Depression

Outpatient psychotherapy use in the United States rose sharply between 2018 and 2021, an increase that was driven primarily by young, urban professionals with higher family incomes, new data exposed significant disparities in access to this treatment type.

Results of a large population-based repeated cross-sectional study revealed that psychotherapy use increased significantly faster for women vs men, younger individuals vs their older counterparts, college graduates than those without a high school diploma, and privately insured vs publicly insured individuals.

Overall, psychotherapy use increased significantly faster among several socioeconomically advantaged groups, and inequalities were evident in teletherapy access. These trends and patterns highlight a need for clinical interventions and healthcare policies to broaden access to psychotherapy, including teletherapy, the authors noted.

“While psychotherapy access has expanded in the US, there’s concern that recent gains may not be equally distributed, despite or maybe because of the growth of teletherapy,” study author Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City, said in a press release.

“This increase in psychotherapy use, driven by the rise of teletherapy, has largely benefited socioeconomically advantaged adults with mild to moderate distress,” he added.

The findings were published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

 

Psychotherapy Uptick

Psychotherapy is among the most widely used methods for delivering mental health care in the United States. A recent study conducted by Olfson and colleagues showed that the percentage of US adults receiving psychotherapy increased from 6.5% in 2018 to 8.5% in 2021. However, it was unclear how this overall increase varied across different sociodemographic groups or levels of psychological distress.

Analyzing population-level trends in psychotherapy use can identify sociodemographic groups with declining access to services, providing valuable insights for developing initiatives to improve accessibility, the investigators noted.

To evaluate national trends in psychotherapy use, the researchers analyzed data from the 2018-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). These are yearly surveys representing noninstitutionalized adults across the United States.

The study included 89,619 adults. Of these, 51.5% were women, nearly half were aged 35-64 years, and 62.2% were White individuals. The study used a repeated cross-sectional design with new, nationally representative samples of about 22,000 participants each year.

The investigators tracked the overall increase in psychotherapy use, especially among groups at higher risk for untreated mental health conditions. They also examined how video-based therapy (teletherapy) was being used, paying particular attention to differences in access among various demographic groups and levels of psychological distress, given ongoing concerns about equity in telehealth access.

Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler-6 scale, with scores ≥ 13 defining serious psychological distress, 1-12 defining mild to moderate distress, and 0 defining no distress.

Psychotherapy use increased across all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising among Black (5.4% to 7.1%), Hispanic (4.1% to 5.8%), White (7.5% to 9.8%), and other, non-Hispanic (4.8% to 6.6%) individuals.

Participants with mild to moderate distress experienced the greatest increases in psychotherapy use (8.6% to 11.2%, respectively).

After adjusting for age, sex, and level of psychological distress, investigators found that psychotherapy use increased to a greater degree among women (7.7% to 10.5%) vs men (5.2% to 6.3%), younger adults aged 18-34 years (8% to 11.9%) vs adults aged 65 years or older (3.6% to 4.6%), and college graduates (7.6% to 11.4%) than those without a high school diploma (5.5% to 7%).

 

A National Priority

Adults with higher incomes — defined as two to four times the federal poverty level — had greater increases in psychotherapy use (5.7% to 8.2%) than those below the poverty level (9.7% to 10%).

Unsurprisingly, privately insured individuals saw more significant increases (6.1% to 8.9%) than publicly insured individuals (8.8% to 8.8%). Also, there was a larger increase in psychotherapy use among employed individuals (5.7% to 8.9%) than among unemployed individuals (10.8% to 10.5%).

In addition, there was a significantly greater increase in psychotherapy use among urban residents (6.5% to 8.7%), whereas it declined among rural residents (6.4% to 5.9%).

Data on teletherapy use from 2021 revealed that 39.9% of adults receiving psychotherapy had one or more teletherapy visits.

Teletherapy use was higher among younger adults, women, college-educated individuals, those with higher incomes, those with private insurance, and those who lived in urban areas.

The authors noted that while teletherapy is intended to remove transportation and time barriers and was widely adopted during the pandemic, the findings show that those who were older, less educated, and with lower incomes were less likely to use it.

Notably, urban residents were more than twice as likely to use teletherapy than rural residents. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, teletherapy was viewed as a potential solution for individuals living in rural areas facing a shortage of mental health professionals, but study results showed that “teletherapy does not appear to have addressed this public health challenge,” the investigators wrote.

“The trends we are seeing underscore the need for targeted interventions and health policies that expand psychotherapy access to underserved groups,” said Olfson.

“Ensuring that individuals in psychological distress can access care is a national priority. Addressing technical and financial barriers to teletherapy could help bridge the gap in access and promote equity in mental health care,” he added.

Study limitations included a possible underreporting of psychotherapy use by participants. In addition, MEPS does not include nursing home residents, incarcerated, and unhoused individuals.

Study funding was not disclosed. Olfson reported no relevant disclosures.

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

Outpatient psychotherapy use in the United States rose sharply between 2018 and 2021, an increase that was driven primarily by young, urban professionals with higher family incomes, new data exposed significant disparities in access to this treatment type.

Results of a large population-based repeated cross-sectional study revealed that psychotherapy use increased significantly faster for women vs men, younger individuals vs their older counterparts, college graduates than those without a high school diploma, and privately insured vs publicly insured individuals.

Overall, psychotherapy use increased significantly faster among several socioeconomically advantaged groups, and inequalities were evident in teletherapy access. These trends and patterns highlight a need for clinical interventions and healthcare policies to broaden access to psychotherapy, including teletherapy, the authors noted.

“While psychotherapy access has expanded in the US, there’s concern that recent gains may not be equally distributed, despite or maybe because of the growth of teletherapy,” study author Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City, said in a press release.

“This increase in psychotherapy use, driven by the rise of teletherapy, has largely benefited socioeconomically advantaged adults with mild to moderate distress,” he added.

The findings were published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

 

Psychotherapy Uptick

Psychotherapy is among the most widely used methods for delivering mental health care in the United States. A recent study conducted by Olfson and colleagues showed that the percentage of US adults receiving psychotherapy increased from 6.5% in 2018 to 8.5% in 2021. However, it was unclear how this overall increase varied across different sociodemographic groups or levels of psychological distress.

Analyzing population-level trends in psychotherapy use can identify sociodemographic groups with declining access to services, providing valuable insights for developing initiatives to improve accessibility, the investigators noted.

To evaluate national trends in psychotherapy use, the researchers analyzed data from the 2018-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). These are yearly surveys representing noninstitutionalized adults across the United States.

The study included 89,619 adults. Of these, 51.5% were women, nearly half were aged 35-64 years, and 62.2% were White individuals. The study used a repeated cross-sectional design with new, nationally representative samples of about 22,000 participants each year.

The investigators tracked the overall increase in psychotherapy use, especially among groups at higher risk for untreated mental health conditions. They also examined how video-based therapy (teletherapy) was being used, paying particular attention to differences in access among various demographic groups and levels of psychological distress, given ongoing concerns about equity in telehealth access.

Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler-6 scale, with scores ≥ 13 defining serious psychological distress, 1-12 defining mild to moderate distress, and 0 defining no distress.

Psychotherapy use increased across all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising among Black (5.4% to 7.1%), Hispanic (4.1% to 5.8%), White (7.5% to 9.8%), and other, non-Hispanic (4.8% to 6.6%) individuals.

Participants with mild to moderate distress experienced the greatest increases in psychotherapy use (8.6% to 11.2%, respectively).

After adjusting for age, sex, and level of psychological distress, investigators found that psychotherapy use increased to a greater degree among women (7.7% to 10.5%) vs men (5.2% to 6.3%), younger adults aged 18-34 years (8% to 11.9%) vs adults aged 65 years or older (3.6% to 4.6%), and college graduates (7.6% to 11.4%) than those without a high school diploma (5.5% to 7%).

 

A National Priority

Adults with higher incomes — defined as two to four times the federal poverty level — had greater increases in psychotherapy use (5.7% to 8.2%) than those below the poverty level (9.7% to 10%).

Unsurprisingly, privately insured individuals saw more significant increases (6.1% to 8.9%) than publicly insured individuals (8.8% to 8.8%). Also, there was a larger increase in psychotherapy use among employed individuals (5.7% to 8.9%) than among unemployed individuals (10.8% to 10.5%).

In addition, there was a significantly greater increase in psychotherapy use among urban residents (6.5% to 8.7%), whereas it declined among rural residents (6.4% to 5.9%).

Data on teletherapy use from 2021 revealed that 39.9% of adults receiving psychotherapy had one or more teletherapy visits.

Teletherapy use was higher among younger adults, women, college-educated individuals, those with higher incomes, those with private insurance, and those who lived in urban areas.

The authors noted that while teletherapy is intended to remove transportation and time barriers and was widely adopted during the pandemic, the findings show that those who were older, less educated, and with lower incomes were less likely to use it.

Notably, urban residents were more than twice as likely to use teletherapy than rural residents. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, teletherapy was viewed as a potential solution for individuals living in rural areas facing a shortage of mental health professionals, but study results showed that “teletherapy does not appear to have addressed this public health challenge,” the investigators wrote.

“The trends we are seeing underscore the need for targeted interventions and health policies that expand psychotherapy access to underserved groups,” said Olfson.

“Ensuring that individuals in psychological distress can access care is a national priority. Addressing technical and financial barriers to teletherapy could help bridge the gap in access and promote equity in mental health care,” he added.

Study limitations included a possible underreporting of psychotherapy use by participants. In addition, MEPS does not include nursing home residents, incarcerated, and unhoused individuals.

Study funding was not disclosed. Olfson reported no relevant disclosures.

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

Outpatient psychotherapy use in the United States rose sharply between 2018 and 2021, an increase that was driven primarily by young, urban professionals with higher family incomes, new data exposed significant disparities in access to this treatment type.

Results of a large population-based repeated cross-sectional study revealed that psychotherapy use increased significantly faster for women vs men, younger individuals vs their older counterparts, college graduates than those without a high school diploma, and privately insured vs publicly insured individuals.

Overall, psychotherapy use increased significantly faster among several socioeconomically advantaged groups, and inequalities were evident in teletherapy access. These trends and patterns highlight a need for clinical interventions and healthcare policies to broaden access to psychotherapy, including teletherapy, the authors noted.

“While psychotherapy access has expanded in the US, there’s concern that recent gains may not be equally distributed, despite or maybe because of the growth of teletherapy,” study author Mark Olfson, MD, MPH, Department of Psychiatry, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York City, said in a press release.

“This increase in psychotherapy use, driven by the rise of teletherapy, has largely benefited socioeconomically advantaged adults with mild to moderate distress,” he added.

The findings were published online in JAMA Psychiatry.

 

Psychotherapy Uptick

Psychotherapy is among the most widely used methods for delivering mental health care in the United States. A recent study conducted by Olfson and colleagues showed that the percentage of US adults receiving psychotherapy increased from 6.5% in 2018 to 8.5% in 2021. However, it was unclear how this overall increase varied across different sociodemographic groups or levels of psychological distress.

Analyzing population-level trends in psychotherapy use can identify sociodemographic groups with declining access to services, providing valuable insights for developing initiatives to improve accessibility, the investigators noted.

To evaluate national trends in psychotherapy use, the researchers analyzed data from the 2018-2021 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). These are yearly surveys representing noninstitutionalized adults across the United States.

The study included 89,619 adults. Of these, 51.5% were women, nearly half were aged 35-64 years, and 62.2% were White individuals. The study used a repeated cross-sectional design with new, nationally representative samples of about 22,000 participants each year.

The investigators tracked the overall increase in psychotherapy use, especially among groups at higher risk for untreated mental health conditions. They also examined how video-based therapy (teletherapy) was being used, paying particular attention to differences in access among various demographic groups and levels of psychological distress, given ongoing concerns about equity in telehealth access.

Psychological distress was measured using the Kessler-6 scale, with scores ≥ 13 defining serious psychological distress, 1-12 defining mild to moderate distress, and 0 defining no distress.

Psychotherapy use increased across all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising among Black (5.4% to 7.1%), Hispanic (4.1% to 5.8%), White (7.5% to 9.8%), and other, non-Hispanic (4.8% to 6.6%) individuals.

Participants with mild to moderate distress experienced the greatest increases in psychotherapy use (8.6% to 11.2%, respectively).

After adjusting for age, sex, and level of psychological distress, investigators found that psychotherapy use increased to a greater degree among women (7.7% to 10.5%) vs men (5.2% to 6.3%), younger adults aged 18-34 years (8% to 11.9%) vs adults aged 65 years or older (3.6% to 4.6%), and college graduates (7.6% to 11.4%) than those without a high school diploma (5.5% to 7%).

 

A National Priority

Adults with higher incomes — defined as two to four times the federal poverty level — had greater increases in psychotherapy use (5.7% to 8.2%) than those below the poverty level (9.7% to 10%).

Unsurprisingly, privately insured individuals saw more significant increases (6.1% to 8.9%) than publicly insured individuals (8.8% to 8.8%). Also, there was a larger increase in psychotherapy use among employed individuals (5.7% to 8.9%) than among unemployed individuals (10.8% to 10.5%).

In addition, there was a significantly greater increase in psychotherapy use among urban residents (6.5% to 8.7%), whereas it declined among rural residents (6.4% to 5.9%).

Data on teletherapy use from 2021 revealed that 39.9% of adults receiving psychotherapy had one or more teletherapy visits.

Teletherapy use was higher among younger adults, women, college-educated individuals, those with higher incomes, those with private insurance, and those who lived in urban areas.

The authors noted that while teletherapy is intended to remove transportation and time barriers and was widely adopted during the pandemic, the findings show that those who were older, less educated, and with lower incomes were less likely to use it.

Notably, urban residents were more than twice as likely to use teletherapy than rural residents. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, teletherapy was viewed as a potential solution for individuals living in rural areas facing a shortage of mental health professionals, but study results showed that “teletherapy does not appear to have addressed this public health challenge,” the investigators wrote.

“The trends we are seeing underscore the need for targeted interventions and health policies that expand psychotherapy access to underserved groups,” said Olfson.

“Ensuring that individuals in psychological distress can access care is a national priority. Addressing technical and financial barriers to teletherapy could help bridge the gap in access and promote equity in mental health care,” he added.

Study limitations included a possible underreporting of psychotherapy use by participants. In addition, MEPS does not include nursing home residents, incarcerated, and unhoused individuals.

Study funding was not disclosed. Olfson reported no relevant disclosures.

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

TOPLINE:

Internet use is associated with fewer depressive symptoms, higher life satisfaction, and better self-reported health among adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries than nonuse, a new cohort study suggests.

METHODOLOGY:

• Data were examined for more than 87,000 adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries and from six aging cohorts.
• Researchers examined the potential association between internet use and mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and self-reported health.
• Polygenic scores were used for subset analysis to stratify participants from England and the United States according to their genetic risk for depression.
• Participants were followed up for a median of 6 years.

TAKEAWAY:

• Internet use was linked to consistent benefits across countries, including lower depressive symptoms (pooled average marginal effect [AME], –0.09; 95% CI, –0.12 to –0.07), higher life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.05-0.10), and better self-reported health (pooled AME, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.12-0.17).
• Frequent internet users showed better mental health outcomes than nonusers, and daily internet users showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms and self-reported health in England and the United States.
• Each additional wave of internet use was associated with reduced depressive symptoms (pooled AME, –0.06; 95% CI, –0.09 to –0.04) and improved life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.03-0.07).
• Benefits of internet use were observed across all genetic risk categories for depression in England and the United States, suggesting potential utility regardless of genetic predisposition.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our findings are relevant to public health policies and practices in promoting mental health in later life through the internet, especially in countries with limited internet access and mental health services,” the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Yan Luo, Department of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. It was published online November 18 in Nature Human Behaviour.

LIMITATIONS:

The possibility of residual confounding and reverse causation prevented the establishment of direct causality between internet use and mental health. Selection bias may have also existed due to differences in baseline characteristics between the analytic samples and entire populations. Internet use was assessed through self-reported items, which could have led to recall and information bias. Additionally, genetic data were available for participants only from England and the United States.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The investigators reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including artificial intelligence, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Internet use is associated with fewer depressive symptoms, higher life satisfaction, and better self-reported health among adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries than nonuse, a new cohort study suggests.

METHODOLOGY:

• Data were examined for more than 87,000 adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries and from six aging cohorts.
• Researchers examined the potential association between internet use and mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and self-reported health.
• Polygenic scores were used for subset analysis to stratify participants from England and the United States according to their genetic risk for depression.
• Participants were followed up for a median of 6 years.

