Lucy (Kathleen) McGoron, assistant professor of child and family development, and Julie Wargo Aikins, associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences, Merrill Palmer Skillman Institute, wrote a piece for The Conversation. “Our recent survey found that schools can affect the mental health and well-being of not just students but their parents, too. From April through June 2020, we surveyed 152 parents – primarily mothers – in Detroit, Michigan, who were managing the new demands of remote schooling for their children. Not surprisingly, they reported high levels of anxiety (34%) and depression (27%) during this stressful period, but some indicated that support from their child’s school played an important role in reducing their mental health difficulties. Generally speaking, the more school support parents in our survey felt they had received, the less anxiety and depression they reported. However, this finding did not extend to families that were highly affected by COVID-19 due to lost income, food insecurity or lost access to health care.”

Millions of individuals like being scared. They watch horror movies or walk through haunted houses and corn mazes. After Halloween, thrill-seekers can still go bungee jumping, skydiving, or do a dozen different things that set their hearts racing. Why? Why would anyone walk into a house when they know that zombies and werewolves are waiting for them? In his Mental Health Minute, Dr Arash Javanbakht suggests a surprising answer. Fear is a part of our evolutionary history, a mechanism that helps us recognize danger and survive it. Scary movies and extreme sports may be a relatively safe way of giving this part of our brain a workout. In that case boys and ghouls, there is nothing wrong with seeking out a little scare this weekend. It might even be good for you. Javanbakht is director of the Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic and associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences at Wayne State University School of Medicine.

Shortly after I got our results I sent a text message to Phillip Levy, M.D., an ER doctor, associate chair for research at Wayne State University School of Medicine and a co-investigator in numerous COVID-19 clinical trials. He also heads up WSU's public testing outreach program. "It doesn't really necessarily mean much, it just means that her body is shifted to the next phase of the adaptive immune response, meaning that it's no longer about having enough protection available at the ready," Levy said in his best bedside manner. "That's the antibody response. It's about now having the memory to mount the response if you would need it." So, let me get this straight. Her negative test means she doesn't have any COVID-19 antibodies left? You know she was counting on having those for a long time, right? "Yes, what happens is that as soon as you're exposed to the virus, certain types of cells start making these antibodies as part of that immediate response. Those cells live to produce the antibodies for as long as the body thinks it might need to protect itself. And that peak, (we now know from research) is about 50 days or seven weeks."

Preventing infection is an important facet of nearly all programs designed to promote effective use of antibiotics, an area known as antimicrobial stewardship. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), global efforts to preserve the effectiveness of antibiotics must include strategies for preventing any infection that might be treated with the drugs, whether justifiably or not. Teena Chopra, an infectious-disease specialist at the Wayne State University School of Medicine, is fully behind this approach. Because infections are difficult to diagnose and treat quickly, Chopra says that the biggest impact will come from preventing infections in the community, not just in hospitals. Chopra is keen to keep this hygiene momentum going, and points out that the pandemic has revealed considerable weak spots. “This COVID-19 pandemic exposed a lot of vulnerabilities in our core health infrastructure,” she says. “We dealt with a lack of infection control in alternative health-care settings, like nursing homes, schools, daycare centers, dialysis centers, nursing facilities and rehab facilities.” She thinks that those who run these services need to have a more prominent role in antimicrobial stewardship. Without such measures, people will continue to transfer microbes to each other. The risk of transmission can be limited by using microbe-destroying surfaces such as copper, and through rigorous disinfection with chemicals and exposure to ultraviolet light. However, such measures can be difficult to implement in communities. The only two universally effective methods are hand hygiene and staying away from others, Chopra says. “Hand hygiene is the cornerstone — not only in the hospital, but everywhere.” These strategies might seem simple, but they require people to change their behavior, and that is easier said than done.

