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Mood Interventions May Reduce IBD Inflammation
, according to a new study.
“IBD is a distressing condition, and current medication that reduces inflammation is expensive and can have side effects,” said Natasha Seaton, first author and a PhD student at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London.
“Our study showed that interventions that treat mental health reduce levels of inflammation in the body,” she said. “This indicates that mood interventions could be a valuable tool in our approach to help those with IBD.”
The study was published online in eBioMedicine.
Analyzing Mood Interventions
Ms. Seaton and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in adults with IBD that measured inflammatory biomarker levels and tested a mood intervention, including those aimed at reducing depression, anxiety, stress, or distress or improving emotional well-being.
Looking at data from 28 randomized controlled trials with 1789 participants, the research team evaluated whether mood interventions affected IBD inflammation, particularly IBD indicators such as C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin, and other general inflammatory biomarkers.
The researchers found mood interventions significantly reduced levels of inflammatory biomarkers, compared with controls, corresponding to an 18% reduction in inflammatory biomarkers.
Psychological therapies had the best outcomes related to IBD inflammation, compared with antidepressants or exercise. These therapies included cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Individual analyses of IBD-specific inflammatory markers found small but statistically significant reductions in C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin after a mood intervention. This could mean mood treatments have positive effects on both inflammation and disease-specific biomarkers, the authors wrote.
In addition, interventions that had a larger positive effect on mood had a greater effect in reducing inflammatory biomarkers. This suggests that a better mood could reduce IBD inflammation, they noted.
“We know stress-related feelings can increase inflammation, and the findings suggest that by improving mood, we can reduce this type of inflammation,” said Valeria Mondelli, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychoneuroimmunology at King’s IoPPN.
“This adds to the growing body of research demonstrating the role of inflammation in mental health and suggests that interventions working to improve mood could also have direct physical effects on levels of inflammation,” she said. “However, more research is needed to understand exact mechanisms in IBD.”
Cost Benefit
Many IBD interventions and medications can be expensive for patients, have significant negative side effects, and have a lower long-term treatment response, the authors noted. Mood interventions, whether psychological therapy or medication, could potentially reduce costs and improve both mood and inflammation.
Previous studies have indicated that psychosocial factors, as well as mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, affect IBD symptom severity and progression, the authors wrote. However, researchers still need to understand the mechanisms behind this connection, including gut-brain dynamics.
Future research should focus on interventions that have been effective at improving mood in patients with IBD, assess inflammation and disease activity at numerous timepoints, and include potential variables related to illness self-management, the authors wrote.
In addition, implementation of mood interventions for IBD management may require better continuity of care and healthcare integration.
“Integrated mental health support, alongside pharmacological treatments, may offer a more holistic approach to IBD care, potentially leading to reduced disease and healthcare costs,” said Rona Moss-Morris, PhD, senior author and professor of psychology at King’s IoPPN.
Medications taken to reduce inflammation can be costly compared with psychological therapies, she said. “Given this, including psychological interventions, such as cost-effective digital interventions, within IBD management might reduce the need for anti-inflammatory medication, resulting in an overall cost benefit.”
The study was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which is hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London. Ms. Seaton was funded by an MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. No other interests were declared.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
, according to a new study.
“IBD is a distressing condition, and current medication that reduces inflammation is expensive and can have side effects,” said Natasha Seaton, first author and a PhD student at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London.
“Our study showed that interventions that treat mental health reduce levels of inflammation in the body,” she said. “This indicates that mood interventions could be a valuable tool in our approach to help those with IBD.”
The study was published online in eBioMedicine.
Analyzing Mood Interventions
Ms. Seaton and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in adults with IBD that measured inflammatory biomarker levels and tested a mood intervention, including those aimed at reducing depression, anxiety, stress, or distress or improving emotional well-being.
Looking at data from 28 randomized controlled trials with 1789 participants, the research team evaluated whether mood interventions affected IBD inflammation, particularly IBD indicators such as C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin, and other general inflammatory biomarkers.
The researchers found mood interventions significantly reduced levels of inflammatory biomarkers, compared with controls, corresponding to an 18% reduction in inflammatory biomarkers.
Psychological therapies had the best outcomes related to IBD inflammation, compared with antidepressants or exercise. These therapies included cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Individual analyses of IBD-specific inflammatory markers found small but statistically significant reductions in C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin after a mood intervention. This could mean mood treatments have positive effects on both inflammation and disease-specific biomarkers, the authors wrote.
In addition, interventions that had a larger positive effect on mood had a greater effect in reducing inflammatory biomarkers. This suggests that a better mood could reduce IBD inflammation, they noted.
“We know stress-related feelings can increase inflammation, and the findings suggest that by improving mood, we can reduce this type of inflammation,” said Valeria Mondelli, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychoneuroimmunology at King’s IoPPN.
“This adds to the growing body of research demonstrating the role of inflammation in mental health and suggests that interventions working to improve mood could also have direct physical effects on levels of inflammation,” she said. “However, more research is needed to understand exact mechanisms in IBD.”
Cost Benefit
Many IBD interventions and medications can be expensive for patients, have significant negative side effects, and have a lower long-term treatment response, the authors noted. Mood interventions, whether psychological therapy or medication, could potentially reduce costs and improve both mood and inflammation.
Previous studies have indicated that psychosocial factors, as well as mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, affect IBD symptom severity and progression, the authors wrote. However, researchers still need to understand the mechanisms behind this connection, including gut-brain dynamics.
Future research should focus on interventions that have been effective at improving mood in patients with IBD, assess inflammation and disease activity at numerous timepoints, and include potential variables related to illness self-management, the authors wrote.
In addition, implementation of mood interventions for IBD management may require better continuity of care and healthcare integration.
“Integrated mental health support, alongside pharmacological treatments, may offer a more holistic approach to IBD care, potentially leading to reduced disease and healthcare costs,” said Rona Moss-Morris, PhD, senior author and professor of psychology at King’s IoPPN.
Medications taken to reduce inflammation can be costly compared with psychological therapies, she said. “Given this, including psychological interventions, such as cost-effective digital interventions, within IBD management might reduce the need for anti-inflammatory medication, resulting in an overall cost benefit.”
The study was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which is hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London. Ms. Seaton was funded by an MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. No other interests were declared.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
, according to a new study.
“IBD is a distressing condition, and current medication that reduces inflammation is expensive and can have side effects,” said Natasha Seaton, first author and a PhD student at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London.
“Our study showed that interventions that treat mental health reduce levels of inflammation in the body,” she said. “This indicates that mood interventions could be a valuable tool in our approach to help those with IBD.”
The study was published online in eBioMedicine.
Analyzing Mood Interventions
Ms. Seaton and colleagues conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials in adults with IBD that measured inflammatory biomarker levels and tested a mood intervention, including those aimed at reducing depression, anxiety, stress, or distress or improving emotional well-being.
Looking at data from 28 randomized controlled trials with 1789 participants, the research team evaluated whether mood interventions affected IBD inflammation, particularly IBD indicators such as C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin, and other general inflammatory biomarkers.
The researchers found mood interventions significantly reduced levels of inflammatory biomarkers, compared with controls, corresponding to an 18% reduction in inflammatory biomarkers.
Psychological therapies had the best outcomes related to IBD inflammation, compared with antidepressants or exercise. These therapies included cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, and mindfulness-based stress reduction.
Individual analyses of IBD-specific inflammatory markers found small but statistically significant reductions in C-reactive protein and fecal calprotectin after a mood intervention. This could mean mood treatments have positive effects on both inflammation and disease-specific biomarkers, the authors wrote.
In addition, interventions that had a larger positive effect on mood had a greater effect in reducing inflammatory biomarkers. This suggests that a better mood could reduce IBD inflammation, they noted.
“We know stress-related feelings can increase inflammation, and the findings suggest that by improving mood, we can reduce this type of inflammation,” said Valeria Mondelli, MD, PhD, clinical professor of psychoneuroimmunology at King’s IoPPN.
“This adds to the growing body of research demonstrating the role of inflammation in mental health and suggests that interventions working to improve mood could also have direct physical effects on levels of inflammation,” she said. “However, more research is needed to understand exact mechanisms in IBD.”
Cost Benefit
Many IBD interventions and medications can be expensive for patients, have significant negative side effects, and have a lower long-term treatment response, the authors noted. Mood interventions, whether psychological therapy or medication, could potentially reduce costs and improve both mood and inflammation.
Previous studies have indicated that psychosocial factors, as well as mood disorders such as anxiety and depression, affect IBD symptom severity and progression, the authors wrote. However, researchers still need to understand the mechanisms behind this connection, including gut-brain dynamics.
Future research should focus on interventions that have been effective at improving mood in patients with IBD, assess inflammation and disease activity at numerous timepoints, and include potential variables related to illness self-management, the authors wrote.
In addition, implementation of mood interventions for IBD management may require better continuity of care and healthcare integration.
“Integrated mental health support, alongside pharmacological treatments, may offer a more holistic approach to IBD care, potentially leading to reduced disease and healthcare costs,” said Rona Moss-Morris, PhD, senior author and professor of psychology at King’s IoPPN.
Medications taken to reduce inflammation can be costly compared with psychological therapies, she said. “Given this, including psychological interventions, such as cost-effective digital interventions, within IBD management might reduce the need for anti-inflammatory medication, resulting in an overall cost benefit.”
The study was funded by the Medical Research Council (MRC) and National Institute for Health and Care Research Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre, which is hosted by South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust in partnership with King’s College London. Ms. Seaton was funded by an MRC Doctoral Training Partnership. No other interests were declared.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
Study Suggests Mind-Body Benefits of GLP-1s
, according to an analysis of millions of people’s health records.
The findings were published this week by researchers from the electronic health record company Epic. Researchers looked for new diagnoses of depression or anxiety among people who started taking drugs from a class called GLP-1 agonists that can help manage blood sugar or treat obesity by mimicking hormone levels in the body that can affect appetite and blood sugar. Many people who take the drugs experience significant weight loss.
The researchers found that people with diabetes who started taking most versions of GLP-1 agonists were between 11% and 65% less likely to be newly diagnosed with depression than people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. The greatest reduction in likelihood of a new depression diagnosis was observed among people taking tirzepatide, which is sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound.
A reduced likelihood of being diagnosed with anxiety was also observed among people with diabetes after they started taking a GLP-1 agonist, compared to people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. Again, tirzepatide showed the greatest reduction in odds, with people taking that drug experiencing a 60% reduced likelihood of being newly diagnosed with anxiety.
Similar reductions in the likelihood of new depression or anxiety diagnoses were observed among people who didn’t have diabetes but were taking GLP-1 agonists, such as for weight loss.
The mind-body connection has been well established by research.
“Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect how healthy your body is,” according to a summary from the CDC about the connection between diabetes and depression. “Untreated mental health issues can make diabetes worse, and problems with diabetes can make mental health issues worse. But fortunately if one gets better, the other tends to get better, too.”
This latest analysis included the drugs dulaglutide, exenatide, liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. The medicines, used for weight loss or to manage diabetes, include the brand names Byetta, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Trulicity, Wegovy, and Zepbound. The researchers also looked for links between depression or anxiety diagnoses among people taking liraglutide (sold under brand names Saxenda and Victoza), but found that there was little to no change in the likelihood of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety after starting liraglutide.
The findings are timely as regulators in the U.S. and Europe are investigating reports of suicidal thoughts among people using the drugs. In January, the FDA announced that a preliminary investigation showed no increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions, but the agency could not “definitively rule out that a small risk may exist; therefore, FDA is continuing to look into this issue.”
This latest analysis from Epic Research only looked at health records, was not published in a peer-reviewed journal, nor could it establish a definitive role the medications may have played in whether or not someone was diagnosed with depression or anxiety. It’s unknown whether people in the study had symptoms of depression or anxiety before starting the medications.
“These results show that these medications may serve a dual purpose for patients, but we do not understand them well enough yet to say these medications should be given as a treatment for anxiety or depression outside of diabetes or weight management,” Kersten Bartelt, a researcher employed by Epic, told ABC News.
A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.
, according to an analysis of millions of people’s health records.
The findings were published this week by researchers from the electronic health record company Epic. Researchers looked for new diagnoses of depression or anxiety among people who started taking drugs from a class called GLP-1 agonists that can help manage blood sugar or treat obesity by mimicking hormone levels in the body that can affect appetite and blood sugar. Many people who take the drugs experience significant weight loss.
The researchers found that people with diabetes who started taking most versions of GLP-1 agonists were between 11% and 65% less likely to be newly diagnosed with depression than people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. The greatest reduction in likelihood of a new depression diagnosis was observed among people taking tirzepatide, which is sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound.
A reduced likelihood of being diagnosed with anxiety was also observed among people with diabetes after they started taking a GLP-1 agonist, compared to people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. Again, tirzepatide showed the greatest reduction in odds, with people taking that drug experiencing a 60% reduced likelihood of being newly diagnosed with anxiety.
Similar reductions in the likelihood of new depression or anxiety diagnoses were observed among people who didn’t have diabetes but were taking GLP-1 agonists, such as for weight loss.
The mind-body connection has been well established by research.
“Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect how healthy your body is,” according to a summary from the CDC about the connection between diabetes and depression. “Untreated mental health issues can make diabetes worse, and problems with diabetes can make mental health issues worse. But fortunately if one gets better, the other tends to get better, too.”
This latest analysis included the drugs dulaglutide, exenatide, liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. The medicines, used for weight loss or to manage diabetes, include the brand names Byetta, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Trulicity, Wegovy, and Zepbound. The researchers also looked for links between depression or anxiety diagnoses among people taking liraglutide (sold under brand names Saxenda and Victoza), but found that there was little to no change in the likelihood of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety after starting liraglutide.
The findings are timely as regulators in the U.S. and Europe are investigating reports of suicidal thoughts among people using the drugs. In January, the FDA announced that a preliminary investigation showed no increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions, but the agency could not “definitively rule out that a small risk may exist; therefore, FDA is continuing to look into this issue.”
This latest analysis from Epic Research only looked at health records, was not published in a peer-reviewed journal, nor could it establish a definitive role the medications may have played in whether or not someone was diagnosed with depression or anxiety. It’s unknown whether people in the study had symptoms of depression or anxiety before starting the medications.
“These results show that these medications may serve a dual purpose for patients, but we do not understand them well enough yet to say these medications should be given as a treatment for anxiety or depression outside of diabetes or weight management,” Kersten Bartelt, a researcher employed by Epic, told ABC News.
A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.
, according to an analysis of millions of people’s health records.
The findings were published this week by researchers from the electronic health record company Epic. Researchers looked for new diagnoses of depression or anxiety among people who started taking drugs from a class called GLP-1 agonists that can help manage blood sugar or treat obesity by mimicking hormone levels in the body that can affect appetite and blood sugar. Many people who take the drugs experience significant weight loss.
The researchers found that people with diabetes who started taking most versions of GLP-1 agonists were between 11% and 65% less likely to be newly diagnosed with depression than people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. The greatest reduction in likelihood of a new depression diagnosis was observed among people taking tirzepatide, which is sold under the brand names Mounjaro and Zepbound.
A reduced likelihood of being diagnosed with anxiety was also observed among people with diabetes after they started taking a GLP-1 agonist, compared to people with diabetes who didn’t take one of the drugs. Again, tirzepatide showed the greatest reduction in odds, with people taking that drug experiencing a 60% reduced likelihood of being newly diagnosed with anxiety.
Similar reductions in the likelihood of new depression or anxiety diagnoses were observed among people who didn’t have diabetes but were taking GLP-1 agonists, such as for weight loss.
The mind-body connection has been well established by research.
“Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and attitudes can affect how healthy your body is,” according to a summary from the CDC about the connection between diabetes and depression. “Untreated mental health issues can make diabetes worse, and problems with diabetes can make mental health issues worse. But fortunately if one gets better, the other tends to get better, too.”
This latest analysis included the drugs dulaglutide, exenatide, liraglutide, semaglutide, and tirzepatide. The medicines, used for weight loss or to manage diabetes, include the brand names Byetta, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Trulicity, Wegovy, and Zepbound. The researchers also looked for links between depression or anxiety diagnoses among people taking liraglutide (sold under brand names Saxenda and Victoza), but found that there was little to no change in the likelihood of being diagnosed with depression or anxiety after starting liraglutide.
The findings are timely as regulators in the U.S. and Europe are investigating reports of suicidal thoughts among people using the drugs. In January, the FDA announced that a preliminary investigation showed no increased risk of suicidal thoughts or actions, but the agency could not “definitively rule out that a small risk may exist; therefore, FDA is continuing to look into this issue.”
This latest analysis from Epic Research only looked at health records, was not published in a peer-reviewed journal, nor could it establish a definitive role the medications may have played in whether or not someone was diagnosed with depression or anxiety. It’s unknown whether people in the study had symptoms of depression or anxiety before starting the medications.
