mental-health/

Government officials and public health leaders worldwide have worked around the clock battling the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, another pandemic requires their attention — the anxiety, depression, grief and fear that spread across communities as the death toll rises and schools, businesses and public places close to prevent COVID-19 infections.

Efforts to change transgender individuals’ gender identity are linked to severe psychological distress and suicide attempts, according to a new study in JAMA Psychiatry.

The mental health impacts of climate change range from post-traumatic stress disorder triggered by events such as hurricanes and wildfires to broader existential worries about the future of the planet, according to a literature review forthcoming in Current Opinion in Psychology.

Obtaining mental health care can be difficult even for people who are covered by health insurance. Patients regularly deal with hurdles such as incorrect phone numbers for providers’ offices, insurers’ prior authorization requirements, month-long delays in scheduling appointments and psychiatrists who refuse to accept insurance at all, according to a series of studies by J. Wesley Boyd and colleagues at the Cambridge Health Alliance.

As suicide rates rise in the United States, researchers have been working to
identify approaches to curb the trend. 

This roundup looks at recent publications in the field of
suicide prevention research.

An estimated 16.5 percent of children in the United States — about 7.7 million kids — have been diagnosed with depression, anxiety or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but about half don’t receive the help they need, according to a new research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

More newborn babies suffer from drug withdrawal in counties where there are shortages of mental health care providers, higher rates of long-term unemployment and higher proportions of manufacturing jobs, according to new research published in JAMA.

Two-thirds of news stories that discussed suicide and the holiday season last winter perpetuated the false belief that suicides rise during the holidays, finds a new analysis from the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg Public Policy Center.