To be safe, people need to be free from the threat of physical or mental harm. But to feel safe, people need to be free from the perception of potential harm, confident that they understand what the likeliest threats are and that they are capable of avoiding them. Whether their perception is accurate is often incidental, at best, to the feeling itself. “Fear reactions are very primitive,” Arash Javanbakht, a psychiatry researcher at Wayne State University, told me. “We don’t react so well or so accurately to conceptual threats.” People learn what or whom to fear in a few different ways, according to Javanbakht. The things we have experienced or observed ourselves, such as car accidents or the kinds of violence frequently depicted on the news, have a significant impact. So do the warnings of peers and authority figures. This assemblage of influences—family members, friends, co-workers, religious or cultural leaders—is as much a tribe now as it was when these instincts evolved, and the security and support that it can provide create a profound psychological incentive to remain a member in good standing of one’s group. People’s dependence on group affiliation for safety and support can be so strong, in fact, that it sometimes overrides more logical assessments of fear and safety, Javanbakht said. Even in situations where the actions of the tribe’s leaders contribute to the group’s collective misery, many members will find it difficult to reject that leadership. Instead, studies have shown, people dig in their heels when confronted with evidence that challenges their beliefs or identity: They redouble their support for trusted authority figures and reject outside criticism, which they’ll often paint as proof that the group is under threat. Javanbakht compared this dynamic to softer forms of American tribalism, such as being a fan of the Cleveland Browns. The team’s leadership has been antagonizing its fanbase for decades, but some people cannot be mistreated into retracting their emotional and monetary support.

Halloween is almost here which means ghouls, ghosts and goblins will be lurking around every corner, ready to scare you. But have you ever wondered why so many of us love to be scared? Whether it's a scary movie or haunted house, the experts say the thrill and desire of getting creeped out is rooted deep inside your brain. But being able to suspend our disbelief and tap into that primal part of our brain isn't new. "The fear system evolved hundreds of thousands of years ago to prepare us for real dangerous situations," Dr. Arash Javanbakht of Wayne State University said. "Our current environment is too safe so, basically, those fear experiences could also be a form of practice." Javanbakht said constantly asking ourselves "what would I do in that situation?" is a problem-solving exercise to prepare us for similar situations. Experts say that fear can be a great motivator for good. Challenging yourself to face your fears can be a healthy way of proving to yourself that you are capable of things you may not have thought possible.

Public health authorities have issued warnings about a new drug called purple heroin which is tied to overdoses in the Upper Peninsula and the death of one person in west Michigan. Purple heroin — which gets its name because it is often purple in color — contains the synthetic opioid fentanyl, acetaminophen (the ingredient found in Tylenol), flualprazolam (an illicit sedative similar to Xanax), buspirone (an anti-anxiety drug), niacinamide (a form of Vitamin B) and, most notably, a new drug named brorphine. "We want to try to get ahead of it to make sure … it's not making its way down the state," said Varun Vohra, a director of the Michigan Poison Center at Wayne State University which issued an alert Wednesday. Little is known about brorphine. “Not many people know about it. It was a surprise to us as well," said Vohra. Vohra asks that anyone who needs information on purple heroin or has come across it to call the Michigan Poison Control Center, 800-222-1222. The center is not tied to law enforcement.

The COVID-19 pandemic has swept through the United States, highlighting racial inequities in healthcare. The numbers of infections and deaths related to COVID-19 are far higher among people of color, especially Black Americans, than among white Americans. Despite these higher risks, Black Americans are less likely to sign up for experimental medical treatments or potential vaccines. To help bridge this gap and champion the interests of Black people and other marginalized groups during the pandemic, the National Medical Association set up an expert task force to vet regulators’ decisions about COVID-19 drugs and vaccines. “We are more interested in efficacy,” said Dr. Bret Hughes, a professor of ophthalmology at Wayne State University and longtime member of the National Medical Association. He added that the process for vetting vaccines and other kinds of medications is very regimented and specific, and has two goals: safety first and then effectiveness. But “there are political groups that are willing to bypass those procedures and say there is a vaccine in order to quell fears. In fact, you can take a vaccine and develop other conditions because there’s more in the vaccine no one is aware of until you get it.” Dr. Rick Baker, a professor of ophthalmology and vice dean for medical education at Wayne State University and a longtime National Medical Association member, said the association will be doing three things in vetting vaccines: making sure whatever is developed is scientifically sound and effective; assessing whether there’s adequate representation of people of color in the trials; and ensuring that the distribution of the vaccine is equitable. In these uncertain times, he added, someone needs to be the trusted messenger, adding that physicians are uniquely qualified to be that messenger. “The message needs to be transmitted from physicians to patients,” he said. “The physician-to-patient relationship is very important.”