TAKEAWAY:

• Internet use was linked to consistent benefits across countries, including lower depressive symptoms (pooled average marginal effect [AME], –0.09; 95% CI, –0.12 to –0.07), higher life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.05-0.10), and better self-reported health (pooled AME, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.12-0.17).
• Frequent internet users showed better mental health outcomes than nonusers, and daily internet users showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms and self-reported health in England and the United States.
• Each additional wave of internet use was associated with reduced depressive symptoms (pooled AME, –0.06; 95% CI, –0.09 to –0.04) and improved life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.03-0.07).
• Benefits of internet use were observed across all genetic risk categories for depression in England and the United States, suggesting potential utility regardless of genetic predisposition.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our findings are relevant to public health policies and practices in promoting mental health in later life through the internet, especially in countries with limited internet access and mental health services,” the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Yan Luo, Department of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. It was published online November 18 in Nature Human Behaviour.

LIMITATIONS:

The possibility of residual confounding and reverse causation prevented the establishment of direct causality between internet use and mental health. Selection bias may have also existed due to differences in baseline characteristics between the analytic samples and entire populations. Internet use was assessed through self-reported items, which could have led to recall and information bias. Additionally, genetic data were available for participants only from England and the United States.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The investigators reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including artificial intelligence, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Internet use is associated with fewer depressive symptoms, higher life satisfaction, and better self-reported health among adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries than nonuse, a new cohort study suggests.

METHODOLOGY:

• Data were examined for more than 87,000 adults aged 50 years or older across 23 countries and from six aging cohorts.
• Researchers examined the potential association between internet use and mental health outcomes, including depressive symptoms, life satisfaction, and self-reported health.
• Polygenic scores were used for subset analysis to stratify participants from England and the United States according to their genetic risk for depression.
• Participants were followed up for a median of 6 years.

TAKEAWAY:

• Internet use was linked to consistent benefits across countries, including lower depressive symptoms (pooled average marginal effect [AME], –0.09; 95% CI, –0.12 to –0.07), higher life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.07; 95% CI, 0.05-0.10), and better self-reported health (pooled AME, 0.15; 95% CI, 0.12-0.17).
• Frequent internet users showed better mental health outcomes than nonusers, and daily internet users showed significant improvements in depressive symptoms and self-reported health in England and the United States.
• Each additional wave of internet use was associated with reduced depressive symptoms (pooled AME, –0.06; 95% CI, –0.09 to –0.04) and improved life satisfaction (pooled AME, 0.05; 95% CI, 0.03-0.07).
• Benefits of internet use were observed across all genetic risk categories for depression in England and the United States, suggesting potential utility regardless of genetic predisposition.

IN PRACTICE:

“Our findings are relevant to public health policies and practices in promoting mental health in later life through the internet, especially in countries with limited internet access and mental health services,” the investigators wrote.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Yan Luo, Department of Data Science, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. It was published online November 18 in Nature Human Behaviour.

LIMITATIONS:

The possibility of residual confounding and reverse causation prevented the establishment of direct causality between internet use and mental health. Selection bias may have also existed due to differences in baseline characteristics between the analytic samples and entire populations. Internet use was assessed through self-reported items, which could have led to recall and information bias. Additionally, genetic data were available for participants only from England and the United States.

DISCLOSURES:

The study was funded in part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China. The investigators reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including artificial intelligence, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Long COVID is a symptom-driven disease, meaning that with no cure, physicians primarily treat the symptoms their patients are experiencing. Effective treatments for long COVID remain elusive because what works for one patient may be entirely ineffective for another. But as 2024 winds down, researchers have begun to pinpoint a number of treatments that are bringing relief to the 17 million Americans diagnosed with long COVID.

Here’s a current look at what research has identified as some of the most promising treatments.

 

Low-Dose Naltrexone

Some research suggests that low-dose naltrexone may be helpful for patients suffering from brain fog, pain, sleep issues, and fatigue, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St Louis Health Care System in Missouri.

Low-dose naltrexone is an anti-inflammatory agent currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of alcohol and opioid dependence.

“We don’t know the mechanism for how the medication works, and for that matter, we don’t really understand what causes brain fog. But perhaps its anti-inflammatory properties seem to help, and for some patients, low-dose naltrexone has been helpful,” said Al-Aly.

A March 2024 study found that both fatigue and pain were improved in patients taking low-dose naltrexone. In another study, published in the June 2024 issue of Frontiers in Medicine, researchers found that low-dose naltrexone was associated with improvement of several clinical symptoms related to long COVID such as fatigue, poor sleep quality, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, and headache.

 

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Antidepressants

In 2023, University of Pennsylvania researchers uncovered a link between long COVID and lower levels of serotonin in the body. This helped point to the potential treatment of using SSRIs to treat the condition.

For patients who have overlapping psychiatric issues that go along with brain fog, SSRIs prescribed to treat depression and other mental health conditions, as well as the antidepressant Wellbutrin, have been shown effective at dealing with concentration issues, brain fog, and depression, said Nisha Viswanathan, MD, director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Long COVID Program at UCLA Health.

A study published in the November 2023 issue of the journal Scientific Reports found that SSRIs led to a “considerable reduction of symptoms,” especially brain fog, fatigue, sensory overload, and overall improved functioning. Low-dose Abilify, which contains aripiprazole, an antipsychotic medication, has also been found to be effective for cognitive issues caused by long COVID.

“Abilify is traditionally used for the treatment of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, but in a low-dose format, there is some data to suggest that it can also be anti-inflammatory and helpful for cognitive issues like brain fog,” said Viswanathan.

 

Modafinil

Modafinil, a medication previously used for managing narcolepsy, has also been shown effective for the treatment of fatigue and neurocognitive deficits caused by long COVID, said Viswanathan, adding that it’s another medication that she’s found useful for a number of her patients.

It’s thought that these cognitive symptoms are caused by an inflammatory cytokine release that leads to excessive stimulation of neurotransmitters in the body. According to a June 2024 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “Modafinil can therapeutically act on these pathways, which possibly contributed to the symptomatic improvement.” But the medication has not been studied widely in patients with long COVID and has been shown to have interactions with other medications.

 

Metformin

Some research has shown that metformin, a well-known diabetes medication, reduces instances of long COVID when taken during the illness’s acute phase. It seems to boost metabolic function in patients.

“It makes sense that it would work because it seems to have anti-inflammatory effects on the body,” said Grace McComsey, MD, who leads one of the 15 nationwide long COVID centers funded by the federal RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Initiative in Cleveland, Ohio. McComsey added that it may reduce the viral persistence that causes some forms of long COVID.

A study published in the October 2023 issue of the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that metformin seemed to reduce instances of long COVID in patients who took it after being diagnosed with acute COVID. It seems less effective in patients who already have long COVID.

 

Antihistamines

Other data suggest that some patients with long COVID showed improvement after taking antihistamines. Research has shown that long COVID symptoms improved in 29% of patients with long COVID.

While researchers aren’t sure why antihistamines work to quell long COVID, the thought is that, when mast cells, a white blood cell that’s part of the immune system, shed granules and cause an inflammatory reaction, they release a lot of histamines. Antihistamine medications like famotidine block histamine receptors in the body, improving symptoms like brain fog, difficulty breathing, and elevated heart rate in patients.

“For some patients, these can be a lifesaver,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness and a national leader in the treatment of long COVID.

Putrino cautions patients toward taking these and other medications haphazardly without fully understanding that all treatments have risks, especially if they’re taking a number of them.

“Often patients are told that there’s no risk to trying something, but physicians should be counseling their patients and reminding them that there is a risk that includes medication sensitivities and medication interactions,” said Putrino.

The good news is that doctors have begun to identify some treatments that seem to be working in their patients, but we still don’t have the large-scale clinical trials to identify which treatments will work for certain patients and why.

There’s still so much we don’t know, and for physicians on the front lines of treating long COVID, it’s still largely a guessing game. “This is a constellation of symptoms; it’s not just one thing,” said Al-Aly. And while a treatment might be wildly effective for one patient, it might be ineffective or worse, problematic, for another.

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

Long COVID is a symptom-driven disease, meaning that with no cure, physicians primarily treat the symptoms their patients are experiencing. Effective treatments for long COVID remain elusive because what works for one patient may be entirely ineffective for another. But as 2024 winds down, researchers have begun to pinpoint a number of treatments that are bringing relief to the 17 million Americans diagnosed with long COVID.

Here’s a current look at what research has identified as some of the most promising treatments.

 

Low-Dose Naltrexone

Some research suggests that low-dose naltrexone may be helpful for patients suffering from brain fog, pain, sleep issues, and fatigue, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St Louis Health Care System in Missouri.

Low-dose naltrexone is an anti-inflammatory agent currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of alcohol and opioid dependence.

“We don’t know the mechanism for how the medication works, and for that matter, we don’t really understand what causes brain fog. But perhaps its anti-inflammatory properties seem to help, and for some patients, low-dose naltrexone has been helpful,” said Al-Aly.

A March 2024 study found that both fatigue and pain were improved in patients taking low-dose naltrexone. In another study, published in the June 2024 issue of Frontiers in Medicine, researchers found that low-dose naltrexone was associated with improvement of several clinical symptoms related to long COVID such as fatigue, poor sleep quality, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, and headache.

 

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Antidepressants

In 2023, University of Pennsylvania researchers uncovered a link between long COVID and lower levels of serotonin in the body. This helped point to the potential treatment of using SSRIs to treat the condition.

For patients who have overlapping psychiatric issues that go along with brain fog, SSRIs prescribed to treat depression and other mental health conditions, as well as the antidepressant Wellbutrin, have been shown effective at dealing with concentration issues, brain fog, and depression, said Nisha Viswanathan, MD, director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Long COVID Program at UCLA Health.

A study published in the November 2023 issue of the journal Scientific Reports found that SSRIs led to a “considerable reduction of symptoms,” especially brain fog, fatigue, sensory overload, and overall improved functioning. Low-dose Abilify, which contains aripiprazole, an antipsychotic medication, has also been found to be effective for cognitive issues caused by long COVID.

“Abilify is traditionally used for the treatment of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, but in a low-dose format, there is some data to suggest that it can also be anti-inflammatory and helpful for cognitive issues like brain fog,” said Viswanathan.

 

Modafinil

Modafinil, a medication previously used for managing narcolepsy, has also been shown effective for the treatment of fatigue and neurocognitive deficits caused by long COVID, said Viswanathan, adding that it’s another medication that she’s found useful for a number of her patients.

It’s thought that these cognitive symptoms are caused by an inflammatory cytokine release that leads to excessive stimulation of neurotransmitters in the body. According to a June 2024 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “Modafinil can therapeutically act on these pathways, which possibly contributed to the symptomatic improvement.” But the medication has not been studied widely in patients with long COVID and has been shown to have interactions with other medications.

 

Metformin

Some research has shown that metformin, a well-known diabetes medication, reduces instances of long COVID when taken during the illness’s acute phase. It seems to boost metabolic function in patients.

“It makes sense that it would work because it seems to have anti-inflammatory effects on the body,” said Grace McComsey, MD, who leads one of the 15 nationwide long COVID centers funded by the federal RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Initiative in Cleveland, Ohio. McComsey added that it may reduce the viral persistence that causes some forms of long COVID.

A study published in the October 2023 issue of the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that metformin seemed to reduce instances of long COVID in patients who took it after being diagnosed with acute COVID. It seems less effective in patients who already have long COVID.

 

Antihistamines

Other data suggest that some patients with long COVID showed improvement after taking antihistamines. Research has shown that long COVID symptoms improved in 29% of patients with long COVID.

While researchers aren’t sure why antihistamines work to quell long COVID, the thought is that, when mast cells, a white blood cell that’s part of the immune system, shed granules and cause an inflammatory reaction, they release a lot of histamines. Antihistamine medications like famotidine block histamine receptors in the body, improving symptoms like brain fog, difficulty breathing, and elevated heart rate in patients.

“For some patients, these can be a lifesaver,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness and a national leader in the treatment of long COVID.

Putrino cautions patients toward taking these and other medications haphazardly without fully understanding that all treatments have risks, especially if they’re taking a number of them.

“Often patients are told that there’s no risk to trying something, but physicians should be counseling their patients and reminding them that there is a risk that includes medication sensitivities and medication interactions,” said Putrino.

The good news is that doctors have begun to identify some treatments that seem to be working in their patients, but we still don’t have the large-scale clinical trials to identify which treatments will work for certain patients and why.

There’s still so much we don’t know, and for physicians on the front lines of treating long COVID, it’s still largely a guessing game. “This is a constellation of symptoms; it’s not just one thing,” said Al-Aly. And while a treatment might be wildly effective for one patient, it might be ineffective or worse, problematic, for another.

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

Long COVID is a symptom-driven disease, meaning that with no cure, physicians primarily treat the symptoms their patients are experiencing. Effective treatments for long COVID remain elusive because what works for one patient may be entirely ineffective for another. But as 2024 winds down, researchers have begun to pinpoint a number of treatments that are bringing relief to the 17 million Americans diagnosed with long COVID.

Here’s a current look at what research has identified as some of the most promising treatments.

 

Low-Dose Naltrexone

Some research suggests that low-dose naltrexone may be helpful for patients suffering from brain fog, pain, sleep issues, and fatigue, said Ziyad Al-Aly, MD, a global expert on long COVID and chief of research and development at the Veterans Affairs St Louis Health Care System in Missouri.

Low-dose naltrexone is an anti-inflammatory agent currently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of alcohol and opioid dependence.

“We don’t know the mechanism for how the medication works, and for that matter, we don’t really understand what causes brain fog. But perhaps its anti-inflammatory properties seem to help, and for some patients, low-dose naltrexone has been helpful,” said Al-Aly.

A March 2024 study found that both fatigue and pain were improved in patients taking low-dose naltrexone. In another study, published in the June 2024 issue of Frontiers in Medicine, researchers found that low-dose naltrexone was associated with improvement of several clinical symptoms related to long COVID such as fatigue, poor sleep quality, brain fog, post-exertional malaise, and headache.

 

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) and Antidepressants

In 2023, University of Pennsylvania researchers uncovered a link between long COVID and lower levels of serotonin in the body. This helped point to the potential treatment of using SSRIs to treat the condition.

For patients who have overlapping psychiatric issues that go along with brain fog, SSRIs prescribed to treat depression and other mental health conditions, as well as the antidepressant Wellbutrin, have been shown effective at dealing with concentration issues, brain fog, and depression, said Nisha Viswanathan, MD, director of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Long COVID Program at UCLA Health.

A study published in the November 2023 issue of the journal Scientific Reports found that SSRIs led to a “considerable reduction of symptoms,” especially brain fog, fatigue, sensory overload, and overall improved functioning. Low-dose Abilify, which contains aripiprazole, an antipsychotic medication, has also been found to be effective for cognitive issues caused by long COVID.

“Abilify is traditionally used for the treatment of schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders, but in a low-dose format, there is some data to suggest that it can also be anti-inflammatory and helpful for cognitive issues like brain fog,” said Viswanathan.

 

Modafinil

Modafinil, a medication previously used for managing narcolepsy, has also been shown effective for the treatment of fatigue and neurocognitive deficits caused by long COVID, said Viswanathan, adding that it’s another medication that she’s found useful for a number of her patients.

It’s thought that these cognitive symptoms are caused by an inflammatory cytokine release that leads to excessive stimulation of neurotransmitters in the body. According to a June 2024 article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “Modafinil can therapeutically act on these pathways, which possibly contributed to the symptomatic improvement.” But the medication has not been studied widely in patients with long COVID and has been shown to have interactions with other medications.

 

Metformin

Some research has shown that metformin, a well-known diabetes medication, reduces instances of long COVID when taken during the illness’s acute phase. It seems to boost metabolic function in patients.

“It makes sense that it would work because it seems to have anti-inflammatory effects on the body,” said Grace McComsey, MD, who leads one of the 15 nationwide long COVID centers funded by the federal RECOVER (Researching COVID to Enhance Recovery) Initiative in Cleveland, Ohio. McComsey added that it may reduce the viral persistence that causes some forms of long COVID.

A study published in the October 2023 issue of the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases found that metformin seemed to reduce instances of long COVID in patients who took it after being diagnosed with acute COVID. It seems less effective in patients who already have long COVID.

 

Antihistamines

Other data suggest that some patients with long COVID showed improvement after taking antihistamines. Research has shown that long COVID symptoms improved in 29% of patients with long COVID.

While researchers aren’t sure why antihistamines work to quell long COVID, the thought is that, when mast cells, a white blood cell that’s part of the immune system, shed granules and cause an inflammatory reaction, they release a lot of histamines. Antihistamine medications like famotidine block histamine receptors in the body, improving symptoms like brain fog, difficulty breathing, and elevated heart rate in patients.

“For some patients, these can be a lifesaver,” said David Putrino, the Nash Family Director of the Cohen Center for Recovery from Complex Chronic Illness and a national leader in the treatment of long COVID.

Putrino cautions patients toward taking these and other medications haphazardly without fully understanding that all treatments have risks, especially if they’re taking a number of them.

“Often patients are told that there’s no risk to trying something, but physicians should be counseling their patients and reminding them that there is a risk that includes medication sensitivities and medication interactions,” said Putrino.

