicaid spending on opioid use disorder treatment increased 25.1 percent per year” since 2010, “with the fastest growth from 2014 to 2016,” according to an analysis conducted by the Urban Institute. The article says a contributing factor “is the expansion of eligibility.” Some 37 states have expanded Medicaid under the ACA. Data show that “between 2013 and 2017 in Medicaid expansion states, the amount Medicaid spent on opioid use disorder nearly tripled.” Meanwhile, Medicaid spending doubled in non-expansion states. The piece adds that between 2010 and 2017, “Medicaid spending on two of the three most common types of medication-assisted treatment to help people using opioids – buprenorphine and naltrexone – and the opioid overdose reversal drug naloxone jumped from $190 million to $887.6 million.”

Related Links:

— “Congresional Quarterly (Requires Login and Subscription)

The New York Times (2/20, Zraick) reports “most American teenagers — across demographic groups — see depression and anxiety as major problems among their peers, a new survey [of 920 teens] by the Pew Research Center found.” Results show “that 70 percent of teenagers saw mental health as a big issue,” and that “fewer teenagers cited bullying, drug addiction or gangs as major problems; those from low-income households were more likely to do so.”

Newsweek (2/20, Fearnow) says, “The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that one in five American kids ages 3 through 17 – or about 15 million people – have a diagnosable mental, emotional or behavioral disorder in any given year.”

Related Links:

— “Teenagers Say Depression and Anxiety Are Major Issues Among Their Peers, ” Karen Zraick, The New York Times, February 20, 2019

Healio (2/20) reports, “Adults with body dysmorphic disorder benefited from both cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] and supportive psychotherapy,” even though “CBT for body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) was associated with more consistent improvement in symptom severity and quality of life,” researchers found. The findings of the 120-patient study were published online Feb. 20 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed, “Important next steps for ensuring durable outcomes for the most people will be determining the essential elements for clinically significant improvement and how these elements produce change for different patients.”

Related Links:

— “CBT, supportive psychotherapy improve body dysmorphia severity,Healio, February 20, 2019

TIME (2/20, Park) reports Swedish researchers found that “mentally stimulating activities and physical exercise can independently lower people’s chances of developing many types of dementia, as well as Alzheimer’s disease.”

MedPage Today (2/20, George) reports, “Women who frequently engaged in cognitive activities – including artistic endeavors, reading, needlework, or social clubs – when they were ages 38 to 54 years were 46% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease in late life and 34% less likely to develop dementia,” researchers concluded in a “longitudinal study that spanned 44 years.” MedPage Today adds, “At multiple points in the study, psychiatrists or psychiatric research nurses performed neuropsychiatric examinations, using criteria from the” American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition Revised (DSM-III-R).”

HealthDay (2/20, Thompson) reports in the 800-woman study, researchers also found that “higher levels of physical activity reduced the risk of more vascular forms of dementia, regardless of how mentally active the women were,” whereas greater “levels of mental activity in midlife reduced the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, regardless of how physically active the women were.” The findings were published online Feb. 20 in Neurology. Also covering the study are Newsweek (2/20, Gander) and Healio (2/20, Tedesco).

Related Links:

— “Doing Physical and Mental Exercise When You’re Younger May Help Ward Off Dementia, “Alice Park, TIME, February 20, 2019

The AP (2/14, Neergaard) reports that researchers in a study “used a new technique to scan the brains of living people – and discovered that patients with depression had a lower density of synapses than healthy people the same age.” The AP adds, “The lower the density, the more severe the depression symptoms, particularly problems with attention and loss of interest in previously pleasurable activities, Yale neuroscientist Irina Esterlis said…at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.” The article does not disclose the number of study participants.

Related Links:

— “Researchers find clues that depression may speed brain aging, “Lauran Neergaard , AP, February 14, 2019