Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), in a piece for The Hill (6/11), calls for a much larger research program on Alzheimer’s, citing a study conducted by researchers at Rush University Medical Center finding that it “is now likely the third leading cause of death in the U.S.” Collins points out that NIH “will spend just $566 million” researching the disease in 2015, and offers a bipartisan resolution she authored with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) setting a “target of $2 billion a year in funding for research as recommended by the experts on the federal Alzheimer’s Advisory Council.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s becoming the defining disease of baby boom generation,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), The Hill, June 11, 2014.

TIME (6/11, Abrams) reports that a study conducted by researchers at Northwestern University ties student loan debt to hypertension “as well as poor self-reported mental and general health.” For the study, investigators examined “the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, which allowed them to analyze previously existing conditions of debt and health in” some 8,400 young adults. The study’s lead author, Elizabeth Sweet, now “plans to conduct a five-year study funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities to further explore the ways various types of debt can impact physical and mental health.”

Related Links:

— “How Student Loan Debt Hurts Your Health,” Abby Abrams, Time, June 11, 2014.

Medwire (6/12, Cowen) reports that according to a review published online June 7 in the Journal of Affective Disorders, “patients with bipolar disorder [BD] and comorbid alcohol and substance use disorders are twice as likely to attempt suicide as those without such comorbidity.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having “reviewed data from 29 studies comprising 31,294 individuals with bipolar disorder, 6308 (20.1%) of whom had attempted suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Alcohol, substance abuse doubles suicide risk in bipolar disorder,” Lauren Cowen, Medwire, June 12, 2014.

Medwire (6/12, Cowen) reports that according to a study published online June 5 in the Schizophrenia Bulletin, “childhood residential mobility is associated with an increased risk of psychotic disorders, particularly schizophrenia, during adulthood.” After calculating “the number of moves between any of the 276 Danish municipalities during each year from birth to age 15 years for approximately 1.1 million individuals born between 1971 and 1991,” then following people up until December 2010, researchers found that youngsters “who move several times and those who move during adolescence may be particularly vulnerable, report Diana Paksarian,” of the National Institute of Mental Health, and colleagues.

Related Links:

— “Moving during childhood linked to increased schizophrenia risk,” Lauren Cow3n, Medwire, June 12, 2014.

Bloomberg News (6/12, Kim) reports that seniors in South Korea may take “a six-week course that seeks to show seniors how to appreciate life by preparing for death.” The class “reflects efforts to combat the developed world’s highest elderly suicide rate in a country where the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates 37 percent of the population will be older than 65 by 2050.” In the class, seniors are confronted “with the positive nature of death,” and the fact that life is precious and “worth living.”

Related Links:

— “South Korean Seniors Learn How to Die ‘Well’ to Curb Suicide,” Sam Kim, Bloomberg News, June 12, 2014.

USA Today (6/11, Weintraub) reports that according to a study published in the British Journal of Psychiatry, “at least 10,000 more Americans and Europeans took their own lives from 2007 to 2010 than during the good economic times of the previous few years.” The study also revealed that “men facing financial difficulties are at higher suicide risk than women, probably because society generally expects men – more than women – to be breadwinners.” In addition, men appear to be “less likely than women to seek help when they are in trouble, often bottling up their worries.”

The Los Angeles Times (6/12, Kaplan) “Science Now” blog reports, “Data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that the [suicide] rate accelerated 4.8% after the meltdown, resulting in 4,750 ‘excess suicides’ between 2007 and 2010, the study said.” In Europe, “the suicide rate rose 6.5%, which translates into 7,950 ‘excess suicides’ between 2007 and 2010, the researchers wrote.” The study authors put forth two policy proposals to help protect people against the effects of future recessions. The first is an expansion of programs to help the unemployed find new employment. The second was for physicians to increase the number of prescriptions they write for antidepressants.

The NPR (6/12, Singh) “Shots” blog reports that even though “the report shows a correlation between economic turmoil and increased suicide rates, it can’t prove a causal relationship, the researchers note,” nor can it “prove that the people who lost their jobs or…homes were the ones who committed suicide.” Nevertheless, “the differing trends in the suicide rates of different countries deserve a closer look, says” the study’s lead author. Also covering the story is BBC News (6/12).

Related Links:

— “Great Recession tied to more than 10,000 suicides,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, June 12, 2014.

On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (6/10, Neighmond) reported a steady increase in “the number of Americans taking medication to treat” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), with “the biggest spike in AD/HD medication…among young women between the ages of 19 and 34, according to a” March 12 report by Express Scripts. That report revealed that the “number of young women aged 19 to 25 on these medications is 27 percent higher than girls aged four to 18.”

Related Links:

— “More And More, Young Women Are Being Diagnosed With ADHD,” Patti Neighmond, National Public Radio, June 9, 2014.

The AP (6/10, Neergaard) reports that yesterday, the Anti-Amyloid Treatment in Asymptomatic Alzheimer’s (A4) Study got underway “to see if an experimental” medication called solanezumab “can protect healthy seniors whose brains harbor silent signs that they’re at risk.” This “$140 million study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, [Eli] Lilly and others, will track if participants’ memory and amyloid levels change over three years.” The study will require about 1,000 participants. Volunteers will undergo cognitive testing, brain scans, and psychological assessments. Speaking about the study, Dr. Laurie Ryan, of the National Institute on Aging, said, “It is breaking new ground.”

Related Links:

— “HEALTHY SENIORS TESTED IN BID TO BLOCK ALZHEIMER’S,” Lauren Neergard, Associated Press, June 10, 2014.

HealthDay (6/10, Reinberg) reports that according to a review published online June 9 in JAMA Pediatrics, adolescent “bullies and their victims are more likely to carry weapons than kids not involved in these abusive relationships.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after analyzing data from “22 studies of victims of bullying, 15 studies of bullies and eight studies of bully-victims.” The studies encompassed “more than 692,000 people ages 11 to 21.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Bullies, Victims Armed More Than Other Kids, Study Says,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, June 9, 2014.

The New York Times (6/10, Subscription Publication), in an editorial, praises the Obama Administration for “recently…reversing a 1981 policy that excluded gender reassignment surgery from coverage under Medicare.” The Times notes that an HHS appeals board “concluded in May that the exclusion was ‘no longer reasonable’ because the surgery is safe and effective for individuals diagnosed with gender dysphoria – the medical term applied to those whose identities differ from their gender at birth – and can no longer be considered experimental.”

The Times adds that “since very few people choose to have the surgery, and even fewer after age 65, the budget consequences will be negligible.”

Related Links:

— “Progress on Transgender Rights and Health,” New York Times, June 9, 2014.