Publications on Mental Health Topics
988 Lifeline sees boost in use and funding in first months, by Rhitu Chatterjee, NPR, Jan 16 2023.
“The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline received over 1.7 million calls, texts and chats in its first five months. That's nearly half a million more than the old 10-digit Suicide Prevention Lifeline fielded during the same period the year before. Launched in mid-July last year, the 988 number is modeled on the 911 system and is designed to be a memorable and quick number that connects people who are suicidal or in any other mental health crisis to a trained mental health professional. "We see the uptick in volume as an indicator that more people are aware of the service and are able to access it," says Kimberly Williams, the president and CEO of Vibrant Emotional Health, the non-profit that oversees the national 988 network of nearly 200 crisis centers spread across the nation. ”
For adolescents, social media might be a brain-changer, researchers say, by Madeline Holcombe, CNN, Jan 3 2023.
“Frequent use of social media could be reshaping how adolescents’ brains develop, a new study found. Those who checked their platforms more often were more likely to be sensitive to general social rewards and punishments, according to the study published Tuesday. ”
Psychedelic drugs may launch a new era in psychiatric treatment, brain scientists say, by Jon Hamilton, NPR, Dec 27 2022.
“A study of mice found that psilocybin altered dendrites, the branch-like structures that extend from a nerve cell and receive input from other cells. Dendrites form connections through small protrusions known as dendritic spines. And in mice that got psilocybin, the size and number of these spines increased by about 10%, which allowed cells to form new connections. "When we give mice a single dose of psilocybin, we can see those new connections form within a day," Kwan says. "And then they can last more than a month," which is the equivalent of many months in a human. Brain plasticity may explain why a single dose of a psychedelic drug can have a long-lasting impact on disorders like anxiety, depression and PTSD. "It can be months or years," says Dr. Gitte Knudsen a neurologist from University of Copenhagen in Denmark who spoke at the psychedelics session. "It's a stunning effect." These long-term effects have been shown with drugs including psilocybin, LSD and DMT (ayahuasca), Knudsen says. In contrast, most existing psychiatric drugs need to be taken every day. ”
Mental health-related emergency department visits and revisits are on the rise among children, study finds, by Jacqueline Howard, CNN, Dec 27 2022.
“Emergency department visits and revisits in children’s hospitals that are related to mental health are “increasing rapidly,” a new study suggests. Between 2015 and 2020, mental health visits in pediatric emergency departments increased by 8% annually, with about 13% of those patients revisiting within six months, according to the study published Tuesday in the journal JAMA Pediatrics. Whereas, all other emergency department visits increased by 1.5% annually. Mental health revisits increased by 6.3% annually, but in general, the percentage of mental health visits that had a subsequent revisit remained stable, “which may reflect that the factors associated with revisit did not change substantially during the study period, even as the pediatric mental health crisis worsened,” wrote the researchers, from Children’s Hospital Los Angeles, the University of Southern California and Boston Children’s Hospital. The ongoing surge in pediatric mental health emergency department visits may be associated with “a combination of factors, including a worsening crisis of pediatric mental illness and shortage of mental health clinicians,” the researchers wrote. The most common diagnoses among the mental health emergency department visits were suicidal ideation or self-harm, representing 28.7% of patients; mood disorders at 23.5%; anxiety disorders at 10.4%; and disruptive or impulse control disorders at 9.7%. ”
Nature may protect against Alzheimer’s and Parkinson's, study finds, by Martha Bebinger, WBUR, Dec 20 2022.
“A sweeping review of Medicare records expands on research that shows spending time in nature may reduce the risk of a hospitalization for Alzheimer’s, dementia and Parkinson's. The findings suggest a more extensive link for Parkinson's than for Alzheimer’s but show potential prevention benefits for both. ”
Justice Department warns of dramatic increase in ‘sextortion’ schemes targeting boys, by Holmes Lybrand, CNN, Dec 19 2022.
