The Hampton Roads (VA) Virginian-Pilot (2/23, Simpson) reports that “a widening mix of frail elderly people and those with behavior problems” are landing “in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes and supportive-housing situations.” About 10 percent of the more than 17,000 people discharged from Virginia psychiatric hospitals between 2010 and last year “went to assisted-living facilities, adult care homes or nursing homes, according to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.” Robert Palmer, MD, MPH, who directs the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said, “They are invisible populations, but they are there, and they are increasing in numbers.”

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— “Senior care facilities mix the frail and the disturbed,” Elizabeth Simpson, Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, February 22, 2015.

HealthDay (2/21, Preidt) reported that a study published in the February issue of the journal Pain suggests that “high doses of” opioids may be associated with an increased risk for depression. The study, which “involved 355 patients in Texas who reported low back pain at an initial medical visit and still had the pain one and two years later,” revealed that patients “who used higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage their pain were more likely to have an increase in depression.”

Related Links:

— “Narcotic Painkiller Use Tied to Higher Risk for Depression,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 20, 2015.

MedPage Today (2/21, Firth) reported that a report on children published in the January/February issue of the journal American Pediatrics reveals that “inpatient visits for suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-injury rose by 104% from 29,000 in 2006 to just below 59,000 in 2011, while ‘all-cause’ children’s hospitalizations have not increased.” The report was “based on the 2006 and 2011 AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) which sources data from two national databases that estimate hospital visits and analyzes patterns of emergency department use.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals See Alarming Increase in Suicidal Children,” Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, February 20, 2015.

NPR (2/19, Hamilton) reports in its “Shots” blog and on its “All Things Considered” program reports that a study in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that “positive emotions — like feeling calm and safe and connected to others — can minimize pain,” whereas “negative emotions tend to have the opposite effect.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after monitoring “the brain waves of a dozen people” who were asked to take part in a series of experiments.

Related Links:

— “Pain Really Is All In Your Head And Emotion Controls Intensity,” Jon Hamilton, National Public Radio, February 18, 2015.

The NBC News (2/19, Fox) website reports that a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that “teenage fathers pass along six times as many genetic mutations to their kids as do teenage mothers.” After examining “the DNA of more than 24,000 parents and their children,” investigators “found that when the father was 20 or younger, the children had many more mutations than did children of older dads, as well as many more mutations than the offspring of teen mothers and adult dads.”

The Telegraph (UK) (2/18, Donnelly) reported that the study authors “said the findings could explain why the children of younger fathers have been found to have a higher risk of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and spina bifida, which have some genetic links.”

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— “Teen Dads Pass Mutations to Their Kids,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, February 17, 2015.

TIME (2/19, Sifferlin) reports that a study published in the February issue of the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise suggests that “women who keep exercising into midlife can prevent depression.” After examining “10 years’ worth of data from 2,891 women between ages 42 and 52, who filled out questionnaires about their depressive symptoms and levels of physical activity,” researchers discovered that “women who were meeting public health recommendations for physical activity – 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity exercise – reported fewer depressive symptoms.” What’s more, greater amounts of physical activity were tied to a decreased likelihood of depression.

Related Links:

— “Exercise May Prevent Depression—Not Just Alleviate It,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, February 18, 2015.

HealthDay (2/18, Preidt) reports that research published in Molecular Psychiatry suggests that “long-term use of methamphetamine causes more brain damage in teens than adults.” Investigators “conducted MRI brain scans of 51 teen and 54 adult chronic methamphetamine abusers.” They also scanned the brains of 60 teenagers and 60 adults who did not use methamphetamine. The researchers found that the “teen methamphetamine users had greater and more widespread changes in their brains” than the adult methamphetamine users, with the changes being particularly “evident in the frontal cortex.”

Related Links:

— “Methamphetamine May be More Harmful to Teen Brains,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 17, 2015.

HealthDay (2/17, Preidt) reported that research published in Health Psychology suggests that for individuals “age 70 or older who struggle with a chronic illness, loneliness is often a complicating factor.” Investigators “looked at 121 older adults, mostly in their 70s.” The researchers “found that feelings of loneliness rose after the onset of chronic health problems – even among those who had been with the same partner for 50 years or more.”

Related Links:

— “Chronic Illness, Loneliness May Go Hand-in-Hand for Some Elderly,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 16, 2015.

The Washington Post (2/18, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that a study published online Feb. 16 in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that “frequent use of high-potency weed may be linked to an increased risk of having a psychotic episode.” The study also indicates that “milder strains of marijuana, even when used heavily, don’t appear to carry any increased risk of psychosis.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after comparing data on “410 South London patients sent to the hospital for a first-episode psychotic incident” and “370 control individuals living in the same area.”

The Fox News (2/17) website reports that individuals “who used the potent pot every day had a fivefold increased risk of developing psychosis,” but “the use of hash, a milder form of marijuana, wasn’t linked to a heightened risk of psychosis.” Fox News explained that “hash has a higher concentration of cannabidiol (CBD) than more potent forms, which have a higher percentage of marijuana’s psychotropic ingredient, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).” The effects of THC are believed to be “offset” by CBD.

Related Links:

— “Potent weed is worse for you than the mild stuff — and it’s hard to find anything else these days,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, February 17, 2015.

Medscape (2/17, Davenport) reports that a study published online Feb. 3 in the journal Diabetes Care suggests that youngsters “with type 1 diabetes have an increased risk for psychiatric disorders, particularly early on after diagnosis, that appears to be associated with having the disease, rather than a common etiology.” For the study, researchers “included 17,122 children with type 1 diabetes and 18,847 of their healthy siblings and followed them to their 18th birthday.” Investigators found an “increased risk…for mood disorders, anxiety disorders, eating disorders, substance misuse, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, behavioral disorders, autism spectrum disorder, and intellectual disability, at respective hazard ratios of 2.0, 1.6, 2.2, 2.6, 1.5, 2.2, 1.7, and 1.8.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)