HealthDay (8/23, Norton) reports, “Children exposed to relatively high levels of” polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in utero “may have an increased risk of developing autism,” researchers found. Specifically, when expectant mothers “had relatively high levels of certain PCBs in their blood, their children were about 80 percent more likely to be diagnosed with autism versus other kids,” the study found. The findings of the 1,100-child study were published online Aug. 23 in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Related Links:

— “Banned PCB Chemicals Still Tied to Autism in U.S. Kids,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, August 23, 2016.

HealthDay (8/23, Bernstein) reports, “While a higher percentage of black children show the symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “than white kids, they are less likely to be diagnosed or treated for the disorder,” researchers found after following some “4,000 children in grades 5, 7 and 10” from various areas around the US.

During the study, investigators found that “rates of diagnosis for” AD/HD “were consistently higher among white children, with 19 percent diagnosed by the 10th grade compared to 10 percent of blacks by 10th grade.” The findings were published online Aug. 23 in Pediatrics.

In a video segment for MedPage Today (8/23), F. Perry Wilson, MD, MSCE, assistant professor of medicine at the Yale School of Medicine, discusses the study and somewhat disagrees with its findings.

Related Links:

— “ADHD More Often Missed in Minority Kids,” James Bernstein, HealthDay, August 23, 2016.

Healio (8/22) reports the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recently launched Moms’ Mental Health Matters, a new initiative that aims “to increase awareness about depression and anxiety during and after pregnancy.” The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development developed free materials on the signs and symptoms of the conditions that can occur “during pregnancy and after childbirth.”

Related Links:

— “NIH launches initiative to raise awareness of maternal mental health,” Healio, August 22, 2016.

HealthDay (8/22, Mozes) reports new research found being unsatisfied at your job in your 20s and 30s can “undermine your health by mid-life,” but having work you enjoy could “pay health dividends.” The study found that disenchanted worker had “worse mental health” by their 40s, and “were more likely to suffer from routine sleep trouble and anxiety compared with satisfied or increasingly satisfied participants.”

Researchers surveyed more than 6,400 men and women participating in a long-running study that began in 1979. According to the researchers “physical health appeared to suffer among those who consistently expressed low satisfaction with work or whose satisfaction fell over time.”

Related Links:

— “Unhappy at Work in Your 20s, Unhealthy in Your 40s?,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, August 22, 2016.

On the front of its New York section, the New York Times (8/21, MB1, Glaser, Subscription Publication) reported in a nearly 2,700-word story that suicidologist Madelyn Gould, PhD, MPH, a professor of epidemiology in Columbia University’s psychiatry department, is urging New York “authorities to put barriers on bridges and other buildings, something that copious amounts of research show is effective” in preventing suicides.

Even though “the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the George Washington Bridge, has put dozens of signs and several telephones on it to link desperate callers to trained crisis counselors,” some “93 people have died at the bridge” over the past seven years. Now, the Port Authority plans “to erect a safety barrier on the bridge, a project that will not be completed before 2024.”

Dr. Gould would like that barrier completed much sooner, commenting, “From the perspective of saving people’s lives, why not move up that time frame?”

Related Links:

— “A Suicidologist’s New Challenge: The George Washington Bridge,” GABRIELLE GLASER, New York Times, August 19, 2016.

Bloomberg News (8/19, Tracer) reported that according to a study conducted by Avalere Health, consumers are getting fewer options under Affordable Care Act plans. Data show about “36 percent of the approximately 500 rating regions in the US may have just one health insurer when the 2017 signup season starts on Nov. 1,” while an additional “19 percent could have just two carriers.” The article said by comparison, in 2016, some two-thirds of areas had three or more insurers competing for consumers’ business.

On its website, CNBC (8/19, Mangan) reported that the analysis indicates seven states, including Alaska, Alabama, Kansas, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Wyoming, will have only one insurer offering ACA plans in 2017.

Related Links:

— “Choices May Be Limited for Obamacare Shoppers, Avalere Says,” Zachary Tracer, Bloomberg News, August 19, 2016.

TIME (8/18, Thompson) reports that Lieut. General Nadja West, the US Army’s surgeon general, “is skeptical that the first-ever federally-approved study will show that marijuana can help US veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD].” Proponents of marijuana treatment for PTSD, she “adds, too often emphasize the benefits without acknowledging the downsides.” General West said, “So to make [marijuana] sound as if it’s perfectly safe, the impact that it has long-term on certain areas of the brain, especially young people developing, that’s been proven: irreversible damage to the hippocampus and things like that that can really have impacts on individuals long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Top Army Doctor Leery of Treating PTSD with Marijuana,” Mark Thompson, Time, August 18, 2016.

In a nearly 1,700 word article, the New York Times (8/17, Heffernan, Wallace) reports people are at high risk for alcohol abuse, depression, and sexual assault during the first weeks of college, so parents should talk with their children about those risks before and after they begin college, according to “Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health and director of the PRO Health Lab at Penn State,” and other experts. The article highlights research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that has found binge-drinking among college students has declined overall, but the number of alcohol-related hospitalizations among college students has increased.

Related Links:

— “For Freshmen, Campus Life Poses New Risks,” LISA HEFFERNAN and JENNIFER BREHENY WALLACE, New York Times, August 17, 2016.

TIME (8/17, Sifferlin) reports a new study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that “being physically or emotionally abused as a child can increase a woman’s risk of death.” The study did not determine a causal realtion as to why childhood abuse is linked “with a higher risk for death, but the researchers speculate that abuse may heighten women’s risk for mental health issues, like depression, that can take a toll later on.”

NPR (8/17, Hobson) reports the research examined “a government-funded study that” asked roughly 6,200 men and women about their childhood experiences with physical and emotional abuse, tracking them for 20 years. Edith Chen, an author of the study, pointed out in an email that “the link to early death was with self-reported abuse, not abuse confirmed by courts or independently documented in other ways.” Researchers also said it was unclear why the association appeared in women, but not men.

Related Links:

— “Women Who Were Abused As Children Are Likely to Die Earlier,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 17, 2016.

Reuters (8/17, Seaman) reports that expectant mothers taking antipsychotics “can continue taking most of those medications without worrying the” medicines “will increase the risk of their newborns having birth defects,” researchers found in a study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry. Investigators arrived at the study’s conclusion after examining “data on over 1.36 million U.S. pregnant women enrolled between 2000 and 2010 in Medicaid.”

HealthDay (8/17, Preidt) reports, “The study focused on the most often used” medicines in both typical and atypical antipsychotic “classes: aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperdal) and ziprasidone (Geodon).” The study authors “reported birth defects in about 3.8 percent of babies born to women who had taken a typical antipsychotic and 4.45 percent whose mothers had taken atypical antipsychotics.” In comparison, “the birth defect rate of babies whose mothers had not taken an antipsychotic” were found to be “3.27 percent.”

Related Links:

— “Most antipsychotic drugs not tied to birth defects,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, August 17, 2016.