General Mental Health
- A new psychiatric hospital in Greenville will begin serving patients in eastern North Carolina later this month. ECU Health Behavioral Health Hospital is a new 144-bed facility intended to provide inpatient and intensive outpatient psychiatric services to adults and children; it will open with a 24-bed unit designated for pediatric patients. Since the plans for the Greenville hospital were announced in 2022, the for-profit behavioral health company has been investigated by a Congressional committee and the U.S. Department of Justice over its billing practices and treatment of patients. Read more here.
- The debate over how to deal with homelessness, drug addiction, and mental health issues has intensified in recent months — with a renewed focus on a controversial strategy of forcing people into treatment. The practice, known as civil commitment, has gained national prominence after President Trump issued an executive order in July embracing the approach. Massachusetts has used involuntary commitment for decades. While some people say it helped them, state data calls into question its effectiveness more broadly. Many addiction treatment providers and some former patients say it’s inhumane and can even be harmful. Read more here.
Youth Mental Health
- Preschoolers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were often prescribed medication shortly after diagnosis, despite guidelines that recommend six months of behavior therapy before pharmaceutical interventions, according to a retrospective analysis. Read more here.
Veterans’ Mental Health
- This cohort study found that, after increasing from 2006 to 2020 for Veterans with and without TBI, veteran suicide rates declined from 2020 to 2022. Government programs, such as the Prevention 2.0 Initiative, the Suicide Prevention Now initiative, or the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans, may be contributing to reductions in suicide. Evaluation of these potential impacts is critical as the government considers budget cuts to VA programs. Read more here.
Older Adult Mental Health
- Physical decline is a common lead-up to depression among older Coloradans, especially for those who were active on the ski slopes, rivers and hiking trails. It’s also one of the reasons that the suicide rate among older people is higher in Colorado than the rest of the nation, with more than one-third of suicides in Colorado among people age 55 and over. The suicide rate among older Coloradans has not budged in a decade, even as the teen suicide rate has dropped to its lowest in 18 years. It’s a growing concern because Colorado is getting older — by 2050, one-quarter of the population is projected to be over the age of 60. Read more here.
- More than 60% of Medicare enrollees with opioid use disorder are getting substandard care, according to a new study in Health Affairs. Opioid use is a growing health problem for older adults in the U.S. Drug overdose deaths for people age 65 and older increased 11.4% between 2022 and 2023, per Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, which is the largest increase of any age group that year. Read more here.
Research Studies
- The results of this cross-sectional survey study suggest that adolescents and young adults with SUDs rarely received treatment. Adolescents are especially vulnerable to treatment gaps once reaching young adulthood, and medications for opioid use disorder are systematically underused, especially for adolescents. Read more here.
- This randomized clinical trial found that scalable digital well-being training modestly improved Mexican HCP distress and well-being compared with a wait-list condition. As HCPs are essential to public health and report high levels of distress that interfere with their ability to provide optimal care, well-being training may be an avenue to better supporting health care professionals (HCPs). Read more here.
- In this study, cancer survivors were significantly more likely to take medications for depression and anxiety compared with noncancer survivors, underscoring the importance of mental health in cancer. However, our findings suggested disparities associated with this, with non-Hispanic Black patients exhibiting decreased use. Read more here.
- In this study of U.S. regular Army enlisted soldiers during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Special Operations Forces (SOF) operators were less likely than other soldiers to engage in suicidal behavior, but it was more likely to be fatal when they did. Larger studies are needed to understand suicide risk among female operators. Read more here.
- A multinational collaboration of researchers reports that psychiatric spousal resemblance across nine psychiatric disorders appears consistent and persists across birth cohorts for roughly 90 years in a sample of over 14 million. Read more here.
Federal Policy
- The House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee is planning to mark up legislation that would extend a slate of expiring health care provisions, subcommittee Chairman Morgan Griffith said. Griffith, R-Va., noted the bipartisan support for legislation as members look to prevent provisions from expiring as the end of the fiscal year approaches on Sept. 30. An aide said the panel is still finalizing the exact lineup. Read more here.
Manage Cookie Preferences