Depression

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Mental health symptoms at the time of admission to an inpatient psychiatric hospital were significantly more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the time before the pandemic, based on data from more than 500 individuals.

“Those with preexisting mental health conditions may be particularly vulnerable to these effects because they are more susceptible to experiencing high levels of stress during a crisis and are more likely to experience isolation/despair during confinement compared to the general population,” wrote Danna Ramirez of The Menninger Clinic, Houston, and colleagues.

In a study published in Psychiatry Research , the investigators compared data from 142 adolescents aged 12-17 years and 470 adults aged 18-79 years who were admitted to an inpatient psychiatric hospital in Houston. Of these, 65 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted before the pandemic, and 77 adolescents and 235 adults were admitted during the pandemic.

Clinical outcomes were scores on the Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A), the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale–Short Form (DERS-SF), the World Health Organization Disability Assessment Scale (WHODAS), the World Health Organization Alcohol, Smoking, and Substance Involvement Screening Test (WHOASSIST), the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Disturbing Dream and Nightmare Severity Index (DDNSI), and the Suicide Behaviors Questionnaire–Revised (SBQ-R).

Overall, adults admitted during the pandemic had significantly higher levels of anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, and disability (P < .001 for all) as well as nightmares (P = .013) compared to those admitted prior to the pandemic.

Among adolescents, measures of anxiety, depression, and sleep quality were significantly higher at admission during the pandemic compared to prior to the pandemic (P = .005, P = .005, and P = .011, respectively)

Reasons for the increase in symptom severity remain unclear, but include the possibility that individuals with preexisting mental illness simply became more ill; or that individuals with symptoms delayed hospital admission out of fear of exposure to COVID-19, which resulted in more severe symptoms at admission, the researchers wrote in their discussion.

The findings were limited by several factors, including the primarily White population and the reliance on self-reports, the researchers noted. Another limitation was the lack of differentiation between patients who may have had COVID-19 before hospitalization and those who did not, so the researchers could not determine whether the virus itself played a biological role in symptom severity.

However, the results support data from previous studies and identify increased psychiatry symptom severity for patients admitted for inpatient psychiatry care during the pandemic, they said. Although resources are scarce, the findings emphasize that mental health needs, especially for those with preexisting conditions, should not be overlooked, and continuity and expansion of access to mental health care for all should be prioritized, they concluded.

The study was supported by The Menninger Clinic and The Menninger Clinic Foundation. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.

A simple computer-based neurocognitive training program that emphasizes self-worth can extend the antidepressant effects of ketamine for up to 30 days in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), new research suggests.

The double-blind, randomized clinical trial is the first to assess combining ketamine with a low-cost protective learning program, researchers note.

They add that the findings are an important step toward long-lasting depression treatment for millions of patients whose depression does not improve following first-line therapies.

“One of the biggest challenges in psychiatry and psychology is seeing evidence of longer-term benefits and longer-term compliance,” lead investigator Rebecca B. Price, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, University of Pittsburgh, told this news organization.

“Anything that can get somebody well quickly and keep them well for some length of time is really exciting – and a whole paradigm shift for how things have been done up to now,” Dr. Price said.

The findings were published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
 

Promoting self-worth

About one-third of patients with depression remain treatment-resistant even after trying different medications at different doses and at different combinations, the investigators note.

Ketamine and esketamine, a nasal spray formulation of the drug, have been shown previously to improve symptoms in patients with TRD. While the benefits are evident within a few hours of treatment, the effects often wane after just a few weeks.

Ketamine and esketamine must be administered in a clinical setting and patients must be monitored for at least 2 hours after treatment. Repeat dosing is costly, both in time and expense, so clinical researchers have been studying ways to extend the drug’s effects without additional treatments.

The new study combined ketamine treatment with a computer-based active automated self-association training (ASAT) program that the researchers developed. It uses positive words and imagery to promote positive self-image and self-worth.

The trial included 154 adults with treatment-resistant unipolar depression whose symptoms persisted after therapy with at least two medications. Participants received an IV infusion of ketamine 0.5 mg/kg plus active ASAT (n = 53), saline plus active ASAT (n = 51), or ketamine plus sham ASAT (n = 50).

The active program used words like “sweet,” “lovable,” and “worthy” that appeared on the screen interspersed with images of people smiling and the patient’s own photo. Participants were also asked to complete certain mouse-tracking tasks during the session.

The sham ASAT was similar but included neutral words and images. ASAT and sham ASAT were delivered twice daily over 4 consecutive days for 20 minutes.
 

Clear benefit

Results showed that ketamine rapidly and significantly reduced depression scores within 24 hours of treatment (group-by-time interaction: standardized beta, –1.30; 95% confidence interval, –1.89 to –0.70).

Depression scores in the ketamine-plus-ASAT group remained low and stable over a 30-day period, compared with the saline-plus-ASAT group (standardized beta, –0.61; 95% CI, –0.95 to –0.28).

Participants who received ketamine plus sham ASAT saw initial improvement in symptoms immediately following infusion, but depression symptoms returned after a few weeks.

While researchers hoped to see positive effects from ASAT, “I certainly did not expect to see something so clear to jump right out,” Dr. Price said.

The investigators are now examining whether the computer program can be administered effectively remotely and whether its effects are equally beneficial following treatment with esketamine.
 

Greatest unmet need

Gerard Sanacora, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and director, Yale Depression Research Program, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., said that extending the effects of ketamine or esketamine without additional dosing is “probably the greatest unmet need in relation to treatments with ketamine and esketamine.”

He added that there are large economic, time, and access burdens associated with the treatment of ketamine.

“Anything we can do to reduce the number of treatments needed or increase the sustainability or the duration of effect would be a tremendous benefit,” said Dr. Sanacora, who was not involved with the research.

Adding an easily accessible, nonpharmacological therapeutic approach to ketamine treatment could be valuable, he said – but more research is needed.

“I’m not sure that this specific associated positive thinking is really the critical component. I think we still have some work to do there. But it does demonstrate that we can use ancillary or augmenting nonpharmacological treatments to extend the effect,” Dr. Sanacora said.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Price is the named inventor on a University of Pittsburgh–owned provisional patent filing related to the combination intervention described in this report. Dr. Sanacora reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

A simple computer-based neurocognitive training program that emphasizes self-worth can extend the antidepressant effects of ketamine for up to 30 days in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), new research suggests.

The double-blind, randomized clinical trial is the first to assess combining ketamine with a low-cost protective learning program, researchers note.

They add that the findings are an important step toward long-lasting depression treatment for millions of patients whose depression does not improve following first-line therapies.

“One of the biggest challenges in psychiatry and psychology is seeing evidence of longer-term benefits and longer-term compliance,” lead investigator Rebecca B. Price, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, University of Pittsburgh, told this news organization.

“Anything that can get somebody well quickly and keep them well for some length of time is really exciting – and a whole paradigm shift for how things have been done up to now,” Dr. Price said.

The findings were published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
 

Promoting self-worth

About one-third of patients with depression remain treatment-resistant even after trying different medications at different doses and at different combinations, the investigators note.

Ketamine and esketamine, a nasal spray formulation of the drug, have been shown previously to improve symptoms in patients with TRD. While the benefits are evident within a few hours of treatment, the effects often wane after just a few weeks.

Ketamine and esketamine must be administered in a clinical setting and patients must be monitored for at least 2 hours after treatment. Repeat dosing is costly, both in time and expense, so clinical researchers have been studying ways to extend the drug’s effects without additional treatments.

The new study combined ketamine treatment with a computer-based active automated self-association training (ASAT) program that the researchers developed. It uses positive words and imagery to promote positive self-image and self-worth.

The trial included 154 adults with treatment-resistant unipolar depression whose symptoms persisted after therapy with at least two medications. Participants received an IV infusion of ketamine 0.5 mg/kg plus active ASAT (n = 53), saline plus active ASAT (n = 51), or ketamine plus sham ASAT (n = 50).

The active program used words like “sweet,” “lovable,” and “worthy” that appeared on the screen interspersed with images of people smiling and the patient’s own photo. Participants were also asked to complete certain mouse-tracking tasks during the session.

The sham ASAT was similar but included neutral words and images. ASAT and sham ASAT were delivered twice daily over 4 consecutive days for 20 minutes.
 

Clear benefit

Results showed that ketamine rapidly and significantly reduced depression scores within 24 hours of treatment (group-by-time interaction: standardized beta, –1.30; 95% confidence interval, –1.89 to –0.70).

Depression scores in the ketamine-plus-ASAT group remained low and stable over a 30-day period, compared with the saline-plus-ASAT group (standardized beta, –0.61; 95% CI, –0.95 to –0.28).

Participants who received ketamine plus sham ASAT saw initial improvement in symptoms immediately following infusion, but depression symptoms returned after a few weeks.

While researchers hoped to see positive effects from ASAT, “I certainly did not expect to see something so clear to jump right out,” Dr. Price said.

The investigators are now examining whether the computer program can be administered effectively remotely and whether its effects are equally beneficial following treatment with esketamine.
 

Greatest unmet need

Gerard Sanacora, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and director, Yale Depression Research Program, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., said that extending the effects of ketamine or esketamine without additional dosing is “probably the greatest unmet need in relation to treatments with ketamine and esketamine.”

He added that there are large economic, time, and access burdens associated with the treatment of ketamine.

“Anything we can do to reduce the number of treatments needed or increase the sustainability or the duration of effect would be a tremendous benefit,” said Dr. Sanacora, who was not involved with the research.

Adding an easily accessible, nonpharmacological therapeutic approach to ketamine treatment could be valuable, he said – but more research is needed.

“I’m not sure that this specific associated positive thinking is really the critical component. I think we still have some work to do there. But it does demonstrate that we can use ancillary or augmenting nonpharmacological treatments to extend the effect,” Dr. Sanacora said.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Price is the named inventor on a University of Pittsburgh–owned provisional patent filing related to the combination intervention described in this report. Dr. Sanacora reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

A simple computer-based neurocognitive training program that emphasizes self-worth can extend the antidepressant effects of ketamine for up to 30 days in patients with treatment-resistant depression (TRD), new research suggests.

The double-blind, randomized clinical trial is the first to assess combining ketamine with a low-cost protective learning program, researchers note.

They add that the findings are an important step toward long-lasting depression treatment for millions of patients whose depression does not improve following first-line therapies.

“One of the biggest challenges in psychiatry and psychology is seeing evidence of longer-term benefits and longer-term compliance,” lead investigator Rebecca B. Price, PhD, associate professor of psychiatry and psychology, University of Pittsburgh, told this news organization.

“Anything that can get somebody well quickly and keep them well for some length of time is really exciting – and a whole paradigm shift for how things have been done up to now,” Dr. Price said.

The findings were published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
 

Promoting self-worth

About one-third of patients with depression remain treatment-resistant even after trying different medications at different doses and at different combinations, the investigators note.

Ketamine and esketamine, a nasal spray formulation of the drug, have been shown previously to improve symptoms in patients with TRD. While the benefits are evident within a few hours of treatment, the effects often wane after just a few weeks.

Ketamine and esketamine must be administered in a clinical setting and patients must be monitored for at least 2 hours after treatment. Repeat dosing is costly, both in time and expense, so clinical researchers have been studying ways to extend the drug’s effects without additional treatments.

The new study combined ketamine treatment with a computer-based active automated self-association training (ASAT) program that the researchers developed. It uses positive words and imagery to promote positive self-image and self-worth.

The trial included 154 adults with treatment-resistant unipolar depression whose symptoms persisted after therapy with at least two medications. Participants received an IV infusion of ketamine 0.5 mg/kg plus active ASAT (n = 53), saline plus active ASAT (n = 51), or ketamine plus sham ASAT (n = 50).

The active program used words like “sweet,” “lovable,” and “worthy” that appeared on the screen interspersed with images of people smiling and the patient’s own photo. Participants were also asked to complete certain mouse-tracking tasks during the session.

The sham ASAT was similar but included neutral words and images. ASAT and sham ASAT were delivered twice daily over 4 consecutive days for 20 minutes.
 

Clear benefit

Results showed that ketamine rapidly and significantly reduced depression scores within 24 hours of treatment (group-by-time interaction: standardized beta, –1.30; 95% confidence interval, –1.89 to –0.70).

Depression scores in the ketamine-plus-ASAT group remained low and stable over a 30-day period, compared with the saline-plus-ASAT group (standardized beta, –0.61; 95% CI, –0.95 to –0.28).

Participants who received ketamine plus sham ASAT saw initial improvement in symptoms immediately following infusion, but depression symptoms returned after a few weeks.

While researchers hoped to see positive effects from ASAT, “I certainly did not expect to see something so clear to jump right out,” Dr. Price said.

The investigators are now examining whether the computer program can be administered effectively remotely and whether its effects are equally beneficial following treatment with esketamine.
 

Greatest unmet need

Gerard Sanacora, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, and director, Yale Depression Research Program, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., said that extending the effects of ketamine or esketamine without additional dosing is “probably the greatest unmet need in relation to treatments with ketamine and esketamine.”

He added that there are large economic, time, and access burdens associated with the treatment of ketamine.

“Anything we can do to reduce the number of treatments needed or increase the sustainability or the duration of effect would be a tremendous benefit,” said Dr. Sanacora, who was not involved with the research.

Adding an easily accessible, nonpharmacological therapeutic approach to ketamine treatment could be valuable, he said – but more research is needed.

“I’m not sure that this specific associated positive thinking is really the critical component. I think we still have some work to do there. But it does demonstrate that we can use ancillary or augmenting nonpharmacological treatments to extend the effect,” Dr. Sanacora said.

The study was funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and Clinical and Translational Science Institute at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Price is the named inventor on a University of Pittsburgh–owned provisional patent filing related to the combination intervention described in this report. Dr. Sanacora reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

There is a concerning lack of follow-up care for young people who experience a mental health crisis, new research suggests.

Results from a large database study showed less than half of youth and young adults hospitalized for a psychiatric event received follow-up care within 7 days. The follow-up rate was less than 30% for those who had visited an ED.

The strongest predictor of follow-up was having received both primary and mental health care during the 6 months prior to using the acute service.

“For people discharging folks after a psychiatric crisis, whether it be in a hospital or emergency room setting, connecting them with their outpatient provider to ensure the transfer of care and continuity of care is vitally important to reduce risks for this population,” coinvestigator Brian Skehan, MD, PhD, assistant professor and psychiatrist, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, said during a press briefing.

If these discharged patients do not have a provider, “make sure they get one,” Lisa Dixon, MD, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric Services, added during the same briefing. “That’s the gift of life potentially for these young people.”

The findings were published online  in Psychiatric Services.
 

Alarming trends

The alarming suicide trends among youths were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Skehan noted.

He cited a 2021 study that showed more than 44% of high school students experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness over the previous year, 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide, and almost 1 in 10 actually attempted suicide.

“When we look at the number of young adults and adolescents struggling with behavioral health issues, the data trend is disturbing nationwide,” Dr. Skehan said.

The current study included participants aged 12-27 years who had private insurance. Many youth in this age category are experiencing significant changes, such as moving from high school to college and from pediatric providers to adult providers – and some “get lost in this transition,” said Dr. Skehan.

He noted many inpatient psychiatric units are not geared to young adults. “They may miss out on some aspects of inpatient care because it’s not geared to their developmental stage,” he said.

Assessing U.S. patient data in the IBM MarketScan commercial database (2013-2018), the researchers created two study samples: 95,153 inpatients and 108,576 patients who used the ED. All had an acute event stemming from a mental health condition.

