PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Study identifies racial and gender disparities in youth psychiatric emergency department boarding

Findings suggest an urgent need for greater equity and access, according to study authors

2024-07-08
(Press-News.org) A new study led by researchers at McLean Hospital and Harvard Medical School, in collaboration with researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital and Cambridge Health Alliance, has uncovered concerning disparities in boarding rates of children and adolescents with severe mental health symptoms in emergency departments.

When reviewing more than 4,900 boarding episodes of youth under 17 years old in Massachusetts over an 18-month period, the researchers found there were numerous racial and gender disparities: Black youth were less likely to be admitted to inpatient psychiatric care than White youth.  Additionally, transgender and nonbinary youth experienced longer boarding times in the Emergency Department and lower admission rates to inpatient units compared to cisgender females. Nearly half of the boarding episodes did not result in inpatient admission.

Youth who must board in the emergency department for days or weeks at a time without transitioning to inpatient care typically receive less mental health care than they would have received in an inpatient setting, which potentially puts them at risk of even worse outcomes, according to the authors.

“Our study found that several non-clinical factors, including statewide demand for inpatient care, appear to play a role in the admission decision, and that racial and gender disparities permeate the process,” said senior study author Nicole M. Benson, MD, MBI, associate chief medical information officer at McLean Hospital and assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. “Boarding is a culmination of problems and lack of access throughout the mental health care system, not just inpatient care. Solving it will take resources and interventions at many levels.”

Benson and lead study author Lindsay Overhage, BA, an MD/PhD student and researcher in the department of Health Care Policy at Harvard Medical School, led a review of data collected across Massachusetts on all youth 5 to 17 years of age who were boarded in Emergency Departments for three or more midnights while awaiting inpatient care, from May 2020 to June 2022. The researchers utilized a comprehensive dataset from the Expedited Psychiatric Inpatient Admission database, maintained by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

The study revealed Black youth were more than 4 percentage points less likely to be admitted for inpatient treatment than their White counterparts, despite similar clinical presentations and needs for psychiatric care. Transgender and nonbinary youth were more than 9 percentage points less likely to receive an inpatient admission compared to cisgender females and boarded in the Emergency Department for approximately two days longer, on average.

A secondary analysis found statewide demand was strongly correlated with individual outcomes, which can play a role in the decision for inpatient admission. For every 100 additional youth boarding across Massachusetts on the day a child or adolescent was assessed with a psychiatric emergency, the percentage of youth admitted was more than 19 percentage points lower and boarding times were on average three days longer.

The study’s authors call for policy reforms, in addition for targeted interventions to address the root causes of disparities in psychiatric care access for youth. They point out that efforts are underway in Massachusetts to implement a roadmap for behavioral health reform, focusing on crisis intervention teams, enhanced community support and improved access to psychiatric beds.

“The experience of boarding – of being stuck in one Emergency Department room, under 24-hour, one-on-one supervision, for days or weeks at a time, with little definitive mental health treatment and not knowing how long you’ll be stuck there – is detrimental to children’s wellbeing,” said Overhage. “In fields other than psychiatry, the sickest person in the Emergency Department gets admitted first for inpatient care. But many inpatient units don’t feel equipped to deal with kids who have the most severe psychiatric symptoms, so by default these kids end up languishing in Emergency Departments."

For more information on the study, please read in JAMA Pediatrics.

About McLean

McLean Hospital has a continuous commitment to put people first in patient care, innovation and discovery, and shared knowledge related to mental health. It is consistently named the #1 freestanding psychiatric hospital in the United States by U.S. News & World Report, and is #1 in America for psychiatric care in 2023-24. McLean Hospital is the largest psychiatric affiliate of Harvard Medical School and a member of Mass General Brigham. To stay up to date on McLean, follow us on Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Raw milk is risky, but airborne transmission of H5N1 from cow's milk is inefficient in mammals

Raw milk is risky, but airborne transmission of H5N1 from cows milk is inefficient in mammals
2024-07-08
While H5N1 avian influenza virus taken from infected cow’s milk makes mice and ferrets sick when dripped into their noses, airborne transmission of the virus between ferrets — a common model for human transmission — appears to be limited. These and other new findings about the strain of H5N1 circulating among North American dairy cattle this year come from a set of laboratory experiments led by University of Wisconsin–Madison researchers, reported today in the journal Nature. Together, they suggest that exposure to raw milk infected with the currently circulating virus poses a real risk of infecting humans, but that the virus may not ...

