Reuters (1/7, Rapaport) reports, “Teens who binge drink or abuse prescription opioids may be more likely to engage in other risky behaviors, too,” research indicated. One study of nearly 15,000 high-school students revealed that “with any history of prescription opioid misuse, teens were 23 times more likely to have used heroin, almost 19 times more likely to have tried methamphetamines, over 16 times more likely to have tried cocaine, and more than 10 times as likely to have tried marijuana.” The second study, which “followed more than 2,000 teens for about four years,” revealed that “adolescents who binge drink are more likely to drive drunk or ride with drivers who are under the influence in early adulthood, and they’re also more apt to become extreme binge drinkers who experience blackouts.” Both studies were published online in Pediatrics.

Even After Opioid Overdose, Few US Teens Get Recommended Treatment For Their Addiction, Study Indicates. HealthDay (1/7, Norton) reports, “Even after surviving an opioid overdose, few U.S. teenagers receive the recommended treatment for their addiction,” research indicated. Investigators “found that of nearly 3,800 teenagers and young adults who’d suffered an opioid overdose, less than one-third went into addiction treatment within a month,” and just “one in 54 received the medication recommended for tackling opioid dependence.” The findings were published online in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Teen drinking, drug use tied to other risky behaviors, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 7, 2020

In an opinion piece in the New York Times (1/6), psychiatrist Richard A. Friedman, MD, writes that statistics show that an alarming number of teenagers and young adults in the US “are suffering from depression and dying by suicide,” with the suicide rate jumping 56% among Americans ages 10 to 24 between 2007 and 2017, according to CDC data. Dr. Friedman says that “there are lots of theories but few definitive answers” when it comes to explaining the teen depression and suicide epidemic. Dr. Friedman then calls for “a major public campaign to educate parents and teachers to recognize depression in young people and to learn about the warning signs of suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Why Are Young Americans Killing Themselves?, “Richard A. Friedman, The New York Times, January 6, 2020

USA Today (1/6, O’Donnell) reports that with the increasing legalization of marijuana, “parents of children who make up the mounting cases of cannabis-induced psychosis and other mental illness say treatment is far less available than the pot they say is linked to the conditions.” The current “rise in psychosis, schizophrenia and suicide among young, heavy users comes amid a shortage in” physicians “and facilities to treat them.” USA Today adds, “It wasn’t until 2013 that the Diagnostic Statistical Manual – the physicians’ bible for recognized mental health conditions – added a ‘cannabis-use-disorder’ section.”

Related Links:

— “As marijuana-induced psychosis rises, parents say treatment for young people hard to find, “Jayne O’Donnell, USA Today, January 6, 2020

Reuters (1/3, Rapaport) reported a new study published in JAMA Network Open suggests that “many older Americans have experienced more days of poor mental health in recent years.” An examination of “data on 2.4 million people aged 60 and older who participated in annual surveys between 2003 and 2017” found “the average number of days each month when people aged 60 to 64 experienced poor mental health rose from 2.9 to 3.6,” and “climbed from 2.3 to 3.0 days for individuals 65 to 69 and from 2.2 to 2.4 days among those 70 to 74 years old.” While “declines in mental health were similar for men and women,” they were “greater for people with lower income and education.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health declining among older U.S. adults, poor hardest hit, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 3, 2020

Healio (1/3, Dreisbach) reported, “High daily opioid dosages are associated with a heightened risk for overdose in adolescents and young adults,” researchers concluded after conducting “a retrospective cohort study of 2,752,612 privately insured patients aged 12 to 21 years with opioid prescription claims and no cancer diagnosis via the IBM MarketScan Commercial Claims and Encounters database between July 1, 2009, and Oct. 1, 2017.” The findings were published online Dec. 16 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “High opioid dosages increase overdose risk in young patients, “Eamon Dreisbach, Healio, January 3, 2020

Reuters (1/3, Rapaport) reported, “Children may learn from an early age when it’s appropriate to drink and how many drinks are okay from watching all the adults in their lives,” investigators concluded after asking “75 fathers and 83 mothers how common it would be for adults to drink in a range of situations like during a party, at work, while watching television or while driving,” then asking “359 unrelated children, ages 4 to 8, in which situations they thought it was common or appropriate for adults to drink.” The study also revealed that as children grew “older, they became increasingly aware of social norms surrounding alcohol consumption,” but “familiarity with alcohol might make kids more likely to start drinking earlier in life or lead to more frequent drinking.” The findings were published online in the journal Alcohol and Alcoholism.

Related Links:

— “Kids see you when you’re drinking, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 3, 2020

Reuters (1/3, Chander) reported, “People with mental illness get screened for cancer at much lower rates than the general population, which may contribute to higher rates of cancer deaths among the mentally ill, researchers say.” The disparities were found to be “greatest among women with schizophrenia, who were roughly half as likely as women in the general population to be screened for breast cancer.” The results were published online in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “People with mental illness less likely to get cancer screening, “Vishwadha Chander, Reuters Health, January 3, 2020

U.S. News & World Report (1/2, Newman) reports US adults “diagnosed with arthritis commonly reported frequent mental distress and depression in 2017, according to a new federal study.” Patients in Kentucky “reported the highest frequency of mental distress, those in Oklahoma had the highest history of depression, and those in Hawaii had the lowest prevalences for both.” Researchers “used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to ‘estimate state-specific prevalence of frequent mental distress and history of depression among adults with arthritis’ in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the study” published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Related Links:

— “Mental Distress Most Common Among Arthritic Adults in Appalachia, South, ” Katelyn Newman, U.S. News, January 2, 2020

The AP (1/1) reports that CMS has “approved Indiana’s request to use Medicaid funding to provide expanded services to residents diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.” The agency “authorized the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to use those funds to pay for short term care for patients admitted at large institutions for mental disease, rather than continuing to limit treatment to facilities with fewer than 16 beds.”

Related Links:

— “US OKs Medicaid funds for large mental health facilities, AP, January , 2020

The Christian Science Monitor (12/31, Kuz) reported that currently, nearly “70% of veterans who take their own lives use a firearm…and one-third of former service members store guns loaded and unlocked in their homes.” Because of this, “the VA has sought to promote firearm safety as part of its campaign to reduce suicide risk, urging veterans to consider precautions that include gun locks, removing a gun’s firing pin, or storing firearms outside the home.” Such “safety measures can slow a person’s ability to follow through on suicidal thoughts and preempt an irrevocable choice, explains Matt Miller, the VA’s acting director for suicide prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Can veterans lead the way on preventing suicide?, ” Martin Kuz , The Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 2019