The investigators explored the role of “established” outpatient care, defined as having had at least one visit with a provider of primary or mental health care in the 6 months prior to the acute psychiatric event.

Covariates included age at time of service (aged 12-17 years or 18-27 years), gender, health care plan type, psychiatric diagnosis, whether the acute event was self-harm or suicide related, and medical complexity.
 

Low follow-up rates

In the inpatient group, the average age was 18.9 years, the most common length of hospital stay was 4-6 days, and 1.5% left against medical advice. The most common primary diagnosis was major depression (53.7%), followed by bipolar disorder (22.3%). The least common disorders were PTSD, comorbid eating disorders, and disruptive disorders.

About one-third of participants had used both primary and mental health care during the 6 months before hospitalization, whereas 22.8% had no established outpatient care. Established care was most common among those with comorbid eating disorders and least common among those with psychotic disorders.

Results showed 42.7% of the hospitalized patients received follow up within 7 days and 67.4% received follow up within 30 days.

The strongest predictor of mental health follow-up care was established outpatient care. Compared with those who had no such care, those who had received both primary care and mental health care before the acute event had the highest odds of receiving follow-up (within 7 days, adjusted odds ratio, 2.81; 95% confidence interval, 2.68-2.94).

Older age and leaving against medical advice were associated with decreased likelihood of follow-up. Female sex, hospitalizations related to self-harm or suicidality, and longer length of stay were associated with increased likelihood of mental health follow-up care.

Compared with those hospitalized for major depression, those hospitalized for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, disruptive disorders, or comorbid substance use disorder were less likely to receive mental health follow-up. For example, only 23.7% of youth with comorbid substance use discharged from the hospital had follow-up within 7 days.

Similar patterns were observed for 30-day follow-up care.
 

‘Accessible and appealing’ options needed

In the ED-visit group, the average age was 19.5 years (58% female). Most (70.4%) had no chronic health conditions other than a psychiatric disorder. The primary diagnoses were anxiety disorders or phobias (44.1%) and major depression (23%).

One in four visits included a code for self-harm, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt. And almost one third lacked established outpatient care before the ED visit.

Results showed 28.6% of the ED group received mental health care follow-up within 7 days and 46.4% received it within 30 days.

Again, the strongest predictor of mental health follow-up was prior outpatient care. For example, compared with participants with no established outpatient care, those with both primary care and mental health care were the most likely to receive follow-up within 7 days (aOR, 4.06; 95% CI, 3.72-4.42).

These numbers “are far from the goal of making sure everybody is getting follow-up care within 7 days of an acute psychiatric event,” Dr. Skehan said.

He stressed the need for “accessible and appealing options for youth.” These could include telehealth services, improved communication among health care providers in the ED, and reducing barriers to access follow-up care.

“This probably highlights the need to have more case management and referral services, and maybe make sure patients have a follow-up appointment before they leave the emergency room,” said Dr. Skehan. “This doesn’t necessarily guarantee they’ll get there but hopefully it makes it more likely they will have that access should they need it.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, from the National Institutes of Health. The investigators reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

There is a concerning lack of follow-up care for young people who experience a mental health crisis, new research suggests.

Results from a large database study showed less than half of youth and young adults hospitalized for a psychiatric event received follow-up care within 7 days. The follow-up rate was less than 30% for those who had visited an ED.

The strongest predictor of follow-up was having received both primary and mental health care during the 6 months prior to using the acute service.

“For people discharging folks after a psychiatric crisis, whether it be in a hospital or emergency room setting, connecting them with their outpatient provider to ensure the transfer of care and continuity of care is vitally important to reduce risks for this population,” coinvestigator Brian Skehan, MD, PhD, assistant professor and psychiatrist, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, said during a press briefing.

If these discharged patients do not have a provider, “make sure they get one,” Lisa Dixon, MD, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric Services, added during the same briefing. “That’s the gift of life potentially for these young people.”

The findings were published online  in Psychiatric Services.
 

Alarming trends

The alarming suicide trends among youths were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Skehan noted.

He cited a 2021 study that showed more than 44% of high school students experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness over the previous year, 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide, and almost 1 in 10 actually attempted suicide.

“When we look at the number of young adults and adolescents struggling with behavioral health issues, the data trend is disturbing nationwide,” Dr. Skehan said.

The current study included participants aged 12-27 years who had private insurance. Many youth in this age category are experiencing significant changes, such as moving from high school to college and from pediatric providers to adult providers – and some “get lost in this transition,” said Dr. Skehan.

He noted many inpatient psychiatric units are not geared to young adults. “They may miss out on some aspects of inpatient care because it’s not geared to their developmental stage,” he said.

Assessing U.S. patient data in the IBM MarketScan commercial database (2013-2018), the researchers created two study samples: 95,153 inpatients and 108,576 patients who used the ED. All had an acute event stemming from a mental health condition.

The investigators explored the role of “established” outpatient care, defined as having had at least one visit with a provider of primary or mental health care in the 6 months prior to the acute psychiatric event.

Covariates included age at time of service (aged 12-17 years or 18-27 years), gender, health care plan type, psychiatric diagnosis, whether the acute event was self-harm or suicide related, and medical complexity.
 

Low follow-up rates

In the inpatient group, the average age was 18.9 years, the most common length of hospital stay was 4-6 days, and 1.5% left against medical advice. The most common primary diagnosis was major depression (53.7%), followed by bipolar disorder (22.3%). The least common disorders were PTSD, comorbid eating disorders, and disruptive disorders.

About one-third of participants had used both primary and mental health care during the 6 months before hospitalization, whereas 22.8% had no established outpatient care. Established care was most common among those with comorbid eating disorders and least common among those with psychotic disorders.

Results showed 42.7% of the hospitalized patients received follow up within 7 days and 67.4% received follow up within 30 days.

The strongest predictor of mental health follow-up care was established outpatient care. Compared with those who had no such care, those who had received both primary care and mental health care before the acute event had the highest odds of receiving follow-up (within 7 days, adjusted odds ratio, 2.81; 95% confidence interval, 2.68-2.94).

Older age and leaving against medical advice were associated with decreased likelihood of follow-up. Female sex, hospitalizations related to self-harm or suicidality, and longer length of stay were associated with increased likelihood of mental health follow-up care.

Compared with those hospitalized for major depression, those hospitalized for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, disruptive disorders, or comorbid substance use disorder were less likely to receive mental health follow-up. For example, only 23.7% of youth with comorbid substance use discharged from the hospital had follow-up within 7 days.

Similar patterns were observed for 30-day follow-up care.
 

‘Accessible and appealing’ options needed

In the ED-visit group, the average age was 19.5 years (58% female). Most (70.4%) had no chronic health conditions other than a psychiatric disorder. The primary diagnoses were anxiety disorders or phobias (44.1%) and major depression (23%).

One in four visits included a code for self-harm, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt. And almost one third lacked established outpatient care before the ED visit.

Results showed 28.6% of the ED group received mental health care follow-up within 7 days and 46.4% received it within 30 days.

Again, the strongest predictor of mental health follow-up was prior outpatient care. For example, compared with participants with no established outpatient care, those with both primary care and mental health care were the most likely to receive follow-up within 7 days (aOR, 4.06; 95% CI, 3.72-4.42).

These numbers “are far from the goal of making sure everybody is getting follow-up care within 7 days of an acute psychiatric event,” Dr. Skehan said.

He stressed the need for “accessible and appealing options for youth.” These could include telehealth services, improved communication among health care providers in the ED, and reducing barriers to access follow-up care.

“This probably highlights the need to have more case management and referral services, and maybe make sure patients have a follow-up appointment before they leave the emergency room,” said Dr. Skehan. “This doesn’t necessarily guarantee they’ll get there but hopefully it makes it more likely they will have that access should they need it.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, from the National Institutes of Health. The investigators reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

There is a concerning lack of follow-up care for young people who experience a mental health crisis, new research suggests.

Results from a large database study showed less than half of youth and young adults hospitalized for a psychiatric event received follow-up care within 7 days. The follow-up rate was less than 30% for those who had visited an ED.

The strongest predictor of follow-up was having received both primary and mental health care during the 6 months prior to using the acute service.

“For people discharging folks after a psychiatric crisis, whether it be in a hospital or emergency room setting, connecting them with their outpatient provider to ensure the transfer of care and continuity of care is vitally important to reduce risks for this population,” coinvestigator Brian Skehan, MD, PhD, assistant professor and psychiatrist, University of Massachusetts, Worcester, said during a press briefing.

If these discharged patients do not have a provider, “make sure they get one,” Lisa Dixon, MD, editor-in-chief of Psychiatric Services, added during the same briefing. “That’s the gift of life potentially for these young people.”

The findings were published online  in Psychiatric Services.
 

Alarming trends

The alarming suicide trends among youths were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Skehan noted.

He cited a 2021 study that showed more than 44% of high school students experienced persistent sadness or hopelessness over the previous year, 1 in 5 seriously considered suicide, and almost 1 in 10 actually attempted suicide.

“When we look at the number of young adults and adolescents struggling with behavioral health issues, the data trend is disturbing nationwide,” Dr. Skehan said.

The current study included participants aged 12-27 years who had private insurance. Many youth in this age category are experiencing significant changes, such as moving from high school to college and from pediatric providers to adult providers – and some “get lost in this transition,” said Dr. Skehan.

He noted many inpatient psychiatric units are not geared to young adults. “They may miss out on some aspects of inpatient care because it’s not geared to their developmental stage,” he said.

Assessing U.S. patient data in the IBM MarketScan commercial database (2013-2018), the researchers created two study samples: 95,153 inpatients and 108,576 patients who used the ED. All had an acute event stemming from a mental health condition.

The investigators explored the role of “established” outpatient care, defined as having had at least one visit with a provider of primary or mental health care in the 6 months prior to the acute psychiatric event.

Covariates included age at time of service (aged 12-17 years or 18-27 years), gender, health care plan type, psychiatric diagnosis, whether the acute event was self-harm or suicide related, and medical complexity.
 

Low follow-up rates

In the inpatient group, the average age was 18.9 years, the most common length of hospital stay was 4-6 days, and 1.5% left against medical advice. The most common primary diagnosis was major depression (53.7%), followed by bipolar disorder (22.3%). The least common disorders were PTSD, comorbid eating disorders, and disruptive disorders.

About one-third of participants had used both primary and mental health care during the 6 months before hospitalization, whereas 22.8% had no established outpatient care. Established care was most common among those with comorbid eating disorders and least common among those with psychotic disorders.

Results showed 42.7% of the hospitalized patients received follow up within 7 days and 67.4% received follow up within 30 days.

The strongest predictor of mental health follow-up care was established outpatient care. Compared with those who had no such care, those who had received both primary care and mental health care before the acute event had the highest odds of receiving follow-up (within 7 days, adjusted odds ratio, 2.81; 95% confidence interval, 2.68-2.94).

Older age and leaving against medical advice were associated with decreased likelihood of follow-up. Female sex, hospitalizations related to self-harm or suicidality, and longer length of stay were associated with increased likelihood of mental health follow-up care.

Compared with those hospitalized for major depression, those hospitalized for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, PTSD, disruptive disorders, or comorbid substance use disorder were less likely to receive mental health follow-up. For example, only 23.7% of youth with comorbid substance use discharged from the hospital had follow-up within 7 days.

Similar patterns were observed for 30-day follow-up care.
 

‘Accessible and appealing’ options needed

In the ED-visit group, the average age was 19.5 years (58% female). Most (70.4%) had no chronic health conditions other than a psychiatric disorder. The primary diagnoses were anxiety disorders or phobias (44.1%) and major depression (23%).

One in four visits included a code for self-harm, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt. And almost one third lacked established outpatient care before the ED visit.

Results showed 28.6% of the ED group received mental health care follow-up within 7 days and 46.4% received it within 30 days.

Again, the strongest predictor of mental health follow-up was prior outpatient care. For example, compared with participants with no established outpatient care, those with both primary care and mental health care were the most likely to receive follow-up within 7 days (aOR, 4.06; 95% CI, 3.72-4.42).

These numbers “are far from the goal of making sure everybody is getting follow-up care within 7 days of an acute psychiatric event,” Dr. Skehan said.

He stressed the need for “accessible and appealing options for youth.” These could include telehealth services, improved communication among health care providers in the ED, and reducing barriers to access follow-up care.

“This probably highlights the need to have more case management and referral services, and maybe make sure patients have a follow-up appointment before they leave the emergency room,” said Dr. Skehan. “This doesn’t necessarily guarantee they’ll get there but hopefully it makes it more likely they will have that access should they need it.”

The study was funded by grants from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, from the National Institutes of Health. The investigators reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation with real-time supervision significantly improved clinical symptoms of major depressive disorder, based on data from 26 individuals.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) remains a leading cause of disability and a significant predictor of suicide worldwide, Rachel D. Woodham, PhD, of the University of East London and colleagues wrote.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has demonstrated effectiveness as a noninvasive therapy for MDD, but requires frequent sessions, and repeat visits to treatment centers are a barrier for many patients, they noted. The tDCS procedure involves delivery of a weak direct electric current via placement of electrodes, usually with the anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, suborbital, or frontotemporal region.

“The current changes neuronal membrane potential and facilitates discharge,” but “in contrast to rTMS and ECT, tDCS does not directly trigger an action potential,” the researchers wrote. The most common side effects reported with tDCS are tingling, itching, burning sensation, skin redness or headache.

The researchers proposed that tDCS could be provided at home under real-time remote supervision.

In an open-label feasibility study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they recruited 26 adults with MDD in current depressive episodes of moderate to severe severity. In addition to maintaining their current treatment regimens of medication, psychotherapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy, participants used tDCS at home in 30-minute sessions, for a total of 21 sessions over 6 weeks. A researcher was present in person or on a real-time video call for each at-home session.

The primary outcome of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) score improved significantly, from a mean of 19.12 at baseline to 5.33 after 6 weeks. At 3 months, the mean HAMD score was 5.65, and 78.2% of patients met the criteria for clinical remission (HAMD score less than 9). At 6 months, patients maintained this improvement, with a mean HAMD score of 5.43 and 73.9% of the participants in clinical remission. The majority of participants (24 of 26) completed the full 6-week treatment.

Clinical assessments were conducted at baseline, at the end of the 6-week treatment period, at 3 months, and at 6 months, and included not only the HAMD, but also the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), and Young Mania Rating Scale. All participants showed significant improvements in HAMA, SDS, and PHQ-9 scores from baseline that endured from the end of the treatment period to the 6 months’ follow-up.

The tDCS involved a bilateral frontal montage, F3 anode, F4 cathode, 2mA, and two different devices were used.

All participants reported the acceptability of at-home tDCS as either “very acceptable” or “quite acceptable.”

The results were limited by the open-label feasibility design and lack of a sham control treatment; therefore, the findings of efficacy are preliminary, the researchers emphasized. “Having real-time supervision for each session likely contributed to symptom improvement.”

However, the results support the feasibility of at-home tDCS to improve outcomes both short- and long-term in patients with moderate to severe MDD, the researchers said. Larger, sham-controlled trials are needed to show efficacy, and additional assessment of feasibility should include the use of app-based devices, which may be more feasible for individuals with lower socioeconomic status.

The study received no outside funding. The study was supported by the Rosetrees Trust. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation with real-time supervision significantly improved clinical symptoms of major depressive disorder, based on data from 26 individuals.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) remains a leading cause of disability and a significant predictor of suicide worldwide, Rachel D. Woodham, PhD, of the University of East London and colleagues wrote.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has demonstrated effectiveness as a noninvasive therapy for MDD, but requires frequent sessions, and repeat visits to treatment centers are a barrier for many patients, they noted. The tDCS procedure involves delivery of a weak direct electric current via placement of electrodes, usually with the anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, suborbital, or frontotemporal region.

