The U.S. Food and Drug Administration permitted marketing of the first mobile medical application to help treat substance use disorders (SUD). The Reset application is intended to be used with outpatient therapy to treat alcohol, cocaine, marijuana and stimulant SUDs. The application is not intended to be used to treat opioid dependence. The Reset device is a mobile medical application system containing a patient application and clinician dashboard. The device delivers cognitive behavioral therapy to patients to teach the user skills that aid in the treatment of SUD and are intended to increase abstinence from substance abuse and increase retention in outpatient therapy programs. The system is intended to be used in conjunction with outpatient therapy and in addition to a contingency management system, a widely-used program for treating SUD that uses a series of incentives to reward patients for adherence to their treatment program. Full Story

Published in World Psychiatry, a new study found that smartphone apps significantly reduced people’s depressive symptoms. The researchers reviewed 18 randomized controlled trials that examined 22 different smartphone-delivered mental health interventions. reported PsychCentral. The studies involved more than 3,400 people between the ages of 18-59 with a range of mental health symptoms and conditions, including major depression, mild to moderate depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and insomnia. Full Story

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) latest National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH) report provides the latest estimates on substance use and mental health in the nation, including the misuse of opioids across the nation. Opioids include heroin use and pain reliever misuse. In 2016, there were 11.8 million people aged 12 or older who misused opioids in the past year and the majority of that use is pain reliever misuse rather than heroin use—there were 11.5 million pain reliever misusers and 948,000 heroin users. Full Story To read the full report click here.

The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) awarded more than $200 million to 1,178 health centers and 13 rural health organizations in every U.S. state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin to increase access to substance abuse and mental health services. These services focus on the treatment, prevention, and awareness of opioid abuse in the primary care setting by increasing personnel, leveraging health information technology, and providing training. Full Story

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded an additional $144.1 million in grants to prevent and treat opioid addiction in support of President Trump’s commitment to combat the opioid crisis. The funding will be distributed to 58 recipients, including states, cities, healthcare providers and community organizations. The funds will be awarded for three to five years, subject to availability and depending on the program. Full Story

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has launched Rx Awareness, a powerful communication campaign featuring real-life accounts of people recovering from opioid use disorder and people who have lost loved ones to prescription opioid overdose. The campaign aims to increase awareness and knowledge among Americans about the risks of prescription opioids and stop inappropriate use. Rx Awareness is CDC’s latest effort in the fight against the prescription opioid overdose crisis. Full Story

Communication failures in U.S. hospitals and medical practices were at least partly responsible for 30%t of all malpractice claims resulting in 1,744 deaths and $1.7 billion in malpractice costs over five years, according to a 2015 study.  The Joint Commission has issued a new Sentinel Event Alert to provide hospitals and other health care settings with seven recommendations to improve communication failures that occur when patients are transitioned from one caregiver to another or from one team of caregivers to another. Full Story

The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved an additional $414 million increase for Alzheimer’s and dementia research for the fiscal year 2018 budget. If signed into law, federal investment in Alzheimer’s and related dementia research funding would reach $1.8 billion. Full Story

Nearly 200 nurses at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo will be getting pay raises of up to 26% after the Legislature's Joint Budget Committee approved the emergency budget request, reported The Pueblo Chieftain. The six-lawmaker panel agreed to spend $2.8 million this year and $8.7 million next year -- plus money to cover shift differentials -- to give raises to 187 registered nurses in categories 1, 2 and 3 at the 449-bed hospital. The Colorado Department of Human Services, which oversees CMHIP, made the emergency request to help deal with a critical staff shortage that caused the federal Center for Medicare Services to threaten to cut off the hospital's Medicare funding last June. Full Story

When Dr. Jerome Adams was recently confirmed as the US surgeon general he pledged to take on the country's opioid epidemic. "The addictive properties of prescription opioids is a scourge in America and it must be stopped," wrote Adams in his nomination committee statement. He added that he shared US Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price's top priorities, including "the opioid epidemic, and untreated mental illness, which lie at the root of much of the current situation," reported CNN. Full Story

The periodic health assessment, required for all active-duty members, now includes a mental health assessment, aimed to better ensure members are deployable and to promote individual medical readiness, reported the Dayton Daily News. Based on the National Defense Authorization Act, Congress made the mental health portion of the assessment a Department of Defense requirement that went into effect July 31, after determining a better view of suicide awareness and mental health conditions was needed. Full Story

A new report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reveals that 19.9 million adults that needed substance use treatment in the past year, representing 8.1% of adults aged 18 or older in the U.S. Out of 19.9 million adults needing substance use treatment, only 10.8% received treatment at a specialty facility (2.1 million). That means that about 17.7 million adults who needed treatment did not receive treatment at a specialty facility for their substance use. Full Story

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