Psychiatric Hospital Chain’s Charges; Schizophrenia Drug Flops; Bright Light Therapy

Acadia Healthcare, a nationwide chain of psychiatric hospitals, faces new federal charges after it just agreed to a nearly $20 million settlement over accusations it defrauded government health insurers by holding patients longer than necessary. (New York Times)

Compared with usual care, a primary care intervention across practices in Germany involving real-time video sessions between patients and mental health specialists helped reduce the severity of depression and anxiety symptoms. (The BMJ)

Arkansas sued YouTube, alleging that the platform is deliberately addictive and fueling a mental health crisis among youth. (AP)

Neurocrine Biosciences said it plans to halt development of luvadaxistat for cognitive impairment associated with schizophrenia after the investigational drug failed to meet its primary endpoint in a phase II trial.

Short-term increases in ambient air pollution levels were linked with increased risks of schizophrenia hospitalizations — independent of the absolute air pollution concentrations — in a case-crossover study of over 800,000 Chinese patients. (JAMA Network Open)

The results of dementia blood biomarker tests may be affected by the time of day blood is taken. (Translational Psychiatry)

Ellen DeGeneres revealed she has obsessive compulsive disorder and attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder. (People)

Adjunctive bright light therapy improved rates of nonseasonal depression symptom remission and treatment response when added to an antidepressant, according to a meta-analysis of 11 trials. (JAMA Psychiatry)

Suicide attempts increased among transgender and non-binary youth living in states that enacted anti-transgender laws. (Nature Human Behavior)

In a cluster randomized trial in Pakistan of fathers with postpartum depression, a nonspecialist-delivered psychosocial intervention (Learning Through Play Plus Dads) yielded greater improvements in depressive symptoms compared with usual care. (JAMA Psychiatry)