“The current changes neuronal membrane potential and facilitates discharge,” but “in contrast to rTMS and ECT, tDCS does not directly trigger an action potential,” the researchers wrote. The most common side effects reported with tDCS are tingling, itching, burning sensation, skin redness or headache.

The researchers proposed that tDCS could be provided at home under real-time remote supervision.

In an open-label feasibility study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they recruited 26 adults with MDD in current depressive episodes of moderate to severe severity. In addition to maintaining their current treatment regimens of medication, psychotherapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy, participants used tDCS at home in 30-minute sessions, for a total of 21 sessions over 6 weeks. A researcher was present in person or on a real-time video call for each at-home session.

The primary outcome of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) score improved significantly, from a mean of 19.12 at baseline to 5.33 after 6 weeks. At 3 months, the mean HAMD score was 5.65, and 78.2% of patients met the criteria for clinical remission (HAMD score less than 9). At 6 months, patients maintained this improvement, with a mean HAMD score of 5.43 and 73.9% of the participants in clinical remission. The majority of participants (24 of 26) completed the full 6-week treatment.

Clinical assessments were conducted at baseline, at the end of the 6-week treatment period, at 3 months, and at 6 months, and included not only the HAMD, but also the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), and Young Mania Rating Scale. All participants showed significant improvements in HAMA, SDS, and PHQ-9 scores from baseline that endured from the end of the treatment period to the 6 months’ follow-up.

The tDCS involved a bilateral frontal montage, F3 anode, F4 cathode, 2mA, and two different devices were used.

All participants reported the acceptability of at-home tDCS as either “very acceptable” or “quite acceptable.”

The results were limited by the open-label feasibility design and lack of a sham control treatment; therefore, the findings of efficacy are preliminary, the researchers emphasized. “Having real-time supervision for each session likely contributed to symptom improvement.”

However, the results support the feasibility of at-home tDCS to improve outcomes both short- and long-term in patients with moderate to severe MDD, the researchers said. Larger, sham-controlled trials are needed to show efficacy, and additional assessment of feasibility should include the use of app-based devices, which may be more feasible for individuals with lower socioeconomic status.

The study received no outside funding. The study was supported by the Rosetrees Trust. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Home-based transcranial direct current stimulation with real-time supervision significantly improved clinical symptoms of major depressive disorder, based on data from 26 individuals.

Major depressive disorder (MDD) remains a leading cause of disability and a significant predictor of suicide worldwide, Rachel D. Woodham, PhD, of the University of East London and colleagues wrote.

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has demonstrated effectiveness as a noninvasive therapy for MDD, but requires frequent sessions, and repeat visits to treatment centers are a barrier for many patients, they noted. The tDCS procedure involves delivery of a weak direct electric current via placement of electrodes, usually with the anode over the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and the cathode over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, suborbital, or frontotemporal region.

“The current changes neuronal membrane potential and facilitates discharge,” but “in contrast to rTMS and ECT, tDCS does not directly trigger an action potential,” the researchers wrote. The most common side effects reported with tDCS are tingling, itching, burning sensation, skin redness or headache.

The researchers proposed that tDCS could be provided at home under real-time remote supervision.

In an open-label feasibility study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they recruited 26 adults with MDD in current depressive episodes of moderate to severe severity. In addition to maintaining their current treatment regimens of medication, psychotherapy, or cognitive behavioral therapy, participants used tDCS at home in 30-minute sessions, for a total of 21 sessions over 6 weeks. A researcher was present in person or on a real-time video call for each at-home session.

The primary outcome of Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAMD) score improved significantly, from a mean of 19.12 at baseline to 5.33 after 6 weeks. At 3 months, the mean HAMD score was 5.65, and 78.2% of patients met the criteria for clinical remission (HAMD score less than 9). At 6 months, patients maintained this improvement, with a mean HAMD score of 5.43 and 73.9% of the participants in clinical remission. The majority of participants (24 of 26) completed the full 6-week treatment.

Clinical assessments were conducted at baseline, at the end of the 6-week treatment period, at 3 months, and at 6 months, and included not only the HAMD, but also the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAMA), Sheehan Disability Scale (SDS), Patient Health Questionnaire–9 (PHQ-9), and Young Mania Rating Scale. All participants showed significant improvements in HAMA, SDS, and PHQ-9 scores from baseline that endured from the end of the treatment period to the 6 months’ follow-up.

The tDCS involved a bilateral frontal montage, F3 anode, F4 cathode, 2mA, and two different devices were used.

All participants reported the acceptability of at-home tDCS as either “very acceptable” or “quite acceptable.”

The results were limited by the open-label feasibility design and lack of a sham control treatment; therefore, the findings of efficacy are preliminary, the researchers emphasized. “Having real-time supervision for each session likely contributed to symptom improvement.”

However, the results support the feasibility of at-home tDCS to improve outcomes both short- and long-term in patients with moderate to severe MDD, the researchers said. Larger, sham-controlled trials are needed to show efficacy, and additional assessment of feasibility should include the use of app-based devices, which may be more feasible for individuals with lower socioeconomic status.

The study received no outside funding. The study was supported by the Rosetrees Trust. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose.
 

Poor visual acuity, defined as difficulty discerning letters or numbers at a given distance, is associated with depression in middle-aged and older individuals, research suggests.

After multiple adjustments, analysis of data from more than 114,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study showed that visual impairment was linked to a 19% higher risk for depression.

In addition, imaging results showed a significant link between deteriorating brain structures and depression in those with poor visual acuity.

“Our findings highlight the value of visual health in association with mental health,” Xiayin Zhang, PhD, Guangdong Eye Institute, department of ophthalmology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues write.

“Screening of vision at an early stage should be embedded in the middle-aged and older population to stratify the vulnerable population at risk for depression,” the investigators add.

The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

UK biobank analyses

The analysis included 114,583 participants (54.5% women; mean age, 56.8 years) from the UK Biobank who completed standardized questionnaires and underwent ocular examinations.

To test distance visual acuity, all were asked to read letters on lines from the top to the bottom of a chart while wearing prescribed optical correction. Visual impairment was defined as visual acuity worse than 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR) units.

Depressive symptoms were self-reported using the two-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), in which a score of 3 or more indicates depression. As well, a medical practitioner conducted an assessment of depression at baseline.

Among the participants, 87.2% had no visual impairment or depression and acted as the healthy control group. In addition, 3.2% showed visual impairment, 10% reported a diagnosis of depression, and 0.4% had both.

Researchers adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, family history of severe depression, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and deprivation on the Townsend index.

Among those with visual impairment, 12.4% had depression, compared with 9.9% without visual impairment.
 

Structure deterioration

After adjusting for potential confounders, visual impairment was associated with a 19% higher risk for depression (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.34; P = .003). In addition, 1-line–worse visual acuity was associated with 5% higher odds of depression (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.04-1.07; P < .001).

The association between visual acuity and depression was found in both younger (39-58 years) and older (59-72 years) groups, as well as in both men and women.

The researchers also explored the association between depressive symptoms and brain structure using MRI scans from a subset of 7,844 individuals (51% women; 2% with visual impairment).

Results showed linear associations between PHQ-2 scores and the left volume of gray matter in the supracalcarine cortex (coefficient, 7.61; 95% CI, 3.9-11.3; adjusted P = .006).

The investigators note that the supracalcarine cortex is spatially connected to the primary visual cortex, suggesting the visual cortex may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression.

PHQ-2 scores were also associated with mean isotropic volume fraction (ISOVF) in the right fornix (cres) and/or stria terminalis (coefficient, .003; 95% CI, 0.001-0.004; adjusted P = .01).

The links “could be moderated by visual acuity, whereby increased PHQ score was associated with higher ISOVF levels only among those with poorer visual acuity (P = .02 for interaction),” the investigators report.

These results “suggest that poorer visual acuity was associated with greater depressive symptoms and may have contributed to the related deterioration of the fornix and stria terminalis,” they add.

They note that previous studies have supported the hypothesis that the fornix and stria terminalis are involved in the pathophysiology of other brain-related conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.

However, the investigators did not have information on how long the participants had experienced visual impairment, so they couldn’t investigate whether results were affected by time. Additional study limitations cited were that depression may affect vision and that a large proportion of the participants (89.3%) were White.
 

Study ‘adds nuance’

Commenting on the study, Ipsit V. Vahia, MD, of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and associate chief of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., said the study “adds nuance to our understanding” of the well-established relationship between vision deficits and depression.

“It indicates that even mild visual deficits may be associated with depression,” said Dr. Vahia, who was not involved with the research.

The investigators validated this association by showing that visual acuity was also associated with neuroimaging markers of depression, he added.

Although the study was not designed to demonstrate causal relationships between mood and vision and its findings do not confirm that correcting visual acuity deficits will resolve depressive symptoms, “the large study sample and high quality of data should give clinicians confidence in the study’s findings,” Dr. Vahia said.

“Correcting visual acuity deficits can be considered standard care for older adults worldwide, and this study suggests that providing this standard care could also benefit mental health,” he concluded.

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Outstanding Young Talent Trainee Program of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital Scientific Research Funds for Leading Medical Talents and Distinguished Young Scholars in Guangdong Province, the Talent Introduction Fund of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China, the Project of Special Research on Cardiovascular Diseases, the Research Foundation of Medical Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, the University of Melbourne at Research Accelerator Program, and the CERA (Centre for Eye Research Australia) Foundation and Victorian State Government for the Centre for Eye Research Australia. The investigators and Dr. Vahia have reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Poor visual acuity, defined as difficulty discerning letters or numbers at a given distance, is associated with depression in middle-aged and older individuals, research suggests.

After multiple adjustments, analysis of data from more than 114,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study showed that visual impairment was linked to a 19% higher risk for depression.

In addition, imaging results showed a significant link between deteriorating brain structures and depression in those with poor visual acuity.

“Our findings highlight the value of visual health in association with mental health,” Xiayin Zhang, PhD, Guangdong Eye Institute, department of ophthalmology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues write.

“Screening of vision at an early stage should be embedded in the middle-aged and older population to stratify the vulnerable population at risk for depression,” the investigators add.

The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

UK biobank analyses

The analysis included 114,583 participants (54.5% women; mean age, 56.8 years) from the UK Biobank who completed standardized questionnaires and underwent ocular examinations.

To test distance visual acuity, all were asked to read letters on lines from the top to the bottom of a chart while wearing prescribed optical correction. Visual impairment was defined as visual acuity worse than 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR) units.

Depressive symptoms were self-reported using the two-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), in which a score of 3 or more indicates depression. As well, a medical practitioner conducted an assessment of depression at baseline.

Among the participants, 87.2% had no visual impairment or depression and acted as the healthy control group. In addition, 3.2% showed visual impairment, 10% reported a diagnosis of depression, and 0.4% had both.

Researchers adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, family history of severe depression, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and deprivation on the Townsend index.

Among those with visual impairment, 12.4% had depression, compared with 9.9% without visual impairment.
 

Structure deterioration

After adjusting for potential confounders, visual impairment was associated with a 19% higher risk for depression (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.34; P = .003). In addition, 1-line–worse visual acuity was associated with 5% higher odds of depression (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.04-1.07; P < .001).

The association between visual acuity and depression was found in both younger (39-58 years) and older (59-72 years) groups, as well as in both men and women.

The researchers also explored the association between depressive symptoms and brain structure using MRI scans from a subset of 7,844 individuals (51% women; 2% with visual impairment).

Results showed linear associations between PHQ-2 scores and the left volume of gray matter in the supracalcarine cortex (coefficient, 7.61; 95% CI, 3.9-11.3; adjusted P = .006).

The investigators note that the supracalcarine cortex is spatially connected to the primary visual cortex, suggesting the visual cortex may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression.

PHQ-2 scores were also associated with mean isotropic volume fraction (ISOVF) in the right fornix (cres) and/or stria terminalis (coefficient, .003; 95% CI, 0.001-0.004; adjusted P = .01).

The links “could be moderated by visual acuity, whereby increased PHQ score was associated with higher ISOVF levels only among those with poorer visual acuity (P = .02 for interaction),” the investigators report.

These results “suggest that poorer visual acuity was associated with greater depressive symptoms and may have contributed to the related deterioration of the fornix and stria terminalis,” they add.

They note that previous studies have supported the hypothesis that the fornix and stria terminalis are involved in the pathophysiology of other brain-related conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.

However, the investigators did not have information on how long the participants had experienced visual impairment, so they couldn’t investigate whether results were affected by time. Additional study limitations cited were that depression may affect vision and that a large proportion of the participants (89.3%) were White.
 

Study ‘adds nuance’

Commenting on the study, Ipsit V. Vahia, MD, of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and associate chief of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., said the study “adds nuance to our understanding” of the well-established relationship between vision deficits and depression.

“It indicates that even mild visual deficits may be associated with depression,” said Dr. Vahia, who was not involved with the research.

The investigators validated this association by showing that visual acuity was also associated with neuroimaging markers of depression, he added.

Although the study was not designed to demonstrate causal relationships between mood and vision and its findings do not confirm that correcting visual acuity deficits will resolve depressive symptoms, “the large study sample and high quality of data should give clinicians confidence in the study’s findings,” Dr. Vahia said.

“Correcting visual acuity deficits can be considered standard care for older adults worldwide, and this study suggests that providing this standard care could also benefit mental health,” he concluded.

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Outstanding Young Talent Trainee Program of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital Scientific Research Funds for Leading Medical Talents and Distinguished Young Scholars in Guangdong Province, the Talent Introduction Fund of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China, the Project of Special Research on Cardiovascular Diseases, the Research Foundation of Medical Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, the University of Melbourne at Research Accelerator Program, and the CERA (Centre for Eye Research Australia) Foundation and Victorian State Government for the Centre for Eye Research Australia. The investigators and Dr. Vahia have reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Poor visual acuity, defined as difficulty discerning letters or numbers at a given distance, is associated with depression in middle-aged and older individuals, research suggests.

After multiple adjustments, analysis of data from more than 114,000 participants in the UK Biobank Study showed that visual impairment was linked to a 19% higher risk for depression.

In addition, imaging results showed a significant link between deteriorating brain structures and depression in those with poor visual acuity.

“Our findings highlight the value of visual health in association with mental health,” Xiayin Zhang, PhD, Guangdong Eye Institute, department of ophthalmology, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, Guangzhou, China, and colleagues write.

“Screening of vision at an early stage should be embedded in the middle-aged and older population to stratify the vulnerable population at risk for depression,” the investigators add.

The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

UK biobank analyses

The analysis included 114,583 participants (54.5% women; mean age, 56.8 years) from the UK Biobank who completed standardized questionnaires and underwent ocular examinations.

To test distance visual acuity, all were asked to read letters on lines from the top to the bottom of a chart while wearing prescribed optical correction. Visual impairment was defined as visual acuity worse than 0.3 logarithm of the minimum angle of resolution (LogMAR) units.

Depressive symptoms were self-reported using the two-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-2), in which a score of 3 or more indicates depression. As well, a medical practitioner conducted an assessment of depression at baseline.

Among the participants, 87.2% had no visual impairment or depression and acted as the healthy control group. In addition, 3.2% showed visual impairment, 10% reported a diagnosis of depression, and 0.4% had both.

Researchers adjusted for age, sex, race, ethnicity, education, smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity, family history of severe depression, obesity, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and deprivation on the Townsend index.

