Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
OpenAI Will Offer Parental Controls After California Teen's Suicide
The Washington Post: ChatGPT To Get Parental Controls After Teen User’s Death By Suicide
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said Tuesday that it will introduce parental controls, a major change to the popular chatbot announced a week after the California family of a teen who died by suicide alleged in a lawsuit that ChatGPT encouraged their son to hide his intentions. OpenAI said in a blog post Tuesday that within the next month it would offer tools that allow parents to set limits for how their teens use the technology and receive notifications if the chatbot detects that they are in “acute distress.” The company said it had been working on the controls since earlier this year. (De Vynck, 9/2)
In other mental health news —
The Colorado Sun: Colorado Suicide Rates: Oldest Residents Three Times Higher Than Teenagers
Physical decline is a common lead-up to depression among older Coloradans, especially for those who were active on the ski slopes, rivers and hiking trails. It’s also one of the reasons that the suicide rate among older people is higher in Colorado than the rest of the nation, with more than one-third of suicides in Colorado among people age 55 and over. The suicide rate among older Coloradans has not budged in a decade, even as the teen suicide rate has dropped to its lowest in 18 years. It’s a growing concern because Colorado is getting older — by 2050, one-quarter of the population is projected to be over the age of 60. (Brown, 9/2)
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Ohio Courts See A Jump In Mentally Ill Defendants, Leading To Calls For Greater Services
Court dockets have ballooned in recent years with cases involving the mentally ill, forcing judges into roles of overseeing defendants who have long struggled. Specialty courts aimed at specifically helping those with mental health issues have also seen a jump in cases. The effects are widespread. Last year, 1 in 4 Ohio prisoners suffered from a form of mental illness. The costs to care for them reached $72.4 million, according to a state report. (Gambino, 9/2)
MedPage Today: Preschoolers Are Prescribed ADHD Meds Too Soon, Study Suggests
Preschoolers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) were often prescribed medication shortly after diagnosis, despite guidelines that recommend 6 months of behavior therapy before pharmaceutical interventions, according to a retrospective analysis. (Robertson, 9/2)
Phys.Org: Spouses Show Consistent Similarities Across Nine Psychiatric Disorders Over Generations
A multinational collaboration of researchers report that psychiatric spousal resemblance across nine psychiatric disorders appears consistent and persists across birth cohorts for roughly 90 years in a sample of over 14 million. Previous small-scale marriage registry studies have reported spousal similarities for several disorders and related psychiatric traits. A larger, population-based comparison across cultures and generations was needed to assess how widespread the phenomenon extends. (Jackson, 9/2)
On military mental health care —
Military.com: Pentagon To Begin Screening For 'Magic Mushroom' Use
U.S. service members may be drug-tested for suspected use of “magic mushrooms” under a new policy announced by the Pentagon last week. A memo issued Aug. 18 by the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness said that, starting Oct. 1, troops may be screened for psilocin, the hallucinogen in psilocybin mushrooms. (Kime, 9/2)
The War Horse: Veterans' Mental Health Is Being Capped, VA Therapists Say
Mental health providers in five states tell The War Horse that VA medical centers across the country have been instituting similar limits on one-on-one mental health therapy in recent years and transitioning veterans to lower levels of treatment. The trend has led to anxiety—and great debate—among both providers and patients. ... Yet when asked about the therapists’ concerns, a VA spokesperson insisted the claims of widespread caps on individual mental health sessions are untrue. (Rosenbaum, 8/26)
