This is not a good time to have hypochondria. For folks who routinely obsess about their health, the coronavirus crisis could greatly magnify their distress. But there’s some good news for them in this era of sheltering-in-place. While in-person talk therapy is the gold standard for helping hypochondria patients overcome a crippling fear of health threats, a new study suggests online therapy can be just as effective. Prior research suggests “that people who typically worry much about their health react more strongly to health-related threats, such as that of a pandemic,” said Erland Axelsson, the study author. And if so, the ability to access online treatment options could prove invaluable to such patients, he said. The study of more than 200 Swedes was conducted between 2014 and 2020. Although it pre-dates COVID-19, it could offer much-needed reassurance to patients who may view online treatment as their safest option under the current circumstances. “We found that ‘cognitive behavior therapy’ (CBT) — which is the most researched and widely recommended treatment for health anxiety — can be delivered as a text-based treatment via the internet with effects on par with face-to-face treatment,” said Axelsson, a clinical psychologist and postdoctoral researcher at the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm. He noted that hypochondria — also called “health anxiety disorder” — involves an excessive preoccupation with health that lasts for six…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — President Donald Trump told the World Health Organization on Monday that the United States would permanently end all funding to the organization if it did not agree to make significant changes in the next 30 days. The threat was delivered in a letter that Trump posted on his Twitter account. Sent to WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the letter also warned that the United States would reconsider its membership in the WHO because it was soft on China and “so clearly not serving America’s interests.” “It is clear the repeated missteps by you and your organization in responding to the pandemic have been extremely costly for the world,” the four-page letter said. Also in the letter, Trump claims that the WHO “consistently ignored credible reports of the virus spreading in Wuhan in early December 2019 or even earlier, including reports from the Lancet medical journal.” But the prestigious British medical journal shot back at that accusation in a statement released Tuesday, saying “The Lancet published no report in December, 2019, referring to a virus or outbreak in Wuhan or anywhere else in China. The first reports the journal published were on January 24, 2020.” Last year, the United States contributed about $553 million of the WHO’s $6 billion budget, with China providing $43 million, The New York Times reported. Before…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — While most U.S. states had loosened social distancing restrictions by Monday, new data shows the number of coronavirus cases in the country has dropped in recent days. According to The New York Times, in New York state case counts have dropped over the last month, and they have also plunged in hard-hit Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Some states, including Vermont, Hawaii and Alaska, are seeing hardly any new cases at all, the newspaper said. “We’re seeing a decline; undoubtedly, that is something good to see,” Jeffrey Shaman, an epidemiologist at Columbia University, told the Times. “But what we are also seeing is a lot of places right on the edge of controlling the disease.” Of course, testing will be key to further efforts to control the spread of the new coronavirus. But only about 3% of the population has been tested, with nearly 1.5 million cases recorded so far. And more than 1,000 Americans died from COVID-19 almost every day this past week, as the U.S. death toll neared 90,000 on Monday, the Times reported. Meanwhile, a new survey from the Washington Post reveals another dilemma: Though tests for the virus are finally becoming widely available, too few people are lining up to get them. The poll of governors’ offices and state health departments found at least a dozen states where testing…  read on >

The coronavirus pandemic has been tough on Americans of all ages, but parents need to watch their teens for signs of depression, anxiety, anger and other emotional and mental health problems, a leading pediatricians’ group says. “It’s normal for teens to feel sad during this time, crying sometimes because they miss their friends or because sports and musical productions were canceled,” said Dr. Sara Goza, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). But some teens may find it especially difficult to cope, and parents should watch for the following signs that their teen may need more support, according to the AAP: Changes in mood, ongoing irritability, or feelings of hopelessness or rage. Changes in behavior, such as stepping back from personal relationships. Changes in weight or eating patterns. Changes in appearance, such as lack of basic personal hygiene. A lack of interest in activities the teen previously enjoyed. Difficulty falling or staying asleep, or starting to sleep all the time. Problems with memory, thinking, or concentration. An increase in risky or reckless behaviors, such as using drugs or alcohol, and thoughts about death or suicide, or talking about it. Parents should keep lines of communication open and check in with their teens often to discuss how they’re feeling and managing, and to watch for signs of mental health struggles. It’s important for parents to…  read on >

Insomnia may significantly increase the risk that older adults will be unable to shake off depression, researchers say. For the study, the investigators analyzed data on nearly 600 people over age 60 who visited primary care centers in New York City, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. All had some level of depression. Compared to patients whose sleep improved, those with worsening sleep problems were about 28 times more likely to be diagnosed with major depression at the end of the 12-month study. Patients whose sleep worsened also had nearly 12 times the odds of minor depression and were 10% more likely to report having suicidal thoughts, according to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study. The report was recently published online in the journal Sleep. Compared to patients whose sleep improved, those with persistent, but not worsening, insomnia were more likely to have lasting depression. But their risk was not as high as patients whose sleep got worse. “These results suggest that, among older adults with depression, insomnia symptoms offer an important clue to their risks for persistent depression and suicidal ideation,” said study senior author Adam Spira, a professor of mental health at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. “We can’t say that the sleep disturbances we’re seeing are necessarily causing the poor depression outcomes,” he said in a Hopkins news release. “But the results suggest…  read on >

(HealthDay News) — As millions of Americans try to navigate a safe re-entry into public life, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday released recommendations to guide schools, businesses and restaurants through reopening during the coronavirus pandemic. Six “checklists” — which also offer advice to day care centers, mass transit and camps — come after many states have already begun to ease social distancing on their own. These final guidances are less detailed than draft recommendations the agency sent to the White House for review last month, the Washington Post reported. A CDC spokesman told the Post that additional recommendations may still come from the agency. The six checklists were ready for release, so the Trump administration decided to put them out while other guidelines make their way through the review process, the spokesman added. The documents are aimed at helping facilities decide if they’re ready to open and inform how they do so, the spokesman told the newspaper. “This was an effort on our part to make some decision trees we thought might be helpful to those moving forward with opening their establishment,” the spokesperson said. But some public health officials say more is needed. “We need to unleash the voices of the scientists in our public health system in the United States so they can be heard, and their guidance…  read on >