The good news is that doctors have begun to identify some treatments that seem to be working in their patients, but we still don’t have the large-scale clinical trials to identify which treatments will work for certain patients and why.

There’s still so much we don’t know, and for physicians on the front lines of treating long COVID, it’s still largely a guessing game. “This is a constellation of symptoms; it’s not just one thing,” said Al-Aly. And while a treatment might be wildly effective for one patient, it might be ineffective or worse, problematic, for another.

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

’Tis the season for recognizing seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Just don’t expect to find SAD in diagnostic handbooks.

As a memorable term, SAD “stuck in the general public, and to some extent among health professionals,” said Scott Patten, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “But it’s important to emphasize that that’s not an officially recognized diagnosis by the major classifications.”

Researchers coined the term SAD 40 years ago to describe a pattern of depression that sets in during the fall or winter and remits in the spring or summer.

Clinicians are diagnosing the disorder, albeit without that exact moniker.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the condition is considered a subtype of major depression.

So, for patients who meet criteria for recurrent major depressive disorder, the specifier “with seasonal pattern” might be applied.

The subtype covers cases where depressive episodes have followed a seasonal pattern for at least 2 years. Typically, onset occurs in the fall or winter followed by remission in the spring or summer. The opposite pattern is possible but less common.

When stressors such as seasonal unemployment better explain the pattern, the seasonal specifier should not be used, according to the manual. Bipolar disorder can follow a seasonal pattern as well.

Researchers estimate SAD affects about 5% of adults in the United States. The diagnosis is more common in women than in men, and more prevalent farther from the equator.

 

One Hallmark Symptom?

DSM-5 highlights characteristic features of winter depression, including:

• Loss of energy
• Hypersomnia
• A craving for carbohydrates
• Overeating
• Weight gain

Kelly Rohan, PhD, a researcher at the University of Vermont, Burlington, who has studied SAD since the 1990s, sees one symptom as a possible hallmark for the disorder: fatigue.

“I’ve personally never met someone who met the full diagnostic criteria for the seasonal pattern that did not have fatigue as one of their symptoms,” Rohan said. “In theory, they could exist, but I have spoken to hundreds of people with seasonal depression, and I have never met them if, in fact, they do exist.”

That differs from nonseasonal depression, for which insomnia is a more common problem with sleep, Patten said.

Clinicians look for at least five symptoms of depression that cause substantial impairment and distress for at least 2 weeks, such as pervasive sadness, difficulty concentrating, low self-esteem, or loss of interest in hobbies.

An average episode of winter depression can last 5 months, however, Rohan said. “That’s a long time to be in a major depressive episode.”

 

Seeing Subsyndromal Cases

In people who do not meet criteria for major depression with a seasonal pattern, the change of seasons still can affect energy levels and mood. Some patients have “subsyndromal SAD” and may benefit from treatments that have been developed for SAD such as bright light therapy, said Paul Desan, MD, PhD, director of the Winter Depression Research Clinic at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

“Many people come to our clinic because they have seasonal changes that don’t meet the full criteria for depression, but nevertheless, they want help,” Desan said.

The 1984 paper that introduced the term SAD explored artificial bright light as a promising treatment for the condition. The researchers had heard from dozens of patients with “recurrent depressions that occur annually at the same time each year,” and bright light appeared to help alleviate their symptoms.

Subsequent trials have found the approach effective. Even in nonseasonal depression, bright light therapy may increase the likelihood of remission, a recent meta-analysis found. Light therapy also may bolster the effectiveness of antidepressant medication in nonseasonal major depressive disorder, a randomized trial has shown.

Other treatments for SAD include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and bupropion XL, which is approved as a preventive medication. Other drugs for major depressive disorder may be used.

 

Quest for Biomarkers

To better understand SAD and how available treatments work, Rohan is conducting a study that examines potential biomarkers in patients treated with light therapy or CBT. She and her colleagues are examining circadian phase angle difference (how well internal clocks match daily routines) and post-illumination pupil response (how the pupil constricts after a light turns off). They also are measuring participants’ pupil responses and brain activity upon seeing words that are associated with winter or summer (like “blizzard,” “icy,” “sunshine,” and “picnics.”) 

Studies have shown treating patients to remission with CBT reduces the risk for recurrence in subsequent years, relative to other treatment approaches, Rohan said. That may be because CBT gives people tools to avoid slipping into another depressive episode.

 

Avoid Self-Diagnosis

Rohan cautions patients against self-diagnosis and treatment.

“Having a conversation with your doctor is a good starting point,” she said. “Just because you can walk into Costco and walk out with a light box doesn’t mean that you should.” 

Light therapy can have side effects, including headaches, eye strain, and making patients feel wired, and it can be a challenge to determine the right dose, Rohan said.

Desan’s clinic website provides information about available devices for light therapy for patients who are looking to try this approach, but Desan agrees clinicians — especially primary care clinicians — can play a crucial role in helping patients. In more serious cases, a mental health expert may be necessary.

To start light therapy, Desan’s clinic typically recommends patients try 30 minutes of 10,000 lux bright light — roughly the brightness of being outside on a sunny day — before 8 AM for a 4-week trial.

Still, other specific issues might explain why a patient is struggling during winter months, Patten said. For example, people might experience financial stress around the holidays or consume excessive amounts of alcohol during that time.

“It’s important for clinicians to think broadly about it,” Patten said. “It might not always be light therapy or a medication. It might be focusing on some other aspect of what is going on for them in the winter.” 

Rohan’s research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and she receives royalties for a manual on treating SAD with CBT. Patten and Desan had no relevant financial disclosures.

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

’Tis the season for recognizing seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Just don’t expect to find SAD in diagnostic handbooks.

As a memorable term, SAD “stuck in the general public, and to some extent among health professionals,” said Scott Patten, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “But it’s important to emphasize that that’s not an officially recognized diagnosis by the major classifications.”

Researchers coined the term SAD 40 years ago to describe a pattern of depression that sets in during the fall or winter and remits in the spring or summer.

Clinicians are diagnosing the disorder, albeit without that exact moniker.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the condition is considered a subtype of major depression.

So, for patients who meet criteria for recurrent major depressive disorder, the specifier “with seasonal pattern” might be applied.

The subtype covers cases where depressive episodes have followed a seasonal pattern for at least 2 years. Typically, onset occurs in the fall or winter followed by remission in the spring or summer. The opposite pattern is possible but less common.

When stressors such as seasonal unemployment better explain the pattern, the seasonal specifier should not be used, according to the manual. Bipolar disorder can follow a seasonal pattern as well.

Researchers estimate SAD affects about 5% of adults in the United States. The diagnosis is more common in women than in men, and more prevalent farther from the equator.

 

One Hallmark Symptom?

DSM-5 highlights characteristic features of winter depression, including:

• Loss of energy
• Hypersomnia
• A craving for carbohydrates
• Overeating
• Weight gain

Kelly Rohan, PhD, a researcher at the University of Vermont, Burlington, who has studied SAD since the 1990s, sees one symptom as a possible hallmark for the disorder: fatigue.

“I’ve personally never met someone who met the full diagnostic criteria for the seasonal pattern that did not have fatigue as one of their symptoms,” Rohan said. “In theory, they could exist, but I have spoken to hundreds of people with seasonal depression, and I have never met them if, in fact, they do exist.”

That differs from nonseasonal depression, for which insomnia is a more common problem with sleep, Patten said.

Clinicians look for at least five symptoms of depression that cause substantial impairment and distress for at least 2 weeks, such as pervasive sadness, difficulty concentrating, low self-esteem, or loss of interest in hobbies.

An average episode of winter depression can last 5 months, however, Rohan said. “That’s a long time to be in a major depressive episode.”

 

Seeing Subsyndromal Cases

In people who do not meet criteria for major depression with a seasonal pattern, the change of seasons still can affect energy levels and mood. Some patients have “subsyndromal SAD” and may benefit from treatments that have been developed for SAD such as bright light therapy, said Paul Desan, MD, PhD, director of the Winter Depression Research Clinic at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

“Many people come to our clinic because they have seasonal changes that don’t meet the full criteria for depression, but nevertheless, they want help,” Desan said.

The 1984 paper that introduced the term SAD explored artificial bright light as a promising treatment for the condition. The researchers had heard from dozens of patients with “recurrent depressions that occur annually at the same time each year,” and bright light appeared to help alleviate their symptoms.

Subsequent trials have found the approach effective. Even in nonseasonal depression, bright light therapy may increase the likelihood of remission, a recent meta-analysis found. Light therapy also may bolster the effectiveness of antidepressant medication in nonseasonal major depressive disorder, a randomized trial has shown.

Other treatments for SAD include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and bupropion XL, which is approved as a preventive medication. Other drugs for major depressive disorder may be used.

 

Quest for Biomarkers

To better understand SAD and how available treatments work, Rohan is conducting a study that examines potential biomarkers in patients treated with light therapy or CBT. She and her colleagues are examining circadian phase angle difference (how well internal clocks match daily routines) and post-illumination pupil response (how the pupil constricts after a light turns off). They also are measuring participants’ pupil responses and brain activity upon seeing words that are associated with winter or summer (like “blizzard,” “icy,” “sunshine,” and “picnics.”) 

Studies have shown treating patients to remission with CBT reduces the risk for recurrence in subsequent years, relative to other treatment approaches, Rohan said. That may be because CBT gives people tools to avoid slipping into another depressive episode.

 

Avoid Self-Diagnosis

Rohan cautions patients against self-diagnosis and treatment.

“Having a conversation with your doctor is a good starting point,” she said. “Just because you can walk into Costco and walk out with a light box doesn’t mean that you should.” 

Light therapy can have side effects, including headaches, eye strain, and making patients feel wired, and it can be a challenge to determine the right dose, Rohan said.

Desan’s clinic website provides information about available devices for light therapy for patients who are looking to try this approach, but Desan agrees clinicians — especially primary care clinicians — can play a crucial role in helping patients. In more serious cases, a mental health expert may be necessary.

To start light therapy, Desan’s clinic typically recommends patients try 30 minutes of 10,000 lux bright light — roughly the brightness of being outside on a sunny day — before 8 AM for a 4-week trial.

Still, other specific issues might explain why a patient is struggling during winter months, Patten said. For example, people might experience financial stress around the holidays or consume excessive amounts of alcohol during that time.

“It’s important for clinicians to think broadly about it,” Patten said. “It might not always be light therapy or a medication. It might be focusing on some other aspect of what is going on for them in the winter.” 

Rohan’s research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and she receives royalties for a manual on treating SAD with CBT. Patten and Desan had no relevant financial disclosures.

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

’Tis the season for recognizing seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Just don’t expect to find SAD in diagnostic handbooks.

As a memorable term, SAD “stuck in the general public, and to some extent among health professionals,” said Scott Patten, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and epidemiology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada. “But it’s important to emphasize that that’s not an officially recognized diagnosis by the major classifications.”

Researchers coined the term SAD 40 years ago to describe a pattern of depression that sets in during the fall or winter and remits in the spring or summer.

Clinicians are diagnosing the disorder, albeit without that exact moniker.

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the condition is considered a subtype of major depression.

So, for patients who meet criteria for recurrent major depressive disorder, the specifier “with seasonal pattern” might be applied.

The subtype covers cases where depressive episodes have followed a seasonal pattern for at least 2 years. Typically, onset occurs in the fall or winter followed by remission in the spring or summer. The opposite pattern is possible but less common.

When stressors such as seasonal unemployment better explain the pattern, the seasonal specifier should not be used, according to the manual. Bipolar disorder can follow a seasonal pattern as well.

Researchers estimate SAD affects about 5% of adults in the United States. The diagnosis is more common in women than in men, and more prevalent farther from the equator.

 

One Hallmark Symptom?

DSM-5 highlights characteristic features of winter depression, including:

• Loss of energy
• Hypersomnia
• A craving for carbohydrates
• Overeating
• Weight gain

Kelly Rohan, PhD, a researcher at the University of Vermont, Burlington, who has studied SAD since the 1990s, sees one symptom as a possible hallmark for the disorder: fatigue.

“I’ve personally never met someone who met the full diagnostic criteria for the seasonal pattern that did not have fatigue as one of their symptoms,” Rohan said. “In theory, they could exist, but I have spoken to hundreds of people with seasonal depression, and I have never met them if, in fact, they do exist.”

That differs from nonseasonal depression, for which insomnia is a more common problem with sleep, Patten said.

Clinicians look for at least five symptoms of depression that cause substantial impairment and distress for at least 2 weeks, such as pervasive sadness, difficulty concentrating, low self-esteem, or loss of interest in hobbies.

An average episode of winter depression can last 5 months, however, Rohan said. “That’s a long time to be in a major depressive episode.”

 

Seeing Subsyndromal Cases

In people who do not meet criteria for major depression with a seasonal pattern, the change of seasons still can affect energy levels and mood. Some patients have “subsyndromal SAD” and may benefit from treatments that have been developed for SAD such as bright light therapy, said Paul Desan, MD, PhD, director of the Winter Depression Research Clinic at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut.

“Many people come to our clinic because they have seasonal changes that don’t meet the full criteria for depression, but nevertheless, they want help,” Desan said.

The 1984 paper that introduced the term SAD explored artificial bright light as a promising treatment for the condition. The researchers had heard from dozens of patients with “recurrent depressions that occur annually at the same time each year,” and bright light appeared to help alleviate their symptoms.

Subsequent trials have found the approach effective. Even in nonseasonal depression, bright light therapy may increase the likelihood of remission, a recent meta-analysis found. Light therapy also may bolster the effectiveness of antidepressant medication in nonseasonal major depressive disorder, a randomized trial has shown.

Other treatments for SAD include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and bupropion XL, which is approved as a preventive medication. Other drugs for major depressive disorder may be used.

 

Quest for Biomarkers

To better understand SAD and how available treatments work, Rohan is conducting a study that examines potential biomarkers in patients treated with light therapy or CBT. She and her colleagues are examining circadian phase angle difference (how well internal clocks match daily routines) and post-illumination pupil response (how the pupil constricts after a light turns off). They also are measuring participants’ pupil responses and brain activity upon seeing words that are associated with winter or summer (like “blizzard,” “icy,” “sunshine,” and “picnics.”) 

Studies have shown treating patients to remission with CBT reduces the risk for recurrence in subsequent years, relative to other treatment approaches, Rohan said. That may be because CBT gives people tools to avoid slipping into another depressive episode.

 

Avoid Self-Diagnosis

Rohan cautions patients against self-diagnosis and treatment.

“Having a conversation with your doctor is a good starting point,” she said. “Just because you can walk into Costco and walk out with a light box doesn’t mean that you should.” 

Light therapy can have side effects, including headaches, eye strain, and making patients feel wired, and it can be a challenge to determine the right dose, Rohan said.

Desan’s clinic website provides information about available devices for light therapy for patients who are looking to try this approach, but Desan agrees clinicians — especially primary care clinicians — can play a crucial role in helping patients. In more serious cases, a mental health expert may be necessary.

To start light therapy, Desan’s clinic typically recommends patients try 30 minutes of 10,000 lux bright light — roughly the brightness of being outside on a sunny day — before 8 AM for a 4-week trial.

Still, other specific issues might explain why a patient is struggling during winter months, Patten said. For example, people might experience financial stress around the holidays or consume excessive amounts of alcohol during that time.

“It’s important for clinicians to think broadly about it,” Patten said. “It might not always be light therapy or a medication. It might be focusing on some other aspect of what is going on for them in the winter.” 

Rohan’s research is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, and she receives royalties for a manual on treating SAD with CBT. Patten and Desan had no relevant financial disclosures.

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

Suicide and self-harm continue to be serious concerns in Europe, despite decreasing rates over the past two decades. In 2021 alone, 47,346 people died by suicide in the European Union, close to 1% of all deaths reported that year. Measures have been taken at population, subpopulation, and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. But can more be done? Yes, according to experts.

Researchers are investigating factors that contribute to suicide at the individual level, as well as environmental and societal pressures that may increase risk. New predictive tools show promise in identifying individuals at high risk, and ongoing programs offer hope for early and ongoing interventions. Successful preventive strategies are multimodal, emphasizing the need for trained primary care and mental health professionals to work together to identify and support individuals at risk at every age and in all settings.

 

‘Radical Change’ Needed

The medical community’s approach to suicide prevention is all wrong, according to Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Mount Sinai Suicide Prevention Research Lab in New York City. 

Galynker is collaborating with colleagues in various parts of the world, including Europe, to validate the use of suicide crisis syndrome (SCS) as a diagnosis to help imminent suicide risk evaluation and treatment.

SCS is a negative cognitive-affective state associated with imminent suicidal behavior in those who are already at high risk for suicide. Galynker and his colleagues want to see SCS recognized and accepted as a suicide-specific diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases. 

Currently, he explained to this news organization, clinicians depend on a person at risk for suicide telling them that this is what they are feeling. This is “absurd,” he said, because people in this situation are in acute pain and distress and cannot answer accurately.

