MedPage Today (4/28, George ) reports, “Alzheimer’s disease pathology was common in people diagnosed with other dementias, a large cross-sectional study in Sweden showed.” Investigators found that “while most patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s had evidence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau pathology, those biomarkers also emerged in people with other dementias.”

Among “nearly 14,000 adults, a clear, Alzheimer’s-like profile based on three CSF biomarkers – amyloid-beta 1-42, total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau 181 (p-tau181) measurements – was seen in 68% of people with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, 65% of late-onset Alzheimer’s, and 52% of people with mixed Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.” Meanwhile, “among people without an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the Alzheimer’s profile emerged in 25% of people with unspecified dementia, 9% of people with Parkinson’s disease dementia, and 8% of people with frontotemporal dementia.”

The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (4/28) reports, “Antidepressants effectively treat depression in patients who have a history of heart attacks without adversely impacting their long-term prognosis, according to a study issued in BMC Psychiatry.” Additionally, antidepressents “were linked to a decreased risk of heart attack recurrence.” Further, while baseline depression scores did not differ between control and treatment groups, “antidepressant treatment significantly reduced depression scores at long-term follow-up.”

Antidepressants “did not increase the risk of adverse cardiac events, all-cause mortality, or rehospitalization for heart disease.” Researcher Hongquan Wan and colleague wrote, “Meta-analyses indicate that post–[heart attack] depression is associated with a 1.6- to 2.7-fold increased risk of mortality and cardiovascular events during long-term follow-up, highlighting the critical need for effective interventions.”

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— “Antidepressants Effective, Safe for Patients After Heart Attacks,” Psychiatric News, April 28, 2025

Healio (4/25) reported that approximately 33% of adults with past-year medical debt “had forgone mental health care.” According to a research letter published in JAMA Health Forum, adults with previous medical debt “were more likely to forgo mental health care due to cost.” Kyle J. Moon, BS, PhD student trainee in the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Healio that “given the high prevalence of medical debt (roughly one in seven people), this should raise concern about how medical debt may contribute to, or even exacerbate, the mental health treatment gap.” Further, “with less than half of adults receiving care for any mental disorder, prior research suggests that medical debt may exacerbate this gap by eroding patient trust in the system or raising the threshold for care, Moon and colleagues wrote.”

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— “US adults with medical debt more likely to forgo mental health care,” Moira Mahoney, Healio, April 25, 2025

The New York Times (4/25, Hoffman ) reported that the Trump Administration’s budget proposal “plans to terminate a $56 million annual grant program that distributes” Narcan doses “and trains emergency responders in communities across the country to administer them.” The Times explains, “Narcan saves hundreds of thousands of lives a year and is routinely praised by public health experts for contributing to the continuing drop in opioid-related deaths.” However, documents show the proposal will include the grant “among many addiction prevention and treatment programs to be zeroed out.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (4/25) reported a new study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia finds that too much sleep per night may effect cognitive function – particularly for adults with depression. Overall, “compared with participants with average sleep, those with long sleep had poorer performance in global cognition, executive function, visuospatial memory, and verbal learning/memory tasks.” Researchers wrote, “These findings suggest that sleeping ≥ 9 hours per night is associated with cognitive differences equivalent to 6.5 years of brain aging.” Further, “the strongest negative associations between long sleep and cognition were among individuals with depressive symptoms, regardless of antidepressant usage.

Related Links:

— “Long Sleep Duration Linked to Poorer Cognitive Performance,” Psychiatric News, April 25, 2025