“These results show that these medications may serve a dual purpose for patients, but we do not understand them well enough yet to say these medications should be given as a treatment for anxiety or depression outside of diabetes or weight management,” Kersten Bartelt, a researcher employed by Epic, told ABC News.
A version of this article appeared on WebMD.com.
The Solution to a ‘Common and Hazardous’ Symptom of Bipolar Disorder?
. Notably, investigators said, the drug comes without the typical metabolic side effects, including weight gain, associated with this drug class.
A post hoc analysis of pooled data from two trials comparing two different doses of cariprazine (Vraylar) to placebo showed it was consistently effective not only in alleviating bipolar depression but also in improving symptoms of anxiety.
“Since this was a post hoc analysis, one has to be careful about not overstating the findings,” said study investigator Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit.
“But what we can say is that anxiety has been an under-researched, undertreated symptom dimension in BPD, and these findings about cariprazine are very promising,” said Dr. McIntyre, chair and executive director of the Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, also in Toronto.
The analysis was published in International Clinical Psychopharmacology) and was presented as a poster at the 2023 Neuroscience Education Institute, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Ubiquitous, Common, Hazardous
Anxiety in BPD is “ubiquitous, common, and hazardous,” Dr. McIntyre said. “We talk so much about depression and mania as cardinal presentations, but someone could make a case that in that trifecta, we’re missing anxiety.”
In patients with BPD and anxiety, “the index episode is much more difficult to treat, there’s a longer time to remission, lower rates of recovery, and a shorter time to recurrence,” noted Dr. McIntyre, chair of the board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.
Anxiety also may “represent a portent of other things that can add more to the trouble, like alcohol, illicit drugs, or cannabis use — especially now that cannabis is no longer illegal,” Dr. McIntyre said.
Unfortunately, he said, “there hasn’t been an organized, systematic approach to developing a therapy for anxiety in BPD.” Rather, patients are prescribed benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, all of which have limitations, he added.
Some atypical antipsychotics such as quetiapine have been shown to be helpful with anxiety but “have a lot of baggage and side effects — especially sedation, somnolence, weight gain, and metabolic problems,” Dr. McIntyre noted.
Cariprazine is a dopamine D3-preferring D3/D2 partial agonist, a serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, and 5-HT2B receptor antagonist, which has shown anxiolytic-like activity in rodent models.
It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat mania, depression, and mixed episodes of BPD in 2015 and BPD in 2019.
Dr. McIntyre and his team believed there was an opportunity in the completed randomized controlled trials of cariprazine in BPD to conduct a post hoc analysis of its impact on anxiety.
‘Cornerstone Mood Stabilizer’
The researchers pooled data from two phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in adults with BPD experiencing a current major depressive episode.
The pooled intention-to-treat population consisted of 952 patients with BPD (mean age, ~43 years; 62% female) randomized to receive either 1.5 mg/d, 3 mg/d of cariprazine, or placebo. Patients were divided into two subsets: Lower or higher anxiety (defined as a Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [HAM-A] total score of < 18 and ≥ 18, respectively). Patients also completed the Montgomery-Åsberg Rating Scale (MADRS).
A third of the patients received a placebo, a third received the 1.5 mg/d dose, and a third received the 3 mg/d dose. Demographic and baseline characteristics were similar between the subsets.
Results showed there was a statistically significant change in HAM-A total score for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d (P = .0027). The investigators also found a statistically significant change in MADRS total score change for cariprazine 1.5 mg (P = .0200) in the higher anxiety subset. The rate of remission was significantly greater for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher and lower anxiety subsets (P = .0172 and P = .0004, respectively).
In addition, the change in HAM-A total score change was statistically significant for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher anxiety subgroup (P = .0105) and the 3 mg/d dose in the lower anxiety subgroup (P = .0441).
Dr. McIntyre hopes these findings can be replicated in other trials.
“Clinically, I find that many patients who take cariprazine don’t require as many benzodiazepines or other medications for anxiety, and it’s one of the better-tolerated medications without metabolic complications or weight gain, so it’s become a cornerstone mood stabilizer,” he said.
Polypharmacy Avoided
Another recent study retrospectively analyzed medical records of close to 40 adult patients with BPD I who were receiving treatment with aripiprazole for bipolar depression and then switched to cariprazine.
“We wanted to conduct a study in depressed patients who had gained weight on aripiprazole and then directly switched to cariprazine. It improved their mood and helped mitigate weight gain, thereby avoiding polypharmacy of additional antidepressants and weight loss agents,” said study investigator Maxwell Zachary Price, a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, New Jersey.
“In our general outpatient psychiatry practice, we’ve treated many adult patients with oral aripiprazole for maintenance of BPD,” the study’s senior investigator, Richard Price, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, added.
Aripiprazole is associated with weight gain. Moreover, aripiprazole “hasn’t shown efficacy in managing BPD,” he said.
Most patients in Dr. Price’s practice are insured through Medicaid, which mandates treatment with aripiprazole before covering cariprazine. “We noticed their weight had been creeping up over the years, and they also were experiencing depressive symptoms,” he said.
The requirement to initiate treatment with aripiprazole before switching to cariprazine offered Dr. Price an opportunity to compare the two agents in this real-world setting by retrospectively reviewing the charts of 37 patients with BPD (23 females and 14 males who made the switch). The patients had been taking aripiprazole for a mean duration of 94.9 weeks and had experienced a mean increase in body weight of 16.1% ± 12.3% on aripiprazole before switching.
Patients who were taking 2 mg-10 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 1.5 mg of cariprazine, while those taking ≥ 15 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 3 mg of cariprazine.
“Patients tolerated the switch well and maintained stability during the transition,” and “no patients discontinued cariprazine during the study,” Dr. Price said.
After a mean duration of 36.7 weeks (range, 1-127 weeks), the patients showed a decrease in Clinical Global Impression-Bipolar Severity of Illness Scale score from a mean of 5.0 ± 0.9 to a mean of 2.8 ± 0.7 (t = −12.75, P < .00001).
The patients’ weight dropped from a mean of 90.3± 21.5 kg on aripiprazole to a mean of 83.9 ± 19.2 kg on cariprazine (t = −4.22, P < .001).
Two patients experienced initial nausea that resolved by taking the medication with food, and two experienced initial restlessness that resolved with dosage reduction.
“We found that the patients were lighter in mood, body habitus and weight, and less agitated and their mental alertness and concentration improved as well,” said Dr. Price. He hopes that further research in randomized blinded trials will corroborate the findings.
Hypothesis-Generating Research
Joseph Cerimele, MD, MPH, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Washington, Division of Population Health, UW Medicine, Seattle, Washington, said the research findings are “hypothesis-generating.”
Dr. Ciremele, who wasn’t involved with either study, said many clinicians and researchers are trying to tailor treatment options to match patient characteristics, and these studies and other similar research, “help us all ask questions related to concurrent symptoms in bipolar depression.”
However, the post hoc analysis was a secondary analysis of an efficacy trial where individuals with concurrent anxiety disorders were excluded. “So, a next step might be to evaluate this and other treatments in individuals with BPD and concurrent anxiety disorders,” he said.
The study by Jain et al was funded by AbbVie. Dr. McIntyre had received research grant support from CIHR/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute; speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Alkermes, Neumora Therapeutics Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Sage, Biogen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, Bausch Health, Axsome Therapeutics, Novo Nordisk, Kris, Sanofi, Eisai, Intra-Cellular Therapies, NewBridge Pharmaceuticals, Viatris, Abbvie, and Atai Life Sciences. Dr. McIntyre is the CEO of Braxia Scientific Corp. His coauthors’ disclosures are listed in the original paper. Dr. Price had received honoraria from AbbVie, Alkermes, Allergan, Intra-Cellular Therapies, Janssen, Jazz, Lundbeck, Neuronetics, Otsuka, and Supernus. Mr. Price and Dr. Cerimele reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
. Notably, investigators said, the drug comes without the typical metabolic side effects, including weight gain, associated with this drug class.
A post hoc analysis of pooled data from two trials comparing two different doses of cariprazine (Vraylar) to placebo showed it was consistently effective not only in alleviating bipolar depression but also in improving symptoms of anxiety.
“Since this was a post hoc analysis, one has to be careful about not overstating the findings,” said study investigator Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit.
“But what we can say is that anxiety has been an under-researched, undertreated symptom dimension in BPD, and these findings about cariprazine are very promising,” said Dr. McIntyre, chair and executive director of the Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, also in Toronto.
The analysis was published in International Clinical Psychopharmacology) and was presented as a poster at the 2023 Neuroscience Education Institute, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Ubiquitous, Common, Hazardous
Anxiety in BPD is “ubiquitous, common, and hazardous,” Dr. McIntyre said. “We talk so much about depression and mania as cardinal presentations, but someone could make a case that in that trifecta, we’re missing anxiety.”
In patients with BPD and anxiety, “the index episode is much more difficult to treat, there’s a longer time to remission, lower rates of recovery, and a shorter time to recurrence,” noted Dr. McIntyre, chair of the board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.
Anxiety also may “represent a portent of other things that can add more to the trouble, like alcohol, illicit drugs, or cannabis use — especially now that cannabis is no longer illegal,” Dr. McIntyre said.
Unfortunately, he said, “there hasn’t been an organized, systematic approach to developing a therapy for anxiety in BPD.” Rather, patients are prescribed benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, all of which have limitations, he added.
Some atypical antipsychotics such as quetiapine have been shown to be helpful with anxiety but “have a lot of baggage and side effects — especially sedation, somnolence, weight gain, and metabolic problems,” Dr. McIntyre noted.
Cariprazine is a dopamine D3-preferring D3/D2 partial agonist, a serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, and 5-HT2B receptor antagonist, which has shown anxiolytic-like activity in rodent models.
It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat mania, depression, and mixed episodes of BPD in 2015 and BPD in 2019.
Dr. McIntyre and his team believed there was an opportunity in the completed randomized controlled trials of cariprazine in BPD to conduct a post hoc analysis of its impact on anxiety.
‘Cornerstone Mood Stabilizer’
The researchers pooled data from two phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in adults with BPD experiencing a current major depressive episode.
The pooled intention-to-treat population consisted of 952 patients with BPD (mean age, ~43 years; 62% female) randomized to receive either 1.5 mg/d, 3 mg/d of cariprazine, or placebo. Patients were divided into two subsets: Lower or higher anxiety (defined as a Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [HAM-A] total score of < 18 and ≥ 18, respectively). Patients also completed the Montgomery-Åsberg Rating Scale (MADRS).
A third of the patients received a placebo, a third received the 1.5 mg/d dose, and a third received the 3 mg/d dose. Demographic and baseline characteristics were similar between the subsets.
Results showed there was a statistically significant change in HAM-A total score for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d (P = .0027). The investigators also found a statistically significant change in MADRS total score change for cariprazine 1.5 mg (P = .0200) in the higher anxiety subset. The rate of remission was significantly greater for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher and lower anxiety subsets (P = .0172 and P = .0004, respectively).
In addition, the change in HAM-A total score change was statistically significant for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher anxiety subgroup (P = .0105) and the 3 mg/d dose in the lower anxiety subgroup (P = .0441).
Dr. McIntyre hopes these findings can be replicated in other trials.
“Clinically, I find that many patients who take cariprazine don’t require as many benzodiazepines or other medications for anxiety, and it’s one of the better-tolerated medications without metabolic complications or weight gain, so it’s become a cornerstone mood stabilizer,” he said.
Polypharmacy Avoided
Another recent study retrospectively analyzed medical records of close to 40 adult patients with BPD I who were receiving treatment with aripiprazole for bipolar depression and then switched to cariprazine.
“We wanted to conduct a study in depressed patients who had gained weight on aripiprazole and then directly switched to cariprazine. It improved their mood and helped mitigate weight gain, thereby avoiding polypharmacy of additional antidepressants and weight loss agents,” said study investigator Maxwell Zachary Price, a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, New Jersey.
“In our general outpatient psychiatry practice, we’ve treated many adult patients with oral aripiprazole for maintenance of BPD,” the study’s senior investigator, Richard Price, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, added.
Aripiprazole is associated with weight gain. Moreover, aripiprazole “hasn’t shown efficacy in managing BPD,” he said.
Most patients in Dr. Price’s practice are insured through Medicaid, which mandates treatment with aripiprazole before covering cariprazine. “We noticed their weight had been creeping up over the years, and they also were experiencing depressive symptoms,” he said.
The requirement to initiate treatment with aripiprazole before switching to cariprazine offered Dr. Price an opportunity to compare the two agents in this real-world setting by retrospectively reviewing the charts of 37 patients with BPD (23 females and 14 males who made the switch). The patients had been taking aripiprazole for a mean duration of 94.9 weeks and had experienced a mean increase in body weight of 16.1% ± 12.3% on aripiprazole before switching.
Patients who were taking 2 mg-10 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 1.5 mg of cariprazine, while those taking ≥ 15 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 3 mg of cariprazine.
“Patients tolerated the switch well and maintained stability during the transition,” and “no patients discontinued cariprazine during the study,” Dr. Price said.
After a mean duration of 36.7 weeks (range, 1-127 weeks), the patients showed a decrease in Clinical Global Impression-Bipolar Severity of Illness Scale score from a mean of 5.0 ± 0.9 to a mean of 2.8 ± 0.7 (t = −12.75, P < .00001).
The patients’ weight dropped from a mean of 90.3± 21.5 kg on aripiprazole to a mean of 83.9 ± 19.2 kg on cariprazine (t = −4.22, P < .001).
Two patients experienced initial nausea that resolved by taking the medication with food, and two experienced initial restlessness that resolved with dosage reduction.
“We found that the patients were lighter in mood, body habitus and weight, and less agitated and their mental alertness and concentration improved as well,” said Dr. Price. He hopes that further research in randomized blinded trials will corroborate the findings.
Hypothesis-Generating Research
Joseph Cerimele, MD, MPH, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Washington, Division of Population Health, UW Medicine, Seattle, Washington, said the research findings are “hypothesis-generating.”
Dr. Ciremele, who wasn’t involved with either study, said many clinicians and researchers are trying to tailor treatment options to match patient characteristics, and these studies and other similar research, “help us all ask questions related to concurrent symptoms in bipolar depression.”
However, the post hoc analysis was a secondary analysis of an efficacy trial where individuals with concurrent anxiety disorders were excluded. “So, a next step might be to evaluate this and other treatments in individuals with BPD and concurrent anxiety disorders,” he said.
The study by Jain et al was funded by AbbVie. Dr. McIntyre had received research grant support from CIHR/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute; speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Alkermes, Neumora Therapeutics Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Sage, Biogen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, Bausch Health, Axsome Therapeutics, Novo Nordisk, Kris, Sanofi, Eisai, Intra-Cellular Therapies, NewBridge Pharmaceuticals, Viatris, Abbvie, and Atai Life Sciences. Dr. McIntyre is the CEO of Braxia Scientific Corp. His coauthors’ disclosures are listed in the original paper. Dr. Price had received honoraria from AbbVie, Alkermes, Allergan, Intra-Cellular Therapies, Janssen, Jazz, Lundbeck, Neuronetics, Otsuka, and Supernus. Mr. Price and Dr. Cerimele reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
. Notably, investigators said, the drug comes without the typical metabolic side effects, including weight gain, associated with this drug class.
A post hoc analysis of pooled data from two trials comparing two different doses of cariprazine (Vraylar) to placebo showed it was consistently effective not only in alleviating bipolar depression but also in improving symptoms of anxiety.
“Since this was a post hoc analysis, one has to be careful about not overstating the findings,” said study investigator Roger McIntyre, MD, professor of psychiatry and pharmacology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and head of the Mood Disorders Psychopharmacology Unit.
“But what we can say is that anxiety has been an under-researched, undertreated symptom dimension in BPD, and these findings about cariprazine are very promising,” said Dr. McIntyre, chair and executive director of the Brain and Cognition Discovery Foundation, also in Toronto.
The analysis was published in International Clinical Psychopharmacology) and was presented as a poster at the 2023 Neuroscience Education Institute, Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Ubiquitous, Common, Hazardous
Anxiety in BPD is “ubiquitous, common, and hazardous,” Dr. McIntyre said. “We talk so much about depression and mania as cardinal presentations, but someone could make a case that in that trifecta, we’re missing anxiety.”
In patients with BPD and anxiety, “the index episode is much more difficult to treat, there’s a longer time to remission, lower rates of recovery, and a shorter time to recurrence,” noted Dr. McIntyre, chair of the board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance.
Anxiety also may “represent a portent of other things that can add more to the trouble, like alcohol, illicit drugs, or cannabis use — especially now that cannabis is no longer illegal,” Dr. McIntyre said.