“It is the most lethal psychiatric condition, because people die from it ... yet we rely on people at the worst moment of their lives to tell us accurately when and how they are going to kill themselves. We don’t ask people with serious mental illness to diagnose their own mental illness and rely on that diagnosis.”

Data show that most people who attempt or die by suicide deny suicidal thoughts when assessed by healthcare providers using current questionnaires and scales. Thus, there needs to be “a radical change” in how patients at acute risk are assessed and treated to help “prevent suicides and avoid lost opportunities to intervene,” he said.

Galynker explained that SCS is the final and most acute stage of the “ narrative crisis model” of suicide, which reflects the progression of suicidal risk from chronic risk factors to imminent suicidal risk. “The narrative crisis model has four distinct and successive stages, with specific guidance and applicable interventions that enable patients to receive a stage-specific treatment.”

“Suicide crisis syndrome is a very treatable syndrome that rapidly resolves” with appropriate interventions, he said. “Once it is treated, the patient can engage with psychotherapy and other treatments.”

Galynker said he and his colleagues have had encouraging results with their studies so far on the subjective and objective views of clinicians using the risk assessment tools they are developing to assess suicidal ideation. Further studies are ongoing. 

 

Improving Prediction

There is definitely room for improvement in current approaches to suicide prevention, said Raffaella Calati, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, who has had research collaborations with Galynker.

Calati advocates for a more integrated approach across disciplines, institutions, and the community to provide an effective support network for those at risk. 

Accurately predicting suicide risk is challenging, she told this news organization. She and colleagues are working to develop more precise predictive tools for identifying individuals at risk, often by leveraging artificial intelligence and data analytics. They have designed and implemented app-based interventions for psychiatric patients at risk for suicide and university students with psychological distress. The interventions are personalized and based on multiple approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and third-wave CBT. 

The results of current studies are preliminary, she acknowledged, “but even if apps are extremely complex, our projects received high interest from participants and the scientific community,” she said. The aim now is to integrate these tools into healthcare systems so that monitoring high-risk patients becomes part of regular care. 

Another area of focus is the identification of specific subtypes of individuals at risk for suicide, particularly by examining factors such as pain, dissociation, and interoception — the ability to sense and interpret internal signals from the body. 

“By understanding how these experiences intersect and contribute to suicide risk, I aim to identify distinct profiles within at-risk populations, which could ultimately enable more tailored and effective prevention efforts,” she said.

Her work also involves meta-research to build large, comprehensive datasets that increase statistical power for exploring suicide risk factors, such as physical health conditions and symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder. By creating these datasets, she aims to “improve understanding of how various factors contribute to suicide risk, ultimately supporting more effective prevention strategies.”

 

Country-Level Efforts

Preventive work is underway in other countries as well. In Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, large-scale national registries that track people’s medical histories, prescriptions, and demographic information are being used to develop predictive algorithms that identify those at high risk for suicide. The predictions are based on known risk factors like previous mental health diagnoses, substance abuse, and social determinants of health.

A recent Norwegian study found that a novel assessment tool used at admission to an acute inpatient unit was a powerful predictor of suicide within 3 years post-discharge.

Researchers in the Netherlands have also recently co-designed a digital integrated suicide prevention program, which has led to a significant reduction in suicide mortality. 

SUPREMOCOL (suicide prevention by monitoring and collaborative care) was implemented in Noord-Brabant, a province in the Netherlands that historically had high suicide rates. It combines technology and personal care, allowing healthcare providers to track a person’s mental health, including by phone calls, text messages, and mobile apps that help people express their feelings and report any changes in their mental state. By staying connected, the program aims to identify warning signs early and provide timely interventions.

The results from the 5-year project showed that rates dropped by 21.5%, from 14.4 per 100,000 to 11.8 per 100,000, and remained low, with a rate of 11.3 per 100,000 by 2021.

Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Now it is implementing its suicide prevention program for 2020-2030, with 36 proposed measures to prevent suicide mortality. 

The program includes measures such as increasing public awareness, early intervention, supporting at-risk groups, developing new treatment options, and enhancing research efforts. Earlier successful interventions included limiting access to firearms and poison, and increasing use of antidepressants and other targeted interventions.

“A key is to ensure that the individuals at risk of suicide have access to adequate, timely, and evidence-based care,” said Timo Partonen, MD, research professor at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Helsinki.

“Emergency and frontline professionals, as well as general practitioners and occupational health physicians, have a key role in identifying people at risk of suicide,” he noted. “High-quality competencies will be developed for healthcare professionals, including access to evidence-based suicide prevention models for addressing and assessing suicide risk.” 

 

Global Strategies

Policymakers across Europe are increasingly recognizing the importance of enhanced public health approaches to suicide prevention. 

The recently adopted EU Action Plan on Mental Health emphasizes the need for comprehensive suicide prevention strategies across Europe, including the promotion of mental health literacy and the provision of accessible mental health services.

The plan was informed by initiatives such as the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD)-Best project, which ran from 2021 until March 2024. The collaborative project brought together researchers, healthcare providers, and community organizations to improve care for patients with depression and to prevent suicidal behavior in Europe. 

The multimodal approach included community engagement and training for healthcare professionals, as well as promoting the international uptake of the iFightDepression tool, an internet-based self-management approach for patients with depression. It has shown promise in reducing suicide rates in participating regions, including Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa.

“What we now know is that multiple interventions produce a synergic effect with a tendency to reduce suicidal behavior,” said EAAD founding member Ricardo Gusmão, MD, PhD, professor of public mental health at the University of Porto, Portugal. Current approaches to suicide prevention globally vary widely, with “many, fragmentary, atomized interventions, and we know that none of them, in isolation, produces spectacular results.” 

Gusmão explained that promising national suicide prevention strategies are based on multicomponent community interventions. On the clinical side, they encompass training primary health and specialized mental health professionals, and have a guaranteed chain of care and functioning pathways for access. They also involve educational programs in schools, universities, prisons, work settings, and geriatric care centers. Additionally, they have well-developed good standards for media communication and health marketing campaigns on well-being and mental health literacy.

Relevant and cohesive themes for successful strategies include the promotion of positive mental health, the identification and available treatments for depression and common mental disorders, and the management of suicidal crisis stigma. 

“We are now focusing on workplace settings and vulnerable groups such as youth, the elderly, unemployed, migrants and, of course, people affected by mental disorders,” he said. “Suicide prevention is like a web that must be weaved by long-lasting efforts and intersectoral collaboration.”

“Even one suicide is one too many,” Brendan Kelly, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, and author of The Modern Psychiatrist’s Guide to Contemporary Practice, told this news organization. “Nobody is born wanting to die by suicide. And every suicide is an individual tragedy, not a statistic. We need to work ever more intensively to reduce rates of suicide. All contributions to research and fresh thinking are welcome.”

Galynker, Calati, Partonen, and Kelly have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.  Gusmão has been involved in organizing Janssen-funded trainings for registrars on suicidal crisis management. 

 

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

Suicide and self-harm continue to be serious concerns in Europe, despite decreasing rates over the past two decades. In 2021 alone, 47,346 people died by suicide in the European Union, close to 1% of all deaths reported that year. Measures have been taken at population, subpopulation, and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. But can more be done? Yes, according to experts.

Researchers are investigating factors that contribute to suicide at the individual level, as well as environmental and societal pressures that may increase risk. New predictive tools show promise in identifying individuals at high risk, and ongoing programs offer hope for early and ongoing interventions. Successful preventive strategies are multimodal, emphasizing the need for trained primary care and mental health professionals to work together to identify and support individuals at risk at every age and in all settings.

 

‘Radical Change’ Needed

The medical community’s approach to suicide prevention is all wrong, according to Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Mount Sinai Suicide Prevention Research Lab in New York City. 

Galynker is collaborating with colleagues in various parts of the world, including Europe, to validate the use of suicide crisis syndrome (SCS) as a diagnosis to help imminent suicide risk evaluation and treatment.

SCS is a negative cognitive-affective state associated with imminent suicidal behavior in those who are already at high risk for suicide. Galynker and his colleagues want to see SCS recognized and accepted as a suicide-specific diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases. 

Currently, he explained to this news organization, clinicians depend on a person at risk for suicide telling them that this is what they are feeling. This is “absurd,” he said, because people in this situation are in acute pain and distress and cannot answer accurately.

“It is the most lethal psychiatric condition, because people die from it ... yet we rely on people at the worst moment of their lives to tell us accurately when and how they are going to kill themselves. We don’t ask people with serious mental illness to diagnose their own mental illness and rely on that diagnosis.”

Data show that most people who attempt or die by suicide deny suicidal thoughts when assessed by healthcare providers using current questionnaires and scales. Thus, there needs to be “a radical change” in how patients at acute risk are assessed and treated to help “prevent suicides and avoid lost opportunities to intervene,” he said.

Galynker explained that SCS is the final and most acute stage of the “ narrative crisis model” of suicide, which reflects the progression of suicidal risk from chronic risk factors to imminent suicidal risk. “The narrative crisis model has four distinct and successive stages, with specific guidance and applicable interventions that enable patients to receive a stage-specific treatment.”

“Suicide crisis syndrome is a very treatable syndrome that rapidly resolves” with appropriate interventions, he said. “Once it is treated, the patient can engage with psychotherapy and other treatments.”

Galynker said he and his colleagues have had encouraging results with their studies so far on the subjective and objective views of clinicians using the risk assessment tools they are developing to assess suicidal ideation. Further studies are ongoing. 

 

Improving Prediction

There is definitely room for improvement in current approaches to suicide prevention, said Raffaella Calati, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, who has had research collaborations with Galynker.

Calati advocates for a more integrated approach across disciplines, institutions, and the community to provide an effective support network for those at risk. 

Accurately predicting suicide risk is challenging, she told this news organization. She and colleagues are working to develop more precise predictive tools for identifying individuals at risk, often by leveraging artificial intelligence and data analytics. They have designed and implemented app-based interventions for psychiatric patients at risk for suicide and university students with psychological distress. The interventions are personalized and based on multiple approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and third-wave CBT. 

The results of current studies are preliminary, she acknowledged, “but even if apps are extremely complex, our projects received high interest from participants and the scientific community,” she said. The aim now is to integrate these tools into healthcare systems so that monitoring high-risk patients becomes part of regular care. 

Another area of focus is the identification of specific subtypes of individuals at risk for suicide, particularly by examining factors such as pain, dissociation, and interoception — the ability to sense and interpret internal signals from the body. 

“By understanding how these experiences intersect and contribute to suicide risk, I aim to identify distinct profiles within at-risk populations, which could ultimately enable more tailored and effective prevention efforts,” she said.

Her work also involves meta-research to build large, comprehensive datasets that increase statistical power for exploring suicide risk factors, such as physical health conditions and symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder. By creating these datasets, she aims to “improve understanding of how various factors contribute to suicide risk, ultimately supporting more effective prevention strategies.”

 

Country-Level Efforts

Preventive work is underway in other countries as well. In Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, large-scale national registries that track people’s medical histories, prescriptions, and demographic information are being used to develop predictive algorithms that identify those at high risk for suicide. The predictions are based on known risk factors like previous mental health diagnoses, substance abuse, and social determinants of health.

A recent Norwegian study found that a novel assessment tool used at admission to an acute inpatient unit was a powerful predictor of suicide within 3 years post-discharge.

Researchers in the Netherlands have also recently co-designed a digital integrated suicide prevention program, which has led to a significant reduction in suicide mortality. 

SUPREMOCOL (suicide prevention by monitoring and collaborative care) was implemented in Noord-Brabant, a province in the Netherlands that historically had high suicide rates. It combines technology and personal care, allowing healthcare providers to track a person’s mental health, including by phone calls, text messages, and mobile apps that help people express their feelings and report any changes in their mental state. By staying connected, the program aims to identify warning signs early and provide timely interventions.

The results from the 5-year project showed that rates dropped by 21.5%, from 14.4 per 100,000 to 11.8 per 100,000, and remained low, with a rate of 11.3 per 100,000 by 2021.

Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Now it is implementing its suicide prevention program for 2020-2030, with 36 proposed measures to prevent suicide mortality. 

The program includes measures such as increasing public awareness, early intervention, supporting at-risk groups, developing new treatment options, and enhancing research efforts. Earlier successful interventions included limiting access to firearms and poison, and increasing use of antidepressants and other targeted interventions.

“A key is to ensure that the individuals at risk of suicide have access to adequate, timely, and evidence-based care,” said Timo Partonen, MD, research professor at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Helsinki.

“Emergency and frontline professionals, as well as general practitioners and occupational health physicians, have a key role in identifying people at risk of suicide,” he noted. “High-quality competencies will be developed for healthcare professionals, including access to evidence-based suicide prevention models for addressing and assessing suicide risk.” 

 

Global Strategies

Policymakers across Europe are increasingly recognizing the importance of enhanced public health approaches to suicide prevention. 

The recently adopted EU Action Plan on Mental Health emphasizes the need for comprehensive suicide prevention strategies across Europe, including the promotion of mental health literacy and the provision of accessible mental health services.

The plan was informed by initiatives such as the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD)-Best project, which ran from 2021 until March 2024. The collaborative project brought together researchers, healthcare providers, and community organizations to improve care for patients with depression and to prevent suicidal behavior in Europe. 

The multimodal approach included community engagement and training for healthcare professionals, as well as promoting the international uptake of the iFightDepression tool, an internet-based self-management approach for patients with depression. It has shown promise in reducing suicide rates in participating regions, including Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa.

“What we now know is that multiple interventions produce a synergic effect with a tendency to reduce suicidal behavior,” said EAAD founding member Ricardo Gusmão, MD, PhD, professor of public mental health at the University of Porto, Portugal. Current approaches to suicide prevention globally vary widely, with “many, fragmentary, atomized interventions, and we know that none of them, in isolation, produces spectacular results.” 

Gusmão explained that promising national suicide prevention strategies are based on multicomponent community interventions. On the clinical side, they encompass training primary health and specialized mental health professionals, and have a guaranteed chain of care and functioning pathways for access. They also involve educational programs in schools, universities, prisons, work settings, and geriatric care centers. Additionally, they have well-developed good standards for media communication and health marketing campaigns on well-being and mental health literacy.

Relevant and cohesive themes for successful strategies include the promotion of positive mental health, the identification and available treatments for depression and common mental disorders, and the management of suicidal crisis stigma. 

“We are now focusing on workplace settings and vulnerable groups such as youth, the elderly, unemployed, migrants and, of course, people affected by mental disorders,” he said. “Suicide prevention is like a web that must be weaved by long-lasting efforts and intersectoral collaboration.”

“Even one suicide is one too many,” Brendan Kelly, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, and author of The Modern Psychiatrist’s Guide to Contemporary Practice, told this news organization. “Nobody is born wanting to die by suicide. And every suicide is an individual tragedy, not a statistic. We need to work ever more intensively to reduce rates of suicide. All contributions to research and fresh thinking are welcome.”

Galynker, Calati, Partonen, and Kelly have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.  Gusmão has been involved in organizing Janssen-funded trainings for registrars on suicidal crisis management. 

 

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

Suicide and self-harm continue to be serious concerns in Europe, despite decreasing rates over the past two decades. In 2021 alone, 47,346 people died by suicide in the European Union, close to 1% of all deaths reported that year. Measures have been taken at population, subpopulation, and individual levels to prevent suicide and suicide attempts. But can more be done? Yes, according to experts.

Researchers are investigating factors that contribute to suicide at the individual level, as well as environmental and societal pressures that may increase risk. New predictive tools show promise in identifying individuals at high risk, and ongoing programs offer hope for early and ongoing interventions. Successful preventive strategies are multimodal, emphasizing the need for trained primary care and mental health professionals to work together to identify and support individuals at risk at every age and in all settings.

 

‘Radical Change’ Needed

The medical community’s approach to suicide prevention is all wrong, according to Igor Galynker, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychiatry and director of the Mount Sinai Suicide Prevention Research Lab in New York City. 

Galynker is collaborating with colleagues in various parts of the world, including Europe, to validate the use of suicide crisis syndrome (SCS) as a diagnosis to help imminent suicide risk evaluation and treatment.

SCS is a negative cognitive-affective state associated with imminent suicidal behavior in those who are already at high risk for suicide. Galynker and his colleagues want to see SCS recognized and accepted as a suicide-specific diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases. 

Currently, he explained to this news organization, clinicians depend on a person at risk for suicide telling them that this is what they are feeling. This is “absurd,” he said, because people in this situation are in acute pain and distress and cannot answer accurately.

“It is the most lethal psychiatric condition, because people die from it ... yet we rely on people at the worst moment of their lives to tell us accurately when and how they are going to kill themselves. We don’t ask people with serious mental illness to diagnose their own mental illness and rely on that diagnosis.”

Data show that most people who attempt or die by suicide deny suicidal thoughts when assessed by healthcare providers using current questionnaires and scales. Thus, there needs to be “a radical change” in how patients at acute risk are assessed and treated to help “prevent suicides and avoid lost opportunities to intervene,” he said.

