Week of Oct. 30–Nov. 3, 2023

General Mental Health Articles

• After an off-duty Alaska Airlines pilot, accused of trying to bring down a plane midflight, said he consumed “magic mushrooms” before boarding, psychedelic researchers say the event should be a cautionary tale, especially for people who think they might be able to overcome a mental illness by taking a psychedelic drug. Over the last five years, research on psychedelic drugs, as part of a therapy for mental conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, and addiction, has exploded. In June, the Food and Drug Administration issued draft guidance for designing clinical trials for psychedelic drugs. Read more here.
• Over 10 years ago, BJC Behavioral Health was one of the first providers in Missouri to adopt Individual Placement and Support, an employment program model designed for those with serious mental illness. The unique IPS model involves employment specialists helping individuals rapidly get competitive and integrated jobs, while working with employers and supporting individuals as challenges arise. The idea is that work is an essential part of treatment. In 2009, mental health providers began using the model, and soon, there will be 33 sites, according to the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Read more here.
• Why does Daylight Saving Time have such an impact? CNN spoke with Dr. Rajkumar Dasgupta, Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine at the University of Southern California Keck School of Medicine in Los Angeles. Read more here.
• We're starting to see the beginning of fall and wintertime blues, which can really hit us after we "fall back" one hour into standard time. Seasonal Affective Disorder is a type of depression linked to chemical changes triggered by lack of daylight and sleep changes. About 6% of Americans are officially diagnosed, with milder cases for about 20% of the population. "They notice how that one-hour time change can impact their health," said Dr. Christina Zhang, medical director at MiDoctor Health. "Tired, weakness, lack of energy, poor sleep." Read more here.
• Should he be elected to a second term in office, former President Trump has called for the return of "mental institutions" as part of his plan "to get the homeless off our streets." The state-run psychiatric hospitals that largely disappeared in the mid-1900s are often associated with inhumane mistreatment. Large psychiatric hospitals lost credibility in part because they ended up simply warehousing people, rather than doing much to treat them. Read more here.

The Pandemic and Mental Health

• The COVID-19 pandemic caused Americans collective trauma, which predisposes to mental and chronic illnesses, according to a new online survey from the American Psychological Association (APA). The Harris Poll surveyed 3,185 U.S. adults for the Stress in America 2023 report. "While the early pandemic lockdowns may seem like the distant past, the aftermath remains," APA Chief Executive Officer Arthur Evans Jr, PhD, said. "We cannot ignore the fact that we have been significantly changed by the loss of more than one million Americans, as well as the shift in our workplaces, school systems, and culture at large." Read more here.

Youth Mental Health

• A 9-year-old girl, who had experienced physical and mental abuse in numerous foster homes, spent four months last year inside the Columbus County Hospital’s emergency department. She wasn’t allowed to use a fork over fears she would use it as a weapon. Staff at the Columbus Regional Healthcare System tried desperately to secure a bed for the child at a pediatric mental health facility, but placements can be hard to find in North Carolina. Nationwide, children are dealing with a mental health crisis that experts say is fueled by bullying, the COVID-19 pandemic, discrimination, and other stressors. Read more here.  
• Rumination, or overthinking, is a common feature of depression in which people get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts. Rumination Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (RF-CBT) has been shown to help in adults, but what about teenagers?  Researchers at Ohio State University randomized 76 teens, ages 14 to 17, with a history of depression to receive 10 to 14 sessions of RF-CBT or any standard treatment. The study suggests that this type of therapy can help teens break out of "painful mental loops" that contribute to depression. Read more here.
• More parents are concerned about internet addiction by their adolescent children than substance addiction, according to the results of a survey published in JAMA Network Open. Parents of children aged 9 to 15 years see internet use as a double-edged sword. While it fosters a sense of family connectedness, it is also a concern for negative consequences, such as cyberbullying and addiction, the study found. Read more here.

Veterans Mental Health Care

• The push to use psychedelics as treatment for veterans with PTSD is gaining momentum across the country, and the Bay Area is taking the lead. Studies show that MDMAs reduce PTSD symptoms and functional impairment. Advocates are working to secure FDA approval of their use in a bid to more effectively tackle the suicide epidemic among veterans. Veteran Affairs Palo Alto is gearing up to recruit and screen participants for its own clinical trials with MDMA-assisted therapy, according to Stanford psychiatry professor Trisha Suppes, who is overseeing the research. Read more here.

 Health Care Worker Burnout

• A new federal campaign targeting widespread burnout in the health care workforce aims to make it easier for providers to get mental health care without fear it could jeopardize their careers. The new plan from a division of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention comes amid heightened scrutiny of the routine practice of asking workers in high-stress professions about their mental health. Experts say these questions have created widespread barriers to seeking help. Read more here.