Michigan’s battle with the novel coronavirus has taken a sharp turn, with the volume of cases sharply increasing almost daily along with hospitalizations, emergency room visits and deaths. For the past week, there have been over 1,100 newly confirmed cases a day. More than 1,000 people with COVID-19 are now in Michigan hospitals, following a recent low of 500 on Sept. 25. And deaths, which had been low, are creeping up in a likely “second wave” that will bring more cases. The recent rise in COVID-19 infections has not brought with it the volume of deaths suffered last spring. Cases are more widely distributed across the state and therapies and treatments have improved in Michigan, as they have elsewhere. Experts attribute the improved outcomes to a host of factors. Fewer patients spread across more hospitals have allowed for better care. Treatments have changed and some therapies have emerged, like using remdesivir,  which aided in President Trump’s recovery. And after the coronavirus ravaging nursing home residents in Michigan and elsewhere, changes were made to better protect those populations and many more are taking their own precautions, such as wearing masks and avoiding crowds. “All these precautions are definitely helping,” said Dr. Teena Chopra,  a professor of infectious diseases at Wayne State University who is in charge of infection control at Detroit Medical Center. Chopra said she has noticed that patients she sees at the Detroit Medical Center are younger, by about a decade, than those who were arriving in March and April. That’s made them more resilient to COVID-19. But it doesn’t mean it’s no longer to be feared. “The virus is not going to magically disappear,” Chopra said.

The U.S. Army has seen a worrisome increase in soldier deaths by suicide since March, raising questions about whether troops feeling isolated due to the coronavirus pandemic may be a contributing factor. The total rate of suicides is especially troubling to the Army because for active duty soldiers alone it was 36 per 100,000 so far in 2020 compared to 30.6 the year before. For the total Army forces, including guard and reserve forces, there were 200 suicides by August 31 of this year compared to 166 for the same period in 2019. The highest number of suicides occurred in July with 35 cases, or more than one suicide every day. Army and defense officials privately say they cannot definitively prove that the stress caused by troops feeling isolated during the pandemic played a role. But they believe it may be due to the time frame in which the increase has occurred. Arash Javanbakht, a professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University, told CNN that the pandemic is likely a factor contributing to the increase in suicides in combination with a list of other factors that come with serving in the military. "When it comes to the military population, there's a higher level of stress. This is a high stress job and situation and there's a higher level of trauma, PTSD, depression, substance use, as well as medical conditions which are already there" regardless of the pandemic, he said.

One week after the Ann Arbor City Council voted to decriminalize psychedelic substances like magic mushrooms some medical professionals want users to not be tricked into thinking there's no danger. "I think the public needs more education or at least awareness and that is where the poison center comes in," said Dr. Varaun Vorhra, Wayne State University Poison Control Center. Some advocates tout psychedelic substances as having therapeutic benefits in the treatment of mental illness and other medical problems. But medical professionals are sounding the alarm because of how these substances can interact with medications and even the foods you eat. "You will see a lot of different side effects like racing heart rate, nausea, vomiting, sweating, hallucinations, possible psychosis," Vohra said. "What we would call 'a bad trip.'" Medical experts believe if you are going to use these substances, you should do under certain conditions. "We recommend at least, if you are with a group of people, people who will be able to monitor you, or supervise you in that setting," Vohra said. "Sort of a chaperone in a way." You can also contact the Michigan Poison Center at the Wayne State University School of Medicine to learn more about the substance before using.

A novel publication in the Nature journal Neuropsychopharmacology asserts that the stress of racism produces an increased risk for mental health disorders like anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder in the Black community, especially in the current climate brought on by COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement, leading to a critical need to utilize science to understand racism's true biological impact. Wayne State University School of Medicine Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences and the David and Patricia Barron Endowed Chair in PTSD and Trauma Neurobiology Tanja Jovanovic, Ph.D., wrote "The critical importance in identifying the biological mechanisms underlying the effects of racism on mental health" with Tracy Bale, Ph.D., a professor of Pharmacology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. Jovanovic has studied the impact of trauma on the brain and behavior in primarily African American urban communities for more than 15 years. The focus of her work has been in exposure to neighborhood and domestic violence, and post-traumatic stress disorder. She is now investigating the impact of racial discrimination "above and beyond that of other types of trauma." "It is clear that the impact of racism is chronic, pervasive, and for many, unavoidable. Moreover it leaves the brain and body vulnerable to many disorders, including PTSD and many physical diseases," she said.

