Psych News Alert

Mental health care use rose between 2019 and 2023, driven in part by increased symptoms of anxiety and depression, a study in Psychiatric Services has found.

The chronic health burdens experienced by World Trade Center first responders, including posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are compounded by environmental exposures in neighborhoods where they live years later, according to a study published today in Nature Communications .

Individuals with bipolar disorder who received long-acting injectable antipsychotics (LAIAs) had a lower risk of hospitalization and recurrence of manic or mixed episodes than those receiving oral antipsychotics, according to a report in The American Journal of Psychiatry .

The most effective approaches for post-discharge follow-up of hospitalized adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) combine behavioral support and care coordination, according to a systematic review published in Annals of Internal Medicine .

Providing patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) take-home methadone between five and 24 weeks after they complete induction (achieve a stable dose) appears to provide the greatest benefits in terms of treatment retention and mortality, according to a study published today in JAMA Internal Medicine .

The 13-item Mental Wellness Tool (mwTool-13) successfully identified a range of probable mental illness among patients in a psychiatric emergency department, according to a report in Psychiatric Services .

Taking lithium may lower the risk of aortic calcification and coronary artery calcification in people with bipolar disorder, according to a study in the Journal of Affective Disorders .

One specific gene variation increases a patient’s risk of a rare but life-threatening hypersensitivity reaction to the mood-stabilizing drug lamotrigine—but that information is not included on current commercially available pharmacogenomic panels, according to a study published today in JAMA Psychiatry .

Brief cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) may be superior to bright light therapy (BLT) for improving symptoms of insomnia in women with breast cancer who are being treated with chemotherapy, a study in JAMA Network Open has found.

A ketogenic diet may hold therapeutic promise for people with serious mental illness (SMI) such as such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder—but the existing data are very sparse, according to a meta-analysis published in Translational Psychiatry .

Exposure to alcohol-related content on social media is associated with increased alcohol consumption among young people, with adolescents particularly influenced by their peers’ content, according t o a study published i n Addiction .

Nearly half of patients enrolled in coordinated specialty care (CSC) for first-episode psychosis (FEP) were discharged from the program within three years, most often under ambiguous circumstances, according to a report in Psychiatric Services .

Clinicians will soon have more tools to help them identify potential Alzheimer’s disease in adults with cognitive impairment—in the past week the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cleared two new blood-based biomarker tests, including one approved for adults as young as 40.

Young people who know someone with a recent suicide attempt have an elevated risk of a suicide attempt themselves, according to a study in JAMA Network Open .

When it comes to receiving psychotherapy—whether face-to-face or via text—individuals significantly prefer communication free of AI assistance, according to a study published in The American Journal of Psychotherapy .

For adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) who also have children with ADHD, pairing a stimulant medication with a parenting intervention can lead to significant reductions in their child’s ADHD severity. The findings were published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry .

Individuals with accumulated community-acquired infections are at higher risk of mental illness over time, according to a report in Translational Psychiatry —and the risk rises with increasing numbers of infections for up to five years post-infection.

The prevalence of cannabis use disorder (CUD) among adults in the United States has risen significantly in both males and females across multiple age groups, while alcohol use disorder (AUD) has declined or remained stable, according to the results of a study issued today by JAMA Psychiatry .

Spending too much time on a smartphone can lead to slower vocabulary growth in children, according to a study published yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics— except that it was parental smartphone overuse that was linked with the language delays.

Among antipsychotics, aripiprazole may be the best option for minimizing risks of hyponatremia—low levels of sodium in the body—according to a study published in JAMA Network Open.