Galynker explained that SCS is the final and most acute stage of the “ narrative crisis model” of suicide, which reflects the progression of suicidal risk from chronic risk factors to imminent suicidal risk. “The narrative crisis model has four distinct and successive stages, with specific guidance and applicable interventions that enable patients to receive a stage-specific treatment.”

“Suicide crisis syndrome is a very treatable syndrome that rapidly resolves” with appropriate interventions, he said. “Once it is treated, the patient can engage with psychotherapy and other treatments.”

Galynker said he and his colleagues have had encouraging results with their studies so far on the subjective and objective views of clinicians using the risk assessment tools they are developing to assess suicidal ideation. Further studies are ongoing. 

 

Improving Prediction

There is definitely room for improvement in current approaches to suicide prevention, said Raffaella Calati, PhD, assistant professor of clinical psychology at the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy, who has had research collaborations with Galynker.

Calati advocates for a more integrated approach across disciplines, institutions, and the community to provide an effective support network for those at risk. 

Accurately predicting suicide risk is challenging, she told this news organization. She and colleagues are working to develop more precise predictive tools for identifying individuals at risk, often by leveraging artificial intelligence and data analytics. They have designed and implemented app-based interventions for psychiatric patients at risk for suicide and university students with psychological distress. The interventions are personalized and based on multiple approaches, such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and third-wave CBT. 

The results of current studies are preliminary, she acknowledged, “but even if apps are extremely complex, our projects received high interest from participants and the scientific community,” she said. The aim now is to integrate these tools into healthcare systems so that monitoring high-risk patients becomes part of regular care. 

Another area of focus is the identification of specific subtypes of individuals at risk for suicide, particularly by examining factors such as pain, dissociation, and interoception — the ability to sense and interpret internal signals from the body. 

“By understanding how these experiences intersect and contribute to suicide risk, I aim to identify distinct profiles within at-risk populations, which could ultimately enable more tailored and effective prevention efforts,” she said.

Her work also involves meta-research to build large, comprehensive datasets that increase statistical power for exploring suicide risk factors, such as physical health conditions and symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder. By creating these datasets, she aims to “improve understanding of how various factors contribute to suicide risk, ultimately supporting more effective prevention strategies.”

 

Country-Level Efforts

Preventive work is underway in other countries as well. In Nordic countries such as Denmark, Finland, and Sweden, large-scale national registries that track people’s medical histories, prescriptions, and demographic information are being used to develop predictive algorithms that identify those at high risk for suicide. The predictions are based on known risk factors like previous mental health diagnoses, substance abuse, and social determinants of health.

A recent Norwegian study found that a novel assessment tool used at admission to an acute inpatient unit was a powerful predictor of suicide within 3 years post-discharge.

Researchers in the Netherlands have also recently co-designed a digital integrated suicide prevention program, which has led to a significant reduction in suicide mortality. 

SUPREMOCOL (suicide prevention by monitoring and collaborative care) was implemented in Noord-Brabant, a province in the Netherlands that historically had high suicide rates. It combines technology and personal care, allowing healthcare providers to track a person’s mental health, including by phone calls, text messages, and mobile apps that help people express their feelings and report any changes in their mental state. By staying connected, the program aims to identify warning signs early and provide timely interventions.

The results from the 5-year project showed that rates dropped by 21.5%, from 14.4 per 100,000 to 11.8 per 100,000, and remained low, with a rate of 11.3 per 100,000 by 2021.

Finland used to have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Now it is implementing its suicide prevention program for 2020-2030, with 36 proposed measures to prevent suicide mortality. 

The program includes measures such as increasing public awareness, early intervention, supporting at-risk groups, developing new treatment options, and enhancing research efforts. Earlier successful interventions included limiting access to firearms and poison, and increasing use of antidepressants and other targeted interventions.

“A key is to ensure that the individuals at risk of suicide have access to adequate, timely, and evidence-based care,” said Timo Partonen, MD, research professor at the Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare and associate professor of psychiatry at the University of Helsinki.

“Emergency and frontline professionals, as well as general practitioners and occupational health physicians, have a key role in identifying people at risk of suicide,” he noted. “High-quality competencies will be developed for healthcare professionals, including access to evidence-based suicide prevention models for addressing and assessing suicide risk.” 

 

Global Strategies

Policymakers across Europe are increasingly recognizing the importance of enhanced public health approaches to suicide prevention. 

The recently adopted EU Action Plan on Mental Health emphasizes the need for comprehensive suicide prevention strategies across Europe, including the promotion of mental health literacy and the provision of accessible mental health services.

The plan was informed by initiatives such as the European Alliance Against Depression (EAAD)-Best project, which ran from 2021 until March 2024. The collaborative project brought together researchers, healthcare providers, and community organizations to improve care for patients with depression and to prevent suicidal behavior in Europe. 

The multimodal approach included community engagement and training for healthcare professionals, as well as promoting the international uptake of the iFightDepression tool, an internet-based self-management approach for patients with depression. It has shown promise in reducing suicide rates in participating regions, including Europe, Australia, South America, and Africa.

“What we now know is that multiple interventions produce a synergic effect with a tendency to reduce suicidal behavior,” said EAAD founding member Ricardo Gusmão, MD, PhD, professor of public mental health at the University of Porto, Portugal. Current approaches to suicide prevention globally vary widely, with “many, fragmentary, atomized interventions, and we know that none of them, in isolation, produces spectacular results.” 

Gusmão explained that promising national suicide prevention strategies are based on multicomponent community interventions. On the clinical side, they encompass training primary health and specialized mental health professionals, and have a guaranteed chain of care and functioning pathways for access. They also involve educational programs in schools, universities, prisons, work settings, and geriatric care centers. Additionally, they have well-developed good standards for media communication and health marketing campaigns on well-being and mental health literacy.

Relevant and cohesive themes for successful strategies include the promotion of positive mental health, the identification and available treatments for depression and common mental disorders, and the management of suicidal crisis stigma. 

“We are now focusing on workplace settings and vulnerable groups such as youth, the elderly, unemployed, migrants and, of course, people affected by mental disorders,” he said. “Suicide prevention is like a web that must be weaved by long-lasting efforts and intersectoral collaboration.”

“Even one suicide is one too many,” Brendan Kelly, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry, Trinity College Dublin, and author of The Modern Psychiatrist’s Guide to Contemporary Practice, told this news organization. “Nobody is born wanting to die by suicide. And every suicide is an individual tragedy, not a statistic. We need to work ever more intensively to reduce rates of suicide. All contributions to research and fresh thinking are welcome.”

Galynker, Calati, Partonen, and Kelly have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.  Gusmão has been involved in organizing Janssen-funded trainings for registrars on suicidal crisis management. 

 

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

A report published in July 2024 by the US Senate Special Committee on Aging is calling for a national coordinated response to what the authors claim may be an emerging hoarding disorder (HD) crisis.

While millions of US adults are estimated to have HD, it is the disorder’s prevalence and severity among older adults that sounded the alarm for the Committee Chair Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).

HD affects roughly 2% of the overall population but up to 6% of all people older than 70 years, the report stated. Older adults made up about 16% of the US population in 2019. By 2060, that proportion is projected to soar to 25%.

The country’s aging population alone “could fuel a rise in hoarding in the coming decades,” the report authors noted.

These findings underscore the pressing need for a deeper understanding of HD, particularly as reports of its impact continue to rise. The Senate report also raises critical questions about the nature of HD: What is known about the condition? What evidence-based treatments are currently available, and are there national strategies that will prevent it from becoming a systemic crisis?

 

Why the Urgency?

An increase in anecdotal reports of HD in his home state prompted Casey, chair of the Senate Committee on Aging, to launch the investigation into the incidence and consequences of HD. Soon after the committee began its work, it became evident that the problem was not unique to communities in Pennsylvania. It was a nationwide issue.

“Communities throughout the United States are already grappling with HD,” the report noted.

HD is characterized by persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their monetary value. For individuals with HD, such items frequently hold meaningful reminders of past events and provide a sense of security. Difficulties with emotional regulation, executive functioning, and impulse control all contribute to the excessive buildup of clutter. Problems with attention, organization, and problem-solving are also common.

As individuals with HD age, physical limitations or disabilities may hinder their ability to discard clutter. As the accumulation increases, it can pose serious risks not only to their safety but also to public health.

Dozens of statements submitted to the Senate committee by those with HD, clinicians and social workers, first responders, social service organizations, state and federal agencies, and professional societies paint a concerning picture about the impact of hoarding on emergency and community services.

Data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System show the number of hoarding-related residential structural fires increased 26% between 2014 and 2022. Some 5242 residential fires connected to cluttered environments during that time resulted in 1367 fire service injuries, 1119 civilian injuries, and over $396 million in damages.

“For older adults, those consequences include health and safety risks, social isolation, eviction, and homelessness,” the report authors noted. “For communities, those consequences include public health concerns, increased risk of fire, and dangers to emergency responders.”

 

What Causes HD?

HD was once classified as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, with extreme causes meeting the diagnostic criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder. That changed in 2010 when a working group recommended that HD be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fifth Edition, as a stand-alone disorder. That recommendation was approved in 2012.

However, a decade later, much about HD’s etiology remains unknown.

Often beginning in early adolescence, HD is a chronic and progressive condition, with genetics and trauma playing a role in its onset and course, Sanjaya Saxena, MD, director of Clinical and Research Affairs at the International OCD Foundation, said in an interview.

Between 50% and 85% of people with HD symptoms have family members with similar behavior. HD is often comorbid with other psychiatric and medical disorders, which can complicate treatment.

Results of a 2022 study showed that, compared with healthy control individuals, people with HD had widespread abnormalities in the prefrontal white matter tract which connects cortical regions involved in executive functioning, including working memory, attention, reward processing, and decision-making.

Some research also suggests that dysregulation of serotonin transmission may contribute to compulsive behaviors and the difficulty in letting go of possessions.

“We do know that there are factors that contribute to worsening of hoarding symptoms, but that’s not the same thing as what really causes it. So unfortunately, it’s still very understudied, and we don’t have great knowledge of what causes it,” Saxena said.

 

What Treatments Are Available?

There are currently no Food and Drug Administration–approved medications to treat HD, although some research has shown antidepressants paroxetine and venlafaxine may have some benefit. Methylphenidate and atomoxetine are also under study for HD.

Nonpharmacological therapies have shown more promising results. Among the first was a specialized cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program developed by Randy Frost, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Gail Steketee, PhD, dean emerita and professor emerita of social work at Boston University in Massachusetts.

First published in 2007 and the subject of many clinical trials and studies since, the 26-session program has served as a model for psychosocial treatments for HD. The evidence-based therapy addresses various symptoms, including impulse control. One module encourages participants to develop a set of questions to consider before acquiring new items, gradually helping them build resistance to the urge to accumulate more possessions, said Frost, whose early work on HD was cited by those who supported adding the condition to the DSM in 2012.

“There are several features that I think are important including exercises in resisting acquiring and processing information when making decisions about discarding,” Frost said in an interview.

A number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CBT for HD, including a 2015 meta-analysis coauthored by Frost. The research showed symptom severity decreased significantly following CBT, with the largest gains in difficulty discarding and moderate improvements in clutter and acquiring.

Responses were better among women and younger patients, and although symptoms improved, posttreatment scores remained closer to the clinical range, researchers noted. It’s possible that more intervention beyond what is usually included in clinical trials — such as more sessions or adding home decluttering visits — could improve treatment response, they added.

A workshop based on the specialized CBT program has expanded the reach of the treatment. The group therapy project, Buried in Treasures (BiT), was developed by Frost, Steketee, and David Tolin, PhD, founder and director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living, Hartford, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. The workshop is designed as a facilitated treatment that can be delivered by clinicians or trained nonclinician facilitators.

A study published in May found that more than half the participants with HD responded to the treatment, and of those, 39% reported significant reductions in HD symptoms. BiT sessions were led by trained facilitators, and the study included in-home decluttering sessions, also led by trained volunteers. Researchers said adding the home intervention could increase engagement with the group therapy.

Another study of a modified version of BiT found a 32% decrease in HD symptoms after 15 weeks of treatment delivered via video teleconference.

“The BiT workshop has been expanding around the world and has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive,” Frost said. Another advantage is that it can be run by nonclinicians, which expands treatment options in areas where mental health professionals trained to treat HD are in short supply.

However, the workshop “is not perfect, and clients usually still have symptoms at the end of the workshop,” Frost noted.

“The point is that the BiT workshop is the first step in changing a lifestyle related to possessions,” he continued. “We do certainly need to train more people in how to treat hoarding, and we need to facilitate research to make our treatments more effective.”

 

What’s New in the Field?

One novel program currently under study combines CBT with a cognitive rehabilitation protocol. Called Cognitive Rehabilitation and Exposure/Sorting Therapy (CREST), the program has been shown to help older adults with HD who don’t respond to traditional CBT for HD.

The program, led by Catherine Ayers, PhD, professor of clinical psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, involves memory training and problem-solving combined with exposure therapy to help participants learn how to tolerate distress associated with discarding their possessions.

Early findings pointed to symptom improvement in older adults following 24 sessions with CREST. The program fared better than geriatric case management in a 2018 study — the first randomized controlled trial of a treatment for HD in older adults — and offered additional benefits compared with exposure therapy in a study published in February 2024.

Virtual reality is also helping people with HD. A program developed at Stanford University in California, allows people with HD to work with a therapist as they practice decluttering in a three-dimensional virtual environment created using photographs and videos of actual hoarded objects and cluttered rooms in patients’ homes.

In a small pilot study, nine people older than 55 years with HD attended 16 weeks of online facilitated therapy where they learned to better understand their attachment to those items. They practiced decluttering by selecting virtual items for recycling, donation, or trash. A virtual garbage truck even hauled away the items they had placed in the trash.

Participants were then asked to discard the actual items at home. Most participants reported a decrease in hoarding symptoms, which was confirmed following a home assessment by a clinician.

“When you pick up an object from a loved one, it still maybe has the scent of the loved one. It has these tactile cues, colors. But in the virtual world, you can take a little bit of a step back,” lead researchers Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, director of Stanford’s Hoarding Disorders Research Program, said in an interview.

“It’s a little ramp to help people practice these skills. And then what we find is that it actually translated really well. They were able to go home and actually do the real uncluttering,” Rodriguez added.

 

What Else Can Be Done?

While researchers like Rodriguez continue studies of new and existing treatments, the Senate report draws attention to other responses that could aid people with HD. Because of its significant impact on emergency responders, adult protective services, aging services, and housing providers, the report recommends a nationwide response to older adults with HD.

Currently, federal agencies in charge of mental and community health are not doing enough to address HD, the report’s authors noted.

The report demonstrates “the scope and severity of these challenges and offers a path forward for how we can help people, communities, and local governments contend with this condition,” Casey said.

Specifically, the document cites a lack of HD services and tracking by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Community Living, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee recommended these agencies collaborate to improve HD data collection, which will be critical to managing a potential spike in cases as the population ages. The committee also suggested awareness and training campaigns to better educate clinicians, social service providers, court officials, and first responders about HD.

Further, the report’s authors called for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide guidance and technical assistance on HD for landlords and housing assistance programs and urged Congress to collaborate with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to expand coverage for hoarding treatments.

Finally, the committee encouraged policymakers to engage directly with individuals affected by HD and their families to better understand the impact of the disorder and inform policy development.

“I think the Senate report focuses on education, not just for therapists, but other stakeholders too,” Frost said. “There are lots of other professionals who have a stake in this process, housing specialists, elder service folks, health and human services. Awareness of this problem is something that’s important for them as well.”

Rodriguez characterized the report’s recommendations as “potentially lifesaving” for individuals with HD. She added that it represents the first step in an ongoing effort to address an impending public health crisis related to HD in older adults and its broader impact on communities.

A spokesperson with Casey’s office said it’s unclear whether any federal agencies have acted on the report recommendations since it was released in June. It’s also unknown whether the Senate Committee on Aging will pursue any additional work on HD when new committee leaders are appointed in 2025.

“Although some federal agencies have taken steps to address HD, those steps are frequently limited. Other relevant agencies have not addressed HD at all in recent years,” report authors wrote. “The federal government can, and should, do more to bolster the response to HD.”

Frost agreed.

“I think federal agencies can have a positive effect by promoting, supporting, and tracking local efforts in dealing with this problem,” he said.

With reporting from Eve Bender.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A report published in July 2024 by the US Senate Special Committee on Aging is calling for a national coordinated response to what the authors claim may be an emerging hoarding disorder (HD) crisis.

While millions of US adults are estimated to have HD, it is the disorder’s prevalence and severity among older adults that sounded the alarm for the Committee Chair Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).

HD affects roughly 2% of the overall population but up to 6% of all people older than 70 years, the report stated. Older adults made up about 16% of the US population in 2019. By 2060, that proportion is projected to soar to 25%.

