General Mental Health
- You likely have experience with text-to-talk, a technology that converts texts into audio to make content accessible for people with disabilities. How about text-to-therapy? A JAMA Network study shows it might be just as helpful for those battling depression. In fact, the convenience of text therapy, which allows users to respond and interact with their therapist throughout the day, is shown to be just as effective as video-based therapy. Read more here.
- Kirat is one of thousands of children carrying an invisible weight: anxiety for his parent’s well-being and the fear that they may not come home. These sons and daughters of immigrant, mixed-citizen, and noncitizen families—some of whom were born on U.S. soil, others who arrived as children—are being harmed by increasingly punitive immigration enforcement efforts. Psychiatrists say this campaign is causing an epidemic of fear and trauma which not only impacts children’s physical and emotional well-being today but has grave implications for their future. Read more here.
- Immigration policy in the United States is a source of chronic fear, instability, and trauma for millions of immigrants, with the expansion of enforcement mechanisms transforming daily life for families and children. Psychiatry cannot remain on the periphery. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- Recent research has focused on the troubling relationship between nighttime screen use and suicide risk in youths. A study presented at the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry meeting in October garnered media attention after the mother of a 10-year-old Virginia girl, who died by suicide last year, advocated for awareness of kids' nighttime cell phone use. Read more here.
- A new study suggests there may be a so-called "Goldilocks" time frame in which kids may face less risk when they use social media. The time frame doesn't cut out social media use completely but suggests there is an amount of time that is "just right" for kids to use it, a reference to the phrase Goldilocks uses in the fairy tale of the same name. The study from Australia, published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics, suggests there may be a certain amount of time that can benefit kids and their mental health and estimates that it is less than two hours a day, on average. Read more here.
Mental Health Insurance Coverage
- A new lawsuit alleges that an insurer’s ghost network hindered New York City employees from accessing the mental health care they sought — and harmed the reputation of psychiatrists wrongly listed as being in-network. Read more here.
- With the deadline for making pandemic-era telehealth flexibilities permanent looming at the end of the month, the American Medical Association (AMA) issued a brief aimed at convincing lawmakers to take action. "Since the COVID-19 public health emergency, Congress has repeatedly extended telehealth flexibilities for Medicare patients -- often at the last moment -- creating uncertainty for millions of patients and their physicians," said AMA President Bobby Mukkamala, MD in a press release. Read more here.
The Opioid Crisis
- The number of drug overdose deaths continued to fall in 2025, albeit at a slower pace than the year prior, new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows. The data projects that nearly 73,000 people died of a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending August 2025, a decline of roughly 21% relative to the year ending August 2024. Read more here.
Research
- This study characterized trends in outpatient mental health care among FFS beneficiaries over a five-year period of unprecedented health care disruptions. Before the pandemic, only 2.1% of services were delivered via telehealth. After the pandemic, this share was 42.9%. Nevertheless, total service utilization remained stable, suggesting telehealth visits have been largely substitutionary. Read more here.
- In this representative sample of U.S. high school students, we found further evidence that bullying was associated with increased likelihood of suicide attempt and identified that female students may be disproportionately affected by it. While some evidence-based interventions have been identified to address adolescent suicide and bullying individually, few interventions target both or are developed for the school setting. Read more here.
Health Insurance Subsidies
- Mathew asked NPR not to use his full name because he fears repercussions from his health insurance company if it finds out he got married to obtain coverage. He is not the first American to marry for affordable health insurance, and he won't be the last. Especially before the Affordable Care Act, marriages, delayed divorces, and job decisions were often tied to private health insurance since it usually required you or a spouse to have a job with benefits. Read more here.
- Democrats sent Republicans a proposal to renew enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies for three years, paired with extensions of other expiring health programs, sources said. Read more here.
- Congressional negotiators are working to revive the health care deal that was dropped from a government spending package in late 2024 — but the odds of resurrecting enhanced Obamacare subsidies as part of the effort appear dire. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- In a video posted to social media, President Trump announced an outline for new health care legislation. The plan does not include a remedy for people who buy their health insurance on HealthCare.gov, some of whom are facing sky-high premium hikes this month. Read more here.
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