Unfortunately, he said, “there hasn’t been an organized, systematic approach to developing a therapy for anxiety in BPD.” Rather, patients are prescribed benzodiazepines, gabapentinoids, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, all of which have limitations, he added.
Some atypical antipsychotics such as quetiapine have been shown to be helpful with anxiety but “have a lot of baggage and side effects — especially sedation, somnolence, weight gain, and metabolic problems,” Dr. McIntyre noted.
Cariprazine is a dopamine D3-preferring D3/D2 partial agonist, a serotonin 5-HT1A receptor partial agonist, and 5-HT2B receptor antagonist, which has shown anxiolytic-like activity in rodent models.
It was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration to treat mania, depression, and mixed episodes of BPD in 2015 and BPD in 2019.
Dr. McIntyre and his team believed there was an opportunity in the completed randomized controlled trials of cariprazine in BPD to conduct a post hoc analysis of its impact on anxiety.
‘Cornerstone Mood Stabilizer’
The researchers pooled data from two phase 3, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled studies in adults with BPD experiencing a current major depressive episode.
The pooled intention-to-treat population consisted of 952 patients with BPD (mean age, ~43 years; 62% female) randomized to receive either 1.5 mg/d, 3 mg/d of cariprazine, or placebo. Patients were divided into two subsets: Lower or higher anxiety (defined as a Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale [HAM-A] total score of < 18 and ≥ 18, respectively). Patients also completed the Montgomery-Åsberg Rating Scale (MADRS).
A third of the patients received a placebo, a third received the 1.5 mg/d dose, and a third received the 3 mg/d dose. Demographic and baseline characteristics were similar between the subsets.
Results showed there was a statistically significant change in HAM-A total score for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d (P = .0027). The investigators also found a statistically significant change in MADRS total score change for cariprazine 1.5 mg (P = .0200) in the higher anxiety subset. The rate of remission was significantly greater for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher and lower anxiety subsets (P = .0172 and P = .0004, respectively).
In addition, the change in HAM-A total score change was statistically significant for cariprazine 1.5 mg/d in the higher anxiety subgroup (P = .0105) and the 3 mg/d dose in the lower anxiety subgroup (P = .0441).
Dr. McIntyre hopes these findings can be replicated in other trials.
“Clinically, I find that many patients who take cariprazine don’t require as many benzodiazepines or other medications for anxiety, and it’s one of the better-tolerated medications without metabolic complications or weight gain, so it’s become a cornerstone mood stabilizer,” he said.
Polypharmacy Avoided
Another recent study retrospectively analyzed medical records of close to 40 adult patients with BPD I who were receiving treatment with aripiprazole for bipolar depression and then switched to cariprazine.
“We wanted to conduct a study in depressed patients who had gained weight on aripiprazole and then directly switched to cariprazine. It improved their mood and helped mitigate weight gain, thereby avoiding polypharmacy of additional antidepressants and weight loss agents,” said study investigator Maxwell Zachary Price, a medical student at Hackensack Meridian School of Medicine, Nutley, New Jersey.
“In our general outpatient psychiatry practice, we’ve treated many adult patients with oral aripiprazole for maintenance of BPD,” the study’s senior investigator, Richard Price, MD, clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, New York City, added.
Aripiprazole is associated with weight gain. Moreover, aripiprazole “hasn’t shown efficacy in managing BPD,” he said.
Most patients in Dr. Price’s practice are insured through Medicaid, which mandates treatment with aripiprazole before covering cariprazine. “We noticed their weight had been creeping up over the years, and they also were experiencing depressive symptoms,” he said.
The requirement to initiate treatment with aripiprazole before switching to cariprazine offered Dr. Price an opportunity to compare the two agents in this real-world setting by retrospectively reviewing the charts of 37 patients with BPD (23 females and 14 males who made the switch). The patients had been taking aripiprazole for a mean duration of 94.9 weeks and had experienced a mean increase in body weight of 16.1% ± 12.3% on aripiprazole before switching.
Patients who were taking 2 mg-10 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 1.5 mg of cariprazine, while those taking ≥ 15 mg of aripiprazole were switched to 3 mg of cariprazine.
“Patients tolerated the switch well and maintained stability during the transition,” and “no patients discontinued cariprazine during the study,” Dr. Price said.
After a mean duration of 36.7 weeks (range, 1-127 weeks), the patients showed a decrease in Clinical Global Impression-Bipolar Severity of Illness Scale score from a mean of 5.0 ± 0.9 to a mean of 2.8 ± 0.7 (t = −12.75, P < .00001).
The patients’ weight dropped from a mean of 90.3± 21.5 kg on aripiprazole to a mean of 83.9 ± 19.2 kg on cariprazine (t = −4.22, P < .001).
Two patients experienced initial nausea that resolved by taking the medication with food, and two experienced initial restlessness that resolved with dosage reduction.
“We found that the patients were lighter in mood, body habitus and weight, and less agitated and their mental alertness and concentration improved as well,” said Dr. Price. He hopes that further research in randomized blinded trials will corroborate the findings.
Hypothesis-Generating Research
Joseph Cerimele, MD, MPH, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, University of Washington, Division of Population Health, UW Medicine, Seattle, Washington, said the research findings are “hypothesis-generating.”
Dr. Ciremele, who wasn’t involved with either study, said many clinicians and researchers are trying to tailor treatment options to match patient characteristics, and these studies and other similar research, “help us all ask questions related to concurrent symptoms in bipolar depression.”
However, the post hoc analysis was a secondary analysis of an efficacy trial where individuals with concurrent anxiety disorders were excluded. “So, a next step might be to evaluate this and other treatments in individuals with BPD and concurrent anxiety disorders,” he said.
The study by Jain et al was funded by AbbVie. Dr. McIntyre had received research grant support from CIHR/GACD/National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Milken Institute; speaker/consultation fees from Lundbeck, Janssen, Alkermes, Neumora Therapeutics Inc., Boehringer Ingelheim, Sage, Biogen, Mitsubishi Tanabe, Purdue, Pfizer, Otsuka, Takeda, Neurocrine, Sunovion, Bausch Health, Axsome Therapeutics, Novo Nordisk, Kris, Sanofi, Eisai, Intra-Cellular Therapies, NewBridge Pharmaceuticals, Viatris, Abbvie, and Atai Life Sciences. Dr. McIntyre is the CEO of Braxia Scientific Corp. His coauthors’ disclosures are listed in the original paper. Dr. Price had received honoraria from AbbVie, Alkermes, Allergan, Intra-Cellular Therapies, Janssen, Jazz, Lundbeck, Neuronetics, Otsuka, and Supernus. Mr. Price and Dr. Cerimele reported no relevant financial relationships.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
Restricted Abortion Access Tied to Mental Health Harm
, which revoked a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, new research shows.
This could be due to a variety of factors, investigators led by Benjamin Thornburg, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted. These include fear about the imminent risk of being denied an abortion, uncertainty around future limitations on abortion and other related rights such as contraception, worry over the ability to receive lifesaving medical care during pregnancy, and a general sense of violation and powerlessness related to loss of the right to reproductive autonomy.
The study was published online on January 23, 2024, in JAMA.
Mental Health Harm
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, removing federal protections for abortion rights. Thirteen states had “trigger laws” that immediately banned or severely restricted abortion — raising concerns this could negatively affect mental health.
The researchers used data from the Household Pulse Survey to estimate changes in anxiety and depression symptoms after vs before the Dobbs decision in nearly 160,000 adults living in 13 states with trigger laws compared with roughly 559,000 adults living in 37 states without trigger laws.
The mean age of respondents was 48 years, and 51% were women. Anxiety and depression symptoms were measured via the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4).
In trigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline (before Dobbs) was 3.51 (out of 12) and increased to 3.81 after the Dobbs decision. In nontrigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline was 3.31 and increased to 3.49 after Dobbs.
Living in a trigger state was associated with a small but statistically significant worsening (0.11-point; P < .001) in anxiety/depression symptoms following the Dobbs decision vs living in a nontrigger state, the investigators report.
Women aged 18-45 years faced greater worsening of anxiety and depression symptoms following Dobbs in trigger vs nontrigger states, whereas men of a similar age experienced minimal or negligible changes.
Implications for Care
In an accompanying editorial, Julie Steinberg, PhD, with University of Maryland in College Park, notes the study results provide “emerging evidence that at an individual level taking away reproductive autonomy (by not having legal access to an abortion) may increase symptoms of anxiety and depression in all people and particularly females of reproductive age.”
These results add to findings from two other studies that examined abortion restrictions and mental health outcomes. Both found that limiting access to abortion was associated with more mental health symptoms among females of reproductive age than among others,” Dr. Steinberg pointed out.
“Together these findings highlight the need for clinicians who practice in states where abortion is banned to be aware that female patients of reproductive age may be experiencing significantly more distress than before the Dobbs decision,” Dr. Steinberg added.
The study received no specific funding. The authors had no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Steinberg reported serving as a paid expert scientist on abortion and mental health in seven cases challenging abortion policies.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
, which revoked a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, new research shows.
This could be due to a variety of factors, investigators led by Benjamin Thornburg, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted. These include fear about the imminent risk of being denied an abortion, uncertainty around future limitations on abortion and other related rights such as contraception, worry over the ability to receive lifesaving medical care during pregnancy, and a general sense of violation and powerlessness related to loss of the right to reproductive autonomy.
The study was published online on January 23, 2024, in JAMA.
Mental Health Harm
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, removing federal protections for abortion rights. Thirteen states had “trigger laws” that immediately banned or severely restricted abortion — raising concerns this could negatively affect mental health.
The researchers used data from the Household Pulse Survey to estimate changes in anxiety and depression symptoms after vs before the Dobbs decision in nearly 160,000 adults living in 13 states with trigger laws compared with roughly 559,000 adults living in 37 states without trigger laws.
The mean age of respondents was 48 years, and 51% were women. Anxiety and depression symptoms were measured via the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4).
In trigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline (before Dobbs) was 3.51 (out of 12) and increased to 3.81 after the Dobbs decision. In nontrigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline was 3.31 and increased to 3.49 after Dobbs.
Living in a trigger state was associated with a small but statistically significant worsening (0.11-point; P < .001) in anxiety/depression symptoms following the Dobbs decision vs living in a nontrigger state, the investigators report.
Women aged 18-45 years faced greater worsening of anxiety and depression symptoms following Dobbs in trigger vs nontrigger states, whereas men of a similar age experienced minimal or negligible changes.
Implications for Care
In an accompanying editorial, Julie Steinberg, PhD, with University of Maryland in College Park, notes the study results provide “emerging evidence that at an individual level taking away reproductive autonomy (by not having legal access to an abortion) may increase symptoms of anxiety and depression in all people and particularly females of reproductive age.”
These results add to findings from two other studies that examined abortion restrictions and mental health outcomes. Both found that limiting access to abortion was associated with more mental health symptoms among females of reproductive age than among others,” Dr. Steinberg pointed out.
“Together these findings highlight the need for clinicians who practice in states where abortion is banned to be aware that female patients of reproductive age may be experiencing significantly more distress than before the Dobbs decision,” Dr. Steinberg added.
The study received no specific funding. The authors had no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Steinberg reported serving as a paid expert scientist on abortion and mental health in seven cases challenging abortion policies.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
, which revoked a woman’s constitutional right to an abortion, new research shows.
This could be due to a variety of factors, investigators led by Benjamin Thornburg, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, noted. These include fear about the imminent risk of being denied an abortion, uncertainty around future limitations on abortion and other related rights such as contraception, worry over the ability to receive lifesaving medical care during pregnancy, and a general sense of violation and powerlessness related to loss of the right to reproductive autonomy.
The study was published online on January 23, 2024, in JAMA.
Mental Health Harm
In June 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, removing federal protections for abortion rights. Thirteen states had “trigger laws” that immediately banned or severely restricted abortion — raising concerns this could negatively affect mental health.
The researchers used data from the Household Pulse Survey to estimate changes in anxiety and depression symptoms after vs before the Dobbs decision in nearly 160,000 adults living in 13 states with trigger laws compared with roughly 559,000 adults living in 37 states without trigger laws.
The mean age of respondents was 48 years, and 51% were women. Anxiety and depression symptoms were measured via the Patient Health Questionnaire-4 (PHQ-4).
In trigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline (before Dobbs) was 3.51 (out of 12) and increased to 3.81 after the Dobbs decision. In nontrigger states, the mean PHQ-4 score at baseline was 3.31 and increased to 3.49 after Dobbs.
Living in a trigger state was associated with a small but statistically significant worsening (0.11-point; P < .001) in anxiety/depression symptoms following the Dobbs decision vs living in a nontrigger state, the investigators report.
Women aged 18-45 years faced greater worsening of anxiety and depression symptoms following Dobbs in trigger vs nontrigger states, whereas men of a similar age experienced minimal or negligible changes.
Implications for Care
In an accompanying editorial, Julie Steinberg, PhD, with University of Maryland in College Park, notes the study results provide “emerging evidence that at an individual level taking away reproductive autonomy (by not having legal access to an abortion) may increase symptoms of anxiety and depression in all people and particularly females of reproductive age.”
These results add to findings from two other studies that examined abortion restrictions and mental health outcomes. Both found that limiting access to abortion was associated with more mental health symptoms among females of reproductive age than among others,” Dr. Steinberg pointed out.
“Together these findings highlight the need for clinicians who practice in states where abortion is banned to be aware that female patients of reproductive age may be experiencing significantly more distress than before the Dobbs decision,” Dr. Steinberg added.
The study received no specific funding. The authors had no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Steinberg reported serving as a paid expert scientist on abortion and mental health in seven cases challenging abortion policies.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
FROM JAMA
Cannabis for Psychiatric Disorders? ‘Not Today,’ Experts Say
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD: Hello. Thank you all for joining us today. I’m very excited to have some great guests to talk about what I consider an active controversy. I’m Stephen M. Strakowski. I’m a professor and vice chair of psychiatry at Indiana University, and professor and associate vice president at University of Texas in Austin.
Today we’re going to talk about cannabis. As all of you are aware, everyone’s talking about cannabis. We hear constantly on social media and in interviews, particularly with relevance to psychiatric disorders, that everyone should be thinking about using cannabis. That seems to be the common conversation.
Last week, I had a patient who said, “All my friends tell me I need to be on cannabis.” That was their solution to her problems. With that in mind, let me introduce our guests, who are both experts on this, to talk about the role of cannabis in psychiatric disorders today.
First, I want to welcome Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn. Dr. Hulvershorn is an associate professor and chair at Indiana University in Indianapolis. Dr. Christopher Hammond is an assistant professor and the director of the co-occurring disorders program at Johns Hopkins. Welcome!
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc: Thank you.
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD: Thank you.
Dr. Strakowski: Leslie, as I mentioned, many people are talking about how cannabis could be a good treatment for psychiatric disorders. Is that true?
Dr. Hulvershorn: If you look at what defines a good treatment, what you’re looking for is clinical trials, ideally randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
When we look at research related to cannabis, we see very few of those trials, and we see that the cannabis plant is actually quite complicated and there are many different compounds that come from it. So we need to look at all the different compounds.
If you think about THC, delta 9 or delta 8, depending on the version, that’s the active ingredient that we most often think about when we say “cannabis.” If you look at THC studies, there really is no evidence that I could find that it helps psychiatric disorders.
What we do find is an enormous literature, many hunDr.eds of studies, actually, that show that THC actually worsens or even brings on psychiatric disorders. There’s a separate conversation about other compounds within the cannabis plant, like CBD, cannabidiol, where there’s maybe a signal that certain anxiety disorders might be improved by a compound like that.
Certainly, rare forms of epilepsy have been found to be improved with that compound. It really depends on what you’re looking at within the cannabis plant, but if we’re thinking about THC, the answer really is no, this is not a helpful thing. In fact, it’s probably a harmful thing to be ingesting in terms of psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you, Leslie. Chris, what would you add to that? Do we know anything about the use of cannabis in any psychiatric condition?
Dr. Hammond: I definitely would echo what Leslie said. The popular opinion, that the media and the state legislatures have really, in many ways, put the cart before the horse — they speak about cannabis as a medication for the treatment of psychiatric conditions before we have sufficient evidence to say that it’s safe or effective for these conditions. Most of the evidence that we have, particularly in regard to the cannabinoid compound, delta 9, tetrahyDr.ocannabinol, or THC, suggests that that cannabinoid is associated with adverse mental health outcomes across different categories.
Dr. Strakowski: Our group, a long time ago, conducted a study looking at first episode of mania, and found that regular cannabis use increases the risk for subsequent manic episodes. I’m not aware of many other studies like that.
You referred, Chris, to the safety aspect. This is something anybody can use. There are no negative consequences. Is that true? I mean, is it really risk free?
Dr. Hammond: Research shows that that’s an inaccurate framing of the safety profile of cannabis. Again, as Leslie put it very well, cannabis is many different compounds. Using this catchall phrase of «cannabis» is not very helpful.