Features of H5N1 influenza viruses in dairy cows may facilitate infection, transmission in mammals

Features of H5N1 influenza viruses in dairy cows may facilitate infection, transmission in mammals
2024-07-08
WHAT: A series of experiments with highly pathogenic H5N1 avian influenza (HPAI H5N1) viruses circulating in infected U.S. dairy cattle found that viruses derived from lactating dairy cattle induced severe disease in mice and ferrets when administered via intranasal inoculation. The virus from the H5N1-infected cows bound to both avian (bird) and human-type cellular receptors, but, importantly, did not transmit efficiently among ferrets exposed via respiratory droplets. The findings, published in Nature, suggest that bovine (cow) ...

Scientists discover how to improve vaccine responses to potentially deadly bacterium

2024-07-08
Researchers from Trinity College Dublin have taken a leap forward in understanding how we might fight back against the potentially deadly MRSA bacterium. They have shown in an animal model that targeting a key suppressive immune molecule (IL-10) during the delivery of a vaccine improves the ability of the vaccine to protect against infection. The bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is one of the leading causes of community- and hospital-acquired bacterial infection, and is associated with over one million deaths worldwide each year. Unfortunately, antibiotics are becoming increasingly less effective against this bacterium with the antibiotic-resistant ...

Sauer receives funding for project studying tunable RF atomic magnetometer as an electrically small receiver

2024-07-08
Sauer Receives Funding For Project Studying Tunable RF Atomic Magnetometer As An Electrically Small Receiver Karen Sauer, Professor, Physics and Astronomy, College of Science, received funding for the project: “Tunable RF Atomic Magnetometer as an Electrically Small Receiver.” Sauer will complete work for this project in three phases. In Phase 1, she will focus on developing and investigating novel bias-field control based on fully atom-based measurements as well as testing the performance ...

Study highlights the importance of infection prevention after CAR-T cell therapy

2024-07-08
RESEARCH SUMMARY Study highlights the importance of infection prevention after CAR-T cell therapy Study Title: A systematic review and meta-analysis of nonrelapse mortality after CAR T cell therapy  Publication: Nature Medicine Dana-Farber Cancer Institute authors: David M. Cordas dos Santos, MD, Irene M. Ghobrial, MD, Jean-Baptiste Alberge, PhD Summary: Researchers at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in collaboration with colleagues from Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York (Dr. Kai Rejeski) and the LMU Hospital in Munich, Germany (Dr. Tobias Tix), have found ...

New gold standard survey shows alarmingly high rate of sexual exploitation across the United States

2024-07-08
A revised version of the Sexual Experiences Survey – Victimization (SES-V), the gold standard measurement of sexual exploitation designed for adults over age 18, has been released in a special issue of the Journal of Sex Research. As the first revision since 2007, the new SES-V is an interdisciplinary collaboration among experts across more than 10 U.S. universities and the Kinsey Institute, led and coordinated by Dr. Mary Koss from the University of Arizona. It adopts more inclusive language and ...

Stench of a gas giant? Nearby exoplanet reeks of rotten eggs. And that’s a good thing

Stench of a gas giant? Nearby exoplanet reeks of rotten eggs. And that’s a good thing
2024-07-08
An exoplanet infamous for its deadly weather has been hiding another bizarre feature—it reeks of rotten eggs, according to a new Johns Hopkins University study of data from the James Webb Space Telescope. The atmosphere of HD 189733 b,  a Jupiter-sized gas giant, has trace amounts of hydrogen sulfide, a molecule that not only gives off a stench but also offers scientists new clues about how sulfur, a building block of planets, might influence the insides and atmospheres of gas worlds beyond the solar system. The findings are published today ...