“At least 3,000 minors, mostly boys, have been targeted by financial “sextortion” schemes this year, a dramatic increase from previous years, the Justice Department announced in a public safety alert on Monday. Using social media platforms, predators will, in some cases, start communicating with the targeted minor before moving the conversation to a different platform that primarily uses direct messaging, according to the department. Victims are tricked into providing explicit material, and then the perpetrators will demand money – sometimes thousands of dollars – threatening to release the images to family members and friends of the victim, the department says. “The FBI has seen a horrific increase in reports of financial sextortion schemes targeting minor boys — and the fact is that the many victims who are afraid to come forward are not even included in those numbers,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a statement. At least a dozen victims have died by suicide as a result of these crimes, according to the department. The schemes, which have primarily targeted boys ages 14 to 17 – though some as young as 10 – largely originated from West African countries, including Nigeria and the Ivory Coast, according to the department. It’s unclear if these cells of perpetrators are connected. Wray said that the FBI needs “parents and caregivers to work with us to prevent this crime before it happens and help children come forward if it does.” “Victims may feel like there is no way out – it is up to all of us to reassure them that they are not in trouble, there is hope, and they are not alone,” the director said. ”
After a record high, overdose deaths may be declining slightly in Massachusetts, by Martha Bebinger, WBUR, Dec 14 2022.
“The record-breaking pace of the opioid overdose crisis may be slowing, according to preliminary numbers from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. The agency estimated a 1.5% decrease in overdose deaths through September of this year, compared to the first nine months of 2021. Last year, 2,301 Massachusetts residents died after drug overdoses, a 9.4% increase from 2020. State officials welcomed a decline, even if it is a small one. ”
Teen brains aged faster than normal from pandemic stress, study says, by Katherine Lewis Reynolds, The Washington Post, Dec 1 2022.
“The stress of pandemic lockdowns prematurely aged the brains of teenagers by at least three years and in ways similar to changes observed in children who have faced chronic stress and adversity, a study has found. The study, published Thursday in Biological Psychiatry: Global Open Science, was the first to compare scans of the physical structures of teenagers’ brains from before and after the pandemic started, and to document significant differences, said Ian Gotlib, lead author on the paper and a psychology professor at Stanford University. Researchers knew teens had higher “levels of depression, anxiety and fearfulness” than “before the pandemic. But we knew nothing about the effects on their brains,” said Gotlib, who is director of the Stanford Neurodevelopment, Affect, and Psychopathology Laboratory. “We thought there might be effects similar to what you would find with early adversity; we just didn’t realize how strong they’d be.” Premature aging of children’s brains isn’t a positive development. Before the pandemic, it was observed in cases of chronic childhood stress, trauma, abuse and neglect. These adverse childhood experiences not only make people more vulnerable to depression, anxiety, addiction and other mental illnesses, they can raise the risk of cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other long-term negative outcomes. ”
Alzheimer’s drug shows promise but needs more study for safety, researchers say, by Daniel Gilbert, The Washington Post, Nov 30 2022.
“An experimental Alzheimer’s drug moderately slowed the effects of the disease but was linked to patient safety risks that warrant longer clinical trials, according to a study published late Tuesday. The study, in the New England Journal of Medicine, found that a drug developed by Tokyo-based Eisai and Cambridge, Mass.-based Biogen reduced a key marker of Alzheimer’s disease, the amyloid beta protein, and that patients who received the drug performed better on cognitive and physical measures than a placebo group. The companies funded the study. The new details have been the subject of intense anticipation by doctors and Wall Street since Eisai and Biogen announced in September that lecanemab had slowed cognitive decline by 27 percent compared with a placebo. ”
How some therapists are helping patients heal by tackling structural racism, by Lauren Beard, NPR, Nov 25 2022.
“Many of the founding ideas, techniques and schools of practice of therapy were developed by white scholars or practitioners. As a result, the field has marginalized the experiences of people of color, therapists and patients say. Microaggressions are also pervasive in psychological practice, researchers note, and many immigrants report not attending therapy because of language barriers, a lack of insurance and high costs. That's why Teng wanted to take a new approach. For her, that meant joining a growing movement of other counselors hoping to transform the practice of therapy, to make it more accessible and relevant to people of color and — ultimately — to help them find healing. Teng was initially inspired by people like Dr. Jennifer Mullan, who refer to this work as "decolonizing therapy," a process of addressing the structural racism and other forms of oppression that keep therapy from serving many marginalized communities. ”
Don’t serve disordered eating to your teens this holiday season, by Katie Hurley, CNN, Nov 20 2022.