Among those with visual impairment, 12.4% had depression, compared with 9.9% without visual impairment.
 

Structure deterioration

After adjusting for potential confounders, visual impairment was associated with a 19% higher risk for depression (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-1.34; P = .003). In addition, 1-line–worse visual acuity was associated with 5% higher odds of depression (OR, 1.05; 95% CI, 1.04-1.07; P < .001).

The association between visual acuity and depression was found in both younger (39-58 years) and older (59-72 years) groups, as well as in both men and women.

The researchers also explored the association between depressive symptoms and brain structure using MRI scans from a subset of 7,844 individuals (51% women; 2% with visual impairment).

Results showed linear associations between PHQ-2 scores and the left volume of gray matter in the supracalcarine cortex (coefficient, 7.61; 95% CI, 3.9-11.3; adjusted P = .006).

The investigators note that the supracalcarine cortex is spatially connected to the primary visual cortex, suggesting the visual cortex may be involved in the pathogenesis of depression.

PHQ-2 scores were also associated with mean isotropic volume fraction (ISOVF) in the right fornix (cres) and/or stria terminalis (coefficient, .003; 95% CI, 0.001-0.004; adjusted P = .01).

The links “could be moderated by visual acuity, whereby increased PHQ score was associated with higher ISOVF levels only among those with poorer visual acuity (P = .02 for interaction),” the investigators report.

These results “suggest that poorer visual acuity was associated with greater depressive symptoms and may have contributed to the related deterioration of the fornix and stria terminalis,” they add.

They note that previous studies have supported the hypothesis that the fornix and stria terminalis are involved in the pathophysiology of other brain-related conditions, including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and autism spectrum disorder.

However, the investigators did not have information on how long the participants had experienced visual impairment, so they couldn’t investigate whether results were affected by time. Additional study limitations cited were that depression may affect vision and that a large proportion of the participants (89.3%) were White.
 

Study ‘adds nuance’

Commenting on the study, Ipsit V. Vahia, MD, of the department of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, Boston, and associate chief of geriatric psychiatry at McLean Hospital, Belmont, Mass., said the study “adds nuance to our understanding” of the well-established relationship between vision deficits and depression.

“It indicates that even mild visual deficits may be associated with depression,” said Dr. Vahia, who was not involved with the research.

The investigators validated this association by showing that visual acuity was also associated with neuroimaging markers of depression, he added.

Although the study was not designed to demonstrate causal relationships between mood and vision and its findings do not confirm that correcting visual acuity deficits will resolve depressive symptoms, “the large study sample and high quality of data should give clinicians confidence in the study’s findings,” Dr. Vahia said.

“Correcting visual acuity deficits can be considered standard care for older adults worldwide, and this study suggests that providing this standard care could also benefit mental health,” he concluded.

The study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, the Outstanding Young Talent Trainee Program of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital Scientific Research Funds for Leading Medical Talents and Distinguished Young Scholars in Guangdong Province, the Talent Introduction Fund of Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital, the Science and Technology Program of Guangzhou, China, the Project of Special Research on Cardiovascular Diseases, the Research Foundation of Medical Science and Technology of Guangdong Province, the University of Melbourne at Research Accelerator Program, and the CERA (Centre for Eye Research Australia) Foundation and Victorian State Government for the Centre for Eye Research Australia. The investigators and Dr. Vahia have reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Patients with perinatal depression who used a specialized online tool showed improvement in symptoms, compared with controls who received routine care, based on data from 191 individuals.

Although perinatal depression affects approximately 17% of pregnant women and 13% of postpartum women, the condition is often underrecognized and undertreated, Brian Danaher, PhD, of Influents Innovations, Eugene, Ore., and colleagues wrote. Meta-analyses have shown that e-health interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can improve depression in general and perinatal depression in particular.

An e-health program known as the MomMoodBooster has demonstrated effectiveness at reducing postpartum depression, and the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a perinatal version.

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the researchers randomized 95 pregnant women and 96 postpartum women who met screening criteria for depression to routine care for perinatal depression, which included a 24/7 crisis hotline and a referral network or PDP plus a version of the MomMoodBooster with a perinatal depression component (MMB2). Participants were aged 18 and older, with no active suicidal ideation. The average age was 32 years; 84% were non-Hispanic, 67% were White, and 94% were married or in a long-term relationship. During the 12 weeks, each of six sessions became accessible online in sequence.

The primary endpoint was the change in outcomes at 12 weeks after the start of the program, with depressive symptom severity measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Anxiety was assessed as a secondary outcome by using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was used to evaluate clinical significance, and was defined as a reduction in PHQ-9 of at least 5 points from baseline.

After controlling for perinatal status at baseline and assessment time, the MMB2 group had significantly greater decreases in depression severity and stress compared with the routine care group. In addition, based on MCID, significantly more women in the MMB2 group showed improvements in depression, compared with the routine care group (43% vs. 26%; odds ratio, 2.12; P = .015).

A total of 88 of the 89 women in the MMB2 group accessed the sessions, and approximately half (49%) viewed all six sessions.

Of the women who used the MMB2 program, 96% said that it was easy to use, 93% said they would recommend it, and 83% said it was helpful to them.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the lack of long-term follow-up data and inability to determine the durability of the treatment effects, the researchers noted. Another key limitation is the demographics of the study population (slightly older and a greater proportion of White individuals than the national average), which may not be representative of all perinatal women in the United States.

However, the results are consistent with findings from previous studies, including meta-analyses of CBT-based programs, the researchers wrote.

“When used in a largely self-directed approach, MMB2 could fill the gap when in-person treatment options are limited as well as for women whose circumstances (COVID) and/or concerns (stigma, costs) reduce the acceptability of in-person help,” they said. Use of e-health programs such as MMB2 could increase the scope of treatment for perinatal depression.
 

Expanding e-health options may improve outcomes and reduce disparities

Perinatal and postpartum depression is one of the most common conditions affecting pregnancy, Lisette D. Tanner, MD, of Emory University, Atlanta, said in an interview. “Depression can have serious consequences for both maternal and neonatal well-being, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and poor bonding, as well as delayed emotional and cognitive development of the newborn.

“While clinicians are encouraged to screen patients during and after pregnancy for signs and symptoms of depression, once identified, the availability of effective treatment is limited. Access to mental health resources is a long-standing disparity in medicine, and therefore research investigating readily available e-health treatment strategies is critically important,” said Dr. Tanner, who was not involved in the study.

In the current study, “I was surprised by the number of patients who saw a clinically significant improvement in depression scores in such a short period of time. An average of only 20 days elapsed between baseline and post-test scores and almost 43% of patients showed improvement. Mental health interventions typically take longer to demonstrate an effect, both medication and talk therapies,” she said.  

“The largest barrier to adoption of any e-health modality into clinical practice is often the cost of implementation and maintaining infrastructure,” said Dr. Tanner. “A cost-effectiveness analysis of this intervention would be helpful to better delineate the value of such of program in comparison to more traditional treatments.”

More research is needed on the effectiveness of the intervention for specific populations, such as groups with lower socioeconomic status and patients with chronic mood disorders, Dr. Tanner said. “Additionally, introducing the program in locations with limited access to mental health resources would support more widespread implementation.”

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose. Dr. Tanner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Patients with perinatal depression who used a specialized online tool showed improvement in symptoms, compared with controls who received routine care, based on data from 191 individuals.

Although perinatal depression affects approximately 17% of pregnant women and 13% of postpartum women, the condition is often underrecognized and undertreated, Brian Danaher, PhD, of Influents Innovations, Eugene, Ore., and colleagues wrote. Meta-analyses have shown that e-health interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can improve depression in general and perinatal depression in particular.

An e-health program known as the MomMoodBooster has demonstrated effectiveness at reducing postpartum depression, and the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a perinatal version.

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the researchers randomized 95 pregnant women and 96 postpartum women who met screening criteria for depression to routine care for perinatal depression, which included a 24/7 crisis hotline and a referral network or PDP plus a version of the MomMoodBooster with a perinatal depression component (MMB2). Participants were aged 18 and older, with no active suicidal ideation. The average age was 32 years; 84% were non-Hispanic, 67% were White, and 94% were married or in a long-term relationship. During the 12 weeks, each of six sessions became accessible online in sequence.

The primary endpoint was the change in outcomes at 12 weeks after the start of the program, with depressive symptom severity measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Anxiety was assessed as a secondary outcome by using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was used to evaluate clinical significance, and was defined as a reduction in PHQ-9 of at least 5 points from baseline.

After controlling for perinatal status at baseline and assessment time, the MMB2 group had significantly greater decreases in depression severity and stress compared with the routine care group. In addition, based on MCID, significantly more women in the MMB2 group showed improvements in depression, compared with the routine care group (43% vs. 26%; odds ratio, 2.12; P = .015).

A total of 88 of the 89 women in the MMB2 group accessed the sessions, and approximately half (49%) viewed all six sessions.

Of the women who used the MMB2 program, 96% said that it was easy to use, 93% said they would recommend it, and 83% said it was helpful to them.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the lack of long-term follow-up data and inability to determine the durability of the treatment effects, the researchers noted. Another key limitation is the demographics of the study population (slightly older and a greater proportion of White individuals than the national average), which may not be representative of all perinatal women in the United States.

However, the results are consistent with findings from previous studies, including meta-analyses of CBT-based programs, the researchers wrote.

“When used in a largely self-directed approach, MMB2 could fill the gap when in-person treatment options are limited as well as for women whose circumstances (COVID) and/or concerns (stigma, costs) reduce the acceptability of in-person help,” they said. Use of e-health programs such as MMB2 could increase the scope of treatment for perinatal depression.
 

Expanding e-health options may improve outcomes and reduce disparities

Perinatal and postpartum depression is one of the most common conditions affecting pregnancy, Lisette D. Tanner, MD, of Emory University, Atlanta, said in an interview. “Depression can have serious consequences for both maternal and neonatal well-being, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and poor bonding, as well as delayed emotional and cognitive development of the newborn.

“While clinicians are encouraged to screen patients during and after pregnancy for signs and symptoms of depression, once identified, the availability of effective treatment is limited. Access to mental health resources is a long-standing disparity in medicine, and therefore research investigating readily available e-health treatment strategies is critically important,” said Dr. Tanner, who was not involved in the study.

In the current study, “I was surprised by the number of patients who saw a clinically significant improvement in depression scores in such a short period of time. An average of only 20 days elapsed between baseline and post-test scores and almost 43% of patients showed improvement. Mental health interventions typically take longer to demonstrate an effect, both medication and talk therapies,” she said.  

“The largest barrier to adoption of any e-health modality into clinical practice is often the cost of implementation and maintaining infrastructure,” said Dr. Tanner. “A cost-effectiveness analysis of this intervention would be helpful to better delineate the value of such of program in comparison to more traditional treatments.”

More research is needed on the effectiveness of the intervention for specific populations, such as groups with lower socioeconomic status and patients with chronic mood disorders, Dr. Tanner said. “Additionally, introducing the program in locations with limited access to mental health resources would support more widespread implementation.”

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose. Dr. Tanner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Patients with perinatal depression who used a specialized online tool showed improvement in symptoms, compared with controls who received routine care, based on data from 191 individuals.

Although perinatal depression affects approximately 17% of pregnant women and 13% of postpartum women, the condition is often underrecognized and undertreated, Brian Danaher, PhD, of Influents Innovations, Eugene, Ore., and colleagues wrote. Meta-analyses have shown that e-health interventions based on cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) can improve depression in general and perinatal depression in particular.

An e-health program known as the MomMoodBooster has demonstrated effectiveness at reducing postpartum depression, and the researchers evaluated the effectiveness of a perinatal version.

In a study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology, the researchers randomized 95 pregnant women and 96 postpartum women who met screening criteria for depression to routine care for perinatal depression, which included a 24/7 crisis hotline and a referral network or PDP plus a version of the MomMoodBooster with a perinatal depression component (MMB2). Participants were aged 18 and older, with no active suicidal ideation. The average age was 32 years; 84% were non-Hispanic, 67% were White, and 94% were married or in a long-term relationship. During the 12 weeks, each of six sessions became accessible online in sequence.

The primary endpoint was the change in outcomes at 12 weeks after the start of the program, with depressive symptom severity measured using the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9). Anxiety was assessed as a secondary outcome by using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale. The minimal clinically important difference (MCID) was used to evaluate clinical significance, and was defined as a reduction in PHQ-9 of at least 5 points from baseline.

After controlling for perinatal status at baseline and assessment time, the MMB2 group had significantly greater decreases in depression severity and stress compared with the routine care group. In addition, based on MCID, significantly more women in the MMB2 group showed improvements in depression, compared with the routine care group (43% vs. 26%; odds ratio, 2.12; P = .015).

A total of 88 of the 89 women in the MMB2 group accessed the sessions, and approximately half (49%) viewed all six sessions.

Of the women who used the MMB2 program, 96% said that it was easy to use, 93% said they would recommend it, and 83% said it was helpful to them.

The study findings were limited by several factors including the lack of long-term follow-up data and inability to determine the durability of the treatment effects, the researchers noted. Another key limitation is the demographics of the study population (slightly older and a greater proportion of White individuals than the national average), which may not be representative of all perinatal women in the United States.

However, the results are consistent with findings from previous studies, including meta-analyses of CBT-based programs, the researchers wrote.

“When used in a largely self-directed approach, MMB2 could fill the gap when in-person treatment options are limited as well as for women whose circumstances (COVID) and/or concerns (stigma, costs) reduce the acceptability of in-person help,” they said. Use of e-health programs such as MMB2 could increase the scope of treatment for perinatal depression.
 

Expanding e-health options may improve outcomes and reduce disparities

Perinatal and postpartum depression is one of the most common conditions affecting pregnancy, Lisette D. Tanner, MD, of Emory University, Atlanta, said in an interview. “Depression can have serious consequences for both maternal and neonatal well-being, including preterm birth, low birth weight, and poor bonding, as well as delayed emotional and cognitive development of the newborn.

“While clinicians are encouraged to screen patients during and after pregnancy for signs and symptoms of depression, once identified, the availability of effective treatment is limited. Access to mental health resources is a long-standing disparity in medicine, and therefore research investigating readily available e-health treatment strategies is critically important,” said Dr. Tanner, who was not involved in the study.

In the current study, “I was surprised by the number of patients who saw a clinically significant improvement in depression scores in such a short period of time. An average of only 20 days elapsed between baseline and post-test scores and almost 43% of patients showed improvement. Mental health interventions typically take longer to demonstrate an effect, both medication and talk therapies,” she said.  

“The largest barrier to adoption of any e-health modality into clinical practice is often the cost of implementation and maintaining infrastructure,” said Dr. Tanner. “A cost-effectiveness analysis of this intervention would be helpful to better delineate the value of such of program in comparison to more traditional treatments.”

More research is needed on the effectiveness of the intervention for specific populations, such as groups with lower socioeconomic status and patients with chronic mood disorders, Dr. Tanner said. “Additionally, introducing the program in locations with limited access to mental health resources would support more widespread implementation.”

The study was supported by the National Institutes of Mental Health. The researchers had no financial conflicts to disclose. Dr. Tanner had no financial conflicts to disclose.

Suicide notes left by elderly people provide a unique opportunity to better understand and prevent suicide in this often vulnerable population.

A new analysis of notes penned by seniors who died by suicide reveals several common themes. These include feeling as if they were a burden, feelings of guilt, experiencing mental illness, loneliness, or isolation, as well as poor health and/or disability.