In regard to the main bioactive compounds of the cannabis plant, THC and cannabidiol, or CBD, what we know from studies of THC administration and from medications that have been designed to mimic THC and act on receptors that THC acts on is that those medications have clear side effects and adverse events in a percentage of patients who take them, particularly in regard to precipitating panic attacks, dysphoric episodes, and psychosis in some individuals.
Dr. Hulvershorn: I would add that it really depends on the age of the person that you’re talking about and when they’re first exposed to cannabis. If you’re talking about a person, say, under the age of 14 who uses cannabis, there’s a large amount of concern about the worsening of psychosis and mental health symptoms, but also cognitive features like memory.
There’s a very good study that was conducted in New Zealand that followed a large number of kids over time and showed significant decreases in working memory capacity for kids who used quite heavily.
Then you think about pregnant women. That’s very interesting literature, where people are finding that cannabis not only affects brain development but also a host of other systems in the body. For example, I think the risk for asthma is increased. If you look at the genes in the placenta that are affected, it has much to do with the immune system.
Women who are using cannabis during pregnancy are really exposing their fetus to a range of potential risks that we certainly don’t understand well enough, but there’s enough science that suggests this is really concerning.
If you take a step back and look at animal models, even with things like CBD products, which, again, everybody seems to be buying and they’re viewed as very safe — it’s almost hard to find things without CBD these days.
There we find, for example, in developing rats that testicular development seems to be affected with high doses of CBD. There’s just a huge array of effects, even outside of the psychiatric world, that make me very nervous about anyone using, especially a pregnant woman or a young person.
Then there’s a whole separate literature on adults. It’s hard to find studies that suggest this is a great idea. You’re going to find on the mental health side of things, and the cognitive side of things, many effects as well.
I, personally, am agnostic one way or the other. If cannabis turns out to be helpful, great. We love things that are helpful in medicine. We don’t really care where they come from. I’m not biased politically one way or the other. It’s just when you look at the totality of the literature, it’s hard to feel excited about people using cannabis at any age.
Dr. Hammond: It’s difficult to interpret the literature because of some biases there. It speaks to the importance of thoughtful research being done in this space that takes a neutral approach to assessing cannabis and looking for evidence of both potential benefit and potential harm.
The other piece that I think is of value that builds off what Leslie mentioned is the effects of cannabis and THC. The risk for harm appears to be greater in pregnant women and in young people. For adults, I think, we’re also still trying to understand what the effects are.
The other way of parsing out effects and thinking about them is in terms of the acute effects and the acute response in the moment right after one ingests cannabis vs the long-term effects.
After acute ingestion of cannabis, it can precipitate a psychotic episode, dysphoria or severe depressive symptoms, or severe anxiety, and can cause one to be disoriented, have delayed response time, and affect the ability to Dr.ive. In that capacity, it is related to a higher risk for motor vehicle crashes.
Dr. Strakowski: That’s very interesting. In my practice, and maybe it’s atypical, but half to two thirds of my patients, particularly the younger ones, are using cannabis in some form or another. In my experience, if they’re under 21, they’re more likely to use cannabis than alcohol.
What do we tell our patients? Is there a safe level of use? Do we say to never touch it? How do we manage the social pressure and environment that our patients have to live in?
Dr. Hulvershorn: I think about what we call motivational interviewing and the substance use disorder field, which is a style of interacting with someone that’s very neutral to discuss the pros and the cons. In my practice, people are usually coming to us because of problems related to their substance use.
Not everyone is experiencing those, but for those people, it’s a pretty easy discussion. It sounds like you’re getting into trouble. Your athletic performance is suffering. Your scholastic performance is suffering.
You walk them toward understanding that, wait a minute, if I smoked less weed or no weed, I would probably be doing better in this or that domain of my life. That seems to be the most helpful thing, by allowing them to come to that conclusion.
I think it is a more difficult conversation for people who don’t identify any problems related to their use. What is the right answer? Again, I just go back to saying, “Is this good for you? It’s hard to find the literature that suggests that. Is it neutral for you? Maybe, for some people. Is it harmful for some people? Absolutely.”
I think, for me, the most impactful studies have been those that showed for certain people with certain genetic makeup, cannabis is an absolutely terrible idea. Their risk for psychosis development and things like that are so high. For other people, they could smoke weed all day and never have a problem, based on their genetics — maybe. We don’t know. It’s not like we’re doing blood tests to figure out who you are.
The safest advice, I think, is no use. That’s never going to be bad advice.
Dr. Hammond: I mostly agree with Leslie on this point but feel very, very strongly that — in this era, where in the context of popular media, celebrities and other people are stating that cannabis is good and should be put in everything — clinical providers, especially pediatric providers, need to be extremely grounded in the science, and not let popular media sway our approach and strategy for working with these young people.
There’s two decades worth of data from longitudinal studies that have followed individuals from birth or from preadolescence into their thirties and forties, that show us that, for this association between cannabis use and later adverse mental health outcomes, there is a dose effect there.
The earlier an individual starts using, the more frequent they use, and more persistent their use is over time, those individuals have poorer mental health outcomes compared with individuals who choose to abstain or individuals who use just a few times and stop.
There’s also a signal for higher-THC-potency products being associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly when used during adolescence.
I apply a motivational interviewing approach as well to disseminate this information to both the young people and their parents about the risks, and to communicate what the data clearly show in regard to using THC-based cannabinoid products, which is that we don’t have evidence that shows that any use is healthy to the developing brain.
There’s a large amount of evidence that suggests it’s harmful to the developing brain, so the recommendation is not to use, to delay the onset of use, if you want to use, until adulthood. Many youth choose to use. For those young people, we meet them where they’re at and try to work with them on cutting down.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you both. There’s an interesting effort in different states, with lobbying by celebrities and legislators pushing insurance companies to fund cannabis use broadly, including in a number of psychiatric indications, with no FDA approval at this point. Do you support that? Is that a good idea?
Dr. Hammond: Absolutely not.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you.
Dr. Hammond: I think that’s a very important statement to make. For the medical and healthcare profession to stand strong related to states requiring insurance companies to cover medical cannabis really opens the door to lawsuits that would force insurance companies to cover other undertested bioactive chemicals and health supplements.
There are insufficient safety data for medical cannabis for FDA approval for any condition right now. The FDA has approved cannabinoid-based medications. Those cannabinoid-based medications have really undergone rigorous safety and efficacy testing, and have been approved for very narrow indications, none of which are psychiatric conditions.
They’ve been approved for chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting, treatment-resistant seizures related to two rare seizure disorders that emerge during childhood, and related to tuberous sclerosis, and one related to treating multiple sclerosis–associated spasticity and central neuropathic pain.
Dr. Hulvershorn: Steve, I think it’s important for listeners to be aware that there is a process in place for any therapeutic to become tested and reviewed. We see an industry that stands to make an enormous amount of money, and that is really the motivation for this industry.
These are not folks who are, out of the kindness of their heart, just hoping for better treatments for people. There are many ways you could channel that desire that does not include cannabis making money.
It’s really a profit-motivated industry. They’re very effective at lobbying. The public, unfortunately, has been sort of manipulated by this industry to believe that these are healthy, safe, and natural just because they grow in the ground.
Unfortunately, that’s really the issue. I think people just need to keep that in mind. Someone stands to make a large amount of money off of this. This is a very calculated, strategic approach that goes state by state but is nationally organized, and is potentially, like Chris says, for many reasons, really harmful.
I see it as sort of a bullying approach. Like if your Dr.ug works, Medicaid will pay for it. Medicaid in each state will review the studies. The FDA obviously leads the way. To cut the line without the research is really not helpful — circumventing the process that’s been in place for a long time and works well.
Dr. Hammond: Yes, it sets a dangerous precedent.
Dr. Strakowski: I was going to add the same, that it’s potentially dangerous. Thank you both, Dr.s Hulvershorn and Hammond, for a really good, lively discussion. I know we could talk for a very long time about this situation.
I do think it’s clear for listeners, most of whom are practitioners, that at this point in time, there just really does not seem to be strong evidence for the use of cannabis-based products for any psychiatric condition.
I do think we have to approach the people we’re working with around their psychiatric conditions to manage use and abuse wisely, like we would with any other substance. I appreciate everyone who’s tuned in today to watch us. I hope this is useful for your practice. Thank you.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Greenwich Biosciences, educational grant for Summit
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received research grant from National Institutes of Health Grants; Bench to Bench Award; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Doris Duke.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD: Hello. Thank you all for joining us today. I’m very excited to have some great guests to talk about what I consider an active controversy. I’m Stephen M. Strakowski. I’m a professor and vice chair of psychiatry at Indiana University, and professor and associate vice president at University of Texas in Austin.
Today we’re going to talk about cannabis. As all of you are aware, everyone’s talking about cannabis. We hear constantly on social media and in interviews, particularly with relevance to psychiatric disorders, that everyone should be thinking about using cannabis. That seems to be the common conversation.
Last week, I had a patient who said, “All my friends tell me I need to be on cannabis.” That was their solution to her problems. With that in mind, let me introduce our guests, who are both experts on this, to talk about the role of cannabis in psychiatric disorders today.
First, I want to welcome Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn. Dr. Hulvershorn is an associate professor and chair at Indiana University in Indianapolis. Dr. Christopher Hammond is an assistant professor and the director of the co-occurring disorders program at Johns Hopkins. Welcome!
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc: Thank you.
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD: Thank you.
Dr. Strakowski: Leslie, as I mentioned, many people are talking about how cannabis could be a good treatment for psychiatric disorders. Is that true?
Dr. Hulvershorn: If you look at what defines a good treatment, what you’re looking for is clinical trials, ideally randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
When we look at research related to cannabis, we see very few of those trials, and we see that the cannabis plant is actually quite complicated and there are many different compounds that come from it. So we need to look at all the different compounds.
If you think about THC, delta 9 or delta 8, depending on the version, that’s the active ingredient that we most often think about when we say “cannabis.” If you look at THC studies, there really is no evidence that I could find that it helps psychiatric disorders.
What we do find is an enormous literature, many hunDr.eds of studies, actually, that show that THC actually worsens or even brings on psychiatric disorders. There’s a separate conversation about other compounds within the cannabis plant, like CBD, cannabidiol, where there’s maybe a signal that certain anxiety disorders might be improved by a compound like that.
Certainly, rare forms of epilepsy have been found to be improved with that compound. It really depends on what you’re looking at within the cannabis plant, but if we’re thinking about THC, the answer really is no, this is not a helpful thing. In fact, it’s probably a harmful thing to be ingesting in terms of psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you, Leslie. Chris, what would you add to that? Do we know anything about the use of cannabis in any psychiatric condition?
Dr. Hammond: I definitely would echo what Leslie said. The popular opinion, that the media and the state legislatures have really, in many ways, put the cart before the horse — they speak about cannabis as a medication for the treatment of psychiatric conditions before we have sufficient evidence to say that it’s safe or effective for these conditions. Most of the evidence that we have, particularly in regard to the cannabinoid compound, delta 9, tetrahyDr.ocannabinol, or THC, suggests that that cannabinoid is associated with adverse mental health outcomes across different categories.
Dr. Strakowski: Our group, a long time ago, conducted a study looking at first episode of mania, and found that regular cannabis use increases the risk for subsequent manic episodes. I’m not aware of many other studies like that.
You referred, Chris, to the safety aspect. This is something anybody can use. There are no negative consequences. Is that true? I mean, is it really risk free?
Dr. Hammond: Research shows that that’s an inaccurate framing of the safety profile of cannabis. Again, as Leslie put it very well, cannabis is many different compounds. Using this catchall phrase of «cannabis» is not very helpful.
In regard to the main bioactive compounds of the cannabis plant, THC and cannabidiol, or CBD, what we know from studies of THC administration and from medications that have been designed to mimic THC and act on receptors that THC acts on is that those medications have clear side effects and adverse events in a percentage of patients who take them, particularly in regard to precipitating panic attacks, dysphoric episodes, and psychosis in some individuals.
Dr. Hulvershorn: I would add that it really depends on the age of the person that you’re talking about and when they’re first exposed to cannabis. If you’re talking about a person, say, under the age of 14 who uses cannabis, there’s a large amount of concern about the worsening of psychosis and mental health symptoms, but also cognitive features like memory.
There’s a very good study that was conducted in New Zealand that followed a large number of kids over time and showed significant decreases in working memory capacity for kids who used quite heavily.
Then you think about pregnant women. That’s very interesting literature, where people are finding that cannabis not only affects brain development but also a host of other systems in the body. For example, I think the risk for asthma is increased. If you look at the genes in the placenta that are affected, it has much to do with the immune system.
Women who are using cannabis during pregnancy are really exposing their fetus to a range of potential risks that we certainly don’t understand well enough, but there’s enough science that suggests this is really concerning.
If you take a step back and look at animal models, even with things like CBD products, which, again, everybody seems to be buying and they’re viewed as very safe — it’s almost hard to find things without CBD these days.
There we find, for example, in developing rats that testicular development seems to be affected with high doses of CBD. There’s just a huge array of effects, even outside of the psychiatric world, that make me very nervous about anyone using, especially a pregnant woman or a young person.
Then there’s a whole separate literature on adults. It’s hard to find studies that suggest this is a great idea. You’re going to find on the mental health side of things, and the cognitive side of things, many effects as well.
I, personally, am agnostic one way or the other. If cannabis turns out to be helpful, great. We love things that are helpful in medicine. We don’t really care where they come from. I’m not biased politically one way or the other. It’s just when you look at the totality of the literature, it’s hard to feel excited about people using cannabis at any age.
Dr. Hammond: It’s difficult to interpret the literature because of some biases there. It speaks to the importance of thoughtful research being done in this space that takes a neutral approach to assessing cannabis and looking for evidence of both potential benefit and potential harm.
The other piece that I think is of value that builds off what Leslie mentioned is the effects of cannabis and THC. The risk for harm appears to be greater in pregnant women and in young people. For adults, I think, we’re also still trying to understand what the effects are.
The other way of parsing out effects and thinking about them is in terms of the acute effects and the acute response in the moment right after one ingests cannabis vs the long-term effects.
After acute ingestion of cannabis, it can precipitate a psychotic episode, dysphoria or severe depressive symptoms, or severe anxiety, and can cause one to be disoriented, have delayed response time, and affect the ability to Dr.ive. In that capacity, it is related to a higher risk for motor vehicle crashes.
Dr. Strakowski: That’s very interesting. In my practice, and maybe it’s atypical, but half to two thirds of my patients, particularly the younger ones, are using cannabis in some form or another. In my experience, if they’re under 21, they’re more likely to use cannabis than alcohol.
What do we tell our patients? Is there a safe level of use? Do we say to never touch it? How do we manage the social pressure and environment that our patients have to live in?
Dr. Hulvershorn: I think about what we call motivational interviewing and the substance use disorder field, which is a style of interacting with someone that’s very neutral to discuss the pros and the cons. In my practice, people are usually coming to us because of problems related to their substance use.
Not everyone is experiencing those, but for those people, it’s a pretty easy discussion. It sounds like you’re getting into trouble. Your athletic performance is suffering. Your scholastic performance is suffering.
You walk them toward understanding that, wait a minute, if I smoked less weed or no weed, I would probably be doing better in this or that domain of my life. That seems to be the most helpful thing, by allowing them to come to that conclusion.
I think it is a more difficult conversation for people who don’t identify any problems related to their use. What is the right answer? Again, I just go back to saying, “Is this good for you? It’s hard to find the literature that suggests that. Is it neutral for you? Maybe, for some people. Is it harmful for some people? Absolutely.”
I think, for me, the most impactful studies have been those that showed for certain people with certain genetic makeup, cannabis is an absolutely terrible idea. Their risk for psychosis development and things like that are so high. For other people, they could smoke weed all day and never have a problem, based on their genetics — maybe. We don’t know. It’s not like we’re doing blood tests to figure out who you are.
The safest advice, I think, is no use. That’s never going to be bad advice.
Dr. Hammond: I mostly agree with Leslie on this point but feel very, very strongly that — in this era, where in the context of popular media, celebrities and other people are stating that cannabis is good and should be put in everything — clinical providers, especially pediatric providers, need to be extremely grounded in the science, and not let popular media sway our approach and strategy for working with these young people.
There’s two decades worth of data from longitudinal studies that have followed individuals from birth or from preadolescence into their thirties and forties, that show us that, for this association between cannabis use and later adverse mental health outcomes, there is a dose effect there.
The earlier an individual starts using, the more frequent they use, and more persistent their use is over time, those individuals have poorer mental health outcomes compared with individuals who choose to abstain or individuals who use just a few times and stop.
There’s also a signal for higher-THC-potency products being associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly when used during adolescence.
