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Managing mental health amid gun violence
A large grassy area covered in a display of t-shirts erected with names of people killed by gun violence around a sign that reads MEMORIAL TO PHILADELPHIANS MURDERED BY ILLEGAL GUNS.

Image: Michael Stokes via Flickr

Managing mental health amid gun violence

In 2021, Philadelphia saw a record number of 486 homicides by shooting as well 1,846 non-fatal shootings. According to clinical psychologist Leah Blain, exposure to trauma, including to gun violence, increases the risk of negative health outcomes.

From Penn Medicine News

Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children
A put-out cigarette standing on its end, next to half of another crumpled cigarette. In the background are two whole cigarettes.
  • Q&A

    • Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children

    In research done using rats, Penn Nursing’s Heath Schmidt and colleagues found that males that engaged in voluntary nicotine use had offspring more likely to do so, too. Some offspring also developed impaired memory and anxiety-like behavior.

    Michele W. Berger

    The pandemic’s psychological scars
    swirly painting of faces and heads

    (Homepage image) “What we needed to do for our physical health—quarantining, staying away from other people and social situations—even when that kind of avoidance is the right thing to do, it makes people more anxious,” says Elizabeth Turk-Karan of the Center for the Study and Treatment of Anxiety. What remains to be seen is how these emotions and many others will play out as the pandemic recedes.

    The pandemic’s psychological scars

    It’s been a long and uncertain road, with some groups shouldering a disproportionately greater burden of mental anguish from COVID-19. Yet now there’s a glimmer of hope. Has the page finally turned?

    Michele W. Berger

    Hospitalizations for eating disorder increased during pandemic
    A mostly eaten apple in front of a mirror showing a whole, uneaten apple.

    Hospitalizations for eating disorder increased during pandemic

    Researchers can’t yet pinpoint definitive reasons, though they surmise it was a combination of factors, including stress, an outsized focus on weight gain and personal appearance, and maybe even symptoms of COVID-19 itself.

    Michele W. Berger

    Eating disorder hospitalizations doubled during COVID-19 pandemic, new data shows

    Eating disorder hospitalizations doubled during COVID-19 pandemic, new data shows

    Research co-led by the Perelman School of Medicine and Leonard Davis Institute found an increase in people hospitalized for eating disorders amid the pandemic. They attributed the rise to several factors, including delays in access to outpatient care, the closing of schools and colleges, and changes to the grocery shopping process.

    Bill on magic mushrooms aims to make Pa. a national leader in psychedelic research

    Bill on magic mushrooms aims to make Pa. a national leader in psychedelic research

    William R. Smith, a psychiatry resident at Penn Medicine, commented on a new clinical trial exploring psilocybin’s effects on depression. “The trial is encouraging, being a larger sample of patients with a control group than earlier [treatment resistant depression] studies,” he said.