The country’s aging population alone “could fuel a rise in hoarding in the coming decades,” the report authors noted.

These findings underscore the pressing need for a deeper understanding of HD, particularly as reports of its impact continue to rise. The Senate report also raises critical questions about the nature of HD: What is known about the condition? What evidence-based treatments are currently available, and are there national strategies that will prevent it from becoming a systemic crisis?

 

Why the Urgency?

An increase in anecdotal reports of HD in his home state prompted Casey, chair of the Senate Committee on Aging, to launch the investigation into the incidence and consequences of HD. Soon after the committee began its work, it became evident that the problem was not unique to communities in Pennsylvania. It was a nationwide issue.

“Communities throughout the United States are already grappling with HD,” the report noted.

HD is characterized by persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their monetary value. For individuals with HD, such items frequently hold meaningful reminders of past events and provide a sense of security. Difficulties with emotional regulation, executive functioning, and impulse control all contribute to the excessive buildup of clutter. Problems with attention, organization, and problem-solving are also common.

As individuals with HD age, physical limitations or disabilities may hinder their ability to discard clutter. As the accumulation increases, it can pose serious risks not only to their safety but also to public health.

Dozens of statements submitted to the Senate committee by those with HD, clinicians and social workers, first responders, social service organizations, state and federal agencies, and professional societies paint a concerning picture about the impact of hoarding on emergency and community services.

Data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System show the number of hoarding-related residential structural fires increased 26% between 2014 and 2022. Some 5242 residential fires connected to cluttered environments during that time resulted in 1367 fire service injuries, 1119 civilian injuries, and over $396 million in damages.

“For older adults, those consequences include health and safety risks, social isolation, eviction, and homelessness,” the report authors noted. “For communities, those consequences include public health concerns, increased risk of fire, and dangers to emergency responders.”

 

What Causes HD?

HD was once classified as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, with extreme causes meeting the diagnostic criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder. That changed in 2010 when a working group recommended that HD be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fifth Edition, as a stand-alone disorder. That recommendation was approved in 2012.

However, a decade later, much about HD’s etiology remains unknown.

Often beginning in early adolescence, HD is a chronic and progressive condition, with genetics and trauma playing a role in its onset and course, Sanjaya Saxena, MD, director of Clinical and Research Affairs at the International OCD Foundation, said in an interview.

Between 50% and 85% of people with HD symptoms have family members with similar behavior. HD is often comorbid with other psychiatric and medical disorders, which can complicate treatment.

Results of a 2022 study showed that, compared with healthy control individuals, people with HD had widespread abnormalities in the prefrontal white matter tract which connects cortical regions involved in executive functioning, including working memory, attention, reward processing, and decision-making.

Some research also suggests that dysregulation of serotonin transmission may contribute to compulsive behaviors and the difficulty in letting go of possessions.

“We do know that there are factors that contribute to worsening of hoarding symptoms, but that’s not the same thing as what really causes it. So unfortunately, it’s still very understudied, and we don’t have great knowledge of what causes it,” Saxena said.

 

What Treatments Are Available?

There are currently no Food and Drug Administration–approved medications to treat HD, although some research has shown antidepressants paroxetine and venlafaxine may have some benefit. Methylphenidate and atomoxetine are also under study for HD.

Nonpharmacological therapies have shown more promising results. Among the first was a specialized cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program developed by Randy Frost, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Gail Steketee, PhD, dean emerita and professor emerita of social work at Boston University in Massachusetts.

First published in 2007 and the subject of many clinical trials and studies since, the 26-session program has served as a model for psychosocial treatments for HD. The evidence-based therapy addresses various symptoms, including impulse control. One module encourages participants to develop a set of questions to consider before acquiring new items, gradually helping them build resistance to the urge to accumulate more possessions, said Frost, whose early work on HD was cited by those who supported adding the condition to the DSM in 2012.

“There are several features that I think are important including exercises in resisting acquiring and processing information when making decisions about discarding,” Frost said in an interview.

A number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CBT for HD, including a 2015 meta-analysis coauthored by Frost. The research showed symptom severity decreased significantly following CBT, with the largest gains in difficulty discarding and moderate improvements in clutter and acquiring.

Responses were better among women and younger patients, and although symptoms improved, posttreatment scores remained closer to the clinical range, researchers noted. It’s possible that more intervention beyond what is usually included in clinical trials — such as more sessions or adding home decluttering visits — could improve treatment response, they added.

A workshop based on the specialized CBT program has expanded the reach of the treatment. The group therapy project, Buried in Treasures (BiT), was developed by Frost, Steketee, and David Tolin, PhD, founder and director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living, Hartford, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. The workshop is designed as a facilitated treatment that can be delivered by clinicians or trained nonclinician facilitators.

A study published in May found that more than half the participants with HD responded to the treatment, and of those, 39% reported significant reductions in HD symptoms. BiT sessions were led by trained facilitators, and the study included in-home decluttering sessions, also led by trained volunteers. Researchers said adding the home intervention could increase engagement with the group therapy.

Another study of a modified version of BiT found a 32% decrease in HD symptoms after 15 weeks of treatment delivered via video teleconference.

“The BiT workshop has been expanding around the world and has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive,” Frost said. Another advantage is that it can be run by nonclinicians, which expands treatment options in areas where mental health professionals trained to treat HD are in short supply.

However, the workshop “is not perfect, and clients usually still have symptoms at the end of the workshop,” Frost noted.

“The point is that the BiT workshop is the first step in changing a lifestyle related to possessions,” he continued. “We do certainly need to train more people in how to treat hoarding, and we need to facilitate research to make our treatments more effective.”

 

What’s New in the Field?

One novel program currently under study combines CBT with a cognitive rehabilitation protocol. Called Cognitive Rehabilitation and Exposure/Sorting Therapy (CREST), the program has been shown to help older adults with HD who don’t respond to traditional CBT for HD.

The program, led by Catherine Ayers, PhD, professor of clinical psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, involves memory training and problem-solving combined with exposure therapy to help participants learn how to tolerate distress associated with discarding their possessions.

Early findings pointed to symptom improvement in older adults following 24 sessions with CREST. The program fared better than geriatric case management in a 2018 study — the first randomized controlled trial of a treatment for HD in older adults — and offered additional benefits compared with exposure therapy in a study published in February 2024.

Virtual reality is also helping people with HD. A program developed at Stanford University in California, allows people with HD to work with a therapist as they practice decluttering in a three-dimensional virtual environment created using photographs and videos of actual hoarded objects and cluttered rooms in patients’ homes.

In a small pilot study, nine people older than 55 years with HD attended 16 weeks of online facilitated therapy where they learned to better understand their attachment to those items. They practiced decluttering by selecting virtual items for recycling, donation, or trash. A virtual garbage truck even hauled away the items they had placed in the trash.

Participants were then asked to discard the actual items at home. Most participants reported a decrease in hoarding symptoms, which was confirmed following a home assessment by a clinician.

“When you pick up an object from a loved one, it still maybe has the scent of the loved one. It has these tactile cues, colors. But in the virtual world, you can take a little bit of a step back,” lead researchers Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, director of Stanford’s Hoarding Disorders Research Program, said in an interview.

“It’s a little ramp to help people practice these skills. And then what we find is that it actually translated really well. They were able to go home and actually do the real uncluttering,” Rodriguez added.

 

What Else Can Be Done?

While researchers like Rodriguez continue studies of new and existing treatments, the Senate report draws attention to other responses that could aid people with HD. Because of its significant impact on emergency responders, adult protective services, aging services, and housing providers, the report recommends a nationwide response to older adults with HD.

Currently, federal agencies in charge of mental and community health are not doing enough to address HD, the report’s authors noted.

The report demonstrates “the scope and severity of these challenges and offers a path forward for how we can help people, communities, and local governments contend with this condition,” Casey said.

Specifically, the document cites a lack of HD services and tracking by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Community Living, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee recommended these agencies collaborate to improve HD data collection, which will be critical to managing a potential spike in cases as the population ages. The committee also suggested awareness and training campaigns to better educate clinicians, social service providers, court officials, and first responders about HD.

Further, the report’s authors called for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide guidance and technical assistance on HD for landlords and housing assistance programs and urged Congress to collaborate with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to expand coverage for hoarding treatments.

Finally, the committee encouraged policymakers to engage directly with individuals affected by HD and their families to better understand the impact of the disorder and inform policy development.

“I think the Senate report focuses on education, not just for therapists, but other stakeholders too,” Frost said. “There are lots of other professionals who have a stake in this process, housing specialists, elder service folks, health and human services. Awareness of this problem is something that’s important for them as well.”

Rodriguez characterized the report’s recommendations as “potentially lifesaving” for individuals with HD. She added that it represents the first step in an ongoing effort to address an impending public health crisis related to HD in older adults and its broader impact on communities.

A spokesperson with Casey’s office said it’s unclear whether any federal agencies have acted on the report recommendations since it was released in June. It’s also unknown whether the Senate Committee on Aging will pursue any additional work on HD when new committee leaders are appointed in 2025.

“Although some federal agencies have taken steps to address HD, those steps are frequently limited. Other relevant agencies have not addressed HD at all in recent years,” report authors wrote. “The federal government can, and should, do more to bolster the response to HD.”

Frost agreed.

“I think federal agencies can have a positive effect by promoting, supporting, and tracking local efforts in dealing with this problem,” he said.

With reporting from Eve Bender.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A report published in July 2024 by the US Senate Special Committee on Aging is calling for a national coordinated response to what the authors claim may be an emerging hoarding disorder (HD) crisis.

While millions of US adults are estimated to have HD, it is the disorder’s prevalence and severity among older adults that sounded the alarm for the Committee Chair Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA).

HD affects roughly 2% of the overall population but up to 6% of all people older than 70 years, the report stated. Older adults made up about 16% of the US population in 2019. By 2060, that proportion is projected to soar to 25%.

The country’s aging population alone “could fuel a rise in hoarding in the coming decades,” the report authors noted.

These findings underscore the pressing need for a deeper understanding of HD, particularly as reports of its impact continue to rise. The Senate report also raises critical questions about the nature of HD: What is known about the condition? What evidence-based treatments are currently available, and are there national strategies that will prevent it from becoming a systemic crisis?

 

Why the Urgency?

An increase in anecdotal reports of HD in his home state prompted Casey, chair of the Senate Committee on Aging, to launch the investigation into the incidence and consequences of HD. Soon after the committee began its work, it became evident that the problem was not unique to communities in Pennsylvania. It was a nationwide issue.

“Communities throughout the United States are already grappling with HD,” the report noted.

HD is characterized by persistent difficulty discarding possessions, regardless of their monetary value. For individuals with HD, such items frequently hold meaningful reminders of past events and provide a sense of security. Difficulties with emotional regulation, executive functioning, and impulse control all contribute to the excessive buildup of clutter. Problems with attention, organization, and problem-solving are also common.

As individuals with HD age, physical limitations or disabilities may hinder their ability to discard clutter. As the accumulation increases, it can pose serious risks not only to their safety but also to public health.

Dozens of statements submitted to the Senate committee by those with HD, clinicians and social workers, first responders, social service organizations, state and federal agencies, and professional societies paint a concerning picture about the impact of hoarding on emergency and community services.

Data from the National Fire Incident Reporting System show the number of hoarding-related residential structural fires increased 26% between 2014 and 2022. Some 5242 residential fires connected to cluttered environments during that time resulted in 1367 fire service injuries, 1119 civilian injuries, and over $396 million in damages.

“For older adults, those consequences include health and safety risks, social isolation, eviction, and homelessness,” the report authors noted. “For communities, those consequences include public health concerns, increased risk of fire, and dangers to emergency responders.”

 

What Causes HD?

HD was once classified as a symptom of obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, with extreme causes meeting the diagnostic criteria for obsessive-compulsive disorder. That changed in 2010 when a working group recommended that HD be added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fifth Edition, as a stand-alone disorder. That recommendation was approved in 2012.

However, a decade later, much about HD’s etiology remains unknown.

Often beginning in early adolescence, HD is a chronic and progressive condition, with genetics and trauma playing a role in its onset and course, Sanjaya Saxena, MD, director of Clinical and Research Affairs at the International OCD Foundation, said in an interview.

Between 50% and 85% of people with HD symptoms have family members with similar behavior. HD is often comorbid with other psychiatric and medical disorders, which can complicate treatment.

Results of a 2022 study showed that, compared with healthy control individuals, people with HD had widespread abnormalities in the prefrontal white matter tract which connects cortical regions involved in executive functioning, including working memory, attention, reward processing, and decision-making.

Some research also suggests that dysregulation of serotonin transmission may contribute to compulsive behaviors and the difficulty in letting go of possessions.

“We do know that there are factors that contribute to worsening of hoarding symptoms, but that’s not the same thing as what really causes it. So unfortunately, it’s still very understudied, and we don’t have great knowledge of what causes it,” Saxena said.

 

What Treatments Are Available?

There are currently no Food and Drug Administration–approved medications to treat HD, although some research has shown antidepressants paroxetine and venlafaxine may have some benefit. Methylphenidate and atomoxetine are also under study for HD.

Nonpharmacological therapies have shown more promising results. Among the first was a specialized cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) program developed by Randy Frost, PhD, professor emeritus of psychology at Smith College in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Gail Steketee, PhD, dean emerita and professor emerita of social work at Boston University in Massachusetts.

First published in 2007 and the subject of many clinical trials and studies since, the 26-session program has served as a model for psychosocial treatments for HD. The evidence-based therapy addresses various symptoms, including impulse control. One module encourages participants to develop a set of questions to consider before acquiring new items, gradually helping them build resistance to the urge to accumulate more possessions, said Frost, whose early work on HD was cited by those who supported adding the condition to the DSM in 2012.

“There are several features that I think are important including exercises in resisting acquiring and processing information when making decisions about discarding,” Frost said in an interview.

A number of studies have demonstrated the efficacy of CBT for HD, including a 2015 meta-analysis coauthored by Frost. The research showed symptom severity decreased significantly following CBT, with the largest gains in difficulty discarding and moderate improvements in clutter and acquiring.

Responses were better among women and younger patients, and although symptoms improved, posttreatment scores remained closer to the clinical range, researchers noted. It’s possible that more intervention beyond what is usually included in clinical trials — such as more sessions or adding home decluttering visits — could improve treatment response, they added.

A workshop based on the specialized CBT program has expanded the reach of the treatment. The group therapy project, Buried in Treasures (BiT), was developed by Frost, Steketee, and David Tolin, PhD, founder and director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living, Hartford, and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at Yale School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. The workshop is designed as a facilitated treatment that can be delivered by clinicians or trained nonclinician facilitators.

A study published in May found that more than half the participants with HD responded to the treatment, and of those, 39% reported significant reductions in HD symptoms. BiT sessions were led by trained facilitators, and the study included in-home decluttering sessions, also led by trained volunteers. Researchers said adding the home intervention could increase engagement with the group therapy.

Another study of a modified version of BiT found a 32% decrease in HD symptoms after 15 weeks of treatment delivered via video teleconference.

“The BiT workshop has been expanding around the world and has the advantage of being relatively inexpensive,” Frost said. Another advantage is that it can be run by nonclinicians, which expands treatment options in areas where mental health professionals trained to treat HD are in short supply.

However, the workshop “is not perfect, and clients usually still have symptoms at the end of the workshop,” Frost noted.

“The point is that the BiT workshop is the first step in changing a lifestyle related to possessions,” he continued. “We do certainly need to train more people in how to treat hoarding, and we need to facilitate research to make our treatments more effective.”

 

What’s New in the Field?

One novel program currently under study combines CBT with a cognitive rehabilitation protocol. Called Cognitive Rehabilitation and Exposure/Sorting Therapy (CREST), the program has been shown to help older adults with HD who don’t respond to traditional CBT for HD.

The program, led by Catherine Ayers, PhD, professor of clinical psychiatry at University of California, San Diego, involves memory training and problem-solving combined with exposure therapy to help participants learn how to tolerate distress associated with discarding their possessions.

Early findings pointed to symptom improvement in older adults following 24 sessions with CREST. The program fared better than geriatric case management in a 2018 study — the first randomized controlled trial of a treatment for HD in older adults — and offered additional benefits compared with exposure therapy in a study published in February 2024.

Virtual reality is also helping people with HD. A program developed at Stanford University in California, allows people with HD to work with a therapist as they practice decluttering in a three-dimensional virtual environment created using photographs and videos of actual hoarded objects and cluttered rooms in patients’ homes.

In a small pilot study, nine people older than 55 years with HD attended 16 weeks of online facilitated therapy where they learned to better understand their attachment to those items. They practiced decluttering by selecting virtual items for recycling, donation, or trash. A virtual garbage truck even hauled away the items they had placed in the trash.

Participants were then asked to discard the actual items at home. Most participants reported a decrease in hoarding symptoms, which was confirmed following a home assessment by a clinician.

