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Pandemic Highlights Behavioral Health Disparities.

Into Cautious and Fearful Adults Infants’ temperament can help predict who they’ll become as young adults, suggests a recent study from researchers at the National Institute of Mental Health, the University of Maryland, and the Catholic University of America. To date, little research has explored the relationship between child temperament and the course life takes into adulthood; previous studies have relied on mothers’ reports and other limited methods for assessing temperament, according to the authors. The investigators followed up 165 infants over 3 decades to see whether behavioral inhibition—a temperament characterized by cautious and fearful behaviors in response to unfamiliar situations—shaped long-term personality, social relationships, vocation or education, and mental health in adulthood. The authors assessed the infants’ temperament by observing them at age 14 months, nearly 2 years earlier than previously published studies. At age 15 years, the children were evaluated to obtain neurophysiological data to assess error-related negativity, a decline in the electrical signal from the brain that follows incorrect responses on computerized tasks. This measure reflects how sensitive people are to making mistakes. At age 26 years, study participants completed questionnaires that assessed personality, psychopathology, and sociodemographic factors. Compared with those who had lower levels, young adults who had higher levels of behavioral inhibition in infancy were more reserved and introverted and did not function as well socially. Adults who were more inhibited behaviorally in infancy and had greater errorrelated negativity at age 15 years were more likely to have higher levels of internalizing psychopathology, such as depression and anxiety. However, behavioral inhibition was not associated with externalizing psychopathology, such as antisocial behavior and substance use disorders, education and employment achievement, or the likelihood of being engaged or married. Government Not Doing All It Could to Recruit and Retain Scientists The US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) hasn’t yet used the authority it was given more than 3 years ago to recruit and retain biomedical research scientists, according to a recent Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Competing against the private sector for biomedical research scientists has been a challenge. In 2017, one HHS agency, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), reported a 14% job vacancy rate at 2 of its centers, higher than the 5% to 7% vacancy rate at other government agencies. In 2018, National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director Francis Collins, MD, PhD, testified that he had been concerned for many years about the long-term stability of biomedical research. The 21st Century Cures Act, enacted in December 2016, included amendments to improve recruitment and retention of scientists for the Public Health Service’s Senior Biomedical Research Service (the act also renamed the service the Silvio O. Conte Senior Biomedical Research and Biomedical Product Assessment Service). The amendments quadrupled the size of the service from 500 to 2000 members, authorized the appointment of people with master’s degrees as well as doctoral degrees, and raised the top pay for members. However, HHS did not issue regulations to guide implementation of the new recruitment and retention powers provided by the 21st Century Cures Act until April 20, 2020, nearly 31⁄2 years after it was enacted, the GAO said. Officials from HHS told the GAO that their department was preparing guidance based on discussions with the NIH, FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality about how many additional biomedical scientists each will receive. Officials from the FDA said filling those slots could take up to 6 months.