I apply a motivational interviewing approach as well to disseminate this information to both the young people and their parents about the risks, and to communicate what the data clearly show in regard to using THC-based cannabinoid products, which is that we don’t have evidence that shows that any use is healthy to the developing brain.
There’s a large amount of evidence that suggests it’s harmful to the developing brain, so the recommendation is not to use, to delay the onset of use, if you want to use, until adulthood. Many youth choose to use. For those young people, we meet them where they’re at and try to work with them on cutting down.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you both. There’s an interesting effort in different states, with lobbying by celebrities and legislators pushing insurance companies to fund cannabis use broadly, including in a number of psychiatric indications, with no FDA approval at this point. Do you support that? Is that a good idea?
Dr. Hammond: Absolutely not.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you.
Dr. Hammond: I think that’s a very important statement to make. For the medical and healthcare profession to stand strong related to states requiring insurance companies to cover medical cannabis really opens the door to lawsuits that would force insurance companies to cover other undertested bioactive chemicals and health supplements.
There are insufficient safety data for medical cannabis for FDA approval for any condition right now. The FDA has approved cannabinoid-based medications. Those cannabinoid-based medications have really undergone rigorous safety and efficacy testing, and have been approved for very narrow indications, none of which are psychiatric conditions.
They’ve been approved for chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting, treatment-resistant seizures related to two rare seizure disorders that emerge during childhood, and related to tuberous sclerosis, and one related to treating multiple sclerosis–associated spasticity and central neuropathic pain.
Dr. Hulvershorn: Steve, I think it’s important for listeners to be aware that there is a process in place for any therapeutic to become tested and reviewed. We see an industry that stands to make an enormous amount of money, and that is really the motivation for this industry.
These are not folks who are, out of the kindness of their heart, just hoping for better treatments for people. There are many ways you could channel that desire that does not include cannabis making money.
It’s really a profit-motivated industry. They’re very effective at lobbying. The public, unfortunately, has been sort of manipulated by this industry to believe that these are healthy, safe, and natural just because they grow in the ground.
Unfortunately, that’s really the issue. I think people just need to keep that in mind. Someone stands to make a large amount of money off of this. This is a very calculated, strategic approach that goes state by state but is nationally organized, and is potentially, like Chris says, for many reasons, really harmful.
I see it as sort of a bullying approach. Like if your Dr.ug works, Medicaid will pay for it. Medicaid in each state will review the studies. The FDA obviously leads the way. To cut the line without the research is really not helpful — circumventing the process that’s been in place for a long time and works well.
Dr. Hammond: Yes, it sets a dangerous precedent.
Dr. Strakowski: I was going to add the same, that it’s potentially dangerous. Thank you both, Dr.s Hulvershorn and Hammond, for a really good, lively discussion. I know we could talk for a very long time about this situation.
I do think it’s clear for listeners, most of whom are practitioners, that at this point in time, there just really does not seem to be strong evidence for the use of cannabis-based products for any psychiatric condition.
I do think we have to approach the people we’re working with around their psychiatric conditions to manage use and abuse wisely, like we would with any other substance. I appreciate everyone who’s tuned in today to watch us. I hope this is useful for your practice. Thank you.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Greenwich Biosciences, educational grant for Summit
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received research grant from National Institutes of Health Grants; Bench to Bench Award; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Doris Duke.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
This transcript has been edited for clarity.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD: Hello. Thank you all for joining us today. I’m very excited to have some great guests to talk about what I consider an active controversy. I’m Stephen M. Strakowski. I’m a professor and vice chair of psychiatry at Indiana University, and professor and associate vice president at University of Texas in Austin.
Today we’re going to talk about cannabis. As all of you are aware, everyone’s talking about cannabis. We hear constantly on social media and in interviews, particularly with relevance to psychiatric disorders, that everyone should be thinking about using cannabis. That seems to be the common conversation.
Last week, I had a patient who said, “All my friends tell me I need to be on cannabis.” That was their solution to her problems. With that in mind, let me introduce our guests, who are both experts on this, to talk about the role of cannabis in psychiatric disorders today.
First, I want to welcome Dr. Leslie Hulvershorn. Dr. Hulvershorn is an associate professor and chair at Indiana University in Indianapolis. Dr. Christopher Hammond is an assistant professor and the director of the co-occurring disorders program at Johns Hopkins. Welcome!
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc: Thank you.
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD: Thank you.
Dr. Strakowski: Leslie, as I mentioned, many people are talking about how cannabis could be a good treatment for psychiatric disorders. Is that true?
Dr. Hulvershorn: If you look at what defines a good treatment, what you’re looking for is clinical trials, ideally randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trials.
When we look at research related to cannabis, we see very few of those trials, and we see that the cannabis plant is actually quite complicated and there are many different compounds that come from it. So we need to look at all the different compounds.
If you think about THC, delta 9 or delta 8, depending on the version, that’s the active ingredient that we most often think about when we say “cannabis.” If you look at THC studies, there really is no evidence that I could find that it helps psychiatric disorders.
What we do find is an enormous literature, many hunDr.eds of studies, actually, that show that THC actually worsens or even brings on psychiatric disorders. There’s a separate conversation about other compounds within the cannabis plant, like CBD, cannabidiol, where there’s maybe a signal that certain anxiety disorders might be improved by a compound like that.
Certainly, rare forms of epilepsy have been found to be improved with that compound. It really depends on what you’re looking at within the cannabis plant, but if we’re thinking about THC, the answer really is no, this is not a helpful thing. In fact, it’s probably a harmful thing to be ingesting in terms of psychiatric disorders.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you, Leslie. Chris, what would you add to that? Do we know anything about the use of cannabis in any psychiatric condition?
Dr. Hammond: I definitely would echo what Leslie said. The popular opinion, that the media and the state legislatures have really, in many ways, put the cart before the horse — they speak about cannabis as a medication for the treatment of psychiatric conditions before we have sufficient evidence to say that it’s safe or effective for these conditions. Most of the evidence that we have, particularly in regard to the cannabinoid compound, delta 9, tetrahyDr.ocannabinol, or THC, suggests that that cannabinoid is associated with adverse mental health outcomes across different categories.
Dr. Strakowski: Our group, a long time ago, conducted a study looking at first episode of mania, and found that regular cannabis use increases the risk for subsequent manic episodes. I’m not aware of many other studies like that.
You referred, Chris, to the safety aspect. This is something anybody can use. There are no negative consequences. Is that true? I mean, is it really risk free?
Dr. Hammond: Research shows that that’s an inaccurate framing of the safety profile of cannabis. Again, as Leslie put it very well, cannabis is many different compounds. Using this catchall phrase of «cannabis» is not very helpful.
In regard to the main bioactive compounds of the cannabis plant, THC and cannabidiol, or CBD, what we know from studies of THC administration and from medications that have been designed to mimic THC and act on receptors that THC acts on is that those medications have clear side effects and adverse events in a percentage of patients who take them, particularly in regard to precipitating panic attacks, dysphoric episodes, and psychosis in some individuals.
Dr. Hulvershorn: I would add that it really depends on the age of the person that you’re talking about and when they’re first exposed to cannabis. If you’re talking about a person, say, under the age of 14 who uses cannabis, there’s a large amount of concern about the worsening of psychosis and mental health symptoms, but also cognitive features like memory.
There’s a very good study that was conducted in New Zealand that followed a large number of kids over time and showed significant decreases in working memory capacity for kids who used quite heavily.
Then you think about pregnant women. That’s very interesting literature, where people are finding that cannabis not only affects brain development but also a host of other systems in the body. For example, I think the risk for asthma is increased. If you look at the genes in the placenta that are affected, it has much to do with the immune system.
Women who are using cannabis during pregnancy are really exposing their fetus to a range of potential risks that we certainly don’t understand well enough, but there’s enough science that suggests this is really concerning.
If you take a step back and look at animal models, even with things like CBD products, which, again, everybody seems to be buying and they’re viewed as very safe — it’s almost hard to find things without CBD these days.
There we find, for example, in developing rats that testicular development seems to be affected with high doses of CBD. There’s just a huge array of effects, even outside of the psychiatric world, that make me very nervous about anyone using, especially a pregnant woman or a young person.
Then there’s a whole separate literature on adults. It’s hard to find studies that suggest this is a great idea. You’re going to find on the mental health side of things, and the cognitive side of things, many effects as well.
I, personally, am agnostic one way or the other. If cannabis turns out to be helpful, great. We love things that are helpful in medicine. We don’t really care where they come from. I’m not biased politically one way or the other. It’s just when you look at the totality of the literature, it’s hard to feel excited about people using cannabis at any age.
Dr. Hammond: It’s difficult to interpret the literature because of some biases there. It speaks to the importance of thoughtful research being done in this space that takes a neutral approach to assessing cannabis and looking for evidence of both potential benefit and potential harm.
The other piece that I think is of value that builds off what Leslie mentioned is the effects of cannabis and THC. The risk for harm appears to be greater in pregnant women and in young people. For adults, I think, we’re also still trying to understand what the effects are.
The other way of parsing out effects and thinking about them is in terms of the acute effects and the acute response in the moment right after one ingests cannabis vs the long-term effects.
After acute ingestion of cannabis, it can precipitate a psychotic episode, dysphoria or severe depressive symptoms, or severe anxiety, and can cause one to be disoriented, have delayed response time, and affect the ability to Dr.ive. In that capacity, it is related to a higher risk for motor vehicle crashes.
Dr. Strakowski: That’s very interesting. In my practice, and maybe it’s atypical, but half to two thirds of my patients, particularly the younger ones, are using cannabis in some form or another. In my experience, if they’re under 21, they’re more likely to use cannabis than alcohol.
What do we tell our patients? Is there a safe level of use? Do we say to never touch it? How do we manage the social pressure and environment that our patients have to live in?
Dr. Hulvershorn: I think about what we call motivational interviewing and the substance use disorder field, which is a style of interacting with someone that’s very neutral to discuss the pros and the cons. In my practice, people are usually coming to us because of problems related to their substance use.
Not everyone is experiencing those, but for those people, it’s a pretty easy discussion. It sounds like you’re getting into trouble. Your athletic performance is suffering. Your scholastic performance is suffering.
You walk them toward understanding that, wait a minute, if I smoked less weed or no weed, I would probably be doing better in this or that domain of my life. That seems to be the most helpful thing, by allowing them to come to that conclusion.
I think it is a more difficult conversation for people who don’t identify any problems related to their use. What is the right answer? Again, I just go back to saying, “Is this good for you? It’s hard to find the literature that suggests that. Is it neutral for you? Maybe, for some people. Is it harmful for some people? Absolutely.”
I think, for me, the most impactful studies have been those that showed for certain people with certain genetic makeup, cannabis is an absolutely terrible idea. Their risk for psychosis development and things like that are so high. For other people, they could smoke weed all day and never have a problem, based on their genetics — maybe. We don’t know. It’s not like we’re doing blood tests to figure out who you are.
The safest advice, I think, is no use. That’s never going to be bad advice.
Dr. Hammond: I mostly agree with Leslie on this point but feel very, very strongly that — in this era, where in the context of popular media, celebrities and other people are stating that cannabis is good and should be put in everything — clinical providers, especially pediatric providers, need to be extremely grounded in the science, and not let popular media sway our approach and strategy for working with these young people.
There’s two decades worth of data from longitudinal studies that have followed individuals from birth or from preadolescence into their thirties and forties, that show us that, for this association between cannabis use and later adverse mental health outcomes, there is a dose effect there.
The earlier an individual starts using, the more frequent they use, and more persistent their use is over time, those individuals have poorer mental health outcomes compared with individuals who choose to abstain or individuals who use just a few times and stop.
There’s also a signal for higher-THC-potency products being associated with poorer mental health outcomes, particularly when used during adolescence.
I apply a motivational interviewing approach as well to disseminate this information to both the young people and their parents about the risks, and to communicate what the data clearly show in regard to using THC-based cannabinoid products, which is that we don’t have evidence that shows that any use is healthy to the developing brain.
There’s a large amount of evidence that suggests it’s harmful to the developing brain, so the recommendation is not to use, to delay the onset of use, if you want to use, until adulthood. Many youth choose to use. For those young people, we meet them where they’re at and try to work with them on cutting down.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you both. There’s an interesting effort in different states, with lobbying by celebrities and legislators pushing insurance companies to fund cannabis use broadly, including in a number of psychiatric indications, with no FDA approval at this point. Do you support that? Is that a good idea?
Dr. Hammond: Absolutely not.
Dr. Strakowski: Thank you.
Dr. Hammond: I think that’s a very important statement to make. For the medical and healthcare profession to stand strong related to states requiring insurance companies to cover medical cannabis really opens the door to lawsuits that would force insurance companies to cover other undertested bioactive chemicals and health supplements.
There are insufficient safety data for medical cannabis for FDA approval for any condition right now. The FDA has approved cannabinoid-based medications. Those cannabinoid-based medications have really undergone rigorous safety and efficacy testing, and have been approved for very narrow indications, none of which are psychiatric conditions.
They’ve been approved for chemotherapy-associated nausea and vomiting, treatment-resistant seizures related to two rare seizure disorders that emerge during childhood, and related to tuberous sclerosis, and one related to treating multiple sclerosis–associated spasticity and central neuropathic pain.
Dr. Hulvershorn: Steve, I think it’s important for listeners to be aware that there is a process in place for any therapeutic to become tested and reviewed. We see an industry that stands to make an enormous amount of money, and that is really the motivation for this industry.
These are not folks who are, out of the kindness of their heart, just hoping for better treatments for people. There are many ways you could channel that desire that does not include cannabis making money.
It’s really a profit-motivated industry. They’re very effective at lobbying. The public, unfortunately, has been sort of manipulated by this industry to believe that these are healthy, safe, and natural just because they grow in the ground.
Unfortunately, that’s really the issue. I think people just need to keep that in mind. Someone stands to make a large amount of money off of this. This is a very calculated, strategic approach that goes state by state but is nationally organized, and is potentially, like Chris says, for many reasons, really harmful.
I see it as sort of a bullying approach. Like if your Dr.ug works, Medicaid will pay for it. Medicaid in each state will review the studies. The FDA obviously leads the way. To cut the line without the research is really not helpful — circumventing the process that’s been in place for a long time and works well.
Dr. Hammond: Yes, it sets a dangerous precedent.
Dr. Strakowski: I was going to add the same, that it’s potentially dangerous. Thank you both, Dr.s Hulvershorn and Hammond, for a really good, lively discussion. I know we could talk for a very long time about this situation.
I do think it’s clear for listeners, most of whom are practitioners, that at this point in time, there just really does not seem to be strong evidence for the use of cannabis-based products for any psychiatric condition.
I do think we have to approach the people we’re working with around their psychiatric conditions to manage use and abuse wisely, like we would with any other substance. I appreciate everyone who’s tuned in today to watch us. I hope this is useful for your practice. Thank you.
Stephen M. Strakowski, MD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Serve(d) as a director, officer, partner, employee, advisor, consultant, or trustee for: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Roche; Procter & Gamble; Novartis; Sunovion; Oxford University Press
Leslie A. Hulvershorn, MD, MSc, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received income in an amount equal to or greater than $250 from: Greenwich Biosciences, educational grant for Summit
Christopher J. Hammond, MD, PhD, has disclosed the following relevant financial relationships:
- Received research grant from National Institutes of Health Grants; Bench to Bench Award; Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration; Doris Duke.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
Hypochondriasis Linked to Increased Risk for All-Cause Mortality
TOPLINE:
Hypochondriasis is linked to an 84% higher risk for death for those with the disorder and a fourfold increased risk for suicide, new population-based data show. These findings, investigators noted, suggest the need for more clinical screening and treatment of hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators used several Swedish population-based registers to identify people who received a diagnosis of hypochondriasis between January 1997 and December 2020.
- Each individual diagnosed with hypochondriasis (n = 4129; 2342 women; median 34.5 years at diagnosis) was age- and sex-matched with 10 individuals without the disorder (n = 41,290).
- For those who died during the study period, cause of death was categorized as natural (neoplasms; diseases of the nervous system, circulatory system, or respiratory system) or unnatural (primarily suicide).
- Investigators age- and sex-matched 4129 individuals with hypochondriasis to 41,290 individuals without hypochondriasis.
TAKEAWAY:
- (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.84; 95% CI, 1.60-2.10), including a higher risk for both natural (aHR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.38-1.85) and unnatural death (aHR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.61-3.68).
- The majority of individuals with hypochondriasis were diagnosed with at least one additional psychiatric disorder (primarily anxiety-related and depressive disorders) vs the group without hypochondriasis (86% vs 20%, respectively; P < .001).
- The risk for suicide — the most common unnatural cause of death — was four times higher in those with hypochondriasis (aHR, 4.14; 95% CI, 2.44-7.03).
