Psychiatric News (3/26) reports, “People who take serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and oral anticoagulants have an increased risk of multiple types of major bleeding compared with people who take only oral anticoagulants, a study…has found.” Additionally, the research “showed that bleeding risk differs depending on the type of anticoagulant.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Combining SSRIs With Oral Anticoagulants Found to Increase Risk of Major Bleeding,” (3/26) reports, “People who take serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and , March 26, 2024

RevCycle Intelligence reports, “It may take some time to get paid for medical services, suggests a new survey of hospitals, health systems and post-acute care providers.” Almost “15% of medical claims submitted to private payers for reimbursement are initially denied, respondents representing over 500 organizations told Premier Inc. in the survey.”

And “an average of 3.2% of denied claims also included those that were pre-approved through the prior authorization process.” In spite of “the initial claim denial rate, over half of the claims rejected by private payers at first were paid,” Premier Inc. reported, but physicians “said that more initial denials may have been ultimately reimbursed if not for resource constraints that prevented them from pursuing payments through appeals and other means.”

Related Links:

— “Private payers initially deny nearly 15% of medical claims,” Jacqueline LaPointe, Revcycle Intelligence, March 25, 2024

Healio (3/21, Burba ) reports, “The average number of deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 29.3% from 2016 to 2021, with an age-standardized rise in death rate from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population, according to data in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.” Investigators found that “the average number of annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 5.3% from 2016 to 2019 (137,927 to 145,253) and ‘increased more sharply’ — by 22.8% — from 2018 to 2021 (145,253 to 178,307), an overall increase of 29.3% from 2016 to 2021.” Meanwhile, “the age-standardized death rates increased from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population between 2016 and 2021.”

Related Links:

Annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by nearly 30% from 2016 to 2021, Kate Burba, Healio, March 25, 2024

MedPage Today (3/22, Monaco) reported, “Concomitant use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and oral anticoagulants (OACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation was tied to an increased risk of major bleeding compared with OAC use alone, a case-control study suggested.”

This “population-based study from the U.K. showed that taking an SSRI and OAC (both direct OACs and vitamin K antagonists [VKAs]) together was associated with a 33% increased risk of major bleeding compared with OACs alone.” The data indicated that “compared with use of OACs alone, concomitant use of SSRIs plus OACs was linked to a significantly higher risk for several specific types of major bleeding.”

The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The AP (3/23, Perrone ) reported that “hundreds of free apps…are being pitched to address a crisis in mental health among teens and young adults.” The FDA does not regulate them “because they don’t explicitly claim to diagnose or treat medical conditions,” but “this hands-off approach is coming under new scrutiny with the startling advances of chatbots powered by generative AI.” The industry’s “argument is simple: Chatbots are free, available 24/7 and don’t come with the stigma that keeps some people away from therapy.” However, there are “limited data that they actually improve mental health.”

Related Links:

— “Ready or not, AI chatbots are here to help with Gen Z’s mental health struggles,” Matthew Perrone, Associated Press, March 23, 2024

HealthDay (3/20, Mundell , Miller) reports that approximately “1 in every 10 U.S. children ages 5 to 17 has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to” data from the National Center for Health Statistics. These “data from the National Health Interview Survey covers the years 2020 through 2022 and came from in-person or phone interviews involving a representative sample of American homes.”

The survey “found that 11.3% of school-age children have been diagnosed with ADHD, with boys more likely to have this diagnosis (14.5%) than girls (8%).” These findings were published as an NCHS Data Brief.

Related Links:

— “One in 10 U.S. School-Age Kids Have ADHD: Report,” Ernie Mundell, Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay, March , 2024

Bloomberg Law (3/20, Pazanowski , Subscription Publication) reports, “A Trump administration rule that eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s protections for LGBTQ+ people must be vacated, Boston-based advocacy groups told a federal court in a long-running case.” The Biden Administration “has been promising to undo former President Donald Trump’s 2020 ‘rollback rule’ since early 2021 and still hasn’t done so, the advocacy groups said.”

And though HHS “keeps saying a new version is imminent, the potential for another change of administration means people can’t wait any longer, the groups said in Tuesday’s brief to the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.”

Related Links:

— Bloomberg Law (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (3/20) reports, “Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), defined as excessive preoccupation with perceived flaws in personal appearance, affects almost two in every 100 teens, according to” a study. Additionally, the research “found that BDD is much more common in girls than boys.”

The researchers also found that “children and adolescents with BDD are highly likely to have other psychiatric disorders—especially depression and anxiety—and to experience psychosocial problems, self-harm and/or suicide attempts.”

The findings were published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Body Dysmorphic Disorder or Appearance Preoccupation Common in Teens,” Psychiatric News, March 20, 2024

Healio (3/20, Herpen) reports, “While psychedelic use may be associated with fewer psychotic symptoms among adolescents, the link between psychedelics and manic symptoms appears to be associated with genetic vulnerability to schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, data show.”

Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “data from 16,255 adolescent twins (54.7% girls) born between July 1992 and December 2005, who first participated in the Child and Adolescent Twin Study in Sweden at age 9 years and were later assessed at ages 15, 18 and 24 years.” The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Link between psychedelic use, manic symptoms in teens may be associated with genetics,” Robert Herpen, MA, Healio, March 20, 2024

MedPage Today (3/20, DePeau-Wilson ) reports, “Five distinct suicide profiles that could improve detection and treatment of co-existing health conditions and bolster suicide prevention strategies were identified in a cross-sectional study.” In the “analysis of 306,800 suicide deaths, individuals who faced physical health challenges comprised the largest profile class of the five (31.7%).”

The data indicated that “decedents with this profile (class 4) also had the lowest rates of disclosing suicidal intent (14.4%) or leaving a suicide note (25.1%).” Although “physical health conditions made up the largest profile, the remaining profiles were comprised of individuals who predominantly faced mental health or substance abuse conditions: Class 1: comorbid mental health and substance use problems (13.5%); Class 2: mental health problems (17.6%); Class 3: crisis, alcohol-related, and intimate-partner problems (18%);” and “Class 5: polysubstance problems (19.2%).”

The findings were published in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)