Arash Javanbakht, associate professor of psychiatry and director of the Stress, Trauma and Anxiety Research Clinic at Wayne State University, was a guest on Detroit Today hosted by Stephen Henderson. Javanbakht says there are multiple factors that contribute to stress, all of which are present in the COVID-19 pandemic. He says the rapid transition and change in lifestyle has made the already traumatic situation more stressful for many and adds that all the unknowns around the virus can also create stress. “There’s also a lot of uncertainty. Uncertainty always makes any difficult situation even more difficult.” Javanbakht says limiting negative news intake and checking in on friends can really help mental health. He says that friends can learn coping skills together, easing stress. “If I am happy, if I am doing well, share it with others. Call a friend and be encouraging, even lend some money if someone needs it. If I don’t have happiness, I can’t share it with others.”

Students at most Michigan public universities began classes this week, and even though schools have spent months preparing for a safe return amid the pandemic, what's happening off campus is causing heightened concern. The parties were inevitable, some say. They started happening at schools where students returned to campuses earlier than most, such as the University of South Carolina, which began Aug. 20 and now has more than 1,000 cases of COVID-19. All but nine positive cases are students. In Michigan, Central Michigan University now has 260 cases traced to the Aug. 17 return of students, including people living in and around the community, according to the Central Michigan District Health Department that serves six mid-Michigan counties. At Adrian College, the number of cases reached 152, which includes 138 cases that are active, the Lenawee County Health Department reported Thursday. At Wayne State University, President M. Roy Wilson sent a letter to students, asking them to behave. Dr. Teena Chopra, an infectious disease professor at Wayne State, said getting the younger generation to embrace safe behaviors is tough. "We can control what students do on campus," she said. "But when they are off campus, we cannot control that. These social gatherings are very good examples of how we are spreading the virus, and how the transmission can happen. Right now, students tend to gather outside, which is less risky. But once the weather changes and it's too cold to be outside all the time, Chopra doesn't expect schools to be able to continue in-person instruction. "We are going to be in a different situation," she said. "I don’t think the schools and colleges in the midst of winter will be able to remain open very long. It is impossible for younger kids to comply with 100% masking, and not be within 6 feet of one another."

For women who are pregnant, the pandemic can be particularly fraught with anxiety as they worry about the effects of COVID-19 on themselves and their babies, all while coping with potential job loss, child care issues and economic uncertainty. An evolving body of research — including a recent study by investigators at the Wayne State University Medical School and the National Institutes of Health Perinatology Research Branch in Detroit — has shown it's unlikely for the virus to pass from a pregnant woman to her fetus. A data analysis of U.S. cases, published by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July, concluded that pregnant women are at no greater risk of dying from the virus than non-pregnant women, though they are more likely to end up in intensive care and require a ventilator. With 24 million cases of COVID-19 worldwide, including about 6 million in the United States and more than 100,000 in Michigan, there has been no consistent evidence of pregnant mothers passing the infection to their newborns, what's called vertical transmission. While other viral infections such as Zika, cytomegalovirus and rubella can be passed from mother to fetus, researchers led by Dr. Roberto Romero, chief of the Perinatology Research Branch at the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development at Wayne State, investigated why the same isn't true of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. "The rate of vertical transmission is extremely low," Romero said. "The best estimates that we have are less than 2%, or less than 1%. There have been some reports of neonates testing positive after birth, but there is always the question: Was that virus acquired in utero, or was it acquired from a mother who is sick?" 

Tabitha Moses, MD/PhD candidate at Wayne State University, wrote an article for The Conversation about the challenges that online instruction can pose for students if they are required to keep their cameras on during class. “As the 2020-21 school year gets underway – both at the K-12 and college level – many students find themselves attending online classes via Zoom or similar teleconferencing platforms. Although sticking with remote instruction may be the correct decision from the standpoint of public health, it is not without problems. As a researcher who studies behavior and the brain, I have found the evidence suggests that online instruction can pose a range of challenges for students if they are required to keep their cameras on during class. Here are five reasons why I believe students should be allowed to keep their cameras off instead: Increased anxiety and stress; ‘Zoom fatigue;’ Competing obligations; Right to privacy; and, Financial means and other kinds of access

