U.S. News & World Report (1/2, Newman) reports US adults “diagnosed with arthritis commonly reported frequent mental distress and depression in 2017, according to a new federal study.” Patients in Kentucky “reported the highest frequency of mental distress, those in Oklahoma had the highest history of depression, and those in Hawaii had the lowest prevalences for both.” Researchers “used the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s 2017 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System data to ‘estimate state-specific prevalence of frequent mental distress and history of depression among adults with arthritis’ in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, according to the study” published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Related Links:

— “Mental Distress Most Common Among Arthritic Adults in Appalachia, South, ” Katelyn Newman, U.S. News, January 2, 2020

The AP (1/1) reports that CMS has “approved Indiana’s request to use Medicaid funding to provide expanded services to residents diagnosed with serious mental illnesses.” The agency “authorized the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to use those funds to pay for short term care for patients admitted at large institutions for mental disease, rather than continuing to limit treatment to facilities with fewer than 16 beds.”

Related Links:

— “US OKs Medicaid funds for large mental health facilities, AP, January , 2020

The Christian Science Monitor (12/31, Kuz) reported that currently, nearly “70% of veterans who take their own lives use a firearm…and one-third of former service members store guns loaded and unlocked in their homes.” Because of this, “the VA has sought to promote firearm safety as part of its campaign to reduce suicide risk, urging veterans to consider precautions that include gun locks, removing a gun’s firing pin, or storing firearms outside the home.” Such “safety measures can slow a person’s ability to follow through on suicidal thoughts and preempt an irrevocable choice, explains Matt Miller, the VA’s acting director for suicide prevention.”

Related Links:

— “Can veterans lead the way on preventing suicide?, ” Martin Kuz , The Christian Science Monitor, December 31, 2019

HealthDay (12/31, Preidt) reported that on its own, “opioid addiction is tough enough to beat, but new research shows that having an accompanying methamphetamine habit may make quitting” much harder. After looking at “799 people receiving opioid addiction treatment at three sites in Washington State,” investigators “found that methamphetamine use was associated with a more than twofold higher risk of dropping out of treatment for opioid addiction.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the February issue of the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.

Related Links:

— “Opioid-Meth Habit Particularly Hard to Break, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 31, 2019

The New York Times (12/30, Chokshi) reports researchers “found that opioid deaths were about 85 percent higher among people of prime working age – 16 to 65 – in counties where automotive assembly plants had closed five years earlier, compared with counties where such factories remained open.” The study, which was published in JAMA Internal Medicine, suggests that the closure of automotive factories “may have contributed to a rise in local opioid overdose deaths in recent years.”

Newsweek (12/30, Gander) reports researchers examined data between 1999 and 2016 from 112 industrial counties largely in the Midwest and the South. During the study period, “29 counties were affected by a plant closure, while 83 counties weren’t.” The researchers found that “plant closures were followed by a statistically significant increase in deaths due to opioids overdoses. After five years, mortality rates increased by 8.6 deaths…per 100,000 in such regions, compared with areas not hit by a factory shutting down,” which “amounted to an 85 percent increase.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Deaths Rise When Auto Plants Close, Study Shows, ” Niraj Chokshi, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

The Atlantic (12/30, Rizga) reports on a program called ASD Nest, which places students with autism “alongside neurotypical students in classrooms led by specially trained teachers.” The program, which “launched in 2003 with four teachers and has since expanded to 54 elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City,” is a “collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and NYU.” Furthermore, the program “places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom.”

Related Links:

— “What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism, “Kristina Rizga, The Atlantic, December 30, 2019

The Boston Globe (12/30, Martin) reports on a program aiming “to curb problematic pot use” among teenagers. The “Charlestown program – funded by Massachusetts General Hospital’s center for community health improvement – is part of a growing effort around the state to help high schoolers make sound choices about cannabis in an era of marijuana legalization,” focusing more so on “treatment rather than on abstinence and punishment.” The article adds, “The program teaches students to try healthy stress relievers like exercise or meditation, before encouraging them to cut back on pot in a realistic way,” however, it “stops short of one step: demanding they quit altogether.”

Related Links:

— “New approach to curbing marijuana use among teens: ‘just say no’ gives way to ‘just smoke less’, ” Naomi Martin, The Boston Globe, December 30, 2019

In the New York Times (12/30) “Personal Health” column, Jane E. Brody writes that hearing loss “is the largest modifiable risk factor for developing dementia, exceeding that of smoking, high blood pressure, lack of exercise and social isolation.” Brody writes that “new findings on cognitive losses linked to subclinical hearing loss, gleaned from among 6,451 people age 50 or older, suggest that any degree of hearing loss can take a toll.”

Related Links:

— “For Better Brain Health, Preserve Your Hearing, “Jane E. Brody, The New York Times, December 30, 2019

Healio (12/27, Gramigna) reported, “Grandparents who are active in the lives of their grandchildren may have a decreased risk for loneliness and social isolation,” researchers concluded after obtaining and analyzing “cross-sectional survey data from a population-based sample of 3,849 community-dwelling adults in Germany aged 40 years or older.” The findings were published online in BMJ Open.

Related Links:

— “Grandparents who care for grandchildren less likely to feel isolated, lonely, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 27, 2019

The San Francisco Chronicle (12/28, Fagone, Cassidey) reported, “The suicide rate among California prisoners has climbed five years in a row and rose in 2019 to the highest level in at least three decades…according to experts, advocates for prisoners and the state’s top corrections official.” As of Tuesday, 36 people this year had died by suicide inside the state’s prisons, amounting to “a rate of 28.7 suicides per 100,000 prisoners – an increase over last year’s rate of 26.3.” Public officials, judges, and experts “say California’s deaths are the result of a system that for decades has failed to provide proper help to the state’s mentally ill prisoners, a population estimated at more than 30,000.”

Related Links:

— “Exclusive: Suicides rise again in California prisons — 36 this year, despite scrutiny, “Jason Fagone and Megan Cassidy, The San Francisco Chronicle, December 30, 2019