- When investigators limited analyses to include only psychiatric comorbidities recorded before the first diagnosis of hypochondriasis, suicide risk was attenuated but remained statistically significant.
IN PRACTICE:
“Taken together, these findings illustrate a paradox, whereby individuals with hypochondriasis have an increased risk for death despite their pervasive fears of illness and death. In this study, most deaths could be classified as potentially preventable. Dismissing these individuals’ somatic symptoms as imaginary may have dire consequences,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
David Mataix-Cols, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, led the study, which was published online on December 13, 2023, in JAMA Psychiatry.
LIMITATIONS:
Hypochondriasis is thought to be underdiagnosed in Sweden, with only approximately 4000 cases registered within two decades. Study investigators also noted that they did not obtain data from primary care, the setting where the majority of hypochondriasis cases are diagnosed.
DISCLOSURES:
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Stockholm; the Swedish Society of Medicine, Stockholm; and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Dr. Mataix-Cols reported receiving personal fees from UpToDate Inc. Author disclosures can be found in the original article.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
Hypochondriasis is linked to an 84% higher risk for death for those with the disorder and a fourfold increased risk for suicide, new population-based data show. These findings, investigators noted, suggest the need for more clinical screening and treatment of hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators used several Swedish population-based registers to identify people who received a diagnosis of hypochondriasis between January 1997 and December 2020.
- Each individual diagnosed with hypochondriasis (n = 4129; 2342 women; median 34.5 years at diagnosis) was age- and sex-matched with 10 individuals without the disorder (n = 41,290).
- For those who died during the study period, cause of death was categorized as natural (neoplasms; diseases of the nervous system, circulatory system, or respiratory system) or unnatural (primarily suicide).
- Investigators age- and sex-matched 4129 individuals with hypochondriasis to 41,290 individuals without hypochondriasis.
TAKEAWAY:
- (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.84; 95% CI, 1.60-2.10), including a higher risk for both natural (aHR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.38-1.85) and unnatural death (aHR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.61-3.68).
- The majority of individuals with hypochondriasis were diagnosed with at least one additional psychiatric disorder (primarily anxiety-related and depressive disorders) vs the group without hypochondriasis (86% vs 20%, respectively; P < .001).
- The risk for suicide — the most common unnatural cause of death — was four times higher in those with hypochondriasis (aHR, 4.14; 95% CI, 2.44-7.03).
- When investigators limited analyses to include only psychiatric comorbidities recorded before the first diagnosis of hypochondriasis, suicide risk was attenuated but remained statistically significant.
IN PRACTICE:
“Taken together, these findings illustrate a paradox, whereby individuals with hypochondriasis have an increased risk for death despite their pervasive fears of illness and death. In this study, most deaths could be classified as potentially preventable. Dismissing these individuals’ somatic symptoms as imaginary may have dire consequences,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
David Mataix-Cols, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, led the study, which was published online on December 13, 2023, in JAMA Psychiatry.
LIMITATIONS:
Hypochondriasis is thought to be underdiagnosed in Sweden, with only approximately 4000 cases registered within two decades. Study investigators also noted that they did not obtain data from primary care, the setting where the majority of hypochondriasis cases are diagnosed.
DISCLOSURES:
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Stockholm; the Swedish Society of Medicine, Stockholm; and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Dr. Mataix-Cols reported receiving personal fees from UpToDate Inc. Author disclosures can be found in the original article.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
Hypochondriasis is linked to an 84% higher risk for death for those with the disorder and a fourfold increased risk for suicide, new population-based data show. These findings, investigators noted, suggest the need for more clinical screening and treatment of hypochondriasis, also known as health anxiety disorder.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators used several Swedish population-based registers to identify people who received a diagnosis of hypochondriasis between January 1997 and December 2020.
- Each individual diagnosed with hypochondriasis (n = 4129; 2342 women; median 34.5 years at diagnosis) was age- and sex-matched with 10 individuals without the disorder (n = 41,290).
- For those who died during the study period, cause of death was categorized as natural (neoplasms; diseases of the nervous system, circulatory system, or respiratory system) or unnatural (primarily suicide).
- Investigators age- and sex-matched 4129 individuals with hypochondriasis to 41,290 individuals without hypochondriasis.
TAKEAWAY:
- (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.84; 95% CI, 1.60-2.10), including a higher risk for both natural (aHR, 1.60; 95% CI, 1.38-1.85) and unnatural death (aHR, 2.43; 95% CI, 1.61-3.68).
- The majority of individuals with hypochondriasis were diagnosed with at least one additional psychiatric disorder (primarily anxiety-related and depressive disorders) vs the group without hypochondriasis (86% vs 20%, respectively; P < .001).
- The risk for suicide — the most common unnatural cause of death — was four times higher in those with hypochondriasis (aHR, 4.14; 95% CI, 2.44-7.03).
- When investigators limited analyses to include only psychiatric comorbidities recorded before the first diagnosis of hypochondriasis, suicide risk was attenuated but remained statistically significant.
IN PRACTICE:
“Taken together, these findings illustrate a paradox, whereby individuals with hypochondriasis have an increased risk for death despite their pervasive fears of illness and death. In this study, most deaths could be classified as potentially preventable. Dismissing these individuals’ somatic symptoms as imaginary may have dire consequences,” the authors wrote.
SOURCE:
David Mataix-Cols, PhD, of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, led the study, which was published online on December 13, 2023, in JAMA Psychiatry.
LIMITATIONS:
Hypochondriasis is thought to be underdiagnosed in Sweden, with only approximately 4000 cases registered within two decades. Study investigators also noted that they did not obtain data from primary care, the setting where the majority of hypochondriasis cases are diagnosed.
DISCLOSURES:
The study was funded by the Swedish Research Council for Health, Working Life and Welfare, Stockholm; the Swedish Society of Medicine, Stockholm; and Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm. Dr. Mataix-Cols reported receiving personal fees from UpToDate Inc. Author disclosures can be found in the original article.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
Sometimes well-intended mental health treatment hurts
We love psychiatry. We love the idea that someone can come to receive care from a physician to alleviate psychological suffering.
Some people experience such severe anguish that they are unable to relate to others. Some are so despondent that they are unable to make decisions. Some are so distressed that their thoughts become inconsistent with reality. We want all those people, and many more, to have access to effective psychiatric care. However, there are reasonable expectations that one should be able to have that a treatment will help, and that appropriate informed consent is given.
One recent article reminded us of this in a particularly poignant way.
The study in question is a recent publication looking at the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers.1 At face value, we would have certainly considered this to be a benevolent and well-meaning intervention. Anyone who has been a teenager or has talked to one, is aware of the emotional instability punctuated by episodes of intense anxiety or irritability. It is age appropriate for a teenager to question and explore their identity. Teenagers are notoriously impulsive with a deep desire for validating interpersonal relationships. One could continue to list the symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and find a lot of similarity with the condition of transitioning from a child to an adult.
It is thus common sense to consider applying the most established therapy for BPD, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), to teenagers. The basics of DBT would seem to be helpful to anyone but appear particularly appropriate to this population. Mindfulness, the practice of paying attention to your present experience, allows one to realize that they are trapped in past or hypothetical future moments. Emotional regulation provides the tools that offer a frame for our feelings and involves recognizing feelings and understanding what they mean. Interpersonal work allows one to recognize and adapt to the feelings of others, while learning how to have a healthy voice with others. Distress tolerance is the exercise of learning to experience and contain our feelings.
The study looked at about 1,000 young adolescents, around 13 years old across high schools in Sydney, Australia: 598 adolescents were allocated to the intervention, and 566 to the control. The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of DBT lasting about 50 minutes. The results were “contrary to predictions.” Participants who received DBT “reported significantly increased total difficulties,” and “significant increases in depression and anxiety.” The effects were worse in males yet significant in both genders. The study concludes with “a reminder that present enthusiasm for universal dissemination of short-term DBT-based group skills training within schools, specifically in early adolescence, is ahead of the research evidence.”
We can’t help but wonder why the outcomes of the study were this way; here are some ideas:
• Society has natural ways of developing interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and the ability to appreciate the present. Interpersonal skills are consistently fostered and tested in schools. Navigating high school parties, the process of organizing them, and getting invited to them requires significant social dexterity. Rejection from romantic interest, alienation from peers, rewards for accomplishment, and acceptance by other peers are some of the daily emotional obstacles that teenagers face. Being constantly taught by older individuals and scolded by parents is its own course in mindfulness. Those are few of the many natural processes of interpersonal growth that formalized therapy may impede.
• The universal discussion of psychological terms and psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness, but also normalize and possibly even promote it. While punishing or stigmatizing a child for having mental illness is obviously unacceptable and cruel, we do wonder if the compulsory psychotherapy may provide negative effects. Psychotherapies, especially manualized ones, were developed to alleviate mental suffering. It seems possible that this format normalizes pathology.
In 1961, Erving Goffman described the concept of sane people appearing insane in an asylum as “mortification.” In 2023, we have much improved, but have we done something to internalize patterns of suffering and alienation rather than dispel them? They are given forms that explain what the feeling of depression is when they may have never considered it. They are given tools to handle distress, when distress may not be present.
• Many human beings live on a fairly tight rope of suppression and the less adaptive repression. Suppression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to put distressing thoughts out of conscious awareness. After a difficult breakup a teenager may ask some friends to go out and watch a movie, making efforts to put negative feelings out of conscious awareness until there is an opportunity to cope adaptively with those stressors.
Repression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to prevent distressing thoughts from entering conscious awareness in the first place. After a difficult breakup a teenager acts like nothing happened. While not particularly adaptive, many people live with significant repression and without particular anguish. It is possible that uncovering all of those repressed and suppressed feelings through the exploratory work of therapy may destabilize individuals from their tight rope.
• A less problematic explanation could also be what was previously referred to as therapeutic regression. In psychoanalytic theory, patients are generally thought to have a compromise formation, a psychological strategy used to reconcile conflicting drives. The compromise formation is the way a patient balances their desires against moral expectations and the realities of the external world. In therapy, that compromise formation can be challenged, leading to therapeutic regression.
By uncovering and confronting deeply rooted feelings, a patient may find that their symptoms temporarily intensify. This may not be a problem, but a necessary step to growth in some patients. It is possible that a program longer than 8 weeks would have overcome a temporary worsening in outcome measures.
While it’s easy to highlight the darker moments in psychiatric history, psychiatry has grown into a field which offers well-accepted and uncontroversially promoted forms of treatment. This is evolution, exemplified by the mere consideration of the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers. But this raises important questions about the potential unintended consequences of normalizing and formalizing therapy. It prompted us to reflect on whether psychiatric treatment is always the best solution and if it might, at times, impede natural processes of growth and coping.
In this context, the study on universal DBT-based group skills training for teenagers challenged our assumptions. The unexpected outcomes suggest that societal and educational systems may naturally foster many of the skills that formalized therapy seeks to provide, and may do so with greater efficacy than that which prescriptive psychiatric treatments have to offer. Moreover, the universal discussion of psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness but also normalize it, potentially leading to unnecessary pathology.
Finally, the study prompted us to consider the fine balance that people find themselves in, questioning whether we should be so certain that our interventions can always provide a better outcome than an individual’s current coping mechanisms. These findings serve as a valuable reminder that our enthusiasm for widespread psychiatric interventions should be tempered by rigorous research and a nuanced understanding of human psychology and development.
This study could be an example of the grandiose stance psychiatry has at times taken of late, suggesting the field has an intervention for all that ails you and can serve as a corrective to society’s maladaptive deviations. Rising rates of mental illness in the community are not interpreted as a failing of the field of psychiatry, but as evidence that we need more psychiatrists. Acts of gun violence, ever increasing rates suicides, and even political disagreements are met with the idea that if only we had more mental health capacity, this could be avoided.
Dr. Badre is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in San Diego. He holds teaching positions at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of San Diego. He teaches medical education, psychopharmacology, ethics in psychiatry, and correctional care. Dr. Badre can be reached at his website, BadreMD.com. He has no conflicts of interest. Dr. ZoBell is a fourth-year senior resident at UCSD Psychiatry Residency Program. She is currently serving as the program’s Chief Resident at the VA San Diego on the inpatient psychiatric unit. Dr. ZoBell is interested in outpatient and emergency psychiatry as well as psychotherapy. Dr. Lehman is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. He is codirector of all acute and intensive psychiatric treatment at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego, where he practices clinical psychiatry. He has no conflicts of interest.
Reference
1. Harvey, LJ, et al. Investigating the efficacy of a Dialectical behaviour therapy-based universal intervention on adolescent social and emotional well-being outcomes. Behav Res Ther. 2023 Oct. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104408.
We love psychiatry. We love the idea that someone can come to receive care from a physician to alleviate psychological suffering.
Some people experience such severe anguish that they are unable to relate to others. Some are so despondent that they are unable to make decisions. Some are so distressed that their thoughts become inconsistent with reality. We want all those people, and many more, to have access to effective psychiatric care. However, there are reasonable expectations that one should be able to have that a treatment will help, and that appropriate informed consent is given.
One recent article reminded us of this in a particularly poignant way.
The study in question is a recent publication looking at the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers.1 At face value, we would have certainly considered this to be a benevolent and well-meaning intervention. Anyone who has been a teenager or has talked to one, is aware of the emotional instability punctuated by episodes of intense anxiety or irritability. It is age appropriate for a teenager to question and explore their identity. Teenagers are notoriously impulsive with a deep desire for validating interpersonal relationships. One could continue to list the symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and find a lot of similarity with the condition of transitioning from a child to an adult.
It is thus common sense to consider applying the most established therapy for BPD, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), to teenagers. The basics of DBT would seem to be helpful to anyone but appear particularly appropriate to this population. Mindfulness, the practice of paying attention to your present experience, allows one to realize that they are trapped in past or hypothetical future moments. Emotional regulation provides the tools that offer a frame for our feelings and involves recognizing feelings and understanding what they mean. Interpersonal work allows one to recognize and adapt to the feelings of others, while learning how to have a healthy voice with others. Distress tolerance is the exercise of learning to experience and contain our feelings.
The study looked at about 1,000 young adolescents, around 13 years old across high schools in Sydney, Australia: 598 adolescents were allocated to the intervention, and 566 to the control. The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of DBT lasting about 50 minutes. The results were “contrary to predictions.” Participants who received DBT “reported significantly increased total difficulties,” and “significant increases in depression and anxiety.” The effects were worse in males yet significant in both genders. The study concludes with “a reminder that present enthusiasm for universal dissemination of short-term DBT-based group skills training within schools, specifically in early adolescence, is ahead of the research evidence.”
We can’t help but wonder why the outcomes of the study were this way; here are some ideas:
• Society has natural ways of developing interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and the ability to appreciate the present. Interpersonal skills are consistently fostered and tested in schools. Navigating high school parties, the process of organizing them, and getting invited to them requires significant social dexterity. Rejection from romantic interest, alienation from peers, rewards for accomplishment, and acceptance by other peers are some of the daily emotional obstacles that teenagers face. Being constantly taught by older individuals and scolded by parents is its own course in mindfulness. Those are few of the many natural processes of interpersonal growth that formalized therapy may impede.
• The universal discussion of psychological terms and psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness, but also normalize and possibly even promote it. While punishing or stigmatizing a child for having mental illness is obviously unacceptable and cruel, we do wonder if the compulsory psychotherapy may provide negative effects. Psychotherapies, especially manualized ones, were developed to alleviate mental suffering. It seems possible that this format normalizes pathology.
In 1961, Erving Goffman described the concept of sane people appearing insane in an asylum as “mortification.” In 2023, we have much improved, but have we done something to internalize patterns of suffering and alienation rather than dispel them? They are given forms that explain what the feeling of depression is when they may have never considered it. They are given tools to handle distress, when distress may not be present.
• Many human beings live on a fairly tight rope of suppression and the less adaptive repression. Suppression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to put distressing thoughts out of conscious awareness. After a difficult breakup a teenager may ask some friends to go out and watch a movie, making efforts to put negative feelings out of conscious awareness until there is an opportunity to cope adaptively with those stressors.
Repression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to prevent distressing thoughts from entering conscious awareness in the first place. After a difficult breakup a teenager acts like nothing happened. While not particularly adaptive, many people live with significant repression and without particular anguish. It is possible that uncovering all of those repressed and suppressed feelings through the exploratory work of therapy may destabilize individuals from their tight rope.
• A less problematic explanation could also be what was previously referred to as therapeutic regression. In psychoanalytic theory, patients are generally thought to have a compromise formation, a psychological strategy used to reconcile conflicting drives. The compromise formation is the way a patient balances their desires against moral expectations and the realities of the external world. In therapy, that compromise formation can be challenged, leading to therapeutic regression.
By uncovering and confronting deeply rooted feelings, a patient may find that their symptoms temporarily intensify. This may not be a problem, but a necessary step to growth in some patients. It is possible that a program longer than 8 weeks would have overcome a temporary worsening in outcome measures.