“The fact that diet culture all over social media targets grown women is bad enough, but such messaging also trickles down to tweens and teens. (And let’s be honest, a lot is aimed directly at young people too.) It couldn’t happen at a worse time: There’s been a noticeable spike in eating disorders, particularly among adolescent girls, since the beginning of the pandemic. “As we approach the holidays, diet culture is in the air as much as lights and music, and it’s certainly on social media,” said Dr. Hina Talib, an adolescent medicine specialist and associate professor of pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in The Bronx, New York. “It’s so pervasive that even if it’s not targeted (at) teens, they are absorbing it by scrolling through it or hearing parents talk about it.” Social media isn’t the only place young people encounter harmful messaging about body image and weight loss. Teens are inundated with so-called ‘healthy eating’ content on TV and in popular culture, at school and while engaged in extracurricular or social activities, at home and in public spaces like malls or grocery stores — and even in restaurants. ”
In one first-grade classroom, puppets teach children to 'shake out the yuck', by Cory Turner, NPR, Nov 11 2022.
“The five-minute video students watch is part of a series produced through a new pilot program called Feel Your Best Self, or FYBS. Each video is built around a simple strategy to help kids recognize and manage their feelings – or to help friends who are struggling. "It's taking what we know works," says Emily Iovino, a trained school psychologist who is part of the FYBS team. What works, Iovino says, is something called cognitive behavioral therapy, which involves all sorts of practical skill-building, including learning to change negative thinking patterns, better understand others' motivations and face fears that may fuel unhealthy avoidance behaviors. It may sound simple, but Iovino says, it's a strategy known as "cognitive restructuring, which is teaching someone how to recognize an emotion, name that emotion, and then be able to work to shift thoughts – to feel something different." While the videos may be steeped in research, they sport kid-friendly names like "Float Your Boat" and "Chillax In My Head," and spotlight puppet heroes CJ, Mena and Nico, who are rendered in warm purples and reds, with emotive smiles and saucer eyes reminiscent of "Sesame Street." Denoya, the first-grade teacher at Natchaug Elementary, has seen it firsthand: Kids returned from the pandemic with missing or rusty social and emotional skills. They had trouble sharing, learning how to take turns and dealing with disappointment. "There's just things that they missed out on with not having that socialization, and so we need to find a place to teach it at school too," Denoya says. ”
The rate of alcohol-related deaths in the U.S. rose 30% in the first year of COVID, by The Associated Press, NPR, Nov 5 2022.
“The rate of deaths that can be directly attributed to alcohol rose nearly 30% in the U.S. during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new government data. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had already said the overall number of such deaths rose in 2020 and 2021. Two reports from the CDC this week provided further details on which groups have the highest death rates and which states are seeing the largest numbers. "Alcohol is often overlooked" as a public health problem, said Marissa Esser, who leads the CDC's alcohol program. "But it is a leading preventable cause of death." The rate of such deaths had been increasing in the two decades before the pandemic, by 7% or less each year. In 2020, they rose 26%, to about 13 deaths per 100,000 Americans. That's the highest rate recorded in at least 40 years, said the study's lead author, Merianne Spencer. ”
Magic mushroom compound shows promise as depression treatment in key study, by Natalie Grover, Reuters, Nov 4 2022.
“The main psychoactive ingredient found in magic mushrooms can significantly reduce symptoms of difficult-to-treat depression, data from the largest clinical trial ever to test the keenly-watched compound has found. The mid-stage study, conducted by the London-based and Nasdaq-listed COMPASS Pathways , involved 233 patients with so-called treatment-resistant depression who have failed to benefit from at least two antidepressants. Data published in a medical journal showed that patients who were given the 25 mg dose of psilocybin had statistically significant lower levels of depressive symptoms three weeks after the treatment than people treated with lower doses. Additionally, about 29% of patients in that group achieved remission on a standardised depression scale. Given these patients have limited treatment options and face stigma around depression, these findings are a step in the right direction, said Rucker. ”
10 ways to get mental health help during a therapist shortage, by Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, Oct 29 2022.
“Anxiety and depression have been on the rise in the United States since the start of the pandemic. This has led to a crisis in mental health that has been worsened by the shortage of mental health counselors. A significant number of mental health professionals are not accepting new clients. Others have long waiting lists. The Washington Post asked mental health professionals what advice they would give people who are struggling to find a therapist. About 300 experts from across the country responded with advice on getting an appointment — and tips on what people can do in the meantime to try to help themselves. Here are their recommendations. ”
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