“The most important message [in our findings] is that there is hope,” study investigator Ari B. Cuperfain, MD, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, told this news organization.

“Suicide risk is modifiable, and we encourage that care providers sensitively explore thoughts of suicide in patients expressing depressive thoughts or difficulty coping with other life stressors,” he said.

The study was published online in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
 

Opportunity for intervention

Most previous studies of late-life suicide have focused on risk factors rather than the themes and meaning underlying individuals’ distress.

Dr. Cuperfain’s group had previously analyzed suicide notes to “explore the relationship between suicide and an individual’s experience with mental health care in all age groups,” he said. For the current study, the investigators analyzed the subset of notes written exclusively by older adults.

The researchers “hypothesized that suicide notes could provide a unique window into the thought processes of older adults during a critical window for mental health intervention,” he added.

Although effective screening for suicidality in older adults can mitigate suicide risk, the frequency of suicide screening decreases with increasing age, the authors noted.

In addition, suicide attempts are typically more often fatal in older adults than in the general population. Understanding the motivations for suicide in this vulnerable population can inform potential interventions.

The researchers used a constructivist grounded theory framework to analyze suicide notes available from their previous study and notes obtained from the Office of the Coroner in Toronto from adults aged 65 years and older (n = 29; mean [SD], age 76.2 [8.3] years; 79% men).

The investigators began with open coding of the notes, “specifying a short name to a segment of data that summarizes and accounts for each piece of data.” They then used a series of techniques to identify terms and themes (repeated patterns of ideas reflected in the data).

Once themes had been determined, they identified “pathways between these themes and the final act of suicide.”
 

Common themes

Four major themes emerged in the analysis of the suicide notes.

Recurring terms included “pain,” “[poor] sleep,” or “[wakeful] nights,” as well as “sorry” (either about past actions or about the suicide), and “I just can’t” (referring to the inability to carry on).

The suicide notes “provided the older writers’ conceptual schema for suicide, elucidating the cognitive process linking their narratives to the acts of suicide.” Examples included the following:

• Suicide as a way out or solution to an insoluble problem.
• Suicide as the final act in a long road of suffering.
• Suicide as the logical culmination of life (the person “lived a good life”).

“Our study enriches the understanding of ‘why’ rather than just ‘which’ older adults die by suicide,” the authors noted.

“Care providers can help older adults at risk of suicide through a combination of treatment options. These include physician involvement to manage depression, psychosis, or pain, psychotherapy to reframe certain ways of thinking, or social activities to reduce isolation,” Dr. Cuperfain said.

“By understanding the experiences of older adults and what is underlying their suicidal thoughts, these interventions can be tailored specifically for the individual experiencing distress,” he added.
 

Untangling suicide drivers

Commenting on the study, Yeates Conwell, MD, professor and vice chair, department of psychiatry, University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center, said that “by analyzing the suicide notes of older people who died by suicide, the paper lends a unique perspective to our understanding of why they may have taken their lives.”

University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Conwell, director of the geriatric psychiatry program and codirector of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester, and author of an accompanying editorial, said that “by including the decedent’s own voice, the analysis of notes is a useful complement to other approaches used for the study of suicide in this age group”.

However, “like all other approaches, it is subject to potential biases in interpretation. The meaning in the notes must be derived with careful consideration of context, both what is said and what is not said, and the likelihood that both overt and covert messages are contained in and between their lines,” cautioned Dr. Conwell.

“Acknowledging the strength and limitations of each approach to the study of suicide death, together they can help untangle its drivers and support the search for effective, acceptable, and scalable prevention interventions. No one approach alone, however, will reveal the ‘cause’ of suicide,” Dr. Conwell wrote.

No source of study funding was provided. Dr. Cuperfain reports no relevant financial relationships. The other authors’ disclosures are listed on the original article. Dr. Conwell reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Suicide notes left by elderly people provide a unique opportunity to better understand and prevent suicide in this often vulnerable population.

A new analysis of notes penned by seniors who died by suicide reveals several common themes. These include feeling as if they were a burden, feelings of guilt, experiencing mental illness, loneliness, or isolation, as well as poor health and/or disability.

“The most important message [in our findings] is that there is hope,” study investigator Ari B. Cuperfain, MD, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, told this news organization.

“Suicide risk is modifiable, and we encourage that care providers sensitively explore thoughts of suicide in patients expressing depressive thoughts or difficulty coping with other life stressors,” he said.

The study was published online in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
 

Opportunity for intervention

Most previous studies of late-life suicide have focused on risk factors rather than the themes and meaning underlying individuals’ distress.

Dr. Cuperfain’s group had previously analyzed suicide notes to “explore the relationship between suicide and an individual’s experience with mental health care in all age groups,” he said. For the current study, the investigators analyzed the subset of notes written exclusively by older adults.

The researchers “hypothesized that suicide notes could provide a unique window into the thought processes of older adults during a critical window for mental health intervention,” he added.

Although effective screening for suicidality in older adults can mitigate suicide risk, the frequency of suicide screening decreases with increasing age, the authors noted.

In addition, suicide attempts are typically more often fatal in older adults than in the general population. Understanding the motivations for suicide in this vulnerable population can inform potential interventions.

The researchers used a constructivist grounded theory framework to analyze suicide notes available from their previous study and notes obtained from the Office of the Coroner in Toronto from adults aged 65 years and older (n = 29; mean [SD], age 76.2 [8.3] years; 79% men).

The investigators began with open coding of the notes, “specifying a short name to a segment of data that summarizes and accounts for each piece of data.” They then used a series of techniques to identify terms and themes (repeated patterns of ideas reflected in the data).

Once themes had been determined, they identified “pathways between these themes and the final act of suicide.”
 

Common themes

Four major themes emerged in the analysis of the suicide notes.

Recurring terms included “pain,” “[poor] sleep,” or “[wakeful] nights,” as well as “sorry” (either about past actions or about the suicide), and “I just can’t” (referring to the inability to carry on).

The suicide notes “provided the older writers’ conceptual schema for suicide, elucidating the cognitive process linking their narratives to the acts of suicide.” Examples included the following:

• Suicide as a way out or solution to an insoluble problem.
• Suicide as the final act in a long road of suffering.
• Suicide as the logical culmination of life (the person “lived a good life”).

“Our study enriches the understanding of ‘why’ rather than just ‘which’ older adults die by suicide,” the authors noted.

“Care providers can help older adults at risk of suicide through a combination of treatment options. These include physician involvement to manage depression, psychosis, or pain, psychotherapy to reframe certain ways of thinking, or social activities to reduce isolation,” Dr. Cuperfain said.

“By understanding the experiences of older adults and what is underlying their suicidal thoughts, these interventions can be tailored specifically for the individual experiencing distress,” he added.
 

Untangling suicide drivers

Commenting on the study, Yeates Conwell, MD, professor and vice chair, department of psychiatry, University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center, said that “by analyzing the suicide notes of older people who died by suicide, the paper lends a unique perspective to our understanding of why they may have taken their lives.”

University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Conwell, director of the geriatric psychiatry program and codirector of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester, and author of an accompanying editorial, said that “by including the decedent’s own voice, the analysis of notes is a useful complement to other approaches used for the study of suicide in this age group”.

However, “like all other approaches, it is subject to potential biases in interpretation. The meaning in the notes must be derived with careful consideration of context, both what is said and what is not said, and the likelihood that both overt and covert messages are contained in and between their lines,” cautioned Dr. Conwell.

“Acknowledging the strength and limitations of each approach to the study of suicide death, together they can help untangle its drivers and support the search for effective, acceptable, and scalable prevention interventions. No one approach alone, however, will reveal the ‘cause’ of suicide,” Dr. Conwell wrote.

No source of study funding was provided. Dr. Cuperfain reports no relevant financial relationships. The other authors’ disclosures are listed on the original article. Dr. Conwell reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Suicide notes left by elderly people provide a unique opportunity to better understand and prevent suicide in this often vulnerable population.

A new analysis of notes penned by seniors who died by suicide reveals several common themes. These include feeling as if they were a burden, feelings of guilt, experiencing mental illness, loneliness, or isolation, as well as poor health and/or disability.

“The most important message [in our findings] is that there is hope,” study investigator Ari B. Cuperfain, MD, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, told this news organization.

“Suicide risk is modifiable, and we encourage that care providers sensitively explore thoughts of suicide in patients expressing depressive thoughts or difficulty coping with other life stressors,” he said.

The study was published online in The American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
 

Opportunity for intervention

Most previous studies of late-life suicide have focused on risk factors rather than the themes and meaning underlying individuals’ distress.

Dr. Cuperfain’s group had previously analyzed suicide notes to “explore the relationship between suicide and an individual’s experience with mental health care in all age groups,” he said. For the current study, the investigators analyzed the subset of notes written exclusively by older adults.

The researchers “hypothesized that suicide notes could provide a unique window into the thought processes of older adults during a critical window for mental health intervention,” he added.

Although effective screening for suicidality in older adults can mitigate suicide risk, the frequency of suicide screening decreases with increasing age, the authors noted.

In addition, suicide attempts are typically more often fatal in older adults than in the general population. Understanding the motivations for suicide in this vulnerable population can inform potential interventions.

The researchers used a constructivist grounded theory framework to analyze suicide notes available from their previous study and notes obtained from the Office of the Coroner in Toronto from adults aged 65 years and older (n = 29; mean [SD], age 76.2 [8.3] years; 79% men).

The investigators began with open coding of the notes, “specifying a short name to a segment of data that summarizes and accounts for each piece of data.” They then used a series of techniques to identify terms and themes (repeated patterns of ideas reflected in the data).

Once themes had been determined, they identified “pathways between these themes and the final act of suicide.”
 

Common themes

Four major themes emerged in the analysis of the suicide notes.

Recurring terms included “pain,” “[poor] sleep,” or “[wakeful] nights,” as well as “sorry” (either about past actions or about the suicide), and “I just can’t” (referring to the inability to carry on).

The suicide notes “provided the older writers’ conceptual schema for suicide, elucidating the cognitive process linking their narratives to the acts of suicide.” Examples included the following:

• Suicide as a way out or solution to an insoluble problem.
• Suicide as the final act in a long road of suffering.
• Suicide as the logical culmination of life (the person “lived a good life”).

“Our study enriches the understanding of ‘why’ rather than just ‘which’ older adults die by suicide,” the authors noted.

“Care providers can help older adults at risk of suicide through a combination of treatment options. These include physician involvement to manage depression, psychosis, or pain, psychotherapy to reframe certain ways of thinking, or social activities to reduce isolation,” Dr. Cuperfain said.

“By understanding the experiences of older adults and what is underlying their suicidal thoughts, these interventions can be tailored specifically for the individual experiencing distress,” he added.
 

Untangling suicide drivers

Commenting on the study, Yeates Conwell, MD, professor and vice chair, department of psychiatry, University of Rochester (N.Y.) Medical Center, said that “by analyzing the suicide notes of older people who died by suicide, the paper lends a unique perspective to our understanding of why they may have taken their lives.”

University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Conwell, director of the geriatric psychiatry program and codirector of the Center for the Study and Prevention of Suicide, University of Rochester, and author of an accompanying editorial, said that “by including the decedent’s own voice, the analysis of notes is a useful complement to other approaches used for the study of suicide in this age group”.

However, “like all other approaches, it is subject to potential biases in interpretation. The meaning in the notes must be derived with careful consideration of context, both what is said and what is not said, and the likelihood that both overt and covert messages are contained in and between their lines,” cautioned Dr. Conwell.

“Acknowledging the strength and limitations of each approach to the study of suicide death, together they can help untangle its drivers and support the search for effective, acceptable, and scalable prevention interventions. No one approach alone, however, will reveal the ‘cause’ of suicide,” Dr. Conwell wrote.

No source of study funding was provided. Dr. Cuperfain reports no relevant financial relationships. The other authors’ disclosures are listed on the original article. Dr. Conwell reports no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Despite money’s central role in our psychic lives, many trainees – and some seasoned practitioners – skirt around financial issues. Some clinicians confess that inquiring about patients’ finances feels “too personal.” They fear that asking about money could suggest that the clinician is primarily concerned with getting paid. Some clinicians feel that looking into patients’ finances might be unprofessional, outside one’s scope of practice. But it is not.

Trainees often receive little guidance concerning money matters in patients’ lives and treatments, considerations we have labeled clinical psychoeconomics. Considerable evidence suggests that financial concerns often provoke emotional distress and dysfunctional behaviors, and directly influence patient’s health care decisions. Financial issues also influence how clinicians view and react to patients.

We have recently reviewed (and illustrated through case vignettes) how money matters might impact psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychiatric treatments including psychotherapies.¹ Consider how money affects people’s lives: Money helps people meet multiple practical, psychological, and social needs by enabling them to obtain food, clothing, shelter, other material goods, services, discretionary time, and opportunities. And money strongly influences relationships. Regardless of poverty or wealth, thoughts and behaviors connected to acquiring, possessing, and disposing of money, and feelings accompanying these processes such as greed, neediness, envy, pride, shame, guilt, and self-satisfaction often underly intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts.

Individuals constantly engage in numerous simultaneous conscious, preconscious, and unconscious neuro-economic trade-offs that determine goals, efforts, and timing. Many are financially influenced. Money influences how virtually all patients seek, receive, and sustain their mental health care including psychotherapy.

Money problems can be associated with insecurity, impotence, feeling unloved, and lack of freedom or subjugation. Individuals may resent how they’re forced to acquire money, and feel shamed or morally injured by their jobs, financial dependence on other family members, public assistance, or their questionable ways of obtaining money.

Impoverished individuals may face choosing between food, housing, medications, and medical care. Domestically abused individuals may reluctantly remain with their abusers, risking physical harm or death rather than face destitution. Some families tolerate severely disabled individuals at home because they rely on their disability checks and caregiver payments. Suicides may turn on how individuals forecast financial repercussions affecting their families. Desires to avoid debt may lead to treatment avoidance.

Individuals with enough money to get by face daily financially related choices involving competing needs, desires, values, and loyalties. They may experience conflicts concerning spending on necessities vs. indulgences or spending on oneself vs. significant others.

Whereas some wealthy individuals may assume unwarranted airs of superiority and entitlement, others may feel guilty about wealth, or fearful that others like them only for their money. Individuals on the receiving end of wealth may feel emotionally and behaviorally manipulated by their benefactors.
 

Assessment

Assessments should consider how financial matters have shaped patients’ early psychological development as well their current lives. How do patients’ emotions, thoughts, and behaviors reflect money matters? What money-related pathologies are evident? What aspects of the patient’s “financial world” seem modifiable?

Financial questions should be posed colloquially. Screeners include: “Where do you live?”, “Who’s in the home?”, “How do you (all) manage financially?”, “What do you all do for a living?”, “How do you make ends meet?”, and “What financial problems are you facing?” Clinicians can quickly learn about patients’ financial self-sufficiencies, individuals for whom they bear financial responsibility, and others they rely on for support, for example, relatives. If patients avoid answering such questions forthrightly, particularly when financial arrangements are “complicated,” clinicians will want to revisit these issues later after establishing a firmer alliance but continue to wonder about the meaning of the patient’s reluctance.

Clinically, money matters manifest intrapsychically or interpersonally in three ways: as explicit conflicts, implicit issues, and unequivocal money-related pathologies. When explicit, patients, families, and couples are fully aware of the conflicts but have difficulty resolving financial disputes. When conflicts are implicit, money problems may be unacknowledged, avoided, denied, or minimized. Conflicts concerning money are often transmitted trans-generationally.