While it’s easy to highlight the darker moments in psychiatric history, psychiatry has grown into a field which offers well-accepted and uncontroversially promoted forms of treatment. This is evolution, exemplified by the mere consideration of the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers. But this raises important questions about the potential unintended consequences of normalizing and formalizing therapy. It prompted us to reflect on whether psychiatric treatment is always the best solution and if it might, at times, impede natural processes of growth and coping.
In this context, the study on universal DBT-based group skills training for teenagers challenged our assumptions. The unexpected outcomes suggest that societal and educational systems may naturally foster many of the skills that formalized therapy seeks to provide, and may do so with greater efficacy than that which prescriptive psychiatric treatments have to offer. Moreover, the universal discussion of psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness but also normalize it, potentially leading to unnecessary pathology.
Finally, the study prompted us to consider the fine balance that people find themselves in, questioning whether we should be so certain that our interventions can always provide a better outcome than an individual’s current coping mechanisms. These findings serve as a valuable reminder that our enthusiasm for widespread psychiatric interventions should be tempered by rigorous research and a nuanced understanding of human psychology and development.
This study could be an example of the grandiose stance psychiatry has at times taken of late, suggesting the field has an intervention for all that ails you and can serve as a corrective to society’s maladaptive deviations. Rising rates of mental illness in the community are not interpreted as a failing of the field of psychiatry, but as evidence that we need more psychiatrists. Acts of gun violence, ever increasing rates suicides, and even political disagreements are met with the idea that if only we had more mental health capacity, this could be avoided.
Dr. Badre is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in San Diego. He holds teaching positions at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of San Diego. He teaches medical education, psychopharmacology, ethics in psychiatry, and correctional care. Dr. Badre can be reached at his website, BadreMD.com. He has no conflicts of interest. Dr. ZoBell is a fourth-year senior resident at UCSD Psychiatry Residency Program. She is currently serving as the program’s Chief Resident at the VA San Diego on the inpatient psychiatric unit. Dr. ZoBell is interested in outpatient and emergency psychiatry as well as psychotherapy. Dr. Lehman is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. He is codirector of all acute and intensive psychiatric treatment at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego, where he practices clinical psychiatry. He has no conflicts of interest.
Reference
1. Harvey, LJ, et al. Investigating the efficacy of a Dialectical behaviour therapy-based universal intervention on adolescent social and emotional well-being outcomes. Behav Res Ther. 2023 Oct. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104408.
We love psychiatry. We love the idea that someone can come to receive care from a physician to alleviate psychological suffering.
Some people experience such severe anguish that they are unable to relate to others. Some are so despondent that they are unable to make decisions. Some are so distressed that their thoughts become inconsistent with reality. We want all those people, and many more, to have access to effective psychiatric care. However, there are reasonable expectations that one should be able to have that a treatment will help, and that appropriate informed consent is given.
One recent article reminded us of this in a particularly poignant way.
The study in question is a recent publication looking at the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers.1 At face value, we would have certainly considered this to be a benevolent and well-meaning intervention. Anyone who has been a teenager or has talked to one, is aware of the emotional instability punctuated by episodes of intense anxiety or irritability. It is age appropriate for a teenager to question and explore their identity. Teenagers are notoriously impulsive with a deep desire for validating interpersonal relationships. One could continue to list the symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD) and find a lot of similarity with the condition of transitioning from a child to an adult.
It is thus common sense to consider applying the most established therapy for BPD, dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), to teenagers. The basics of DBT would seem to be helpful to anyone but appear particularly appropriate to this population. Mindfulness, the practice of paying attention to your present experience, allows one to realize that they are trapped in past or hypothetical future moments. Emotional regulation provides the tools that offer a frame for our feelings and involves recognizing feelings and understanding what they mean. Interpersonal work allows one to recognize and adapt to the feelings of others, while learning how to have a healthy voice with others. Distress tolerance is the exercise of learning to experience and contain our feelings.
The study looked at about 1,000 young adolescents, around 13 years old across high schools in Sydney, Australia: 598 adolescents were allocated to the intervention, and 566 to the control. The intervention consisted of eight weekly sessions of DBT lasting about 50 minutes. The results were “contrary to predictions.” Participants who received DBT “reported significantly increased total difficulties,” and “significant increases in depression and anxiety.” The effects were worse in males yet significant in both genders. The study concludes with “a reminder that present enthusiasm for universal dissemination of short-term DBT-based group skills training within schools, specifically in early adolescence, is ahead of the research evidence.”
We can’t help but wonder why the outcomes of the study were this way; here are some ideas:
• Society has natural ways of developing interpersonal skills, emotional regulation, and the ability to appreciate the present. Interpersonal skills are consistently fostered and tested in schools. Navigating high school parties, the process of organizing them, and getting invited to them requires significant social dexterity. Rejection from romantic interest, alienation from peers, rewards for accomplishment, and acceptance by other peers are some of the daily emotional obstacles that teenagers face. Being constantly taught by older individuals and scolded by parents is its own course in mindfulness. Those are few of the many natural processes of interpersonal growth that formalized therapy may impede.
• The universal discussion of psychological terms and psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness, but also normalize and possibly even promote it. While punishing or stigmatizing a child for having mental illness is obviously unacceptable and cruel, we do wonder if the compulsory psychotherapy may provide negative effects. Psychotherapies, especially manualized ones, were developed to alleviate mental suffering. It seems possible that this format normalizes pathology.
In 1961, Erving Goffman described the concept of sane people appearing insane in an asylum as “mortification.” In 2023, we have much improved, but have we done something to internalize patterns of suffering and alienation rather than dispel them? They are given forms that explain what the feeling of depression is when they may have never considered it. They are given tools to handle distress, when distress may not be present.
• Many human beings live on a fairly tight rope of suppression and the less adaptive repression. Suppression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to put distressing thoughts out of conscious awareness. After a difficult breakup a teenager may ask some friends to go out and watch a movie, making efforts to put negative feelings out of conscious awareness until there is an opportunity to cope adaptively with those stressors.
Repression is the defense mechanism by which individuals make an effort to prevent distressing thoughts from entering conscious awareness in the first place. After a difficult breakup a teenager acts like nothing happened. While not particularly adaptive, many people live with significant repression and without particular anguish. It is possible that uncovering all of those repressed and suppressed feelings through the exploratory work of therapy may destabilize individuals from their tight rope.
• A less problematic explanation could also be what was previously referred to as therapeutic regression. In psychoanalytic theory, patients are generally thought to have a compromise formation, a psychological strategy used to reconcile conflicting drives. The compromise formation is the way a patient balances their desires against moral expectations and the realities of the external world. In therapy, that compromise formation can be challenged, leading to therapeutic regression.
By uncovering and confronting deeply rooted feelings, a patient may find that their symptoms temporarily intensify. This may not be a problem, but a necessary step to growth in some patients. It is possible that a program longer than 8 weeks would have overcome a temporary worsening in outcome measures.
While it’s easy to highlight the darker moments in psychiatric history, psychiatry has grown into a field which offers well-accepted and uncontroversially promoted forms of treatment. This is evolution, exemplified by the mere consideration of the universal use of psychotherapy for teenagers. But this raises important questions about the potential unintended consequences of normalizing and formalizing therapy. It prompted us to reflect on whether psychiatric treatment is always the best solution and if it might, at times, impede natural processes of growth and coping.
In this context, the study on universal DBT-based group skills training for teenagers challenged our assumptions. The unexpected outcomes suggest that societal and educational systems may naturally foster many of the skills that formalized therapy seeks to provide, and may do so with greater efficacy than that which prescriptive psychiatric treatments have to offer. Moreover, the universal discussion of psychiatric symptoms may not only destigmatize mental illness but also normalize it, potentially leading to unnecessary pathology.
Finally, the study prompted us to consider the fine balance that people find themselves in, questioning whether we should be so certain that our interventions can always provide a better outcome than an individual’s current coping mechanisms. These findings serve as a valuable reminder that our enthusiasm for widespread psychiatric interventions should be tempered by rigorous research and a nuanced understanding of human psychology and development.
This study could be an example of the grandiose stance psychiatry has at times taken of late, suggesting the field has an intervention for all that ails you and can serve as a corrective to society’s maladaptive deviations. Rising rates of mental illness in the community are not interpreted as a failing of the field of psychiatry, but as evidence that we need more psychiatrists. Acts of gun violence, ever increasing rates suicides, and even political disagreements are met with the idea that if only we had more mental health capacity, this could be avoided.
Dr. Badre is a clinical and forensic psychiatrist in San Diego. He holds teaching positions at the University of California, San Diego, and the University of San Diego. He teaches medical education, psychopharmacology, ethics in psychiatry, and correctional care. Dr. Badre can be reached at his website, BadreMD.com. He has no conflicts of interest. Dr. ZoBell is a fourth-year senior resident at UCSD Psychiatry Residency Program. She is currently serving as the program’s Chief Resident at the VA San Diego on the inpatient psychiatric unit. Dr. ZoBell is interested in outpatient and emergency psychiatry as well as psychotherapy. Dr. Lehman is a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego. He is codirector of all acute and intensive psychiatric treatment at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in San Diego, where he practices clinical psychiatry. He has no conflicts of interest.
Reference
1. Harvey, LJ, et al. Investigating the efficacy of a Dialectical behaviour therapy-based universal intervention on adolescent social and emotional well-being outcomes. Behav Res Ther. 2023 Oct. doi: 10.1016/j.brat.2023.104408.
Yoga linked to seizure, anxiety reduction in epilepsy
TOPLINE:
in people with epilepsy, a new study shows.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators included participants aged 18-60 years with epilepsy who scored ≥ 4 on the Kilifi Stigma Scale of Epilepsy. A score greater than the 66th percentile indicates the presence of strongly felt stigma.
- Patients (n = 160) had an average of one seizure per week, and most took at least two antiseizure medications.
- The intervention group (n = 80) participated in a yoga module with muscle-loosening exercises, slow and synchronized breathing, meditation, and positive affirmations. The control group (n = 80) participated in sham yoga sessions with no instructions on the breathing exercises or attention to the body movements and sensations during practice.
- Both groups participated in seven 1-hour supervised group yoga sessions over 3 months, were asked to practice the interventions at home five times per week, and received a psychoeducation module on epilepsy.
TAKEAWAY:
- Participants practicing the intervention module had significant reductions in self-perceived stigma, compared with those in the control group (P = .01).
- The proportion of participants in the intervention group who had a more than 50% seizure reduction (odds ratio, 4.11; P = .01) and complete seizure remission (OR, 7.4; P = .005) at the end of the 6-month follow-up was significantly higher than in the control group.
- Compared with those in the control group, there were also significant improvements in anxiety (P = .032) and quality of life (P < .001) in the intervention group.
- The intervention group also experienced significant improvement in mindfulness (P < .001) and cognitive impairment, compared with the control group (P < .004).
IN PRACTICE:
“This stigma can affect a person’s life in many ways, including treatment, emergency department visits, and poor mental health,” study investigator Majari Tripathi, MD, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said in a press release. “Our study showed that doing yoga can alleviate the burden of epilepsy and improve the overall quality of life by reducing this perceived stigma.”
SOURCE:
Dr. Tripathi and Kirandeep Kaur, MD, also of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, conducted the study with their colleagues. It was published online in Neurology.
LIMITATIONS:
There was no passive control or treatment as usual group, which would indicate the effect size of the intervention. In addition, there was no monitoring of seizure frequency before the study began, which may have biased the change of seizure frequency as an outcome.
DISCLOSURES:
The study investigators reported no study funding or reported disclosures.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
in people with epilepsy, a new study shows.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators included participants aged 18-60 years with epilepsy who scored ≥ 4 on the Kilifi Stigma Scale of Epilepsy. A score greater than the 66th percentile indicates the presence of strongly felt stigma.
- Patients (n = 160) had an average of one seizure per week, and most took at least two antiseizure medications.
- The intervention group (n = 80) participated in a yoga module with muscle-loosening exercises, slow and synchronized breathing, meditation, and positive affirmations. The control group (n = 80) participated in sham yoga sessions with no instructions on the breathing exercises or attention to the body movements and sensations during practice.
- Both groups participated in seven 1-hour supervised group yoga sessions over 3 months, were asked to practice the interventions at home five times per week, and received a psychoeducation module on epilepsy.
TAKEAWAY:
- Participants practicing the intervention module had significant reductions in self-perceived stigma, compared with those in the control group (P = .01).
- The proportion of participants in the intervention group who had a more than 50% seizure reduction (odds ratio, 4.11; P = .01) and complete seizure remission (OR, 7.4; P = .005) at the end of the 6-month follow-up was significantly higher than in the control group.
- Compared with those in the control group, there were also significant improvements in anxiety (P = .032) and quality of life (P < .001) in the intervention group.
- The intervention group also experienced significant improvement in mindfulness (P < .001) and cognitive impairment, compared with the control group (P < .004).
IN PRACTICE:
“This stigma can affect a person’s life in many ways, including treatment, emergency department visits, and poor mental health,” study investigator Majari Tripathi, MD, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said in a press release. “Our study showed that doing yoga can alleviate the burden of epilepsy and improve the overall quality of life by reducing this perceived stigma.”
SOURCE:
Dr. Tripathi and Kirandeep Kaur, MD, also of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, conducted the study with their colleagues. It was published online in Neurology.
LIMITATIONS:
There was no passive control or treatment as usual group, which would indicate the effect size of the intervention. In addition, there was no monitoring of seizure frequency before the study began, which may have biased the change of seizure frequency as an outcome.
DISCLOSURES:
The study investigators reported no study funding or reported disclosures.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
in people with epilepsy, a new study shows.
METHODOLOGY:
- Investigators included participants aged 18-60 years with epilepsy who scored ≥ 4 on the Kilifi Stigma Scale of Epilepsy. A score greater than the 66th percentile indicates the presence of strongly felt stigma.
- Patients (n = 160) had an average of one seizure per week, and most took at least two antiseizure medications.
- The intervention group (n = 80) participated in a yoga module with muscle-loosening exercises, slow and synchronized breathing, meditation, and positive affirmations. The control group (n = 80) participated in sham yoga sessions with no instructions on the breathing exercises or attention to the body movements and sensations during practice.
- Both groups participated in seven 1-hour supervised group yoga sessions over 3 months, were asked to practice the interventions at home five times per week, and received a psychoeducation module on epilepsy.
TAKEAWAY:
- Participants practicing the intervention module had significant reductions in self-perceived stigma, compared with those in the control group (P = .01).
- The proportion of participants in the intervention group who had a more than 50% seizure reduction (odds ratio, 4.11; P = .01) and complete seizure remission (OR, 7.4; P = .005) at the end of the 6-month follow-up was significantly higher than in the control group.
- Compared with those in the control group, there were also significant improvements in anxiety (P = .032) and quality of life (P < .001) in the intervention group.
- The intervention group also experienced significant improvement in mindfulness (P < .001) and cognitive impairment, compared with the control group (P < .004).
IN PRACTICE:
“This stigma can affect a person’s life in many ways, including treatment, emergency department visits, and poor mental health,” study investigator Majari Tripathi, MD, of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, said in a press release. “Our study showed that doing yoga can alleviate the burden of epilepsy and improve the overall quality of life by reducing this perceived stigma.”
SOURCE:
Dr. Tripathi and Kirandeep Kaur, MD, also of All India Institute of Medical Sciences, conducted the study with their colleagues. It was published online in Neurology.
LIMITATIONS:
There was no passive control or treatment as usual group, which would indicate the effect size of the intervention. In addition, there was no monitoring of seizure frequency before the study began, which may have biased the change of seizure frequency as an outcome.
DISCLOSURES:
The study investigators reported no study funding or reported disclosures.
A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.
‘Love more’: Why doctors should promote social connection
Those who embrace lifestyle medicine are familiar with the slogan Dean Ornish, MD, likes to use: Eat well, move more, stress less, love more.
That last one, love, was the renowned physician and author’s focus at the recent American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Denver. That’s because love – essentially the support, connectedness, and caring that patients feel when they join a lifestyle-change program – is “where healing occurs at the deepest level.”
Indeed, social connectedness is emerging as a vital pillar in the burgeoning field of lifestyle medicine, a specialty that uses lifestyle interventions to treat chronic conditions. About 300 lifestyle medicine programs are now integrated into residencies in medical schools across the country, up from a handful just 5 years ago, said Meagan Grega, MD, the conference chair.
“The energy and growth in American lifestyle medicine is unparalleled by anything else I see in the health care world right now,” said Dr. Grega, a family physician for 25 years in eastern Pennsylvania.