Gun Violence

• Many parents and caregivers are struggling to explain the recent mass shooting in Lewiston, Maine to their children. However, mental health practitioners say there are steps they can take to support young people through difficult moments like this. Professionals recommend limiting, or closely monitoring, kids’ media consumption. It’s also important for adults to monitor their own reactions. Sandra Woodman, who leads Community Partners, a Dover-based mental health organization, said proximity, and the reality of violence, can affect kids’ wellbeing. Dover lies along the Maine border and is about an hour and a half drive from Lewiston. Read more here.
• The deadly shooting in Maine has once again shone a spotlight on how frequent this type of violence is in the United States, compared with other wealthy countries. The U.S. has the 28th-highest rate of deaths from gun violence in the world. Read more here.

988 Hotline

• The 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline has received millions of calls, texts, and online messages since its launch in the summer of 2022, but a new study suggests that it is far from reaching its potential. People with severe psychological distress were more likely than others to have heard of, and used, 988, according to research published in JAMA Network Open. However, less than a third of people with severe psychological distress who had already tried the lifeline were very likely to use it again. Read more here.

Loneliness and Social Isolation

• If you feel lonely, you’re actually in good company. Nearly 1 in 4 adults across the world have reported feeling very or fairly lonely, a new Meta-Gallup survey has found. The new survey, taken across 142 countries, found 24% of people ages 15 and older self-reported feeling very or fairly lonely in response to the question, “How lonely do you feel?” The survey also found that rates of loneliness were highest in young adults, with 27% of young adults ages 19 to 29 reporting feeling very or fairly lonely. The lowest rates were found in older adults. Read more here.

The Opioid Crisis and Addiction Issues

• White people who visit hospital emergency departments with pain are 26% more likely than Black people to be given opioid pain medications such as morphine. This was a key finding from our recent study, published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. We also found that Black patients were 25% more likely than White patients to be given only non-opioid painkillers such as ibuprofen, which are typically available over the counter. We examined more than 200,000 visit records of patients treated for pain, taken from a representative sample of U.S. emergency departments from 1999 to 2020. Read more here.
• Matthew Perry, who has died at age 54, made no secret of his addiction struggles over the years, writing about his substance abuse and attempts to stay sober in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. Released in 2022, the book chronicled the exacerbation of Perry’s addiction under the “white-hot flame of fame” after he shot to international stardom at age 24 as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in the sitcom Friends. In the book, Perry recalled drinking heavily through the first two seasons of Friends, then becoming addicted to the opiate pain medication in 1996. Read more here.
• Since 2018, fentanyl has killed more than 850 people in the nine-county Kansas City region, according to medical examiner documents obtained through open record requests. In Johnson County alone, there were 149 fentanyl-related deaths from 2018 through 2022, which was triple the number of homicides in the county during that time. “We are in a crisis. And I am afraid that we are at the front end of a tidal wave,” said Tony Mattivi, Director of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, whose agency is part of a new team of law enforcement officers created to fight fentanyl. Read more here.
• Communities ravaged by America’s opioid epidemic are starting to get their share of a $50 billion pie from legal settlements. Most of that money comes with a requirement that it be used to address the overdose crisis and prevent more deaths. But how? It could mean that places look more like the area around Findlay. Here, conservative Hancock County has built a comprehensive system focused on both treatment and recovery by adding housing, a needle exchange, outreach workers, and a community center. Read more here.

Research

• Looking to get stuff done? Being angry might help. Anger can be a powerful motivator for achieving goals, according to a study from the American Psychological Association (APA). The research, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, examined how both positive and negative emotions factor into the odds of success. "People often believe that a state of happiness is ideal, and the majority of people consider the pursuit of happiness a major life goal," lead author Heather Lench, PhD, a professor in the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Texas A&M University, said. Read more here.

Climate Change

• Access to air conditioning can be lifesaving. Yet, nearly one in 10 U.S. households don’t have or can’t afford it. People in these households, often with low incomes, are forced to work in extreme outdoor or uncooled indoor spaces, and, disproportionately, people of color and immigrants are far more susceptible to heat-related health emergencies. These emergencies come in many forms. However, due to structural inequities in our health care system, those most vulnerable to heat-related illnesses are often under- or uninsured and face the most difficult barriers to care. With proper preparation, these health threats are preventable. Read more here.

Gender-Affirming Care

• After putting the policy on hold earlier this year, Republican lawmakers are proposing a narrower version of a bill that would restrict access to gender-affirming care for transgender youth in New Hampshire. The original version of House Bill 619 would have banned any type of gender transition-related medical care for people under 18, including puberty blockers and hormone therapy. State representatives are now considering an amendment that would ban only gender-affirming genital surgeries, sometimes called bottom surgeries, for minors. Read more here.

Federal and State Policy

• Medicare administrators served doctors and hospitals a pair of big payment cuts. Officials announced in a final rule that doctors will see a 3.4% decrease to a key factor determining their base Medicare pay next year. Starting in 2026, Medicare will also cut payment for many hospital outpatient services in order to reimburse safety-net hospitals that were hit by earlier cuts to a discount drug purchasing program that the Supreme Court deemed illegal. Read more here.