Medscape (6/20) reports that according to a report (pdf) called the “National Health Interview Survey: Early Release Program,” published online June 19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the latest figures on how prevalent serious psychological stress is in the United States may appear to show an increase in 2013 over previous years.”

The survey found that “3.7% of adults aged 18 years and older reported they had experienced serious psychological stress in the 30 days before the interviews compared with 2.7% in 2007 and 3.4% in 2011.”

The study’s first author, Jeannine S. Schiller, MPH, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, pointed out, however, that these “estimates need to be taken in context not only for stress but also for other health conditions.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

In the “Your Money Adviser” column in the New York Times (6/20, Subscription Publication), Ann Carrns discusses “a self-assessment test from Ohio State University to help detect early signs of dementia.” Called the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE), “the four-page test can be completed in about 10 to 15 minutes by patients at home, or while in the waiting room” at a physician’s office.

The test, which is available as a free download from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s “website, is now used at doctors’ offices nationally.” Poor tests results are not automatically predictive of dementia, but instead indicate a need for more comprehensive psychological and neurological testing.

Related Links:

— “A Test for the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease,” Ann Carrns, New York Times, June , 2014.19

TIME (6/20, Park) reports that a survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Association revealed that 80% of those surveyed believe “the neurodegenerative condition is a normal part of aging” while 40% “believed that only those with a family history of the disease could be affected.” In response to the survey Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association said, “anyone with a brain is at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, so everyone with a brain should join the fight against it.”

Related Links:

— “80% of People Think Alzheimer’s Is A Normal Part of Aging,” Alice Park, Time, June 19, 2014.

Bloomberg News (6/19, French) reports that nearly half of North Carolina physicians indicated that “they don’t feel qualified to judge a person’s mental competency to carry a concealed weapon, according to a survey, despite being asked to make that call by local sheriffs.” The survey, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that “among medical professionals, 84 percent said they would prefer someone with specific training assess a patient’s mental and physical ability to safely have a concealed gun.” Among “those surveyed, 47 percent said they couldn’t adequately assess a person’s mental fitness to carry a firearm.”

HealthDay (6/19) reports that the survey indicated that “21 percent had been asked in the past year to sign “competency permits” for patients to carry a concealed weapon.” A physician, “by signing…attests to the patient’s mental and physical ability to safely carry a firearm.” However, “the problem, experts say, is that there are no standard definitions of physical or mental ‘competence,’ and doctors have been left to make those calls on their own.”

Related Links:

— “Doctors Say Not Qualified When Asked About Gun Permits,” Marie French, Bloomberg News, June 18, 2014.

Medscape (6/19) reports that research published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that depression may “be particularly harmful to the heart in younger women.” Investigators analyzed data on “3237 participants in the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank, who were enrolled before undergoing elective or emergent coronary angiography.”

HealthDay (6/19, Mozes) reports that the researchers found that although “depression didn’t appear related to heart disease risk among men of any age or elderly women…among women 55 and younger,” each “one-point rise in depression symptom ratings translated into a 7 percent rise in heart disease risk.” Thus, “depressed young and middle-aged women faced a 2.17 times greater risk for experiencing a heart attack, or for needing an invasive procedure to widen their diseased arterial pathways.” These “women also faced similar elevated risk for dying from heart disease, and a 2.45 greater risk for dying from any cause during the study follow-up period.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Doubles Odds of Heart Attack for Younger Women: Study,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, June 18, 2014.

Reuters (6/19, Emery) reports that research published online in the New England Journal of Medicine suggests that women who take antidepressants during pregnancy may not have a higher risk of giving birth to a child with a heart defect.

On its website, TIME (6/19) reports that investigators analyzed data on “949,504 pregnant women, 64,389 of whom used antidepressants during the first trimester.” The researchers found that “the rate of heart defects in newborns was similar between the groups.” The article points out that “concerns about the risks of the drugs, primarily selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), on the developing fetus prompted the Food and Drug Administration in 2005 to add warnings about the risk of heart defects in babies born to moms taking antidepressants.”

Related Links:

— “Antidepressants in pregnancy pose little heart risk for fetus: study,” Gene Emery, Reuters, June 18, 2014.

USA Today (6/19, Painter) reports that according to a study published online June 18 in the BMJ, boxed “warnings that antidepressant medications might prompt suicidal thinking in some young people may have backfired, resulting in more suicide attempts.” While the study is “not the first to show that antidepressant use by young people fell sharply after warnings from the Food and Drug Administration and subsequent media coverage in 2003-04,” it appears to be “the first to link the change to an increase in suicide attempts among teens and young adults, researchers say.”

Related Links:

— “Warnings on antidepressants may have backfired,” Kim Painter, USA Today, June 18, 2014.

Medscape (6/18, Anderson) reports that according to a report published online June 16 in JAMA Pediatrics, there appear to be “no adverse cognitive effects on six-year-old children who were exposed to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in the womb and then breast-fed while their moms continued this therapy.”

The study, which “included 177 mothers and 181 children for whom data were available on both cognitive assessment at age six years and breast-feeding status,” revealed that “these school-aged children scored higher on IQ tests than their non–breast-fed counterparts and had enhanced verbal abilities, even after adjustment for other factors related to child cognitive outcomes, such as maternal IQ.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

In an entry for the Washington Post (6/17) “Wonkblog,” Harold Pollack asked, in light of several recent mass shootings, including Elliott Rodger’s shooting rampage in Isla Vista, CA, if “mental health and law enforcement authorities could mount a better, more systematic response when a potentially dangerous person comes to their attention.”

In a piece in the Los Angeles Times, Renee Binder, MD, president-elect of the American Psychiatric Association, wondered whether a restraining order would also have been helpful in the Rodgers case. In light of the “concerns expressed by Rodger’s parents, a judge would have had the authority to temporarily seize his weapons, examine the relevant evidence, and perhaps connect some of dots that were missed in the original investigation.”

A judge might have also “temporarily prohibited Rodger from possessing firearms if it were determined that he posed a credible (though perhaps not immediate) risk.”

Related Links:

— “Why law enforcement missed Elliot Rodger’s warnings signs,” Harold Pollack, Washington Post, June 17, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (6/17, Macvean) reports that a new study published in Pediatrics suggests that “delinquent youth are at risk of early violent death in adulthood, regardless of race, and females are especially vulnerable.” According to the researchers, “girls detained by authorities had nearly five times the rate of violent death as females in the general population – in part because of low rates of violent death for females in general.” Lead author Linda Teplin, a professor of psychiatry and behavior sciences at Northwestern University’s medical school, commented, “Our findings are shocking.”

HealthDay (6/17, Preidt) quotes Teplin, who said, “Prevention is key. We need to reduce the likelihood that youth will become delinquent. And, if they are arrested and detained, we need interventions to reduce violence. Otherwise, perpetrators often become victims.”

Related Links:

— “Delinquent youth more likely to die violently as adults, study says,” Mary Macvean, Los Angeles Times, June 16, 2014.