Psychopathological conditions unequivocally linked to money include compulsive shopping, gambling disorders, miserly hoarding, impulse buying, and spending sprees during hypomanic and manic states. Mounting debts may create progressively insurmountable sources of distress. Money can be weaponized to sadistically create enticement, envy, or deprivation. Some monetarily antisocial individuals compromise interpersonal relationships as well as treatments. Individuals with alcohol/substance use disorders may spend so much on substances that little is left for necessities. Financially needy individuals may engage in morally questionable behaviors they might otherwise shun.
 

Case formulation and treatment planning

Incorporating money matters into case formulations entails demonstrating how financial concerns influenced maladaptive development and distort current attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors.

Concurrently, clinicians should acknowledge patients’ reality-based fiscal decisions, appreciating cultural and family value differences concerning how money should be acquired and spent. Since money often determines frequency and duration of treatment visits, clinicians are ethically obligated to discuss with patients what they might expect from different medications and psychotherapies, and their comparative costs.
 

Money matters’ impact on psychotherapies

Money matters often affect transference and countertransference reactions. Some reactions stem from how patients and clinicians compare their own financial situations with those of the other.

To help identify and ameliorate money-related countertransference responses, clinicians can reflect on questions such as: “How comfortable are you with people who are much poorer or richer than you are?” “How comfortable are you with impoverished individuals or with multimillionaires or their children?” And “why?” For trainees, all these reactions should be discussed in supervision.
 

Conclusions

To summarize, four clinical psychoeconomic issues should be routinely assessed and factored into psychiatric case formulations and treatment plans: how financial issues 1) have impacted patients’ psychological development; 2) impact patients’ current lives; 3) are likely to impact access, type, intensity, and duration of treatment visits; and 4) might provoke money-related transference and countertransference concerns.

In advising patients about treatment options, clinicians should discuss each treatment’s relative effectiveness and estimated costs of care. Patients’ decisions will likely be heavily influenced by financial considerations.

Dr. Yager is based in the department of psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora. Dr. Kay is based in the department of psychiatry, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. No external funds were received for this project, and the authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Reference

1. Yager J and Kay J. Money matters in psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychotherapy: Clinical psychoeconomics. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2022 Jun 10. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000001552.

Despite money’s central role in our psychic lives, many trainees – and some seasoned practitioners – skirt around financial issues. Some clinicians confess that inquiring about patients’ finances feels “too personal.” They fear that asking about money could suggest that the clinician is primarily concerned with getting paid. Some clinicians feel that looking into patients’ finances might be unprofessional, outside one’s scope of practice. But it is not.

Trainees often receive little guidance concerning money matters in patients’ lives and treatments, considerations we have labeled clinical psychoeconomics. Considerable evidence suggests that financial concerns often provoke emotional distress and dysfunctional behaviors, and directly influence patient’s health care decisions. Financial issues also influence how clinicians view and react to patients.

We have recently reviewed (and illustrated through case vignettes) how money matters might impact psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychiatric treatments including psychotherapies.¹ Consider how money affects people’s lives: Money helps people meet multiple practical, psychological, and social needs by enabling them to obtain food, clothing, shelter, other material goods, services, discretionary time, and opportunities. And money strongly influences relationships. Regardless of poverty or wealth, thoughts and behaviors connected to acquiring, possessing, and disposing of money, and feelings accompanying these processes such as greed, neediness, envy, pride, shame, guilt, and self-satisfaction often underly intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts.

Individuals constantly engage in numerous simultaneous conscious, preconscious, and unconscious neuro-economic trade-offs that determine goals, efforts, and timing. Many are financially influenced. Money influences how virtually all patients seek, receive, and sustain their mental health care including psychotherapy.

Money problems can be associated with insecurity, impotence, feeling unloved, and lack of freedom or subjugation. Individuals may resent how they’re forced to acquire money, and feel shamed or morally injured by their jobs, financial dependence on other family members, public assistance, or their questionable ways of obtaining money.

Impoverished individuals may face choosing between food, housing, medications, and medical care. Domestically abused individuals may reluctantly remain with their abusers, risking physical harm or death rather than face destitution. Some families tolerate severely disabled individuals at home because they rely on their disability checks and caregiver payments. Suicides may turn on how individuals forecast financial repercussions affecting their families. Desires to avoid debt may lead to treatment avoidance.

Individuals with enough money to get by face daily financially related choices involving competing needs, desires, values, and loyalties. They may experience conflicts concerning spending on necessities vs. indulgences or spending on oneself vs. significant others.

Whereas some wealthy individuals may assume unwarranted airs of superiority and entitlement, others may feel guilty about wealth, or fearful that others like them only for their money. Individuals on the receiving end of wealth may feel emotionally and behaviorally manipulated by their benefactors.
 

Assessment

Assessments should consider how financial matters have shaped patients’ early psychological development as well their current lives. How do patients’ emotions, thoughts, and behaviors reflect money matters? What money-related pathologies are evident? What aspects of the patient’s “financial world” seem modifiable?

Financial questions should be posed colloquially. Screeners include: “Where do you live?”, “Who’s in the home?”, “How do you (all) manage financially?”, “What do you all do for a living?”, “How do you make ends meet?”, and “What financial problems are you facing?” Clinicians can quickly learn about patients’ financial self-sufficiencies, individuals for whom they bear financial responsibility, and others they rely on for support, for example, relatives. If patients avoid answering such questions forthrightly, particularly when financial arrangements are “complicated,” clinicians will want to revisit these issues later after establishing a firmer alliance but continue to wonder about the meaning of the patient’s reluctance.

Clinically, money matters manifest intrapsychically or interpersonally in three ways: as explicit conflicts, implicit issues, and unequivocal money-related pathologies. When explicit, patients, families, and couples are fully aware of the conflicts but have difficulty resolving financial disputes. When conflicts are implicit, money problems may be unacknowledged, avoided, denied, or minimized. Conflicts concerning money are often transmitted trans-generationally.

Psychopathological conditions unequivocally linked to money include compulsive shopping, gambling disorders, miserly hoarding, impulse buying, and spending sprees during hypomanic and manic states. Mounting debts may create progressively insurmountable sources of distress. Money can be weaponized to sadistically create enticement, envy, or deprivation. Some monetarily antisocial individuals compromise interpersonal relationships as well as treatments. Individuals with alcohol/substance use disorders may spend so much on substances that little is left for necessities. Financially needy individuals may engage in morally questionable behaviors they might otherwise shun.
 

Case formulation and treatment planning

Incorporating money matters into case formulations entails demonstrating how financial concerns influenced maladaptive development and distort current attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors.

Concurrently, clinicians should acknowledge patients’ reality-based fiscal decisions, appreciating cultural and family value differences concerning how money should be acquired and spent. Since money often determines frequency and duration of treatment visits, clinicians are ethically obligated to discuss with patients what they might expect from different medications and psychotherapies, and their comparative costs.
 

Money matters’ impact on psychotherapies

Money matters often affect transference and countertransference reactions. Some reactions stem from how patients and clinicians compare their own financial situations with those of the other.

To help identify and ameliorate money-related countertransference responses, clinicians can reflect on questions such as: “How comfortable are you with people who are much poorer or richer than you are?” “How comfortable are you with impoverished individuals or with multimillionaires or their children?” And “why?” For trainees, all these reactions should be discussed in supervision.
 

Conclusions

To summarize, four clinical psychoeconomic issues should be routinely assessed and factored into psychiatric case formulations and treatment plans: how financial issues 1) have impacted patients’ psychological development; 2) impact patients’ current lives; 3) are likely to impact access, type, intensity, and duration of treatment visits; and 4) might provoke money-related transference and countertransference concerns.

In advising patients about treatment options, clinicians should discuss each treatment’s relative effectiveness and estimated costs of care. Patients’ decisions will likely be heavily influenced by financial considerations.

Dr. Yager is based in the department of psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora. Dr. Kay is based in the department of psychiatry, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. No external funds were received for this project, and the authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Reference

1. Yager J and Kay J. Money matters in psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychotherapy: Clinical psychoeconomics. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2022 Jun 10. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000001552.

Despite money’s central role in our psychic lives, many trainees – and some seasoned practitioners – skirt around financial issues. Some clinicians confess that inquiring about patients’ finances feels “too personal.” They fear that asking about money could suggest that the clinician is primarily concerned with getting paid. Some clinicians feel that looking into patients’ finances might be unprofessional, outside one’s scope of practice. But it is not.

Trainees often receive little guidance concerning money matters in patients’ lives and treatments, considerations we have labeled clinical psychoeconomics. Considerable evidence suggests that financial concerns often provoke emotional distress and dysfunctional behaviors, and directly influence patient’s health care decisions. Financial issues also influence how clinicians view and react to patients.

We have recently reviewed (and illustrated through case vignettes) how money matters might impact psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychiatric treatments including psychotherapies.¹ Consider how money affects people’s lives: Money helps people meet multiple practical, psychological, and social needs by enabling them to obtain food, clothing, shelter, other material goods, services, discretionary time, and opportunities. And money strongly influences relationships. Regardless of poverty or wealth, thoughts and behaviors connected to acquiring, possessing, and disposing of money, and feelings accompanying these processes such as greed, neediness, envy, pride, shame, guilt, and self-satisfaction often underly intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts.

Individuals constantly engage in numerous simultaneous conscious, preconscious, and unconscious neuro-economic trade-offs that determine goals, efforts, and timing. Many are financially influenced. Money influences how virtually all patients seek, receive, and sustain their mental health care including psychotherapy.

Money problems can be associated with insecurity, impotence, feeling unloved, and lack of freedom or subjugation. Individuals may resent how they’re forced to acquire money, and feel shamed or morally injured by their jobs, financial dependence on other family members, public assistance, or their questionable ways of obtaining money.

Impoverished individuals may face choosing between food, housing, medications, and medical care. Domestically abused individuals may reluctantly remain with their abusers, risking physical harm or death rather than face destitution. Some families tolerate severely disabled individuals at home because they rely on their disability checks and caregiver payments. Suicides may turn on how individuals forecast financial repercussions affecting their families. Desires to avoid debt may lead to treatment avoidance.

Individuals with enough money to get by face daily financially related choices involving competing needs, desires, values, and loyalties. They may experience conflicts concerning spending on necessities vs. indulgences or spending on oneself vs. significant others.

Whereas some wealthy individuals may assume unwarranted airs of superiority and entitlement, others may feel guilty about wealth, or fearful that others like them only for their money. Individuals on the receiving end of wealth may feel emotionally and behaviorally manipulated by their benefactors.
 

Assessment

Assessments should consider how financial matters have shaped patients’ early psychological development as well their current lives. How do patients’ emotions, thoughts, and behaviors reflect money matters? What money-related pathologies are evident? What aspects of the patient’s “financial world” seem modifiable?

Financial questions should be posed colloquially. Screeners include: “Where do you live?”, “Who’s in the home?”, “How do you (all) manage financially?”, “What do you all do for a living?”, “How do you make ends meet?”, and “What financial problems are you facing?” Clinicians can quickly learn about patients’ financial self-sufficiencies, individuals for whom they bear financial responsibility, and others they rely on for support, for example, relatives. If patients avoid answering such questions forthrightly, particularly when financial arrangements are “complicated,” clinicians will want to revisit these issues later after establishing a firmer alliance but continue to wonder about the meaning of the patient’s reluctance.

Clinically, money matters manifest intrapsychically or interpersonally in three ways: as explicit conflicts, implicit issues, and unequivocal money-related pathologies. When explicit, patients, families, and couples are fully aware of the conflicts but have difficulty resolving financial disputes. When conflicts are implicit, money problems may be unacknowledged, avoided, denied, or minimized. Conflicts concerning money are often transmitted trans-generationally.

Psychopathological conditions unequivocally linked to money include compulsive shopping, gambling disorders, miserly hoarding, impulse buying, and spending sprees during hypomanic and manic states. Mounting debts may create progressively insurmountable sources of distress. Money can be weaponized to sadistically create enticement, envy, or deprivation. Some monetarily antisocial individuals compromise interpersonal relationships as well as treatments. Individuals with alcohol/substance use disorders may spend so much on substances that little is left for necessities. Financially needy individuals may engage in morally questionable behaviors they might otherwise shun.
 

Case formulation and treatment planning

Incorporating money matters into case formulations entails demonstrating how financial concerns influenced maladaptive development and distort current attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors.

Concurrently, clinicians should acknowledge patients’ reality-based fiscal decisions, appreciating cultural and family value differences concerning how money should be acquired and spent. Since money often determines frequency and duration of treatment visits, clinicians are ethically obligated to discuss with patients what they might expect from different medications and psychotherapies, and their comparative costs.
 

Money matters’ impact on psychotherapies

Money matters often affect transference and countertransference reactions. Some reactions stem from how patients and clinicians compare their own financial situations with those of the other.

To help identify and ameliorate money-related countertransference responses, clinicians can reflect on questions such as: “How comfortable are you with people who are much poorer or richer than you are?” “How comfortable are you with impoverished individuals or with multimillionaires or their children?” And “why?” For trainees, all these reactions should be discussed in supervision.
 

Conclusions

To summarize, four clinical psychoeconomic issues should be routinely assessed and factored into psychiatric case formulations and treatment plans: how financial issues 1) have impacted patients’ psychological development; 2) impact patients’ current lives; 3) are likely to impact access, type, intensity, and duration of treatment visits; and 4) might provoke money-related transference and countertransference concerns.

In advising patients about treatment options, clinicians should discuss each treatment’s relative effectiveness and estimated costs of care. Patients’ decisions will likely be heavily influenced by financial considerations.

Dr. Yager is based in the department of psychiatry, University of Colorado at Denver, Aurora. Dr. Kay is based in the department of psychiatry, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio. No external funds were received for this project, and the authors have no conflicts to disclose.

Reference

1. Yager J and Kay J. Money matters in psychiatric assessment, case formulation, treatment planning, and ongoing psychotherapy: Clinical psychoeconomics. J Nerv Ment Dis. 2022 Jun 10. doi: 10.1097/NMD.0000000000001552.

Long-term antidepressant use is tied to an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality, new research suggests.

The investigators drew on 10-year data from the UK Biobank on over 220,000 adults and compared the risk of developing adverse health outcomes among those taking antidepressants with the risk among those who were not taking antidepressants.

After adjusting for preexisting risk factors, they found that 10-year antidepressant use was associated with a twofold higher risk of CHD, an almost-twofold higher risk of CVD as well as CVD mortality, a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease, and more than double the risk of all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, at 10 years, antidepressant use was associated with a 23% lower risk of developing hypertension and a 32% lower risk of diabetes.

The main culprits were mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine, and trazodone, although SSRIs were also tied to increased risk.

“Our message for clinicians is that prescribing of antidepressants in the long term may not be harm free [and] we hope that this study will help doctors and patients have more informed conversations when they weigh up the potential risks and benefits of treatments for depression,” study investigator Narinder Bansal, MD, honorary research fellow, Centre for Academic Health and Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol (England), said in a news release.

“Regardless of whether the drugs are the underlying cause of these problems, our findings emphasize the importance of proactive cardiovascular monitoring and prevention in patients who have depression and are on antidepressants, given that both have been associated with higher risks,” she added.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open.
 

Monitoring of CVD risk ‘critical’

Antidepressants are among the most widely prescribed drugs; 70 million prescriptions were dispensed in 2018 alone, representing a doubling of prescriptions for these agents in a decade, the investigators noted. “This striking rise in prescribing is attributed to long-term treatment rather than an increased incidence of depression.”