Study backs RSV vaccine safety during pregnancy

2024-07-08
Vaccinating mothers against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) during late pregnancy to protect their newborns is not associated with an increased risk of preterm birth or other poor outcomes, according to a study by Weill Cornell Medicine and NewYork-Presbyterian investigators. Infants are particularly vulnerable to the virus which can cause a serious lower respiratory illness. The study published in JAMA Network Open on July 8 adds real-world evidence to the existing data from clinical trials about the safety of Pfizer’s Abrysvo vaccine. The researchers found that there ...

Brigham study finds new program streamlined hospice transitions from the emergency department

2024-07-08
KEY TAKEAWAYS After implementing a new hospice transition program, 210 out of 388 patients (54.1 percent) at Brigham and Women’s Hospital transitioned to hospice from the emergency department (ED) within 96 hours, compared to 61 of 270 patients (22.1 percent) in the control period. Across all groups, the presence of a Medical Order for Life-Sustaining Treatment plan (MOLST), was independently associated with hospice transition. These findings suggest that hospice transition programs can help improve use of hospice for patients presenting at the ED near the end ...

Diet quality among children

2024-07-08
About The Study: Although total dietary quality scores among U.S. children improved overall during 2005-2020, the increase remained suboptimal: lower than 5 points, a significant threshold for children in this analysis of changes in diet quality. Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Yongjun Zhang, Ph.D., M.D., email zhangyongjun@sjtu.edu.cn. To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/ (doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2024.1880) Editor’s Note: Please see the article for additional information, ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Impact of pollutants on pollinators, and how neural circuits adapt to temperature changes

Researchers seek to improve advanced pain management using AI for drug discovery

‘Neutron Nexus’ brings universities, ORNL together to advance science

Early release from NEJM Evidence

UMass Amherst astronomer leads science team helping to develop billion-dollar NASA satellite mission concept

Cultivating global engagement in bioengineering education to train students skills in biomedical device design and innovation

Life on Earth was more diverse than classical theory suggests 800 million years ago, a Brazilian study shows

International clean energy initiative launches global biomass resource assessment

How much do avoidable deaths impact the economy?

Federal government may be paying twice for care of veterans enrolled in Medicare Advantage plans

New therapeutic target for cardiac arrhythmias emerges

UC Irvine researchers are first to reveal role of ophthalmic acid in motor function control

Moffitt study unveils the role of gamma-delta T cells in cancer immunology

Drier winter habitat impacts songbirds’ ability to survive migration

Donors enable 445 TPDA awards to Neuroscience 2024

Gut bacteria engineered to act as tumor GPS for immunotherapies

Are auditory magic tricks possible for a blind audience?

Research points to potential new treatment for aggressive prostate cancer subtype

Studies examine growing US mental health safety net

Social risk factor domains and preventive care services in US adults

Online medication abortion direct-to-patient fulfillment before and after the Dobbs v Jackson decision

Black, Hispanic, and American Indian adolescents likelier than white adolescents to be tested for drugs, alcohol at pediatric trauma centers

Pterosaurs needed feet on the ground to become giants

Scientists uncover auditory “sixth sense” in geckos

Almost half of persons who inject drugs (PWID) with endocarditis will die within five years; women are disproportionately affected

Experimental blood test improves early detection of pancreatic cancer

Groundbreaking wastewater treatment research led by Oxford Brookes targets global challenge of toxic ‘forever chemicals’

Jefferson Health awarded $2.4 million in PCORI funding

Cilta-cel found highly effective in first real-world study

Unleashing the power of generative AI on smart collaborative innovation network platform to empower research and technology innovation

[Press-News.org] Study identifies racial and gender disparities in youth psychiatric emergency department boarding
Findings suggest an urgent need for greater equity and access, according to study authors