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TUESDAY, June 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- The coronavirus pandemic is taking its toll on Americans' mental health, with more than 88,000 people developing anxiety or depression as a result, according to Mental Health America (MHA), a U.S. community-based nonprofit organization. Also, more than 21,000 Americans who completed MHA's free online mental health screening last month said they thought about suicide or self-harm on more than half of the days in May. The numbers suggest a coming mental health epidemic, according to MHA's president, Paul Gionfriddo. "Our May screening numbers were unprecedented," he said in an organization news release. "And what is most troubling is that the numbers -- consistent with the numbers from the U.S. Government's Census Bureau -- demonstrate not...

TUESDAY, June 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Just as Americans are emerging from COVID-19 quarantines, hoping to resume normal life but still fearful of infection, protests against police violence are raging in cities across the country. And millions remain unemployed, as a shaky economy attempts to restart. How are folks expected to cope with all of this? "For a lot of people, we might be reaching the breaking point in terms of the amount of stress and uncertainty we are experiencing," said Vaile Wright, the American Psychological Association's senior director of health care innovation. Keeping your cool in times like these requires a lot of self-care and self-reflection, mental health experts say. One of the most important steps is to accept that you're stressed out, and parse out...

TUESDAY, June 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- Out-of-pocket costs for Americans with type 1 diabetes average $2,500 a year, a new study says. But 8% of patients have more than $5,000 in out-of-pocket costs, possibly due to having high-deductible health insurance plans or significant medical needs, researchers found. And insulin accounted for only 18% of total out-of-pocket spending. The rest of it included cost of supplies such as insulin pumps, syringes and continuous glucose monitors. "Insulin is the difference between life and death for patients with type 1 diabetes, and efforts to make it more affordable are critical," said study lead author Dr. Kao-Ping Chua, a pediatrician and researcher at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor. "However, our...

TUESDAY, June 2, 2020 (HealthDay News) -- In a possible harbinger of future mental health problems among doctors working during the coronavirus pandemic, new research shows the levels of depression, anxiety and fear jumped among young doctors in China treating COVID-19 patients. Chinese and American researchers found that for more than 380 medical residents in Shanghai, their mental woes were greater than among last year's first-year residents. "Even before this pandemic, the levels of depression and anxiety symptoms among our health care workers were high and our findings indicate that they are getting worse," said researcher Dr. Srijan Sen, a University of Michigan psychiatrist and neuroscientist. "As it is clear that this pandemic will be with us for the foreseeable future, we...