Most ex-cons are unlikely to receive substance use treatment following their release from prison, even though odds are high they are struggling with addiction, a new study finds. National estimates suggest as many as 85% of inmates leave prison with some form of substance abuse problem, researchers said. But only 17% of ex-cons on Medicaid in Virginia have been diagnosed with substance use disorders, and even fewer have been prescribed addiction-fighting medication, investigators found. “This research shows that many people aren’t getting the medical attention they need as they transition back to their communities,” said lead researcher Peter Cunningham, interim chair of the Virginia Commonwealth University Department of Health Policy. For the study, researchers used data from Virginia’s health and corrections departments to track the number of people diagnosed and treated for addiction following their release from prison. More than 4,600 adults were released from county jails and state prisons in 2022, and 85% enrolled in Medicaid within one month of release, the study found. “The good news is that we see a high number of individuals enrolling in Medicaid soon after they are released from prison, and that is in large part due to the state expanding Medicaid coverage in 2019,” Cunningham said in a university news release. However, only 17% had seen a doctor and been diagnosed with a substance use disorder within…  read on >  read on >

Anne Helms is one busy mom, constantly juggling the demands of working from home with parenting two young children. Despite that whirl of activity, Helms says she often feels isolated and lonely. “I work from home full time and I actually have a job where I’m on camera a lot and I’m Zoom calling people very often,” Helms, who lives in Columbus, Ohio, said in a news release. “However, you don’t get the small talk, so you don’t get the, ‘How are your children? How’s it going?’ And you don’t get a lot of genuine answers when you do ask, ‘How is it going?’” Helms added. “There are some days where the most chit-chat or idle talk that I get is with my dog because I work alone,” she said. Helms isn’t the only parent to struggle with busy loneliness, according to a new national survey from Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center. A broad majority of parents experience isolation, loneliness and burnout as a result of the demands of parenthood, the survey reveals: About two-thirds of parents (66%) said the demands of parenthood sometimes or frequently feel isolating and lonely Nearly as many, 62%, feel burned out by their responsibilities as a parent Nearly two in five (38%) feel they have no one to support them in their parenting About four in five (79%)…  read on >  read on >

“Dream it, be it” might sound like a cliche, but a new study says there’s something to the notion. Teenagers who set ambitious goals for themselves tend to be more successful as young adults, researchers reported recently in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Teens who set higher educational and career goals “tended to have higher educational attainment, income, occupational creativity, occupational prestige and job complexity after 12 years,” said researcher Rodica Damian, an associate professor of psychology with the University of Houston. That doesn’t mean that a person’s goals won’t change, researchers said. Some dreams fall away, while other goals remain strong and new ones come to the fore. But setting early goals related to education and accomplishment appeared to consistently predict better income, and tweaks in these goals tended to predict having a challenging, higher-prestige career, results show. For the study, researchers tracked two national groups of Icelandic youth across 12 years, from their late teenage years into young adulthood. Researchers examined how life goals developed with age, and how the goals set by teenagers related to their accomplishments in education and career. “For educational attainment, the strongest effects were found for education goals. Both initial levels and slopes of education goals were positively associated with educational attainment in both samples,” Damian said. “This indicates that adolescents with higher education goals, and…  read on >  read on >

Many people with tough-to-treat depression may be trying psilocybin, the active ingredient in magic mushrooms, as an alternative to antidepressants. Thinking that it’s a “natural” drug, folks might assume it comes without side effects. That assumption would be wrong. People in a new study who took psilocybin often experienced headache, nausea, anxiety, dizziness and elevated blood pressure — side effects similar to those seen with regular antidepressants, according to a team from the University of Georgia in Athens (UGA). The good news: Such side effects were only temporary. It’s less clear if longer-term side effects might emerge with time, the researchers noted. The short-term side effects “are what we may expect from your traditional antidepressants because those medications work in a similar fashion to psilocybin. They both target serotonin receptors,” explained senior study author Dr. Joshua Caballero, an associate professor in UGA’s College of Pharmacy. “It’s very encouraging,” he added in a university news release, “because the studies we examined consist of just one or two doses per patient, and we’re finding that the beneficial effects of psilocybin may stay for months when treating depression.” Psilocybin was shunned by the medical community for decades because, at higher doses, it can have hallucinatory properties. But used under the guidance and supervision of a therapist, the drug is having a comeback as a new form of antidepressant. But…  read on >  read on >

Acne, psoriasis, eczema, vitiligo, alopecia: Any one of these common skin ailments can render a child vulnerable to stigma and bullying at school, new research confirms. “These chronic skin conditions can be tremendously life-altering, including shaping psychosocial development,” noted study corresponding author Dr. Amy Paller. She’s chair of dermatology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “These painful experiences can shape a child’s personality into adulthood and erode self-confidence,” Paller added in a Northwestern news release. “Children may underestimate their abilities and worry about taking social risks. They don’t feel good enough, and this shame may affect them lifelong.” The new study of nearly 1,700 kids over the age of 7 was published April 24 in the journal JAMA Dermatology. Paller’s team used standard psychological scores measuring stigma, depression, anxiety and poor peer relationships among the children involved in the study. They found that nearly three-quarters (73%) experienced stigma from their skin condition that was severe enough to lower their quality of life. Most of the stigma and bullying they experienced occurred at school, and it could often be cruel. “Stigma, which is when something false and negative is attached to an individual, can have a profound effect on children’s and teens’ mental health,” Paller noted. “For example, a child with dark scales on the body can be called ‘dirty’ by other kids or…  read on >  read on >