Medwire News (11/5, Cowen) reports that according to a study published online Oct. 30 in the British Journal of Psychiatry, “patients with bipolar disorder [BD] have high rates of medical illness, which often exceeds the levels observed in patients with unipolar depression.” Researchers “interviewed 1720 patients (median age 47 years, 70% women) with bipolar disorder about their lifetime history of 20 common medical illnesses, and compared the rates of each illness with those observed in previously described recurrent unipolar depression (n=1737) and control (n=1340) groups.” Investigators found “significant” differences “for asthma, type 2 diabetes, elevated lipids, epilepsy, gastric ulcers, hypertension, kidney disease, multiple sclerosis, osteoarthritis and thyroid disease, with the highest rates generally observed among the patients with” BD.

Related Links:

— “Medical illness common in bipolar disorder,” Laura Cowen, MedWire News, November 5, 2014.

The Fox News (11/4) website reports that according to a study published in the British Medical Journal, working rotating or abnormal shifts over the long-term “may lead to memory loss and slower, irreversible brain processing speed.” After tracking “the cognitive abilities of more than 3,000 people who were either working in a range of sectors or who had retired at three points: 1996, 2001 and 2006,” investigators found that “participants who currently or had previously worked abnormal shifts had lower scores on memory, processing speed and overall brain power than those who had worked the same hours every day.”

Related Links:

— “Long-term shift work linked to decreased brain function, memory loss,” Fox News, November 3, 2014.

MedPage Today (11/3, Chu) interviews Michael J. Gerardi, MD, the new president of the American College of Emergency Physicians, who said, “One of my major initiatives this year as president of this college is to tackle the psychiatric patient boarding problems in emergency departments.” Dr. Gerardi discussed the promise of the so-called Alameda model, saying, “The length-of-stay for admitted patients qualified for bed, about 25% of patients under twenty hours, which is phenomenal.”

Patients in these outpatient centers get started with intensive treatment earlier and are more satisfied. Such centers also “decompress the emergency department of these patients,” Dr. Gerardi explained.

Related Links:

— “Psych Boarding ACEP Top Priority,” Elbert Chu, MedPage Today, November 2, 2014.

Richard A. Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry and head of the psychopharmacology clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College, argues in a New York Times (11/1, Subscription Publication) essay that young people diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or AD/HD, should be give the chance to avail themselves of the experience of adults who, studies indicate, “grew out” of AD/HD symptoms and began functioning normally.

“In school, these curious, experience-seeking kids would most likely do better in small classes that emphasize hands-on-learning, self-paced computer assignments and tasks that build specific skills,” the better to “fit for their novelty-seeking behavior” and eventually enable them to “self-select jobs in which they are more likely to succeed.”

Related Links:

— “A Natural Fix for A.D.H.D.,” Richard A. Friedman, New York Times, October 31, 2014.

The US News & World Report (10/29) reports that although the ACA extends coverage to people with mental health issues or substance use disorders, “various loopholes in the health care law at this time have kept people from requesting mental health care.” Some states haven’t expanded Medicaid, for instance, leaving about 5 million Americans in a coverage gap – the majority of whom, “experts believe, need mental health care.” Indeed, demand for mental health services “hasn’t budged, even though provisions in the health law make it more affordable.”

Related Links:

— “Under Obamacare, Mental Health Lacking,” Kimberly Leonard, U.S. News & World Report, October 29, 2014.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (10/30, Smeltz) reports that according to two studies published online Oct. 29 in the journal Nature and funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Simons Foundation, “small variations in as many as 1,000 human genes could contribute to the risk of autism.” After analyzing “14,000 genetic samples collected from” children with autism, the youngsters’ parents, and other individuals over the past 15 years, researchers “used the data to count at least 33 genes that have definitive links to autism.”

The San Jose (CA) Mercury News (10/30, Krieger) reports that investigators found that 60 genes “met a ‘high-confidence’ threshold, indicating that there is a greater than 90 percent chance that mutations in those genes contribute to” the risk for autism. According to the Mercury News, “The finding that autism can result from mutations in so many genes suggests that it is not a single condition, but rather an umbrella term for patients with similar sets of conditions.”

Related Links:

— “CMU, Pitt researchers help identify genes that contribute to autism,” Adam Smeltz, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, October 29, 2014.