The field applies volumes of research, from the 1990s to today, demonstrating the healing effects of lifestyle changes. Dr. Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute has published research on small changes (like pomegranate juice helping blood flow in the heart) and huge ones: Coronary heart patients reversed the narrowing of arteries without lipid-lowering drugs after 1 year of lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management, and group support.
Ranking alongside bedrocks such as healthy diet, sleep, exercise, and stress management is positive social connection. That part, the “love more” part, often draws skepticism but is vital, said Dr. Ornish, who is sometimes referred to as the father of lifestyle medicine.
It’s “invariably the part that’s the most meaningful – that sense of connection to community that can come when you bring total strangers together,” Dr. Ornish said. “The ‘love more’ part, in many ways, is not only as important, but in some ways even more because everything really flows from that.”
Patients in a support group, who can “let down their emotional defenses and talk openly and authentically,” are much more likely to make and maintain healthy changes, Dr. Ornish said.
Love as medicine
Mounting evidence links loneliness and isolation with a range of health issues, from mood disorders such as depression to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. What’s more, data suggest that loneliness and social isolation in the United States are on the rise, and the COVID pandemic made that more clear. In May 2023, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, called loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in the United States a “public health crisis.”
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier,” said Robert Waldinger, MD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Dr. Waldinger, who was not affiliated with the conference, is head of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest studies of adult life. Beginning in 1938, the study has tracked 724 people plus more than 1,300 of their descendants and found that embracing community and close relationships helps us live longer and be happier.
In the study, the people who were most satisfied with their relationships at age 50 years were the healthiest at age 80 years. Knowing you have someone to rely on protects the brain: “Those people’s memories stay sharper longer,” Dr. Waldinger said.
He draws a distinction between connection and love. “Love is, I think, more of a feeling,” Dr. Waldinger noted. “Connection is a feeling, but it’s also an activity.”
One in five Americans say they’re lonely, he said, “and loneliness is a stressor.” People who are isolated don’t sleep as well, he added. Their health declines earlier in midlife, brain function slips sooner, and their lives are shorter.
“You don’t have anyone to complain to,” he said. If you do, “you can feel your body start to calm down.” Those without social connections may stay in a low-level “fight-or-flight mode.”
“What we think happens is that you have low levels of inflammation chronically, and those can gradually break down body systems.” Moreover, higher rates of cardiac reactivity, for instance, a racing heartbeat when upset, can lead to high blood pressure and lower immune function.
In his talk, Dr. Ornish said, “Anger is that one emotion that has consistently been shown to make heart disease worse.”
Helping people in those straits is gratifying, Dr. Ornish said. “If we can work with people as lifestyle medicine practitioners when they’re suffering, there’s an opportunity for transformation.”
Future
Of course, that can be easier said than done. Dr. Ornish relayed a patient’s typical reaction to a lifestyle program: “This is kind of weird stuff. Like, I get diet. But a plant-based diet, really? Meditation? Loving more? Really?”
He told the conference, “Part of our job as lifestyle medicine practitioners is to spend a little extra time with them. It doesn’t even take that much time. And to really help them understand what brings them a sense of hope and meaning and purpose.”
The results can be motivating. “Most people feel so much better so quickly,” Dr. Ornish said. “It reframes the reason for change from fear of dying to joy of living.”
Dr. Grega, for one, is optimistic for the future, citing survey results showing that 95% of medical students think that they›d be better counselors with lifestyle training. ‘They passionately want this type of thing,” she said.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Those who embrace lifestyle medicine are familiar with the slogan Dean Ornish, MD, likes to use: Eat well, move more, stress less, love more.
That last one, love, was the renowned physician and author’s focus at the recent American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Denver. That’s because love – essentially the support, connectedness, and caring that patients feel when they join a lifestyle-change program – is “where healing occurs at the deepest level.”
Indeed, social connectedness is emerging as a vital pillar in the burgeoning field of lifestyle medicine, a specialty that uses lifestyle interventions to treat chronic conditions. About 300 lifestyle medicine programs are now integrated into residencies in medical schools across the country, up from a handful just 5 years ago, said Meagan Grega, MD, the conference chair.
“The energy and growth in American lifestyle medicine is unparalleled by anything else I see in the health care world right now,” said Dr. Grega, a family physician for 25 years in eastern Pennsylvania.
The field applies volumes of research, from the 1990s to today, demonstrating the healing effects of lifestyle changes. Dr. Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute has published research on small changes (like pomegranate juice helping blood flow in the heart) and huge ones: Coronary heart patients reversed the narrowing of arteries without lipid-lowering drugs after 1 year of lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management, and group support.
Ranking alongside bedrocks such as healthy diet, sleep, exercise, and stress management is positive social connection. That part, the “love more” part, often draws skepticism but is vital, said Dr. Ornish, who is sometimes referred to as the father of lifestyle medicine.
It’s “invariably the part that’s the most meaningful – that sense of connection to community that can come when you bring total strangers together,” Dr. Ornish said. “The ‘love more’ part, in many ways, is not only as important, but in some ways even more because everything really flows from that.”
Patients in a support group, who can “let down their emotional defenses and talk openly and authentically,” are much more likely to make and maintain healthy changes, Dr. Ornish said.
Love as medicine
Mounting evidence links loneliness and isolation with a range of health issues, from mood disorders such as depression to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. What’s more, data suggest that loneliness and social isolation in the United States are on the rise, and the COVID pandemic made that more clear. In May 2023, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, called loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in the United States a “public health crisis.”
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier,” said Robert Waldinger, MD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Dr. Waldinger, who was not affiliated with the conference, is head of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest studies of adult life. Beginning in 1938, the study has tracked 724 people plus more than 1,300 of their descendants and found that embracing community and close relationships helps us live longer and be happier.
In the study, the people who were most satisfied with their relationships at age 50 years were the healthiest at age 80 years. Knowing you have someone to rely on protects the brain: “Those people’s memories stay sharper longer,” Dr. Waldinger said.
He draws a distinction between connection and love. “Love is, I think, more of a feeling,” Dr. Waldinger noted. “Connection is a feeling, but it’s also an activity.”
One in five Americans say they’re lonely, he said, “and loneliness is a stressor.” People who are isolated don’t sleep as well, he added. Their health declines earlier in midlife, brain function slips sooner, and their lives are shorter.
“You don’t have anyone to complain to,” he said. If you do, “you can feel your body start to calm down.” Those without social connections may stay in a low-level “fight-or-flight mode.”
“What we think happens is that you have low levels of inflammation chronically, and those can gradually break down body systems.” Moreover, higher rates of cardiac reactivity, for instance, a racing heartbeat when upset, can lead to high blood pressure and lower immune function.
In his talk, Dr. Ornish said, “Anger is that one emotion that has consistently been shown to make heart disease worse.”
Helping people in those straits is gratifying, Dr. Ornish said. “If we can work with people as lifestyle medicine practitioners when they’re suffering, there’s an opportunity for transformation.”
Future
Of course, that can be easier said than done. Dr. Ornish relayed a patient’s typical reaction to a lifestyle program: “This is kind of weird stuff. Like, I get diet. But a plant-based diet, really? Meditation? Loving more? Really?”
He told the conference, “Part of our job as lifestyle medicine practitioners is to spend a little extra time with them. It doesn’t even take that much time. And to really help them understand what brings them a sense of hope and meaning and purpose.”
The results can be motivating. “Most people feel so much better so quickly,” Dr. Ornish said. “It reframes the reason for change from fear of dying to joy of living.”
Dr. Grega, for one, is optimistic for the future, citing survey results showing that 95% of medical students think that they›d be better counselors with lifestyle training. ‘They passionately want this type of thing,” she said.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Those who embrace lifestyle medicine are familiar with the slogan Dean Ornish, MD, likes to use: Eat well, move more, stress less, love more.
That last one, love, was the renowned physician and author’s focus at the recent American College of Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Denver. That’s because love – essentially the support, connectedness, and caring that patients feel when they join a lifestyle-change program – is “where healing occurs at the deepest level.”
Indeed, social connectedness is emerging as a vital pillar in the burgeoning field of lifestyle medicine, a specialty that uses lifestyle interventions to treat chronic conditions. About 300 lifestyle medicine programs are now integrated into residencies in medical schools across the country, up from a handful just 5 years ago, said Meagan Grega, MD, the conference chair.
“The energy and growth in American lifestyle medicine is unparalleled by anything else I see in the health care world right now,” said Dr. Grega, a family physician for 25 years in eastern Pennsylvania.
The field applies volumes of research, from the 1990s to today, demonstrating the healing effects of lifestyle changes. Dr. Ornish’s Preventive Medicine Research Institute has published research on small changes (like pomegranate juice helping blood flow in the heart) and huge ones: Coronary heart patients reversed the narrowing of arteries without lipid-lowering drugs after 1 year of lifestyle changes, including a vegetarian diet, aerobic exercise, stress management, and group support.
Ranking alongside bedrocks such as healthy diet, sleep, exercise, and stress management is positive social connection. That part, the “love more” part, often draws skepticism but is vital, said Dr. Ornish, who is sometimes referred to as the father of lifestyle medicine.
It’s “invariably the part that’s the most meaningful – that sense of connection to community that can come when you bring total strangers together,” Dr. Ornish said. “The ‘love more’ part, in many ways, is not only as important, but in some ways even more because everything really flows from that.”
Patients in a support group, who can “let down their emotional defenses and talk openly and authentically,” are much more likely to make and maintain healthy changes, Dr. Ornish said.
Love as medicine
Mounting evidence links loneliness and isolation with a range of health issues, from mood disorders such as depression to chronic conditions such as cardiovascular disease. What’s more, data suggest that loneliness and social isolation in the United States are on the rise, and the COVID pandemic made that more clear. In May 2023, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, called loneliness, isolation, and lack of connection in the United States a “public health crisis.”
“Good relationships keep us happier and healthier,” said Robert Waldinger, MD, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston.
Dr. Waldinger, who was not affiliated with the conference, is head of the Harvard Study of Adult Development, one of the longest studies of adult life. Beginning in 1938, the study has tracked 724 people plus more than 1,300 of their descendants and found that embracing community and close relationships helps us live longer and be happier.
In the study, the people who were most satisfied with their relationships at age 50 years were the healthiest at age 80 years. Knowing you have someone to rely on protects the brain: “Those people’s memories stay sharper longer,” Dr. Waldinger said.
He draws a distinction between connection and love. “Love is, I think, more of a feeling,” Dr. Waldinger noted. “Connection is a feeling, but it’s also an activity.”
One in five Americans say they’re lonely, he said, “and loneliness is a stressor.” People who are isolated don’t sleep as well, he added. Their health declines earlier in midlife, brain function slips sooner, and their lives are shorter.
“You don’t have anyone to complain to,” he said. If you do, “you can feel your body start to calm down.” Those without social connections may stay in a low-level “fight-or-flight mode.”
“What we think happens is that you have low levels of inflammation chronically, and those can gradually break down body systems.” Moreover, higher rates of cardiac reactivity, for instance, a racing heartbeat when upset, can lead to high blood pressure and lower immune function.
In his talk, Dr. Ornish said, “Anger is that one emotion that has consistently been shown to make heart disease worse.”
Helping people in those straits is gratifying, Dr. Ornish said. “If we can work with people as lifestyle medicine practitioners when they’re suffering, there’s an opportunity for transformation.”
Future
Of course, that can be easier said than done. Dr. Ornish relayed a patient’s typical reaction to a lifestyle program: “This is kind of weird stuff. Like, I get diet. But a plant-based diet, really? Meditation? Loving more? Really?”
He told the conference, “Part of our job as lifestyle medicine practitioners is to spend a little extra time with them. It doesn’t even take that much time. And to really help them understand what brings them a sense of hope and meaning and purpose.”
The results can be motivating. “Most people feel so much better so quickly,” Dr. Ornish said. “It reframes the reason for change from fear of dying to joy of living.”
Dr. Grega, for one, is optimistic for the future, citing survey results showing that 95% of medical students think that they›d be better counselors with lifestyle training. ‘They passionately want this type of thing,” she said.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
Can thermal biofeedback reduce pain and anxiety?
TOPLINE:
A novel handheld tool may hold promise for reducing anxiety and pain and improving sleep quality, according to research presented at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, the annual meeting of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
METHODOLOGY:
- Franklin Somchith Ly, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, developed , a product that assesses blood flow to the hand with an infrared temperature sensor and changes color as blood vessels expand during relaxation.
- Exercises such as intentional breathwork, visualization, and muscle relaxation change the color displayed by the device.
- Mr. Ly examined how measures of anxiety, sleep quality, and chronic pain changed after participants used the instrument. Ten participants completed a study assessing anxiety. Eight participants were enrolled in a sleep study where they completed biofeedback sessions before bed for 2 weeks, and 15 participants performed biofeedback twice daily and reported their levels of anxiety and pain.
TAKEAWAY:
- Anxiety scores decreased by about 22% on average (P < .001).
- Seven of the eight participants in the sleep study had improved scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, with an average improvement of nearly 30% (P < .05). Daytime dysfunction improved by 58% (P < .01).
- In the chronic pain study, about 60% of the 350 biofeedback sessions led to reduced pain.
IN PRACTICE:
“These portable devices may aid lifestyle management by alleviating anxiety, chronic pain, and enhancing daytime energy,” Mr. Ly said. “The results support their integration into lifestyle medicine and integrative medicine.”
SOURCE:
Mr. Ly presented the findings as a poster at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, which took place Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Denver and online.
LIMITATIONS:
The studies were open label and did not include control groups.
DISCLOSURES:
Mr. Ly is the founder of CalmStone, which markets a thermal biofeedback device. The research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office and Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
A novel handheld tool may hold promise for reducing anxiety and pain and improving sleep quality, according to research presented at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, the annual meeting of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
METHODOLOGY:
- Franklin Somchith Ly, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, developed , a product that assesses blood flow to the hand with an infrared temperature sensor and changes color as blood vessels expand during relaxation.
- Exercises such as intentional breathwork, visualization, and muscle relaxation change the color displayed by the device.
- Mr. Ly examined how measures of anxiety, sleep quality, and chronic pain changed after participants used the instrument. Ten participants completed a study assessing anxiety. Eight participants were enrolled in a sleep study where they completed biofeedback sessions before bed for 2 weeks, and 15 participants performed biofeedback twice daily and reported their levels of anxiety and pain.
TAKEAWAY:
- Anxiety scores decreased by about 22% on average (P < .001).
- Seven of the eight participants in the sleep study had improved scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, with an average improvement of nearly 30% (P < .05). Daytime dysfunction improved by 58% (P < .01).
- In the chronic pain study, about 60% of the 350 biofeedback sessions led to reduced pain.
IN PRACTICE:
“These portable devices may aid lifestyle management by alleviating anxiety, chronic pain, and enhancing daytime energy,” Mr. Ly said. “The results support their integration into lifestyle medicine and integrative medicine.”
SOURCE:
Mr. Ly presented the findings as a poster at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, which took place Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Denver and online.
LIMITATIONS:
The studies were open label and did not include control groups.
DISCLOSURES:
Mr. Ly is the founder of CalmStone, which markets a thermal biofeedback device. The research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office and Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.
TOPLINE:
A novel handheld tool may hold promise for reducing anxiety and pain and improving sleep quality, according to research presented at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, the annual meeting of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine.
METHODOLOGY:
- Franklin Somchith Ly, a PhD candidate in mechanical engineering at the University of California, Santa Barbara, developed , a product that assesses blood flow to the hand with an infrared temperature sensor and changes color as blood vessels expand during relaxation.
- Exercises such as intentional breathwork, visualization, and muscle relaxation change the color displayed by the device.
- Mr. Ly examined how measures of anxiety, sleep quality, and chronic pain changed after participants used the instrument. Ten participants completed a study assessing anxiety. Eight participants were enrolled in a sleep study where they completed biofeedback sessions before bed for 2 weeks, and 15 participants performed biofeedback twice daily and reported their levels of anxiety and pain.
TAKEAWAY:
- Anxiety scores decreased by about 22% on average (P < .001).
- Seven of the eight participants in the sleep study had improved scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, with an average improvement of nearly 30% (P < .05). Daytime dysfunction improved by 58% (P < .01).
- In the chronic pain study, about 60% of the 350 biofeedback sessions led to reduced pain.
IN PRACTICE:
“These portable devices may aid lifestyle management by alleviating anxiety, chronic pain, and enhancing daytime energy,” Mr. Ly said. “The results support their integration into lifestyle medicine and integrative medicine.”
SOURCE:
Mr. Ly presented the findings as a poster at Lifestyle Medicine 2023, which took place Oct. 29 to Nov. 1 in Denver and online.
LIMITATIONS:
The studies were open label and did not include control groups.
DISCLOSURES:
Mr. Ly is the founder of CalmStone, which markets a thermal biofeedback device. The research was supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Army Research Office and Institute for Collaborative Biotechnologies.
A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.