50% Staff Cuts at SAMHSA? ChatGPT Feels Anxiety; Delusional Disorders & Social Media

Rep. Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and more than 50 colleagues in Congress sent a letter to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. expressing “grave concerns” over reports that staffing at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) could be reduced by as much as 50% to 70%.

Meanwhile, SAMHSA is in disarray after already losing 10% of its workers amid the Trump administration’s purge last month — including staff on the 988 hotline team — which may impact efforts to reduce suicides and drug overdose deaths. (STAT)

Young adults with attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) had a higher risk of developing a substance use disorder when they started stimulant therapy via telehealth. (Health Affairs)

In England, prescriptions of ADHD medications have risen 18% every year since 2019. (BMJ Mental Health)

ChatGPT experiences “anxiety” from some traumatic user inputs but is soothed by mindfulness-based exercises, researchers found. (npj Digital Medicine)

While GLP-1 receptor agonists have shown some promise for addiction, semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) maker Novo Nordisk said it currently doesn’t have additional plans to test its GLP-1 drugs beyond an ongoing phase II trial with alcohol use as a secondary endpoint. (BioSpace)

Certain maternal inflammatory protein profiles during pregnancy were associated with a higher risk of neurodevelopmental disorders in kids, a cohort study of more than 500 mother-child pairs found. (JAMA Psychiatry)

Johnson & Johnson said it will end a phase III trial testing investigational aticaprant as an adjunctive treatment for major depressive disorder due to lack of efficacy.

More depressive symptoms during peripartum were associated with changes in the right amygdala, and a more challenging birth experience was linked with bilateral increases in hippocampal volume. (Science Advances)

A systematic review suggested psychotic spectrum phenotypes, particularly delusional disorders, may be linked with greater use of social media via its “disembodied and isolative nature.” (BMC Psychiatry)

Over the last 20 years, New York state lost about 12% of its inpatient psychiatric beds. (ABC7NY)

The French Society for Biological Psychiatry and Neuropsychopharmacology released revised guidelines for the management of patients with depressive disorders with partial and resistant responses to treatment. (L’Encéphale)

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