mental health

National Cannabis Awareness Month is observed in April to increase awareness and education about marijuana. While scientists are still learning about the risks and benefits of using marijuana, we know that marijuana use can harm a teen’s health and wellbeing.

Perinatal mental health conditions are those that occur during pregnancy and the year following childbirth, whether onset of the condition(s) predates pregnancy or occurs in the perinatal period. Perinatal mental health conditions are the leading cause of overall and preventable maternal mortality and include a wide array of mental health conditions including anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders. Perinatal depression specifically affects 1 in 7 perinatal individuals. While commonly referred to as postpartum depression, it is more accurately called perinatal depression because its onset corresponds with prepregnancy (27%), pregnancy (33%), and postpartum (40%) time frames.

Objectives: Identify and abstract data from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment randomized controlled trials (RCTs) to update the PTSD Trials Standardized Data Repository (PTSD-Repository) with data on PTSD and mental health, including suicide-related outcomes and substance use.

Data sources: We searched PTSDpubs, Ovid® MEDLINE®, Cochrane CENTRAL, PsycINFO®, Embase®, CINAHL®, and Scopus® for eligible RCTs published from 1980 to May 22, 2020.

Review methods: In consultation with the National Center for PTSD (NCPTSD), we updated the PTSD-Repository by expanding inclusion criteria to RCTs targeting comorbid PTSD/substance use disorder (SUD) and adding data elements. The primary publication for each RCT was abstracted; data and citations from secondary publications (i.e., companion papers) appear in the same record. We assessed risk of bias (ROB) for all studies in the PTSD-Repository. We undertook an exploratory assessment of an expanded ROB system developed with guidance from a Technical Expert Panel and NCPTSD, which was pilot tested on a small subset of studies.

Results: We identified 47 new RCTs of interventions for PTSD and 21 RCTs for comorbid PTSD/SUD, resulting in 389 included studies published from 1988 to 2020. Psychotherapy interventions were the most common (63%), followed by pharmacologic interventions (25%). Most studies were conducted in the United States (62%) and had sample sizes ranging from 25 to 99 participants (60%). Approximately half of studies enrolled community participants (55%), and most were conducted in the outpatient setting (72%). Studies typically enrolled participants with a mix of trauma types (53%). Most RCTs (60%) were rated as having a medium ROB, and only 6 percent were rated as having a low ROB. Our pilot testing of an expanded ROB assessment tool emphasized more detailed assessment of elements, including: (1) methods for managing missing data, including both dropout from treatment and missing measurements (i.e., loss to followup); (2) differential assessment of subjective and objective outcomes; and (3) consideration of a five-category overall rating system.

Conclusions: The PTSD-Repository is a comprehensive database of data from PTSD trials. The PTSD-Repository allows clinical, research, education, and policy stakeholders to understand current research on treatment effectiveness and harms, and enable informed decisions about future research, mental health policy, and clinical care priorities. This report updates the studies and variables included in the PTSD-Repository to include recently published trials, interventions targeting comorbid PTSD/SUD, variables related to comorbidities such as suicide and SUDs, and ROB assessment.

High-quality primary care is the foundation of a high-functioning health care system. When it is high-quality, primary care provides continuous, personcentered, relationship-based care that considers the needs and preferences of individuals, families, and communities. Without access to high-quality primary care, minor health problems can spiral into chronic disease, chronic disease management becomes difficult and uncoordinated, visits to emergency departments increase, preventive care lags, and health care spending soars to unsustainable levels.

Unequal access to primary care remains a concern, and the COVID-19 pandemic amplified pervasive economic, mental health, and social health disparities that ubiquitous, high-quality primary care might have reduced. Primary care is the only health care component where an increased supply is associated with better population health and more equitable outcomes. For this reason, primary care is a common good, which makes the strength and quality of the country’s primary care services a public concern.

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine formed the Committee on Implementing High-Quality Primary Care in 2019. Building on the recommendations of the 1996 Institute of Medicine report Primary Care: America’s Health in a New Era, the committee was tasked to develop an implementation plan for high-quality primary care in the United States.

The committee’s definition of high-quality primary care (see Box 1) describes what it should be, not what most people in the United States experience today. To rebuild a strong foundation for the U.S. health care system, the committee’s implementation plan includes objectives and actions targeting primary care stakeholders and balancing national needs for scalable solutions while allowing for adaptations to meet local needs.

The committee set five implementation objectives to make high-quality primary care available to all people living in the United States:

1. Pay for primary care teams to care for people, not doctors to deliver services.

2.Ensure that high-quality primary care is available to every individual and family in every community.

3.Train primary care teams where people live and work.

4.Design information technology that serves the patient, family, and the interprofessional care team.

5.Ensure that high-quality primary care is implemented in the United States.