Most trials that have assessed antidepressant efficacy have been “poorly suited to examining adverse outcomes.” One reason for this is that many of the trials are short-term studies. Since depression is “strongly associated” with CVD risk factors, “careful assessment of the long-term cardiometabolic effects of antidepressant treatment is critical.”

Moreover, information about “a wide range of prospectively measured confounders ... is needed to provide robust estimates of the risks associated with long-term antidepressant use,” the authors noted.

The researchers examined the association between antidepressant use and four cardiometabolic morbidity outcomes – diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and CHD. In addition, they assessed two mortality outcomes – CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. Participants were divided into cohorts on the basis of outcome of interest.

The dataset contains detailed information on socioeconomic status, demographics, anthropometric, behavioral, and biochemical risk factors, disability, and health status and is linked to datasets of primary care records and deaths.

The study included 222,121 participants whose data had been linked to primary care records during 2018 (median age of participants, 56-57 years). About half were women, and 96% were of White ethnicity.

Participants were excluded if they had been prescribed antidepressants 12 months or less before baseline, if they had previously been diagnosed for the outcome of interest, if they had been previously prescribed psychotropic drugs, if they used cardiometabolic drugs at baseline, or if they had undergone treatment with antidepressant polytherapy.

Potential confounders included age, gender, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, smoking and alcohol intake status, physical activity, parental history of outcome, biochemical and hematologic biomarkers, socioeconomic status, and long-term illness, disability, or infirmity.
 

Mechanism unclear

By the end of the 5- and 10-year follow-up periods, an average of 8% and 6% of participants in each cohort, respectively, had been prescribed an antidepressant. SSRIs constituted the most commonly prescribed class (80%-82%), and citalopram was the most commonly prescribed SSRI (46%-47%). Mirtazapine was the most frequently prescribed non-SSRI antidepressant (44%-46%).

At 5 years, any antidepressant use was associated with an increased risk for diabetes, CHD, and all-cause mortality, but the findings were attenuated after further adjustment for confounders. In fact, SSRIs were associated with a reduced risk of diabetes at 5 years (hazard ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.49-0.83).

At 10 years, SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality; non-SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of CHD, CVD, and all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, SSRIs were associated with a decrease in risk of diabetes and hypertension at 10 years (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.53-0.87; and HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66-0.89, respectively).

“While we have taken into account a wide range of pre-existing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including those that are linked to depression such as excess weight, smoking, and low physical activity, it is difficult to fully control for the effects of depression in this kind of study, partly because there is considerable variability in the recording of depression severity in primary care,” said Dr. Bansal.

“This is important because many people taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine and trazodone may have a more severe depression. This makes it difficult to fully separate the effects of the depression from the effects of medication,” she said.

Further research “is needed to assess whether the associations we have seen are genuinely due to the drugs; and, if so, why this might be,” she added.
 

Strengths, limitations

Commenting on the study, Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology and head of the mood disorders psychopharmacology unit at the University of Toronto,, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the study.

The UK Biobank is a “well-described, well-phenotyped dataset of good quality,” said Dr. McIntyre, chairperson and executive director of the Brain and Cognitive Discover Foundation, Toronto, who was not involved with the study. Another strength is the “impressive number of variables the database contains, which enabled the authors to go much deeper into the topics.”

A “significant limitation” is the confounding that is inherent to the disorder itself – “people with depression have a much higher intrinsic risk of CVD, [cerebrovascular disease], and cardiovascular mortality,” Dr. McIntyre noted.

The researchers did not adjust for trauma or childhood maltreatment, “which are the biggest risk factors for both depression and CVD; and drug and alcohol misuse were also not accounted for.”

Additionally, “to determine whether something is an association or potentially causative, it must satisfy the Bradford-Hill criteria,” said Dr. McIntyre. “Since we’re moving more toward using these big databases and because we depend on them to give us long-term perspectives, we would want to see coherent, compelling Bradford-Hill criteria regarding causation. If you don’t have any, that’s fine too, but then it’s important to make clear that there is no clear causative line, just an association.”

The research was funded by the National Institute of Health Research School for Primary Care Research and was supported by the NI Biomedical Research Centre at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. Dr. McIntyre has received research grant support from CI/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute and speaker/consultation fees from numerous companies. Dr. McIntyre is a CEO of Braxia Scientific.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Long-term antidepressant use is tied to an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality, new research suggests.

The investigators drew on 10-year data from the UK Biobank on over 220,000 adults and compared the risk of developing adverse health outcomes among those taking antidepressants with the risk among those who were not taking antidepressants.

After adjusting for preexisting risk factors, they found that 10-year antidepressant use was associated with a twofold higher risk of CHD, an almost-twofold higher risk of CVD as well as CVD mortality, a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease, and more than double the risk of all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, at 10 years, antidepressant use was associated with a 23% lower risk of developing hypertension and a 32% lower risk of diabetes.

The main culprits were mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine, and trazodone, although SSRIs were also tied to increased risk.

“Our message for clinicians is that prescribing of antidepressants in the long term may not be harm free [and] we hope that this study will help doctors and patients have more informed conversations when they weigh up the potential risks and benefits of treatments for depression,” study investigator Narinder Bansal, MD, honorary research fellow, Centre for Academic Health and Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol (England), said in a news release.

“Regardless of whether the drugs are the underlying cause of these problems, our findings emphasize the importance of proactive cardiovascular monitoring and prevention in patients who have depression and are on antidepressants, given that both have been associated with higher risks,” she added.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open.
 

Monitoring of CVD risk ‘critical’

Antidepressants are among the most widely prescribed drugs; 70 million prescriptions were dispensed in 2018 alone, representing a doubling of prescriptions for these agents in a decade, the investigators noted. “This striking rise in prescribing is attributed to long-term treatment rather than an increased incidence of depression.”

Most trials that have assessed antidepressant efficacy have been “poorly suited to examining adverse outcomes.” One reason for this is that many of the trials are short-term studies. Since depression is “strongly associated” with CVD risk factors, “careful assessment of the long-term cardiometabolic effects of antidepressant treatment is critical.”

Moreover, information about “a wide range of prospectively measured confounders ... is needed to provide robust estimates of the risks associated with long-term antidepressant use,” the authors noted.

The researchers examined the association between antidepressant use and four cardiometabolic morbidity outcomes – diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and CHD. In addition, they assessed two mortality outcomes – CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. Participants were divided into cohorts on the basis of outcome of interest.

The dataset contains detailed information on socioeconomic status, demographics, anthropometric, behavioral, and biochemical risk factors, disability, and health status and is linked to datasets of primary care records and deaths.

The study included 222,121 participants whose data had been linked to primary care records during 2018 (median age of participants, 56-57 years). About half were women, and 96% were of White ethnicity.

Participants were excluded if they had been prescribed antidepressants 12 months or less before baseline, if they had previously been diagnosed for the outcome of interest, if they had been previously prescribed psychotropic drugs, if they used cardiometabolic drugs at baseline, or if they had undergone treatment with antidepressant polytherapy.

Potential confounders included age, gender, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, smoking and alcohol intake status, physical activity, parental history of outcome, biochemical and hematologic biomarkers, socioeconomic status, and long-term illness, disability, or infirmity.
 

Mechanism unclear

By the end of the 5- and 10-year follow-up periods, an average of 8% and 6% of participants in each cohort, respectively, had been prescribed an antidepressant. SSRIs constituted the most commonly prescribed class (80%-82%), and citalopram was the most commonly prescribed SSRI (46%-47%). Mirtazapine was the most frequently prescribed non-SSRI antidepressant (44%-46%).

At 5 years, any antidepressant use was associated with an increased risk for diabetes, CHD, and all-cause mortality, but the findings were attenuated after further adjustment for confounders. In fact, SSRIs were associated with a reduced risk of diabetes at 5 years (hazard ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.49-0.83).

At 10 years, SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality; non-SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of CHD, CVD, and all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, SSRIs were associated with a decrease in risk of diabetes and hypertension at 10 years (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.53-0.87; and HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66-0.89, respectively).

“While we have taken into account a wide range of pre-existing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including those that are linked to depression such as excess weight, smoking, and low physical activity, it is difficult to fully control for the effects of depression in this kind of study, partly because there is considerable variability in the recording of depression severity in primary care,” said Dr. Bansal.

“This is important because many people taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine and trazodone may have a more severe depression. This makes it difficult to fully separate the effects of the depression from the effects of medication,” she said.

Further research “is needed to assess whether the associations we have seen are genuinely due to the drugs; and, if so, why this might be,” she added.
 

Strengths, limitations

Commenting on the study, Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology and head of the mood disorders psychopharmacology unit at the University of Toronto,, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the study.

The UK Biobank is a “well-described, well-phenotyped dataset of good quality,” said Dr. McIntyre, chairperson and executive director of the Brain and Cognitive Discover Foundation, Toronto, who was not involved with the study. Another strength is the “impressive number of variables the database contains, which enabled the authors to go much deeper into the topics.”

A “significant limitation” is the confounding that is inherent to the disorder itself – “people with depression have a much higher intrinsic risk of CVD, [cerebrovascular disease], and cardiovascular mortality,” Dr. McIntyre noted.

The researchers did not adjust for trauma or childhood maltreatment, “which are the biggest risk factors for both depression and CVD; and drug and alcohol misuse were also not accounted for.”

Additionally, “to determine whether something is an association or potentially causative, it must satisfy the Bradford-Hill criteria,” said Dr. McIntyre. “Since we’re moving more toward using these big databases and because we depend on them to give us long-term perspectives, we would want to see coherent, compelling Bradford-Hill criteria regarding causation. If you don’t have any, that’s fine too, but then it’s important to make clear that there is no clear causative line, just an association.”

The research was funded by the National Institute of Health Research School for Primary Care Research and was supported by the NI Biomedical Research Centre at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. Dr. McIntyre has received research grant support from CI/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute and speaker/consultation fees from numerous companies. Dr. McIntyre is a CEO of Braxia Scientific.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Long-term antidepressant use is tied to an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality, new research suggests.

The investigators drew on 10-year data from the UK Biobank on over 220,000 adults and compared the risk of developing adverse health outcomes among those taking antidepressants with the risk among those who were not taking antidepressants.

After adjusting for preexisting risk factors, they found that 10-year antidepressant use was associated with a twofold higher risk of CHD, an almost-twofold higher risk of CVD as well as CVD mortality, a higher risk of cerebrovascular disease, and more than double the risk of all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, at 10 years, antidepressant use was associated with a 23% lower risk of developing hypertension and a 32% lower risk of diabetes.

The main culprits were mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine, and trazodone, although SSRIs were also tied to increased risk.

“Our message for clinicians is that prescribing of antidepressants in the long term may not be harm free [and] we hope that this study will help doctors and patients have more informed conversations when they weigh up the potential risks and benefits of treatments for depression,” study investigator Narinder Bansal, MD, honorary research fellow, Centre for Academic Health and Centre for Academic Primary Care, University of Bristol (England), said in a news release.

“Regardless of whether the drugs are the underlying cause of these problems, our findings emphasize the importance of proactive cardiovascular monitoring and prevention in patients who have depression and are on antidepressants, given that both have been associated with higher risks,” she added.

The study was published online in the British Journal of Psychiatry Open.
 

Monitoring of CVD risk ‘critical’

Antidepressants are among the most widely prescribed drugs; 70 million prescriptions were dispensed in 2018 alone, representing a doubling of prescriptions for these agents in a decade, the investigators noted. “This striking rise in prescribing is attributed to long-term treatment rather than an increased incidence of depression.”

Most trials that have assessed antidepressant efficacy have been “poorly suited to examining adverse outcomes.” One reason for this is that many of the trials are short-term studies. Since depression is “strongly associated” with CVD risk factors, “careful assessment of the long-term cardiometabolic effects of antidepressant treatment is critical.”

Moreover, information about “a wide range of prospectively measured confounders ... is needed to provide robust estimates of the risks associated with long-term antidepressant use,” the authors noted.

The researchers examined the association between antidepressant use and four cardiometabolic morbidity outcomes – diabetes, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease, and CHD. In addition, they assessed two mortality outcomes – CVD mortality and all-cause mortality. Participants were divided into cohorts on the basis of outcome of interest.

The dataset contains detailed information on socioeconomic status, demographics, anthropometric, behavioral, and biochemical risk factors, disability, and health status and is linked to datasets of primary care records and deaths.

The study included 222,121 participants whose data had been linked to primary care records during 2018 (median age of participants, 56-57 years). About half were women, and 96% were of White ethnicity.

Participants were excluded if they had been prescribed antidepressants 12 months or less before baseline, if they had previously been diagnosed for the outcome of interest, if they had been previously prescribed psychotropic drugs, if they used cardiometabolic drugs at baseline, or if they had undergone treatment with antidepressant polytherapy.

Potential confounders included age, gender, body mass index, waist/hip ratio, smoking and alcohol intake status, physical activity, parental history of outcome, biochemical and hematologic biomarkers, socioeconomic status, and long-term illness, disability, or infirmity.
 

Mechanism unclear

By the end of the 5- and 10-year follow-up periods, an average of 8% and 6% of participants in each cohort, respectively, had been prescribed an antidepressant. SSRIs constituted the most commonly prescribed class (80%-82%), and citalopram was the most commonly prescribed SSRI (46%-47%). Mirtazapine was the most frequently prescribed non-SSRI antidepressant (44%-46%).

At 5 years, any antidepressant use was associated with an increased risk for diabetes, CHD, and all-cause mortality, but the findings were attenuated after further adjustment for confounders. In fact, SSRIs were associated with a reduced risk of diabetes at 5 years (hazard ratio, 0.64; 95% confidence interval, 0.49-0.83).

At 10 years, SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of cerebrovascular disease, CVD mortality, and all-cause mortality; non-SSRIs were associated with an increased risk of CHD, CVD, and all-cause mortality.

On the other hand, SSRIs were associated with a decrease in risk of diabetes and hypertension at 10 years (HR, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.53-0.87; and HR, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.66-0.89, respectively).

“While we have taken into account a wide range of pre-existing risk factors for cardiovascular disease, including those that are linked to depression such as excess weight, smoking, and low physical activity, it is difficult to fully control for the effects of depression in this kind of study, partly because there is considerable variability in the recording of depression severity in primary care,” said Dr. Bansal.

“This is important because many people taking antidepressants such as mirtazapine, venlafaxine, duloxetine and trazodone may have a more severe depression. This makes it difficult to fully separate the effects of the depression from the effects of medication,” she said.

Further research “is needed to assess whether the associations we have seen are genuinely due to the drugs; and, if so, why this might be,” she added.
 

Strengths, limitations

Commenting on the study, Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology and head of the mood disorders psychopharmacology unit at the University of Toronto,, discussed the strengths and weaknesses of the study.

The UK Biobank is a “well-described, well-phenotyped dataset of good quality,” said Dr. McIntyre, chairperson and executive director of the Brain and Cognitive Discover Foundation, Toronto, who was not involved with the study. Another strength is the “impressive number of variables the database contains, which enabled the authors to go much deeper into the topics.”

A “significant limitation” is the confounding that is inherent to the disorder itself – “people with depression have a much higher intrinsic risk of CVD, [cerebrovascular disease], and cardiovascular mortality,” Dr. McIntyre noted.

The researchers did not adjust for trauma or childhood maltreatment, “which are the biggest risk factors for both depression and CVD; and drug and alcohol misuse were also not accounted for.”