With two pen strokes last week, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer declared racism in health a priority within the state’s government offices. But health leaders say it will be the follow-up — funding, policy change and enforcement — that determines whether the move is symbolic or transformative. “I'm glad they're getting people to the table … The thing is we've been discussing this and discussing this and discussing this,” Dr. Lynn Smitherman, a Detroit pediatrician, associate chair of medical education at Wayne State University, and a diversity and inclusion champion for the American Academy of Pediatrics. “You still have to do something. Discussion without action is just another academic exercise,” she said. At a panel discussion last week organized by Wayne State University and others, Dr. Michelle Williams said Black Americans also face institutional racism when they are sick — with access at times only to lower-quality care and even clinicians that turn them away or don’t listen to their concerns. Lyke Thompson, director of the Center for Urban Studies at Wayne State University, has studied lead poisoning extensively and said Black children in Detroit often live in older homes that have high levels of lead paint, which can impair learning and hinder lifetime earning potential. Thompson said he has called for strengthening laws that hold accountable the landlords who don’t address those issues, but a lack of political will has stopped short of making that happen. An official declaration that racism plays a role in policies — and a commitment to address it — may finally make a difference, he said. “This takes serious, clear, ongoing focus,” he said.

In parts of Wayne County, including Detroit and eight surrounding suburbs, older adults are dying at twice the rate of those who live elsewhere in Michigan, according to a report, “Dying Before their Time,” a 19-year analysis between the Detroit Area Agency on Aging and Wayne State University Medical School. The agency attributed much of the cause to be a "result of deep-rooted negative social and economic policies and significant inequities in resource distribution." Chronic illnesses, living conditions, accessibility to health care and lack of health insurance, food and transportation are specifically cited as reasons for the shortened lifespans, the study found. Study co-author Dr. Herbert Smitherman Jr. of Wayne State University School of Medicine and Detroit Medical Center said it was shocking to discover how many people aren’t making it to 60 years old. “I’m a physician but also a scientist, so when they approached me, my first recommendation was that an analysis needed to be done since there was never data collected by the state,” Smitherman said. “To see we lost not 1 or 2%, but 23% of the entire population, it seemed unrealistic. The Detroit region had 1.3 million people and lost more than 150,000 people, that’s just what the (nation) lost with coronavirus. “That’s when we realized something was happening to seniors that wasn’t happening with any other population, and it got my full attention. Next, we realized if they’re dying before age 60, what’s happening before?" Smitherman worries the trend will continue without a coordinated push to reverse it. "What we’ve seen over 19 years is that it’s the same," Smitherman said. "Unless we have some sustained effort where they allocate funding and collaboratively work to improve health and reverse centuries of racial poverty, this trend will persist over many decades to come. "If we do nothing, nothing’s going to change."

Rebecca Klisz-Hulbert, assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, wrote an article for The Conversation. “Black youth in the U.S. experience more illness, poverty, and discrimination than their white counterparts. These issues put them at higher risk for depression and other mental health problems. Yet Black youth are less likely to seek treatment. About 9% of them reported an episode of major depression in the past year, but less than half of those – about 40% – received treatment. By comparison, about 46% of white youth who reported an episode were treated for depressive symptoms. Instead, some turn to suicide, now the second leading cause of death among Black children ages 10 to 19. That rate is rising faster for them than any other racial or ethnic group.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone who has spent more than 15 minutes within six feet of somebody who has COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days. On the field, football players are continually within six feet of each other, especially at the line of scrimmage. Even if distancing six feet during football games and practices were possible, it might not be enough. Studies on superspreading events suggest that heavy breathing may spread droplets as far as 12 feet, or four yards, according to Gretchen Snoeyenbos Newman, an assistant professor of Infectious Disease at Wayne State University. “For football players on the field while they’re playing, the linemen are really your most at-risk people [to become infected]. Athletes are professional droplet producers.” Also, some conclude that professional athletes in peak physical fitness would be minimally affected by contracting the virus. Snoeyenbos Newman says that isn’t the case. There is increasing evidence that COVID-19 can damage the lungs, heart, and even the brain. Snoeyenbos Newman says that while the average person who contracts and recovers from COVID-19 may not notice if they lose 2 percent of their lung capacity, elite athletes will absolutely notice, and long-lasting lung or heart problems could be career-ending. “Getting really, really sick but not dying can also have very negative life-long consequences,” Snoeyenbos Newman says. “You don’t have to die in order for it to be really bad.”