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In 2021, a survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on teen mental health focused on a stark crisis: Nearly three in five teenage girls reported feeling persistent sadness, the highest rate in a decade. But the newest iteration of the survey, distributed in 2023 to more than 20,000 high school students across the country, suggests that some of the despair seen at the height of the pandemic may be lessening. (Ghorayshi, 8/6)

Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ reported higher rates of poor mental health and experiencing suicidal thoughts and behaviors than their cisgender and heterosexual peers, a new U.S. survey found. In 2023, more than three in five LGBTQ+ -- lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning or another non-heterosexual identity -- high school students said they experienced persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness, and more than half reported having poor mental health, according to the latest results of the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, published Tuesday morning by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (Kekatos, 8/6)

Â鶹ŮÓÅ Health News: Social Media Bans Could Deny Teenagers Mental Health Help

Social media’s effects on the mental health of young people are not well understood. That hasn’t stopped Congress, state legislatures, and the U.S. surgeon general from moving ahead with age bans and warning labels for YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. But the emphasis on fears about social media may cause policymakers to miss the mental health benefits it provides teenagers, say researchers, pediatricians, and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. (Chang, 8/7)

Lobbying around using ecstasy to treat PTSD is reaching a fever pitch this week ahead of a Food and Drug Administration deadline that could be a milestone for psychedelic drugs. Psychedelics — combined with psychotherapy — have shown promise for treating a range of addictions and mental health disorders and attracted billions of dollars in investment. But no treatment has won the FDA's approval yet. (Goldman, 8/7)

Mental health company Talkspace has inked a contract with a government-sponsored insurance plan to offer in-network therapy to active duty military, retirees and their families, marking the company’s latest agreement with a public health insurance plan. ... The plan enrolls 6 million individuals who live across 32 states in the eastern U.S., according to Talkspace. (D'Ambrosio, 8/6)