Additionally, “to determine whether something is an association or potentially causative, it must satisfy the Bradford-Hill criteria,” said Dr. McIntyre. “Since we’re moving more toward using these big databases and because we depend on them to give us long-term perspectives, we would want to see coherent, compelling Bradford-Hill criteria regarding causation. If you don’t have any, that’s fine too, but then it’s important to make clear that there is no clear causative line, just an association.”

The research was funded by the National Institute of Health Research School for Primary Care Research and was supported by the NI Biomedical Research Centre at University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Bristol. Dr. McIntyre has received research grant support from CI/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute and speaker/consultation fees from numerous companies. Dr. McIntyre is a CEO of Braxia Scientific.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

PARIS – “I thought I was as exhausted, and isolated, and neglected as I could get, and then he came home.”

Those were the words of Kate Washington, PhD, from Sacramento as she gave a moving account of the immense burden she felt as caregiver to her husband with cancer.

She was taking part in the session, “I am FINE: Frustrated * Isolated * Neglected * Emotional,” at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology. In that session, speakers assessed the toll of cancer on patients, caregivers, nurses, and doctors.

Dr. Washington, author of “Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America” (Boston: Beacon Press, 2021), explained that she cared for her husband and young family while he was “suffering through two different kinds of lymphoma and really devastating stem cell transplants.”

When her husband was first diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma in 2015, he was placed on a watch-and-wait protocol. At that point, he seemed fine, Dr. Washington said.

A few months later, he started coughing up blood. After being rushed to the emergency department, doctors found that a slow-growing lung tumor had ruptured.

Three weeks later, he came out of the hospital with a collapsed lung – an effect of his chemotherapy, Dr. Washington said.

But that was hardly the last word. He soon experienced relapse with a “very aggressive” form of his disease, and in 2016, he underwent a stem cell transplant.

“He spent 1½ months in the hospital ... in isolation, not seeing our daughters,” Dr. Washington said. He lost his vision and developed grade 4 graft-versus-host disease, among other problems.

He was alive, just barely, Dr. Washington said.

“As you might imagine, I was pulled between the hospital and the home, taking care of our daughters, who were not seeing him during that time,” she recalled.

But every time someone asked her whether she was okay, she replied: “I am fine.”

“A total lie,” she admitted.

Dr. Washington felt frustrated, not only from the financial strain of out-of-pocket health care costs and lost earnings but also from fast evolving relationships and a feeling of being “unseen and underappreciated.”

Another jarring change: When her husband was discharged from the hospital, Dr. Washington was suddenly thrust into the role of full-time caretaker.

Her husband could not be left alone, his doctor had said. And with two young children, Dr. Washington did not know how she would manage.

The demands of being a full-time caregiver are intense. Caregivers, Dr. Washington explained, can spend 32 hours a week looking after a loved one with cancer.

Like Dr. Washington, most caregivers feel they have no choice but to take on this intense role – one for which they have little or no training or preparation. The nonstop demands leave little time for self-care and can lead to high rates of caregiver injury and illness.

Isolation often creeps in because it can be “hard to ask for help,” she said. About 30% of caregivers report having depression or anxiety, and 21% feel lonely.

“When he was very ill, I found it really difficult to connect with other people and my friends,” Dr. Washington recalled. “I didn’t feel like I could really adequately explain the kind of strain that I was under.”
 

Are patients fine?

Like caregivers, patients often say they are fine when they are not.

The toll cancer takes on patients is immense. Natacha Bolanos Fernandez, from the Lymphoma Coalition Europe, highlighted the physical, mental, and social strain that can affect patients with cancer.

The physical aspects can encompass a host of problems – fatigue, night sweats, weight loss, and the vomiting that accompanies many cancer treatments. Patients may face changes in their mobility and independence as well. The mental side of cancer can include anxiety, depression, and psychological distress, while the social aspects span changing, perhaps strained, relationships with family and friends.

Fatigue, in particular, is an underreported, underdiagnosed, and undertreated problem, Ms. Fernandez noted. According to recent survey data from the Lymphoma Coalition’s Global Patient Survey, 72% of patients reported fatigue. This problem worsened over time, with 59% reporting fatigue after their diagnosis and up to 82% among patients who experienced relapse two or more times.

Fatigue “may be getting worse rather than better over time,” Ms. Fernandez said, and many patients felt that their life had changed completely because of cancer-related fatigue.

To help patients manage, the Lymphoma Coalition has published a report on the impact of cancer-related fatigue and how to improve outcomes. Methods include greater awareness, regular screening, and interventions such as yoga or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
 

Are clinicians fine?

Nurses and physicians face challenges caring for patients with cancer.

Although “nurses love their jobs and are extremely committed,” the impact cancer has on a nursing career is often undervalued or “neglected,” said Lena Sharp, RN, PhD, of the Regional Cancer Centre, Stockholm-Gotland.

Burnout, in particular, remains a problem among oncologists and nurses, and it was made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fatima Cardoso, MD, explained that burnout has an impact on doctors as well as patients because it affects communication with patients and performance. Physicians can, for instance, appear detached, emotional, or tired.

Patients may then feel less inclined to tell their oncologist how they’re feeling, said Dr. Cardoso, director of the breast unit at Champalimaud Clinical Center, Lisbon.

It is important to remember to not just focus on the patient’s disease or treatment but to also ask how they are doing and what is going on in their lives.

Above all, “show that you care,” said Dr. Cardoso.

The Lymphoma Coalition Europe has relationships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Establishment Labs, Kyowa Kirin, Novartis, Roche, Takeda. Dr. Cardoso has relationships with Amgen, Astellas/Medivation, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, GE Oncology, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, and other companies. No other relevant financial relationships were reported.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

PARIS – “I thought I was as exhausted, and isolated, and neglected as I could get, and then he came home.”

Those were the words of Kate Washington, PhD, from Sacramento as she gave a moving account of the immense burden she felt as caregiver to her husband with cancer.

She was taking part in the session, “I am FINE: Frustrated * Isolated * Neglected * Emotional,” at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology. In that session, speakers assessed the toll of cancer on patients, caregivers, nurses, and doctors.

Dr. Washington, author of “Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America” (Boston: Beacon Press, 2021), explained that she cared for her husband and young family while he was “suffering through two different kinds of lymphoma and really devastating stem cell transplants.”

When her husband was first diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma in 2015, he was placed on a watch-and-wait protocol. At that point, he seemed fine, Dr. Washington said.

A few months later, he started coughing up blood. After being rushed to the emergency department, doctors found that a slow-growing lung tumor had ruptured.

Three weeks later, he came out of the hospital with a collapsed lung – an effect of his chemotherapy, Dr. Washington said.

But that was hardly the last word. He soon experienced relapse with a “very aggressive” form of his disease, and in 2016, he underwent a stem cell transplant.

“He spent 1½ months in the hospital ... in isolation, not seeing our daughters,” Dr. Washington said. He lost his vision and developed grade 4 graft-versus-host disease, among other problems.

He was alive, just barely, Dr. Washington said.

“As you might imagine, I was pulled between the hospital and the home, taking care of our daughters, who were not seeing him during that time,” she recalled.

But every time someone asked her whether she was okay, she replied: “I am fine.”

“A total lie,” she admitted.

Dr. Washington felt frustrated, not only from the financial strain of out-of-pocket health care costs and lost earnings but also from fast evolving relationships and a feeling of being “unseen and underappreciated.”

Another jarring change: When her husband was discharged from the hospital, Dr. Washington was suddenly thrust into the role of full-time caretaker.

Her husband could not be left alone, his doctor had said. And with two young children, Dr. Washington did not know how she would manage.

The demands of being a full-time caregiver are intense. Caregivers, Dr. Washington explained, can spend 32 hours a week looking after a loved one with cancer.

Like Dr. Washington, most caregivers feel they have no choice but to take on this intense role – one for which they have little or no training or preparation. The nonstop demands leave little time for self-care and can lead to high rates of caregiver injury and illness.

Isolation often creeps in because it can be “hard to ask for help,” she said. About 30% of caregivers report having depression or anxiety, and 21% feel lonely.

“When he was very ill, I found it really difficult to connect with other people and my friends,” Dr. Washington recalled. “I didn’t feel like I could really adequately explain the kind of strain that I was under.”
 

Are patients fine?

Like caregivers, patients often say they are fine when they are not.

The toll cancer takes on patients is immense. Natacha Bolanos Fernandez, from the Lymphoma Coalition Europe, highlighted the physical, mental, and social strain that can affect patients with cancer.

The physical aspects can encompass a host of problems – fatigue, night sweats, weight loss, and the vomiting that accompanies many cancer treatments. Patients may face changes in their mobility and independence as well. The mental side of cancer can include anxiety, depression, and psychological distress, while the social aspects span changing, perhaps strained, relationships with family and friends.

Fatigue, in particular, is an underreported, underdiagnosed, and undertreated problem, Ms. Fernandez noted. According to recent survey data from the Lymphoma Coalition’s Global Patient Survey, 72% of patients reported fatigue. This problem worsened over time, with 59% reporting fatigue after their diagnosis and up to 82% among patients who experienced relapse two or more times.

Fatigue “may be getting worse rather than better over time,” Ms. Fernandez said, and many patients felt that their life had changed completely because of cancer-related fatigue.

To help patients manage, the Lymphoma Coalition has published a report on the impact of cancer-related fatigue and how to improve outcomes. Methods include greater awareness, regular screening, and interventions such as yoga or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
 

Are clinicians fine?

Nurses and physicians face challenges caring for patients with cancer.

Although “nurses love their jobs and are extremely committed,” the impact cancer has on a nursing career is often undervalued or “neglected,” said Lena Sharp, RN, PhD, of the Regional Cancer Centre, Stockholm-Gotland.

Burnout, in particular, remains a problem among oncologists and nurses, and it was made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fatima Cardoso, MD, explained that burnout has an impact on doctors as well as patients because it affects communication with patients and performance. Physicians can, for instance, appear detached, emotional, or tired.

Patients may then feel less inclined to tell their oncologist how they’re feeling, said Dr. Cardoso, director of the breast unit at Champalimaud Clinical Center, Lisbon.

It is important to remember to not just focus on the patient’s disease or treatment but to also ask how they are doing and what is going on in their lives.

Above all, “show that you care,” said Dr. Cardoso.

The Lymphoma Coalition Europe has relationships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Establishment Labs, Kyowa Kirin, Novartis, Roche, Takeda. Dr. Cardoso has relationships with Amgen, Astellas/Medivation, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, GE Oncology, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, and other companies. No other relevant financial relationships were reported.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

PARIS – “I thought I was as exhausted, and isolated, and neglected as I could get, and then he came home.”

Those were the words of Kate Washington, PhD, from Sacramento as she gave a moving account of the immense burden she felt as caregiver to her husband with cancer.

She was taking part in the session, “I am FINE: Frustrated * Isolated * Neglected * Emotional,” at the annual meeting of the European Society for Medical Oncology. In that session, speakers assessed the toll of cancer on patients, caregivers, nurses, and doctors.

Dr. Washington, author of “Already Toast: Caregiving and Burnout in America” (Boston: Beacon Press, 2021), explained that she cared for her husband and young family while he was “suffering through two different kinds of lymphoma and really devastating stem cell transplants.”

When her husband was first diagnosed with a rare form of lymphoma in 2015, he was placed on a watch-and-wait protocol. At that point, he seemed fine, Dr. Washington said.

A few months later, he started coughing up blood. After being rushed to the emergency department, doctors found that a slow-growing lung tumor had ruptured.

Three weeks later, he came out of the hospital with a collapsed lung – an effect of his chemotherapy, Dr. Washington said.

But that was hardly the last word. He soon experienced relapse with a “very aggressive” form of his disease, and in 2016, he underwent a stem cell transplant.

“He spent 1½ months in the hospital ... in isolation, not seeing our daughters,” Dr. Washington said. He lost his vision and developed grade 4 graft-versus-host disease, among other problems.

He was alive, just barely, Dr. Washington said.

“As you might imagine, I was pulled between the hospital and the home, taking care of our daughters, who were not seeing him during that time,” she recalled.

But every time someone asked her whether she was okay, she replied: “I am fine.”

“A total lie,” she admitted.

Dr. Washington felt frustrated, not only from the financial strain of out-of-pocket health care costs and lost earnings but also from fast evolving relationships and a feeling of being “unseen and underappreciated.”

Another jarring change: When her husband was discharged from the hospital, Dr. Washington was suddenly thrust into the role of full-time caretaker.

Her husband could not be left alone, his doctor had said. And with two young children, Dr. Washington did not know how she would manage.

The demands of being a full-time caregiver are intense. Caregivers, Dr. Washington explained, can spend 32 hours a week looking after a loved one with cancer.

Like Dr. Washington, most caregivers feel they have no choice but to take on this intense role – one for which they have little or no training or preparation. The nonstop demands leave little time for self-care and can lead to high rates of caregiver injury and illness.

Isolation often creeps in because it can be “hard to ask for help,” she said. About 30% of caregivers report having depression or anxiety, and 21% feel lonely.

“When he was very ill, I found it really difficult to connect with other people and my friends,” Dr. Washington recalled. “I didn’t feel like I could really adequately explain the kind of strain that I was under.”
 

Are patients fine?

Like caregivers, patients often say they are fine when they are not.

The toll cancer takes on patients is immense. Natacha Bolanos Fernandez, from the Lymphoma Coalition Europe, highlighted the physical, mental, and social strain that can affect patients with cancer.

The physical aspects can encompass a host of problems – fatigue, night sweats, weight loss, and the vomiting that accompanies many cancer treatments. Patients may face changes in their mobility and independence as well. The mental side of cancer can include anxiety, depression, and psychological distress, while the social aspects span changing, perhaps strained, relationships with family and friends.

Fatigue, in particular, is an underreported, underdiagnosed, and undertreated problem, Ms. Fernandez noted. According to recent survey data from the Lymphoma Coalition’s Global Patient Survey, 72% of patients reported fatigue. This problem worsened over time, with 59% reporting fatigue after their diagnosis and up to 82% among patients who experienced relapse two or more times.

Fatigue “may be getting worse rather than better over time,” Ms. Fernandez said, and many patients felt that their life had changed completely because of cancer-related fatigue.

To help patients manage, the Lymphoma Coalition has published a report on the impact of cancer-related fatigue and how to improve outcomes. Methods include greater awareness, regular screening, and interventions such as yoga or mindfulness-based cognitive therapy.
 

Are clinicians fine?

Nurses and physicians face challenges caring for patients with cancer.

Although “nurses love their jobs and are extremely committed,” the impact cancer has on a nursing career is often undervalued or “neglected,” said Lena Sharp, RN, PhD, of the Regional Cancer Centre, Stockholm-Gotland.

Burnout, in particular, remains a problem among oncologists and nurses, and it was made worse during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fatima Cardoso, MD, explained that burnout has an impact on doctors as well as patients because it affects communication with patients and performance. Physicians can, for instance, appear detached, emotional, or tired.

Patients may then feel less inclined to tell their oncologist how they’re feeling, said Dr. Cardoso, director of the breast unit at Champalimaud Clinical Center, Lisbon.

It is important to remember to not just focus on the patient’s disease or treatment but to also ask how they are doing and what is going on in their lives.

Above all, “show that you care,” said Dr. Cardoso.

The Lymphoma Coalition Europe has relationships with Bristol-Myers Squibb, Establishment Labs, Kyowa Kirin, Novartis, Roche, Takeda. Dr. Cardoso has relationships with Amgen, Astellas/Medivation, AstraZeneca, Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Eisai, GE Oncology, Genentech, GlaxoSmithKline, and other companies. No other relevant financial relationships were reported.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.