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Category: mental health

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Mental health

Can Place-Based Approaches Improve Adolescent Mental Health? The Evidence is (Surprisingly) Thin

What if the secret to better adolescent mental health wasn’t found in a therapist’s office, but in the streets, schools, and parks of a community? That’s the promise of place-based approaches (PBAs)—collaborative efforts between multiple sectors, like public health officials, schools, and community groups, to improve health by changing the environments where young people live. […]

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Mental health

Can spending less make you feel worse?

As we potentially sit on the edge of a recession, what happens when you can no longer afford the little joys in life—an occasional night out, a concert, or even a small luxury like a nice watch? Most of us understand the financial strain of hard times, but new research suggests that cutting back on […]

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Health equity

The Urgent Need for Culturally Responsive Suicide Prevention for Latinx Adults

In 2020, suicide became the fifth leading cause of death among Latinx individuals in the United States. Behind this statistic are complex stories—working-aged men who struggle in silence, women facing mounting mental health stressors, and young adults navigating cultural identity conflicts. The increase in suicidal ideation and attempts among Latinx adults is alarming, yet existing […]

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Mental health

The Two Faces of Opioids: A Global Crisis of Access and Excess

In one part of the world, a mother watches her child suffer in agony from advanced cancer, unable to get the pain relief he desperately needs. In another, a man battles opioid addiction, his life unraveling due to a prescription he was given years ago. These are the two faces of the global opioid crisis—one […]

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Mental health

Understanding Overdose Spikes

Imagine you’re a public health official in Massachusetts. After weeks of routine overdose data reporting, a sudden spike in deaths hits your desk: an alarming five extra fatalities in just one day. What caused this? A bad batch of fentanyl? A sudden lapse in services? These are not just hypothetical questions. They highlight the challenges […]

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Mental health

Can Telehealth Bridge the Gap in Opioid Use Disorder Treatment? For Medicaid Patients, the Answer is Complicated

Imagine this: A single mother in Illinois struggles to balance work, childcare, and her battle with opioid use disorder (OUD). The COVID-19 pandemic, which upended daily life for millions, seems like it could provide a silver lining: telehealth services, offering remote access to essential treatment. But for her and many others on Medicaid, the promise […]

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Mental health

The High Stakes of Problem Gambling

A colleague and I were talking about an assessment process, and someone raised a good question. Are all types of gambling equal? That is, are problem gambling rates the same in BINGO halls as they are for sports betting apps. So we went to the literature and found a semi-recent study from Massachusetts that sheds […]

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Mental health

January 2025 Marks SAMHSA’s First Annual SUD Treatment Month

The start of a new year often inspires change, and this January, SAMHSA launches its first annual Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Treatment Month to emphasize hope, recovery, and action. Each week will focus on critical themes: This initiative highlights the importance of addressing substance use, exploring effective treatment options, and creating supportive communities. Tom Coderre, […]

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Mental health

What If We Could Predict the Perfect Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder?

Imagine a future where every person struggling with opioid use disorder (OUD) could be matched with the treatment most likely to work for them—saving lives, reducing relapses, and offering hope to thousands of families. Achieving this vision has long been a challenge for clinicians, but researchers behind a groundbreaking study at the U, Columbia, and […]

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