“When you pick up an object from a loved one, it still maybe has the scent of the loved one. It has these tactile cues, colors. But in the virtual world, you can take a little bit of a step back,” lead researchers Carolyn Rodriguez, MD, PhD, director of Stanford’s Hoarding Disorders Research Program, said in an interview.

“It’s a little ramp to help people practice these skills. And then what we find is that it actually translated really well. They were able to go home and actually do the real uncluttering,” Rodriguez added.

 

What Else Can Be Done?

While researchers like Rodriguez continue studies of new and existing treatments, the Senate report draws attention to other responses that could aid people with HD. Because of its significant impact on emergency responders, adult protective services, aging services, and housing providers, the report recommends a nationwide response to older adults with HD.

Currently, federal agencies in charge of mental and community health are not doing enough to address HD, the report’s authors noted.

The report demonstrates “the scope and severity of these challenges and offers a path forward for how we can help people, communities, and local governments contend with this condition,” Casey said.

Specifically, the document cites a lack of HD services and tracking by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, the Administration for Community Living, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The committee recommended these agencies collaborate to improve HD data collection, which will be critical to managing a potential spike in cases as the population ages. The committee also suggested awareness and training campaigns to better educate clinicians, social service providers, court officials, and first responders about HD.

Further, the report’s authors called for the Department of Housing and Urban Development to provide guidance and technical assistance on HD for landlords and housing assistance programs and urged Congress to collaborate with the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to expand coverage for hoarding treatments.

Finally, the committee encouraged policymakers to engage directly with individuals affected by HD and their families to better understand the impact of the disorder and inform policy development.

“I think the Senate report focuses on education, not just for therapists, but other stakeholders too,” Frost said. “There are lots of other professionals who have a stake in this process, housing specialists, elder service folks, health and human services. Awareness of this problem is something that’s important for them as well.”

Rodriguez characterized the report’s recommendations as “potentially lifesaving” for individuals with HD. She added that it represents the first step in an ongoing effort to address an impending public health crisis related to HD in older adults and its broader impact on communities.

A spokesperson with Casey’s office said it’s unclear whether any federal agencies have acted on the report recommendations since it was released in June. It’s also unknown whether the Senate Committee on Aging will pursue any additional work on HD when new committee leaders are appointed in 2025.

“Although some federal agencies have taken steps to address HD, those steps are frequently limited. Other relevant agencies have not addressed HD at all in recent years,” report authors wrote. “The federal government can, and should, do more to bolster the response to HD.”

Frost agreed.

“I think federal agencies can have a positive effect by promoting, supporting, and tracking local efforts in dealing with this problem,” he said.

With reporting from Eve Bender.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

US alcohol-related mortality rates increased from 10.7 to 21.6 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2020, with the largest rise of 3.8-fold observed in adults aged 25-34 years. Women experienced a 2.5-fold increase, while the Midwest region showed a similar rise in mortality rates.

METHODOLOGY:

• Analysis utilized the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research to examine alcohol-related mortality trends from 1999 to 2020.
• Researchers analyzed data from a total US population of 180,408,769 people aged 25 to 85+ years in 1999 and 226,635,013 people in 2020.
• International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes were used to identify deaths with alcohol attribution, including mental and behavioral disorders, alcoholic organ damage, and alcohol-related poisoning.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall mortality rates increased from 10.7 (95% CI, 10.6-10.8) per 100,000 in 1999 to 21.6 (95% CI, 21.4-21.8) per 100,000 in 2020, representing a significant twofold increase.
• Adults aged 55-64 years demonstrated both the steepest increase and highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020.
• American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experienced the steepest increase and highest absolute rates among all racial groups.
• The West region maintained the highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020, despite the Midwest showing the largest increase.

IN PRACTICE:

“Individuals who consume large amounts of alcohol tend to have the highest risks of total mortality as well as deaths from cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease deaths are predominantly due to myocardial infarction and stroke. To mitigate these risks, health providers may wish to implement screening for alcohol use in primary care and other healthcare settings. By providing brief interventions and referrals to treatment, healthcare providers would be able to achieve the early identification of individuals at risk of alcohol-related harm and offer them the support and resources they need to reduce their alcohol consumption,” wrote the authors of the study.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Alexandra Matarazzo, BS, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. It was published online in The American Journal of Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

According to the authors, the cross-sectional nature of the data limits the study to descriptive analysis only, making it suitable for hypothesis generation but not hypothesis testing. While the validity and generalizability within the United States are secure because of the use of complete population data, potential bias and uncontrolled confounding may exist because of different population mixes between the two time points.

DISCLOSURES:

The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest. One coauthor disclosed serving as an independent scientist in an advisory role to investigators and sponsors as Chair of Data Monitoring Committees for Amgen and UBC, to the Food and Drug Administration, and to Up to Date. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

US alcohol-related mortality rates increased from 10.7 to 21.6 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2020, with the largest rise of 3.8-fold observed in adults aged 25-34 years. Women experienced a 2.5-fold increase, while the Midwest region showed a similar rise in mortality rates.

METHODOLOGY:

• Analysis utilized the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research to examine alcohol-related mortality trends from 1999 to 2020.
• Researchers analyzed data from a total US population of 180,408,769 people aged 25 to 85+ years in 1999 and 226,635,013 people in 2020.
• International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes were used to identify deaths with alcohol attribution, including mental and behavioral disorders, alcoholic organ damage, and alcohol-related poisoning.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall mortality rates increased from 10.7 (95% CI, 10.6-10.8) per 100,000 in 1999 to 21.6 (95% CI, 21.4-21.8) per 100,000 in 2020, representing a significant twofold increase.
• Adults aged 55-64 years demonstrated both the steepest increase and highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020.
• American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experienced the steepest increase and highest absolute rates among all racial groups.
• The West region maintained the highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020, despite the Midwest showing the largest increase.

IN PRACTICE:

“Individuals who consume large amounts of alcohol tend to have the highest risks of total mortality as well as deaths from cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease deaths are predominantly due to myocardial infarction and stroke. To mitigate these risks, health providers may wish to implement screening for alcohol use in primary care and other healthcare settings. By providing brief interventions and referrals to treatment, healthcare providers would be able to achieve the early identification of individuals at risk of alcohol-related harm and offer them the support and resources they need to reduce their alcohol consumption,” wrote the authors of the study.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Alexandra Matarazzo, BS, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. It was published online in The American Journal of Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

According to the authors, the cross-sectional nature of the data limits the study to descriptive analysis only, making it suitable for hypothesis generation but not hypothesis testing. While the validity and generalizability within the United States are secure because of the use of complete population data, potential bias and uncontrolled confounding may exist because of different population mixes between the two time points.

DISCLOSURES:

The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest. One coauthor disclosed serving as an independent scientist in an advisory role to investigators and sponsors as Chair of Data Monitoring Committees for Amgen and UBC, to the Food and Drug Administration, and to Up to Date. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

US alcohol-related mortality rates increased from 10.7 to 21.6 per 100,000 between 1999 and 2020, with the largest rise of 3.8-fold observed in adults aged 25-34 years. Women experienced a 2.5-fold increase, while the Midwest region showed a similar rise in mortality rates.

METHODOLOGY:

• Analysis utilized the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-Ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research to examine alcohol-related mortality trends from 1999 to 2020.
• Researchers analyzed data from a total US population of 180,408,769 people aged 25 to 85+ years in 1999 and 226,635,013 people in 2020.
• International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision, codes were used to identify deaths with alcohol attribution, including mental and behavioral disorders, alcoholic organ damage, and alcohol-related poisoning.

TAKEAWAY:

• Overall mortality rates increased from 10.7 (95% CI, 10.6-10.8) per 100,000 in 1999 to 21.6 (95% CI, 21.4-21.8) per 100,000 in 2020, representing a significant twofold increase.
• Adults aged 55-64 years demonstrated both the steepest increase and highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020.
• American Indian and Alaska Native individuals experienced the steepest increase and highest absolute rates among all racial groups.
• The West region maintained the highest absolute rates in both 1999 and 2020, despite the Midwest showing the largest increase.

IN PRACTICE:

“Individuals who consume large amounts of alcohol tend to have the highest risks of total mortality as well as deaths from cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease deaths are predominantly due to myocardial infarction and stroke. To mitigate these risks, health providers may wish to implement screening for alcohol use in primary care and other healthcare settings. By providing brief interventions and referrals to treatment, healthcare providers would be able to achieve the early identification of individuals at risk of alcohol-related harm and offer them the support and resources they need to reduce their alcohol consumption,” wrote the authors of the study.

SOURCE:

The study was led by Alexandra Matarazzo, BS, Charles E. Schmidt College of Medicine, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton. It was published online in The American Journal of Medicine.

LIMITATIONS:

According to the authors, the cross-sectional nature of the data limits the study to descriptive analysis only, making it suitable for hypothesis generation but not hypothesis testing. While the validity and generalizability within the United States are secure because of the use of complete population data, potential bias and uncontrolled confounding may exist because of different population mixes between the two time points.

DISCLOSURES:

The authors reported no relevant conflicts of interest. One coauthor disclosed serving as an independent scientist in an advisory role to investigators and sponsors as Chair of Data Monitoring Committees for Amgen and UBC, to the Food and Drug Administration, and to Up to Date. Additional disclosures are noted in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — While polypharmacy is inevitable for patients with multiple chronic diseases, not all medications improve patient-oriented outcomes, members of the Patients, Experience, Evidence, Research (PEER) team, a group of Canadian primary care professionals who develop evidence-based guidelines, told attendees at the Family Medicine Forum (FMF) 2024.

In a thought-provoking presentation called “Axe the Rx: Deprescribing Chronic Medications with PEER,” the panelists gave examples of medications that may be safely stopped or tapered, particularly for older adults “whose pill bag is heavier than their lunch bag.”

 

Curbing Cardiovascular Drugs

The 2021 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidemia for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults call for reaching an LDL-C < 1.8 mmol/L in secondary cardiovascular prevention by potentially adding on medical therapies such as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors or ezetimibe or both if that target is not reached with the maximal dosage of a statin.

But family physicians do not need to follow this guidance for their patients who have had a myocardial infarction, said Ontario family physician Jennifer Young, MD, a physician advisor in the Canadian College of Family Physicians’ Knowledge Experts and Tools Program.

Treating to below 1.8 mmol/L “means lab testing for the patients,” Young told this news organization. “It means increasing doses [of a statin] to try and get to that level.” If the patient is already on the highest dose of a statin, it means adding other medications that lower cholesterol.

“If that was translating into better outcomes like [preventing] death and another heart attack, then all of that extra effort would be worth it,” said Young. “But we don’t have evidence that it actually does have a benefit for outcomes like death and repeated heart attacks,” compared with putting them on a high dose of a potent statin.

 

Tapering Opioids

Before placing patients on an opioid taper, clinicians should first assess them for opioid use disorder (OUD), said Jessica Kirkwood, MD, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She suggested using the Prescription Opioid Misuse Index questionnaire to do so.

Clinicians should be much more careful in initiating a taper with patients with OUD, said Kirkwood. They must ensure that these patients are motivated to discontinue their opioids. “We’re losing 21 Canadians a day to the opioid crisis. We all know that cutting someone off their opioids and potentially having them seek opioids elsewhere through illicit means can be fatal.”

In addition, clinicians should spend more time counseling patients with OUD than those without, Kirkwood continued. They must explain to these patients how they are being tapered (eg, the intervals and doses) and highlight the benefits of a taper, such as reduced constipation. Opioid agonist therapy (such as methadone or buprenorphine) can be considered in these patients.

Some research has pointed to the importance of patient motivation as a factor in the success of opioid tapers, noted Kirkwood.

 

Deprescribing Benzodiazepines 

Benzodiazepine receptor agonists, too, often can be deprescribed. These drugs should not be prescribed to promote sleep on a long-term basis. Yet clinicians commonly encounter patients who have been taking them for more than a year, said pharmacist Betsy Thomas, assistant adjunct professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta.

The medications “are usually fairly effective for the first couple of weeks to about a month, and then the benefits start to decrease, and we start to see more harms,” she said.

Some of the harms that have been associated with continued use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists include delayed reaction time and impaired cognition, which can affect the ability to drive, the risk for falls, and the risk for hip fractures, she noted. Some research suggests that these drugs are not an option for treating insomnia in patients aged 65 years or older.

Clinicians should encourage tapering the use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists to minimize dependence and transition patients to nonpharmacologic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy to manage insomnia, she said. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of the intervention, and Thomas suggested that family physicians visit the mysleepwell.ca website for more information.

Young, Kirkwood, and Thomas reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — While polypharmacy is inevitable for patients with multiple chronic diseases, not all medications improve patient-oriented outcomes, members of the Patients, Experience, Evidence, Research (PEER) team, a group of Canadian primary care professionals who develop evidence-based guidelines, told attendees at the Family Medicine Forum (FMF) 2024.

In a thought-provoking presentation called “Axe the Rx: Deprescribing Chronic Medications with PEER,” the panelists gave examples of medications that may be safely stopped or tapered, particularly for older adults “whose pill bag is heavier than their lunch bag.”

 

Curbing Cardiovascular Drugs

The 2021 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidemia for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults call for reaching an LDL-C < 1.8 mmol/L in secondary cardiovascular prevention by potentially adding on medical therapies such as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors or ezetimibe or both if that target is not reached with the maximal dosage of a statin.

But family physicians do not need to follow this guidance for their patients who have had a myocardial infarction, said Ontario family physician Jennifer Young, MD, a physician advisor in the Canadian College of Family Physicians’ Knowledge Experts and Tools Program.

Treating to below 1.8 mmol/L “means lab testing for the patients,” Young told this news organization. “It means increasing doses [of a statin] to try and get to that level.” If the patient is already on the highest dose of a statin, it means adding other medications that lower cholesterol.

“If that was translating into better outcomes like [preventing] death and another heart attack, then all of that extra effort would be worth it,” said Young. “But we don’t have evidence that it actually does have a benefit for outcomes like death and repeated heart attacks,” compared with putting them on a high dose of a potent statin.

 

Tapering Opioids

Before placing patients on an opioid taper, clinicians should first assess them for opioid use disorder (OUD), said Jessica Kirkwood, MD, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She suggested using the Prescription Opioid Misuse Index questionnaire to do so.

Clinicians should be much more careful in initiating a taper with patients with OUD, said Kirkwood. They must ensure that these patients are motivated to discontinue their opioids. “We’re losing 21 Canadians a day to the opioid crisis. We all know that cutting someone off their opioids and potentially having them seek opioids elsewhere through illicit means can be fatal.”

In addition, clinicians should spend more time counseling patients with OUD than those without, Kirkwood continued. They must explain to these patients how they are being tapered (eg, the intervals and doses) and highlight the benefits of a taper, such as reduced constipation. Opioid agonist therapy (such as methadone or buprenorphine) can be considered in these patients.

Some research has pointed to the importance of patient motivation as a factor in the success of opioid tapers, noted Kirkwood.

 

Deprescribing Benzodiazepines 

Benzodiazepine receptor agonists, too, often can be deprescribed. These drugs should not be prescribed to promote sleep on a long-term basis. Yet clinicians commonly encounter patients who have been taking them for more than a year, said pharmacist Betsy Thomas, assistant adjunct professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta.

The medications “are usually fairly effective for the first couple of weeks to about a month, and then the benefits start to decrease, and we start to see more harms,” she said.

Some of the harms that have been associated with continued use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists include delayed reaction time and impaired cognition, which can affect the ability to drive, the risk for falls, and the risk for hip fractures, she noted. Some research suggests that these drugs are not an option for treating insomnia in patients aged 65 years or older.

Clinicians should encourage tapering the use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists to minimize dependence and transition patients to nonpharmacologic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy to manage insomnia, she said. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of the intervention, and Thomas suggested that family physicians visit the mysleepwell.ca website for more information.

Young, Kirkwood, and Thomas reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA — While polypharmacy is inevitable for patients with multiple chronic diseases, not all medications improve patient-oriented outcomes, members of the Patients, Experience, Evidence, Research (PEER) team, a group of Canadian primary care professionals who develop evidence-based guidelines, told attendees at the Family Medicine Forum (FMF) 2024.

In a thought-provoking presentation called “Axe the Rx: Deprescribing Chronic Medications with PEER,” the panelists gave examples of medications that may be safely stopped or tapered, particularly for older adults “whose pill bag is heavier than their lunch bag.”

 

Curbing Cardiovascular Drugs

The 2021 Canadian Cardiovascular Society Guidelines for the Management of Dyslipidemia for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease in Adults call for reaching an LDL-C < 1.8 mmol/L in secondary cardiovascular prevention by potentially adding on medical therapies such as proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9 inhibitors or ezetimibe or both if that target is not reached with the maximal dosage of a statin.

But family physicians do not need to follow this guidance for their patients who have had a myocardial infarction, said Ontario family physician Jennifer Young, MD, a physician advisor in the Canadian College of Family Physicians’ Knowledge Experts and Tools Program.

