HealthDay (3/12, Preidt) reports on a study (3/12) of people who hear “voices” published in the Lancet Psychiatry. The study covered “127 people who had been diagnosed with a psychiatric disorder and 26 others with no history of mental illness.” The study, led by Angela Woods of Durham’s Center for Medical Humanities, consisted of an online questionnaire. Eighty-one percent attested to hearing multiple voices, while two-thirds of those responding also recounted “physical effects from the voices, such as hot or tingling sensations in their hands and feet.”

The surveys also showed that while most had negative associations with the voices, “31 percent of the participants also felt positive emotions.” In addition, 45 percent of respondents said that the voices were not “purely auditory” but were “thought-like or ‘in-between’ voices with both thought-like and auditory features.”

Related Links:

— “Study Highlights Complexity of ‘Hearing Voices’,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 11, 2015.

The New York Times (3/9) “Well” blog reports that a new study, published in JAMA, suggests using benzodiazepine drugs “to relieve anxiety before surgery” have “little beneficial effect and may even delay recovery.” The researchers observed 1,062 “patients admitted to French hospitals for surgery requiring general anesthesia.” One-third “took 2.5 milligrams of lorazepam (Ativan), a third received a placebo, and a third were given no premedication.” They found lorazepam “was associated with more postsurgery amnesia” as well as a delay in recovery of cognitive abilities. Additionally, “quality of sleep was impaired in the lorazepam group, but not in the others” and “ventilation tubes were kept in significantly longer in the lorazepam group.”

Related Links:

— “A Time to Avoid Anxiety Drugs,” Nicholas Bakalar, New York Times, March 9, 2015.

The Washington Times (3/10, Klimas) reports that according to Defense Department data released Monday, suicides “for the first three quarters of 2014 are down among members of the National Guard and reserves.” According to the data, “suicides among National Guardsmen decreased 30 percent compared to 2013.” Between January and September 2014, 68 National Guardsmen committed suicide, “down from 97 over that same time period the previous year.” Similarly, reservists saw “about a 12 percent decrease.” In the first three quarters of 2014, 58 reservists committed suicide, “down from 66 over the same time period in 2013.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide down among reservists, National Guardsmen: report,” Jacqueline Klimas, Washington Times, March 9, 2015.

TIME (3/10, Worland) reports that research published in JAMA Pediatrics indicates that “young people who live in rural areas kill themselves at twice the rate as youth who live in cities.” While “there aren’t clear-cut explanations for suicide…geographical differences seem to play a role, the researchers found.” Those residing “in rural areas have less access to mental health services, more stigma surrounding help-seeking and freer access to guns than their urban counterparts.”

In the Washington Post (3/9, Bernstein) “To Your Health” blog, Lenny Bernstein writes that the investigators “examined 66,595 suicides by people ages 10 to 24 between 1996 and 2010.” The researchers “found suicide rates of 19.93 per 100,000 for males and 4.4 per 100,00 for females in rural areas, compared to 10.31 per 100,000 for males and 2.39 per 100,000 for females in urban areas.”

Related Links:

— “This Is Where Young People Are More Likely to Commit Suicide,” Justin Worland, Time, March 9, 2015.

USA Today (3/10, Ungar, O’Donnell) reports that health insurance coverage for mental and physical illness remains unequal “despite promises that Obamacare would help level the playing field, mental health advocates and researchers say.” A new study published online in Psychiatric Services found that consumer information on a quarter of ACA plans examined by researchers appeared to violate a Federal “parity” law designed to stop discrimination in coverage for people with mental health or addiction problems. The study, which examined plans in two state-run exchanges, “found two big problems: financial disparities such as different co-pays or deductibles for mental and physical health services; and more stringent requirements for ‘prior authorizations’ from insurers before patients can get mental health services.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health coverage unequal in many Obamacare plans,” Laura Ungar and Jayne O’Donnell, USA Today, March 9, 2015.

Medscape (3/7, Bender) reported that a study published in the March issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry suggests that “older patients are among those most likely to achieve rapid remission of depressive symptoms with electroconvulsive therapy (ECT).” The 120-patient “study, which examined demographic and clinical features of patients with different treatment response to ECT, revealed few differences between groups other than a statistically significantly higher mean age in those achieving rapid remission (65.3 years) than in the group with improved symptoms without remission (57.6 years) or in those without improvement (51.5 years).”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (3/5, Salamon) reports that research scheduled for presentation March 4 at the American Heart Association’s meeting suggests that “people who are fit in their 40s seem to retain more brain volume two decades later and also perform better on decision-making tests.” In fact, “the analysis of more than 1,200 participants who were tracked for more than 20 years showed that those with lower fitness levels at midlife had smaller brain volumes in their 60s – a sign of accelerated brain aging.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after following 1,270 people who “underwent exercise treadmill testing in the 1970s,” then underwent cognitive performance testing and MRI brain scans when in their 60s.

Related Links:

— “Fit Body at 40 May Keep Brain Bright at 60,” Maureen Salamon, HealthDay, March 4, 2015.

Modern Healthcare (3/5, Rice, Subscription Publication) reports that “internists, family medicine physicians, psychiatrists and neurologists wrote more than 80% of the prescriptions for antipsychotics for older adults with dementia in 2012, according to a report calling for expanded federal efforts to curb use of the” medicines. The Government Accountability Office report said that even “though several initiatives have addressed overuse of the medications among nursing home patients who do not have a diagnosis of psychosis, no actions have specifically been directed to other settings.”

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotic overuse not just a problem in nursing homes,” Sabriya Rice, Modern Healthcare, March 4, 2015.

In continuing coverage, the Wall Street Journal (3/3, Silverman) “Pharmalot” blog reports that in the wake of growing concern over rampant overprescribing of antipsychotic medicines to the elderly, a Federal government report has found that it is in fact prevalent, pointing out that the HHS hasn’t taken adequate steps to tackle the problem for those living in nursing homes as well as those living elsewhere.

Providing details of the GAO report, The Hill (3/3, Ferris) reports “nearly 15 percent of older Americans enrolled in the government’s prescription healthcare program, Medicare Part D, were prescribed an antipsychotic prescription in 2012.” The report notes prescriptions “cost nearly $400 million that year alone.”

Related Links:

— “Feds do Little to Halt Antipsychotic use Among Elderly not in Nursing Homes,” Ed Silverman, Wall Street Journal, March 2, 2015.

USA Today (3/3, Szabo) reports on a study led by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published online March 2 in JAMA Pediatrics that found that “twenty-one percent of high school girls have been physically or sexually assaulted by someone they dated,” while “ten percent of high school boys also report having been physically or sexually assaulted by a dating partner.” The study also finds that these teens are “at much higher risk for a variety of serious problems,” including considering suicide, being bullied, getting into fights, carrying weapons, using alcohol, using marijuana or cocaine, and having sex with multiple partners. The study was based on the CDC’s Youth Behavior Risk Surveillance System of questionnaires of over 13,000 high school students.

Related Links:

— “Study: One in five teen girls victim of dating violence,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, March 2, 2015.