General Mental Health Articles
- With just five weeks remaining until the election of the 47th U.S. president, more than half of Americans say protecting Medicare and reducing health care costs are among the most important issues influencing their choices at the ballot box, a new survey finds. What’s more, two-thirds of respondents think health care isn’t receiving enough attention in the 2024 campaign. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the importance of protecting Medicare and Social Security increased with age, with the vast majority of people 65 and older (84%) marking it a top issue, followed by nearly three-fourths (73%) of those ages 50 to 64, and half (50%) of those under 50. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- Arkansas sued YouTube and parent company Alphabet, saying the video-sharing platform is made deliberately addictive and fueling a mental health crisis among youth in the state. Attorney General Tim Griffin’s office filed the lawsuit in state court, accusing them of violating the state’s deceptive trade practices and public nuisance laws. The lawsuit claims the site is addictive and has resulted in the state spending millions on expanded mental health and other services for young people. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues
- During a panel discussion on the state of the opioid epidemic, former White House officials, advocates, and other policy experts called for more evidence-based prevention messaging, continued efforts to improve access to treatment, and an increased focus on vulnerable populations. Fatal overdose deaths fell by 10.6% from April 2023 to April 2024, the first decline of that magnitude in decades, according to CDC data. Read more here.
- When street fentanyl began spreading in the American street drug supply beginning in 2012, most experts believed the deadly synthetic opioid was unstoppable. Fentanyl is cheap, easy to make, and hugely profitable. The black market supply chain that feeds U.S. demand for the drug is operated by some of the most sophisticated and ruthless criminal gangs in the world. However, Ciccarone said that over the past six months, he began hearing from street drug experts around the U.S. who also were seeing significantly less fentanyl and fewer overdoses. Read more here.
- The number of fatal overdoses has declined rapidly in North Carolina over the last year — far outpacing how fast they've fallen nationally. Overdoses kill more than 100,000 people in the U.S. a year, but the number appears to be dropping quickly, Axios' Erica Pandey writes. The rate of deaths fell last year for the first time since before the pandemic, offering a hopeful milestone amid an epidemic that's ravaged the nation for over two decades. Read more here.
- Drug overdose deaths in New Jersey have seen a steady decline over the past year, swiftly surpassing a national decrease and showing signs that efforts to slow the spread of the illicit drug supply have improved, recent state and federal data shows. Statistics compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the predicted number of overdose deaths in the Garden State was 2,547 during a 12-month period from April 2023 to April 2024. Read more here.
Climate Change
- As the death toll from Hurricane Helene continues to rise, the urgent need to support survivors has prompted a nationwide call for help. Volunteers from across the country are mobilizing to assist. Officials have reported more than 100 deaths and say hundreds more remain unaccounted for after the devastating storm. Many New Englanders, including members of the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, are heading to affected areas. These volunteers are not only bringing essential supplies but also offering emotional support to those in need. The Red Cross’s disaster mental health teams, made up of psychologists and therapists, are on the ground to provide comfort alongside supplies. Read more here.
Gender-Affirming Care and LGBTQ Issues
- Iowa was part of a wave of states that passed laws related to transgender young people in the last two years. Currently, 26 states have laws on the books banning gender-affirming care for trans teens, and an estimated 110,000 trans teenagers live in states with bans in effect. Virtually all major U.S. medical organizations, including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics, support access to gender-affirming care for young people. Read more here.
- Exposure to conversion practices was associated with increases in several mental health symptoms for sexual and gender minority individuals, according to a cross-sectional study. "LGBTQIA+ individuals faced adverse mental health outcomes associated with exposure to conversion practices," co-author Nguyen K. Tran, PhD, MPH, of Stanford, told MedPage Today. "The findings underscore the need for protective policies, affirming mental health care, and supportive resources for LGBTQIA+ individuals exposed to these practices." Read more here.
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