Treating to below 1.8 mmol/L “means lab testing for the patients,” Young told this news organization. “It means increasing doses [of a statin] to try and get to that level.” If the patient is already on the highest dose of a statin, it means adding other medications that lower cholesterol.

“If that was translating into better outcomes like [preventing] death and another heart attack, then all of that extra effort would be worth it,” said Young. “But we don’t have evidence that it actually does have a benefit for outcomes like death and repeated heart attacks,” compared with putting them on a high dose of a potent statin.

 

Tapering Opioids

Before placing patients on an opioid taper, clinicians should first assess them for opioid use disorder (OUD), said Jessica Kirkwood, MD, assistant professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada. She suggested using the Prescription Opioid Misuse Index questionnaire to do so.

Clinicians should be much more careful in initiating a taper with patients with OUD, said Kirkwood. They must ensure that these patients are motivated to discontinue their opioids. “We’re losing 21 Canadians a day to the opioid crisis. We all know that cutting someone off their opioids and potentially having them seek opioids elsewhere through illicit means can be fatal.”

In addition, clinicians should spend more time counseling patients with OUD than those without, Kirkwood continued. They must explain to these patients how they are being tapered (eg, the intervals and doses) and highlight the benefits of a taper, such as reduced constipation. Opioid agonist therapy (such as methadone or buprenorphine) can be considered in these patients.

Some research has pointed to the importance of patient motivation as a factor in the success of opioid tapers, noted Kirkwood.

 

Deprescribing Benzodiazepines 

Benzodiazepine receptor agonists, too, often can be deprescribed. These drugs should not be prescribed to promote sleep on a long-term basis. Yet clinicians commonly encounter patients who have been taking them for more than a year, said pharmacist Betsy Thomas, assistant adjunct professor of family medicine at the University of Alberta.

The medications “are usually fairly effective for the first couple of weeks to about a month, and then the benefits start to decrease, and we start to see more harms,” she said.

Some of the harms that have been associated with continued use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists include delayed reaction time and impaired cognition, which can affect the ability to drive, the risk for falls, and the risk for hip fractures, she noted. Some research suggests that these drugs are not an option for treating insomnia in patients aged 65 years or older.

Clinicians should encourage tapering the use of benzodiazepine receptor agonists to minimize dependence and transition patients to nonpharmacologic approaches such as cognitive behavioral therapy to manage insomnia, she said. A recent study demonstrated the efficacy of the intervention, and Thomas suggested that family physicians visit the mysleepwell.ca website for more information.

Young, Kirkwood, and Thomas reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

Could assessing the well-being of older patients create better treatment plans?

Researchers with the US Department of Veterans Affairs posit that doing so just might improve patient quality of life.

In an article in Medical Care, Dawne Vogt, PhD, and her colleagues described two surveys of well-being developed for use in clinical settings.

“Well-Being Signs” (WBS), a 1-minute screening, asks patients about how satisfied they are with the most important parts of their daily life, which could include time with family. It also asks how regularly involved they are in the activities and their level of functioning.

“Well-Being Brief” (WBB) is self-administered and asks more in-depth questions about finances, health, social relationships, and vocation. Clinicians can use the tool to make referrals to appropriate services like counseling or resources like senior centers.

“They’re not things that we’ve historically paid a lot of attention to, at least in the healthcare setting,” said Vogt, a research psychologist in the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the VA Boston Healthcare System in Massachusetts. “A growing body of research shows that they have really big implications for health.”

The two approaches stem from an increased awareness of the relationship between social determinants of health and outcomes. Both screenings can be implemented more effectively in a clinical setting than other measures because of their brevity and ease of use, she said.

Vogt shared that anecdotally, she finds patients are pleasantly surprised by the questionnaires “because they’re being seen in a way that they don’t always feel like they’re seen.”

Vogt said that the two well-being measurements are more nuanced than standard screenings for depression.

“A measure of depression tells you something much more narrow than a measure of well-being tells you,” she said, adding that identifying problem areas early can help prevent developing mental health disorders. For example, Vogt said that veterans with higher well-being are less likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder when exposed to trauma.

The WBS has been validated, while the WBB questionnaire awaits final testing.

James Michail, MD, a family and geriatric physician with Providence Health & Services in Los Angeles, California, said he views the well-being screeners as launching points into discussing whether a treatment is enhancing or inhibiting a patient’s life.

“We have screenings for everything else but not for wellness, and the goal of care isn’t necessarily always treatment,” Michail said. “It’s taking the whole person into consideration. There’s a person behind the disease.”

Kendra Segura, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles, said she is open to using a well-being screener. Usually, building repertoire with a patient takes time, and sometimes only then can it allow for a more candid assessment of well-being.

“Over the course of several visits, that is when patients open up,” she said. “It’s when that starts to happen where they start to tell you about their well-being. It’s not an easy thing to establish.”

The authors of the article reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

Could assessing the well-being of older patients create better treatment plans?

Researchers with the US Department of Veterans Affairs posit that doing so just might improve patient quality of life.

In an article in Medical Care, Dawne Vogt, PhD, and her colleagues described two surveys of well-being developed for use in clinical settings.

“Well-Being Signs” (WBS), a 1-minute screening, asks patients about how satisfied they are with the most important parts of their daily life, which could include time with family. It also asks how regularly involved they are in the activities and their level of functioning.

“Well-Being Brief” (WBB) is self-administered and asks more in-depth questions about finances, health, social relationships, and vocation. Clinicians can use the tool to make referrals to appropriate services like counseling or resources like senior centers.

“They’re not things that we’ve historically paid a lot of attention to, at least in the healthcare setting,” said Vogt, a research psychologist in the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the VA Boston Healthcare System in Massachusetts. “A growing body of research shows that they have really big implications for health.”

The two approaches stem from an increased awareness of the relationship between social determinants of health and outcomes. Both screenings can be implemented more effectively in a clinical setting than other measures because of their brevity and ease of use, she said.

Vogt shared that anecdotally, she finds patients are pleasantly surprised by the questionnaires “because they’re being seen in a way that they don’t always feel like they’re seen.”

Vogt said that the two well-being measurements are more nuanced than standard screenings for depression.

“A measure of depression tells you something much more narrow than a measure of well-being tells you,” she said, adding that identifying problem areas early can help prevent developing mental health disorders. For example, Vogt said that veterans with higher well-being are less likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder when exposed to trauma.

The WBS has been validated, while the WBB questionnaire awaits final testing.

James Michail, MD, a family and geriatric physician with Providence Health & Services in Los Angeles, California, said he views the well-being screeners as launching points into discussing whether a treatment is enhancing or inhibiting a patient’s life.

“We have screenings for everything else but not for wellness, and the goal of care isn’t necessarily always treatment,” Michail said. “It’s taking the whole person into consideration. There’s a person behind the disease.”

Kendra Segura, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles, said she is open to using a well-being screener. Usually, building repertoire with a patient takes time, and sometimes only then can it allow for a more candid assessment of well-being.

“Over the course of several visits, that is when patients open up,” she said. “It’s when that starts to happen where they start to tell you about their well-being. It’s not an easy thing to establish.”

The authors of the article reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

Could assessing the well-being of older patients create better treatment plans?

Researchers with the US Department of Veterans Affairs posit that doing so just might improve patient quality of life.

In an article in Medical Care, Dawne Vogt, PhD, and her colleagues described two surveys of well-being developed for use in clinical settings.

“Well-Being Signs” (WBS), a 1-minute screening, asks patients about how satisfied they are with the most important parts of their daily life, which could include time with family. It also asks how regularly involved they are in the activities and their level of functioning.

“Well-Being Brief” (WBB) is self-administered and asks more in-depth questions about finances, health, social relationships, and vocation. Clinicians can use the tool to make referrals to appropriate services like counseling or resources like senior centers.

“They’re not things that we’ve historically paid a lot of attention to, at least in the healthcare setting,” said Vogt, a research psychologist in the Women’s Health Sciences Division of the VA Boston Healthcare System in Massachusetts. “A growing body of research shows that they have really big implications for health.”

The two approaches stem from an increased awareness of the relationship between social determinants of health and outcomes. Both screenings can be implemented more effectively in a clinical setting than other measures because of their brevity and ease of use, she said.

Vogt shared that anecdotally, she finds patients are pleasantly surprised by the questionnaires “because they’re being seen in a way that they don’t always feel like they’re seen.”

Vogt said that the two well-being measurements are more nuanced than standard screenings for depression.

“A measure of depression tells you something much more narrow than a measure of well-being tells you,” she said, adding that identifying problem areas early can help prevent developing mental health disorders. For example, Vogt said that veterans with higher well-being are less likely to develop posttraumatic stress disorder when exposed to trauma.

The WBS has been validated, while the WBB questionnaire awaits final testing.

James Michail, MD, a family and geriatric physician with Providence Health & Services in Los Angeles, California, said he views the well-being screeners as launching points into discussing whether a treatment is enhancing or inhibiting a patient’s life.

“We have screenings for everything else but not for wellness, and the goal of care isn’t necessarily always treatment,” Michail said. “It’s taking the whole person into consideration. There’s a person behind the disease.”

Kendra Segura, MD, an obstetrician-gynecologist in Los Angeles, said she is open to using a well-being screener. Usually, building repertoire with a patient takes time, and sometimes only then can it allow for a more candid assessment of well-being.

“Over the course of several visits, that is when patients open up,” she said. “It’s when that starts to happen where they start to tell you about their well-being. It’s not an easy thing to establish.”

The authors of the article reported no relevant financial relationships.

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

TOPLINE:

Combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was associated with a greater reduction in symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) than either treatment alone, a new study showed.

 

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a double-blind, sham-controlled randomized clinical trial from 2021 to 2023 at three hospitals in China with 240 participants with MDD (mean age, 32.5 years; 58% women).
• Participants received active tDCS + active rTMS, sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, or sham tDCS + sham rTMS with treatments administered five times per week for 2 weeks.
• tDCS was administered in 20-minute sessions using a 2-mA direct current stimulator, whereas rTMS involved 1600 pulses of 10-Hz stimulation targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Sham treatments used a pseudostimulation coil and only emitted sound.
• The primary outcome was change in the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24) total score from baseline to week 2.
• Secondary outcomes included HDRS-24 total score change at week 4, remission rate (HDRS-24 total score ≤ 9), response rate (≥ 50% reduction in HDRS-24 total score), and adverse events.

TAKEAWAY:

• The active tDCS + active rTMS group demonstrated the greatest reduction in mean HDRS-24 score (18.33 ± 5.39) at week 2 compared with sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, and sham tDCS + sham rTMS (P < .001).
• Response rates at week 2 were notably higher in the active tDCS + active rTMS group (85%) than in the active tDCS + sham rTMS (30%) and sham tDCS + sham rTMS groups (32%).
• The remission rate at week 4 reached 83% in the active tDCS + active rTMS group, which was significantly higher than the remission rates with the other interventions (P < .001).
• The treatments were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events, seizures, or manic symptoms reported across all intervention groups.

IN PRACTICE:

This trial “was the first to evaluate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of combining tDCS and rTMS in treating depression. Future studies should focus on investigating the mechanism of this synergistic effect and improving the stimulation parameters to optimize the therapeutic effect,” the investigators wrote.

 

SOURCE:

This study was led by Dongsheng Zhou, MD, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo, China. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

 

LIMITATIONS:

The brief treatment duration involving 10 sessions may have been insufficient for tDCS and rTMS to demonstrate their full antidepressant potential. The inability to regulate participants’ antidepressant medications throughout the study period presented another limitation. Additionally, the lack of stratified randomization and adjustment for center effects may have introduced variability in the results.

 

DISCLOSURES:

This study received support from multiple grants, including from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, Basic Public Welfare Research Project of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Medical and Health Brand Discipline, Ningbo Clinical Medical Research Centre for Mental Health, Ningbo Top Medical and Health Research Program, and the Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Plan Project. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was associated with a greater reduction in symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) than either treatment alone, a new study showed.

 

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a double-blind, sham-controlled randomized clinical trial from 2021 to 2023 at three hospitals in China with 240 participants with MDD (mean age, 32.5 years; 58% women).
• Participants received active tDCS + active rTMS, sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, or sham tDCS + sham rTMS with treatments administered five times per week for 2 weeks.
• tDCS was administered in 20-minute sessions using a 2-mA direct current stimulator, whereas rTMS involved 1600 pulses of 10-Hz stimulation targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Sham treatments used a pseudostimulation coil and only emitted sound.
• The primary outcome was change in the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24) total score from baseline to week 2.
• Secondary outcomes included HDRS-24 total score change at week 4, remission rate (HDRS-24 total score ≤ 9), response rate (≥ 50% reduction in HDRS-24 total score), and adverse events.

TAKEAWAY:

• The active tDCS + active rTMS group demonstrated the greatest reduction in mean HDRS-24 score (18.33 ± 5.39) at week 2 compared with sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, and sham tDCS + sham rTMS (P < .001).
• Response rates at week 2 were notably higher in the active tDCS + active rTMS group (85%) than in the active tDCS + sham rTMS (30%) and sham tDCS + sham rTMS groups (32%).
• The remission rate at week 4 reached 83% in the active tDCS + active rTMS group, which was significantly higher than the remission rates with the other interventions (P < .001).
• The treatments were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events, seizures, or manic symptoms reported across all intervention groups.

IN PRACTICE:

This trial “was the first to evaluate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of combining tDCS and rTMS in treating depression. Future studies should focus on investigating the mechanism of this synergistic effect and improving the stimulation parameters to optimize the therapeutic effect,” the investigators wrote.

 

SOURCE:

This study was led by Dongsheng Zhou, MD, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo, China. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

 

LIMITATIONS:

The brief treatment duration involving 10 sessions may have been insufficient for tDCS and rTMS to demonstrate their full antidepressant potential. The inability to regulate participants’ antidepressant medications throughout the study period presented another limitation. Additionally, the lack of stratified randomization and adjustment for center effects may have introduced variability in the results.

 

DISCLOSURES:

This study received support from multiple grants, including from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, Basic Public Welfare Research Project of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Medical and Health Brand Discipline, Ningbo Clinical Medical Research Centre for Mental Health, Ningbo Top Medical and Health Research Program, and the Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Plan Project. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Combining transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was associated with a greater reduction in symptoms of major depressive disorder (MDD) than either treatment alone, a new study showed.

 

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a double-blind, sham-controlled randomized clinical trial from 2021 to 2023 at three hospitals in China with 240 participants with MDD (mean age, 32.5 years; 58% women).
• Participants received active tDCS + active rTMS, sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, or sham tDCS + sham rTMS with treatments administered five times per week for 2 weeks.
• tDCS was administered in 20-minute sessions using a 2-mA direct current stimulator, whereas rTMS involved 1600 pulses of 10-Hz stimulation targeting the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Sham treatments used a pseudostimulation coil and only emitted sound.
• The primary outcome was change in the 24-item Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS-24) total score from baseline to week 2.
• Secondary outcomes included HDRS-24 total score change at week 4, remission rate (HDRS-24 total score ≤ 9), response rate (≥ 50% reduction in HDRS-24 total score), and adverse events.

TAKEAWAY:

• The active tDCS + active rTMS group demonstrated the greatest reduction in mean HDRS-24 score (18.33 ± 5.39) at week 2 compared with sham tDCS + active rTMS, active tDCS + sham rTMS, and sham tDCS + sham rTMS (P < .001).
• Response rates at week 2 were notably higher in the active tDCS + active rTMS group (85%) than in the active tDCS + sham rTMS (30%) and sham tDCS + sham rTMS groups (32%).
• The remission rate at week 4 reached 83% in the active tDCS + active rTMS group, which was significantly higher than the remission rates with the other interventions (P < .001).
• The treatments were well tolerated, with no serious adverse events, seizures, or manic symptoms reported across all intervention groups.

IN PRACTICE:

This trial “was the first to evaluate the safety, feasibility, and efficacy of combining tDCS and rTMS in treating depression. Future studies should focus on investigating the mechanism of this synergistic effect and improving the stimulation parameters to optimize the therapeutic effect,” the investigators wrote.

 

SOURCE:

This study was led by Dongsheng Zhou, MD, Ningbo Kangning Hospital, Ningbo, China. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

 

LIMITATIONS:

The brief treatment duration involving 10 sessions may have been insufficient for tDCS and rTMS to demonstrate their full antidepressant potential. The inability to regulate participants’ antidepressant medications throughout the study period presented another limitation. Additionally, the lack of stratified randomization and adjustment for center effects may have introduced variability in the results.

 

DISCLOSURES:

This study received support from multiple grants, including from the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province, Basic Public Welfare Research Project of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Medical and Health Brand Discipline, Ningbo Clinical Medical Research Centre for Mental Health, Ningbo Top Medical and Health Research Program, and the Zhejiang Medical and Health Science and Technology Plan Project. The authors reported no conflicts of interest.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.