Week of April 3–7, 2023

Week of April 3–7, 2023

General Mental Health Articles

• Feeling stressed or just not well overall? Maybe you should put down your phone. A new study, from Swansea University, found reducing your social media use by just 15 minutes a day can not only improve your general health and immune function, but also can improve symptoms of depression and loneliness. Read more here.  
• The number of people diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is climbing steadily in the U.S. — especially among women, a new study found. While cases have risen across all age groups, the spike has been most significant among women.  The share of females between the ages of 23 and 49 years of age diagnosed with the disorder nearly doubled from 2020 to 2022. Read more here. 
• It's estimated that 1 in 10 people worldwide suffers from migraines. With so many different triggers, they can be difficult to treat and can affect your health, your work and your relationships. But a new clinical trial by Yeshiva University shows promising results with an unconventional treatment. It's called mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.  Associate professor of psychology Dr. Elizabeth Seng conducted the study, and she says meditation is one part of mindfulness. Read more here. 
• To build a better brain, just exercise. That’s the message of two important new studies of how physical activity changes our minds. In one, scientists delved into the lives, DNA and cognition of thousands of people to show that regular exercise leads to much sharper thinking. Another study helps explain why exercise is good for the brain. Researchers found that just six minutes of strenuous exertion quintupled production of a neurochemical known to be essential for lifelong brain health. Read more here. (Access to this article requires free registration.) 
• In 2011, his son was diagnosed with what Rampuria described as a severe mental illness. He soon began cycling in and out of health care facilities, appearing to get his illness under control and then slipping back once released. All along, Rampuria said he and his wife lacked a crucial tool – the power of a judge to order their now 36-year-old son, currently at a psychiatric hospital in Lynn, Massachusetts, into mandatory outpatient care. Read more here. 

Gun Violence

• The Violence Project in St. Paul is the nonprofit, nonpartisan research center behind what's believed to be the largest, most comprehensive database of mass shooters. And in 2021, its co-founders came out with a book called “How to Stop a Mass Shooting Epidemic.” One of them, James Densley, joined All Things Considered last week to offer some research and nuance to the conversations happening in marches and statehouses across the country following last week’s Covenant School shooting in Nashville. Read more here. 
• Families of gun violence victims can't get the gun control they've been fighting for. But they are winning in court. Driving the news: Victims of the 2017 Sutherland Springs, Texas shooting settled with the Department of Justice for $144.5 million on Wednesday. That's the latest multimillion-dollar settlement awarded to families as mass shootings are an increasingly prevalent part of life in the U.S. Read more here. 

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• The overdose crisis is prompting more hospitals to initiate opioid addiction treatment in emergency rooms — a change welcomed by many behavioral health experts. Yes, but: It's resurfacing tension among providers over who's really responsible for addressing the underlying problem of opioid misuse. Why it matters: Discharged patients are customarily referred to substance use programs in communities. Addiction experts say administering a drug to treat dependence like buprenorphine in a hospital can dramatically reduce the odds of a patient relapsing and provide a critical intervention. Read more here. 
• "As a Navy admiral, I helped lead one of the most powerful militaries in the world. Today, our nation is fighting an urgent battle here at home – an overdose epidemic in which illicit fentanyl is killing 70,000 Americans a year. That’s more people than we lost in combat during the Vietnam War and since. We desperately need new weapons to fight this scourge, including medical treatments not just to reverse overdoses but also to prevent them in the first place. One promising area of research involves the use of monoclonal antibodies, the same technology being used to treat COVID-19 and other diseases." Read more here.
• A life-saving opioid overdose treatment could soon be as common as Tylenol on retail store shelves. The question is whether making it more accessible will get it to the people who need it the most. Why it matters: Wednesday's FDA approval of Narcan for over-the-counter use has a financial cost. And if insurers or governments don't step up, addiction experts fear it could widen health disparities and undercut the FDA’s goals of addressing a “dire public health need.” Read more here. 
• To combat the growing number of fentanyl overdose deaths in Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott on Thursday announced a $10 million fentanyl awareness campaign and plan to distribute doses of Narcan to every county in the state. Abbott said the state’s “One Pill Kills” multimedia campaign is designed to warn Texans about the unlawful use of fentanyl, the synthetic opioid that is 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine. Read more here. 
  

Veteran’s Mental Health Issus

• Suicide rates among active duty soldiers do not appear to be significantly impacted during times of war, a recent study found. Despite an uptick in suicides amid the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, historically times of combat are not solely accountable for surges in self-harm among troops, according to the study slated for the May issue of Psychiatry Research. In a review of data between 1900 and 2020, researchers analyzed historical trends of suicide rates between active duty soldiers and civilians, aiming to paint a more contextualized picture of how combat trauma affects both populations. They found the rates largely paralleled one another. Read more here. 
  

Social Determinants

• Breathing in microscopic air pollutants may raise the risk of developing dementia, according to a new analysis of existing research by public health scientists at Harvard. It has long been known that inhaling these microscopic particles — also known as PM 2.5, particles less than 2.5 microns in width — can cause serious health issues. (In comparison, the width of a single human hair is 50 to 100 microns.) Read more here. (Access to this article requires a free account.) 

