Latest Public Service Radio Minute
Loss of EmploymentLoss of Employment, MP3, 1.3MB
Listen to or download all our PSAsSupport Our Work
Please donate so we can continue our work to reduce the stigma of psychiatric illness, encourage research, and support educational activities for behavioral health professionals and the public. Ways you can donate and help are on our Support and Donations page. Thank you!
More InfoLatest News Around the Web
Many Patients Still Present High Risk Of Suicide Years After Discharge, Study Suggests.
The Washington Times (7/6, Kelly) reports a study published in the July issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association that “rates of suicide remain high for many years after discharge” from psychiatric facilities based on data from 100 worldwide studies between 1948 and 2016. Researchers suggest the study data shows “that hospitalized treatment, while providing a safe place for patients to explore the triggering factors that lead to their attempt of suicide or thoughts to attempt suicide, does not offer a quick fix in countering the multiple elements that drive people to the extreme of suicide.”
They instead advocate for long-term care methods. In an accompanying editorial, psychology professor Dr. Mark Olfson argues that “universal and continuing suicide prevention interventions are needed for patients after psychiatric hospital discharge.”
Related Links:
— “Lack of follow-up visits a factor in increase in suicide rates, study shows,” Laura Kelly , Washington Times, July 6, 2017.
CDC: Opioid Prescriptions Remain High Despite Recent Decline.
NBC Nightly News (7/6, story 7, 1:50, Guthrie) reported, “As this country battles the opioid drug crisis, the CDC reported today that far too many people are still being prescribed those highly addictive painkillers and for too long. The warning came despite the fact that the number of prescriptions was down actually over a five-year period.”
In “Health & Science,” the Washington Post (7/6, Bernstein) reports that the number of prescriptions written for opioid pain medications “declined between 2012 and 2015,” according to data by the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention. According to the Post, the data introduce “a glimmer of progress in efforts to quell the worst drug epidemic in US history.” According to CDC Acting Director Dr. Anne Schuchat, “It looks a little bit better, but you really have to put that in context. We’re still seeing too many people get too much for too long.”
The New York Times (7/6, Goodnough, Subscription Publication) reports that the CDC analysis found that the prescribing rate “fell by 18 percent between 2010 and 2015, though it increased in 23 percent of counties,” and is still “three times as high as in 1999, when the nation’s problem with opioid addiction was just getting started.” The analysis found “tremendous regional variation” in the prescription of opioids.
STAT (7/6, Joseph) reports that the analysis “found that every part of the country had counties that had much higher prescribing rates than others, which officials said was a sign that clinicians did not have standards to use or disregarded them when prescribing opioids for pain.”
Related Links:
— “Opioid prescriptions dropped for the first time in the modern drug crisis,” Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post, July 6, 2017.
Healthcare Overhaul Could Reverse Progress In Mental Health Access
NPR (7/9, Smart) reports in its “Shots” blog that a “little-talked-about” aspect of the Affordable Care Act was increased “access to mental health care for the poor.” The author says that for some individuals, “access to mental health care can mean the difference between” working and not working. In the article, several members of the mental health industry express concern that Medicaid “rollbacks” proposed by Congress could reverse the progress made for people suffering from mental illness.
Related Links:
— “For Many, Medicaid Provides The Only Route To Mental Health Care,” ALISON KODJAK, NPR, July 9, 2017.
Patients With Severe Affective Disorder Less Likely To Require Psychiatric Inpatient Readmission After ECT, Research Suggests.
MD Magazine (7/9, Bender) reported, “Patients with severe affective disorder are less likely to require psychiatric inpatient readmission within 30 days of discharge if they have received electroconvulsive therapy (ECT),” researchers found after analyzing data from “inpatient databases across nine states in” the US. The findings of the study, which included data on some 162,691 patients, were published online June 28 in JAMA Psychiatry.
Related Links:
— “ECT Reduces Hospitalizations Along with Depression,” Kenneth Bender, MD Magazine, July 9, 2017.
Lithium Significantly Reduced Suicidal Behavior Among People With BD
Healio (6/30, Oldt) reported that “lithium, but not valproate, significantly reduced suicidal behavior among individuals with bipolar disorder [BD],” researchers concluded after using “Swedish national register data to follow 51,535 individuals with bipolar disorder from 2005 to 2013 for treatment with lithium and valproate,” then tracking the number of “suicide-related events.” The findings were published online June 9 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.
Related Links:
— “Lithium superior to valproate for suicide in bipolar disorder,” Song J, et al., Healio, June 30, 2017.
Foundation News
Nothing Found
It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for. Perhaps searching can help.