HealthDay (6/16, Murez) reports, “When young adults are seeking a casual dating relationship, drinking is likely to follow,” while “those who are already in a serious relationship are likely to drink less,” researchers concluded in a study that “included more than 700 people in the Seattle area, aged 18 to 25, who filled out surveys every month for two years.” The findings were published online June 14 in the journal Substance Use & Misuse.

Related Links:

— “Looking for Love? Young People’s Drinking Goes Up When Dating ” Cara Murez, HealthDay, June 16, 2021

HealthDay (6/16, Murez) reports investigators have “found a correlation between teachers’ depressive symptoms and math skills in early learners enrolled in Head Start programs.” In a study “sample of more than 1,500 children from 212 classroom in 113 centers at 59 Head Start programs in the” US, researchers found that “teachers’ depressive symptoms were significantly associated with children’s math achievement ,” with the linkage “through the quality of the teachers’ relationships with the families, which in turn affected young children’s motivation, engagement and persistence in learning, according to the investigators.” The findingswere published online in the journal Child Development.

Related Links:

— “Treating Teachers’ Depression Could Boost Young Students’ Grades: Study ” Cara Murez, HealthDay, June 16, 2021

According to HealthDay (6/15, Norton), in a study involving “300 older adults with mildly impaired thinking and memory,” researchers found that “those using ‘lipophilic’ statins were more likely to develop dementia over the next eight years.” Among some “lipophilic statins” are “such widely used medications as simvastatin (Zocor), atorvastatin (Lipitor) and lovastatin (Altoprev).” The findings were scheduled for presentation at the virtual annual meeting of the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging.

Related Links:

— “Could a Type of Statin Raise Dementia Risks? ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, June 15, 2021

HealthDay (6/15, Murez) reports, “More teens in the United States are reporting their sexual identity as gay, lesbian or bisexual, nationwide surveys” indicate. In fact, “between 2015 and 2019, the percentage of 15- to 17-year-olds who said they identified as ‘non-heterosexual’ rose from 8.3% to 11.7%, according to nationwide surveys by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The findings were published online in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Big Rise in U.S. Teens Identifying As Gay, Bisexual “Cara Murez, HealthDay, June 15, 2021

HealthDay (6/15, Preidt) reports research suggests that “many mass shooters in America suffered from a mental illness that wasn’t being treated when they committed their crime.” Investigators came to this conclusion after studying “35 mass shooting cases that occurred in the United States between 1982 and 2019 and involved shooters who survived and were brought to trial.” After analyzing “various sources of medical evidence on the mass shooters,” the study team found that 18 of the shooters “had schizophrenia and 10 had other diagnoses including bipolar disorder, delusional disorder, personality disorders and substance-related disorders.” What’s more, “of the 28 shooters with a mental illness diagnosis, none were medicated or received other treatment for their disorders prior to their crimes,” the study revealed. The findings were published online June 7 ahead of print in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Related Links:

— “Many U.S. Mass Shooters Had Untreated Mental Illness: Study “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 15, 2021

HealthDay (6/14, Preidt) reports research indicates that teasing young people “about any extra pounds they may carry” may make them “vulnerable to eating disorders.” In some “1,500 young people in the United States being followed as part of a long-term study,” the study team “found a strong association between weight teasing and eating disorders in both teens and young adults, and that weight teasing during adolescence was associated with the start of dieting, and higher rates of dieting and overeating eight years later.” The findings were published online May 10 in the International Journal of Eating Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Teasing People About Weight Can Help Bring on Eating Disorders “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 14, 2021

TIME (6/14, Ducharme) reports, “By May 2020, 85% of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) surveyed clinician members said they were conducting the majority of their sessions virtually, up from just 2% prior to the pandemic.” But, even though “telehealth has indisputably improved mental-health care access,” it has not “to such an extent that it delivers on promises of revolutionizing the mental-health system.” In other words, “the same problems that kept many people – particularly those who are lower-income or of color – from seeking care before the pandemic still exist, even with the expansion of telehealth.” Consequently, “mental-health usage in the U.S. hasn’t changed as drastically as many advocates would have liked.”

Related Links:

— “Teletherapy Aimed to Make Mental Health Care More Inclusive. The Data Show a Different Story “Jamie Ducharme, TIME, June 14, 2021

Healio (6/11, Miller) reported, “Individuals who used or abused opioids were significantly more likely to receive sedating medications, including benzodiazepines, than those who did not use opioids,” according to researchers who “analyzed 171,766 responses to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 2015 to 2018 to determine how often opioids are used in conjunction with sedating medications.” The results, presented virtually at a medical conference, demonstrated “that opioid use and abuse varied by age, sex, race, education and income.”

Related Links:

— “Despite risks, opioid users more likely to receive sedating medications “Janel Miller, Healio, June 11, 2021

Healio (6/11, Gramigna) reported, “Apparent major depressive episodes after COVID-19 illness appeared distinct from those usually observed among adults,” researchers concluded after using “a multipanel commercial vendor to conduct 12 waves of an internet nonprobability Qualtrics survey approximately every month between May 2020 and February 2021 among people aged 18 years or older.” The findings of the 91,791-person “survey study” were published online in a research letter June 11 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Major depressive episodes after COVID-19 illness differ from typical presentation “Joe Gramigna, Healio, June 11, 2021

The Washington Post (6/11, Chiu) reported a study the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued on Friday indicates that during 2021’s early months, trips “to emergency departments for suspected suicide attempts increased roughly 50 percent for adolescent girls compared with the same period in 2019.” The authors wrote, “The findings from this study suggest more severe distress among young females than has been identified in previous reports during the pandemic, reinforcing the need for increased attention to, and prevention for, this population.”

USA Today (6/11, Hauck, Miller) and HealthDay (6/11, Thompson) also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)