988 Hotline

• In front of the home crowd for the first time this past weekend, Republic FC debuted the newest addition to the club’s Legacy Kit – a patch promoting 988, the national Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Since July 2022, the easy-to-remember three-digit number has been adopted as a free nationwide resource to put crisis care more in reach for people in need. 988 is available for anyone who is having thoughts of suicide, a mental health or substance use crisis, or any kind of emotional distress. Read more here. 
  

Gender-Affirming Care Bills

• There’s reason to believe that Republicans, at least in more purple states, are worried about the kind of electoral backlash that was reflected in the referendum rejecting an abortion ban in Kansas last year and the recent midterm elections. That may actually be fueling the escalating attacks on trans people, says Rose MacKenzie, a campaign strategist at the ACLU who focuses on reproductive rights. “I think anti-abortion politicians are worried about the politics,” says MacKenzie. “They’ve turned to attacking trans youth in order to stay politically viable.” Read more here. 
• Republican governors in Indiana and Idaho have signed into law bills banning gender-affirming care for minors, making those states the latest to restrict transgender health care as Republican-led legislatures continue to curb LGBTQ+ rights this year. Indiana Gov. Eric Holcomb signed legislation Wednesday that will prohibit transgender youth from accessing medication or surgeries that aid in transition and mandate those currently taking medication to stop by the end of the year. Idaho Gov. Brad Little had signed legislation Tuesday evening that criminalizes gender-affirming care for youth. Read more here. 
• North Dakota’s Legislature advanced 10 bills Tuesday that advocates say target the state’s LGBTQ community, setting a single-day record for such legislation, according to the Human Rights Campaign, the country’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group. The state Senate passed all 10 bills, which had already passed the House, on Monday. Eight of them are headed to Gov. Doug Burgum, a Republican, for either a signature or a veto. Those eight include a broad measure that would ban “adult-oriented performances” on public property or in front of minors, which could restrict many forms of drag. Read more here. 
  

Medicaid Redetermination

• Some 15 million people could lose their Medicaid coverage over the next few months as pandemic-related emergency provisions come to an end—though residents in five states will feel its impact earlier than others. During the pandemic, the yearly reapplication process for Medicaid was paused and states stopped checking if people were still eligible for its coverage. But starting April 1, people in Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, New Hampshire and South Dakota could see their loss of healthcare coverage as Medicaid begins to verify eligibility and will begin to disenroll patients. Read more here. 
• As the calendar turns to April, states are officially restarting the Medicaid redetermination process. Typically an annual process, redeterminations have been on pause to ensure continuity of care during the COVID-19 pandemic. During that time, access to Medicaid coverage also grew to a wider reach, meaning the backlog of redetermination decisions is massive. Analysts have estimated that 18 million people could lose Medicaid coverage through the redetermination process, and many are unaware that it's set to even begin again. Read more here. 
• The Oregon Health Authority starts a months-long review of the state’s 1.5 million Medicaid members this week to determine who still qualifies for the health insurance. Normally, states review the financial eligibility of members annually, but during the pandemic, the federal government expanded benefits to states that kept members insured. In most states, Medicaid is limited to those who earn 138% of the federal poverty level, but Oregon recently obtained federal approval to raise the ceiling to 200% of the federal poverty level. Read more here. 
• Louisiana's 2 million Medicaid recipients will receive pink letters this week as the first warning of a nationwide Medicaid purge that could cause as many as 350,000 Louisianans to lose their health insurance. The massive Medicaid disenrollment is coming as COVID-19 pandemic protections expire and income eligibility requirements are reinstated. Read more here. 
  

Federal and State Policy

• The Biden administration on Friday appealed a Texas federal judge’s decision to strike down free Obamacare coverage of preventive health-care services ranging from screenings for depression, certain cancers, diabetes to HIV prevention drugs. U.S. Judge Reed O’Connor of the U.S. Northern District Court of Texas on Thursday struck down an Obamacare mandate requiring most private insurance plans to cover certain types of health care recommended an independent panel of experts called the Preventive Services Task Force. Read more here. 
• Judge Reed O’Connor blocked the enforcement of recommendations made by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. The ACA requires no-cost coverage for breast and cervical cancer screenings, diabetes screening, and vision tests for preschool-aged children, and it includes free coverage for pre-exposure prophylactic (PrEP) drugs, which prevent HIV. "The Braidwood decision, if implemented, would erode access to an entire range of preventive health services—from cancer screening to HIV prevention to preeclampsia screening for expecting mothers," Meg Murray, the CEO of the Association for Community Affiliated Plans told Fierce Healthcare in an email. Read more here. 
• The Biden administration continues to grapple with an awkward tension when it comes to Medicare Advantage: MA plans typically offer more generous benefits than traditional Medicare does, and they also cost taxpayers more money. That's despite the fact that privately administered Medicare was created to save the government money. Read more here. 
• The financial safety nets millions of older Americans rely on — and millions more young people are counting on — will run short of money to pay full benefits within the next decade, the annual Social Security and Medicare trustees report released Friday warns. Medicare, the government-sponsored health insurance that covers 65 million older and disabled people, will be unable to pay full benefits for inpatient hospital visits and nursing home stays by 2031, the report forecast. And just two years later, Social Security won’t have enough cash on hand to pay out full benefits to its 66 million retirees. Read more here.