HealthDay (7/8, Reinberg) reports, “Teens who use Spice, K2 or other synthetic marijuana products may risk medical harm, including coma and seizures,” researchers concluded after reviewing emergency department records data from 65 hospitals in 23 states. The study also revealed that “those who mixed the manmade ‘marijuana’ with other drugs, such as stimulants, could become dangerously agitated.” The findings were published online in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Teens Risk Seizures, Coma When They Use ‘Synthetic Pot’, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, July 8, 2019

Perri Klass, MD, writes for the New York Times (7/8) “The Checkup” column that a “new study suggests that organized sports participation may be helpful for kids who are dealing with childhood trauma.” The study “looked at a national sample of 9,668 people” and “found people who had experienced traumatic events as children had better mental health outcomes as adults if they had participated in team sports during adolescence.” The study was published in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Team Sports May Help Children Deal With Trauma, ” Perri Klass, M.D., The New York Times, July 8, 2019

Reuters (7/8, Rapaport) reports, “Children who suffer adverse experiences tend to do worse in school than kids who don’t, but…parents may still help improve academic outcomes by simply talking to their kids,” researchers concluded after examining “survey data on almost 66,000 students ages six to 17 gathered during the 2011-2012 school year.” The findingswere published online in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Parents talking to kids may blunt negative impact of adversity on schoolwork, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, July 8, 2019

According to Healio (7/5, Demko), even though “the incidence of eating disorders was relatively low compared with some other mental disorders in Wales, patients with eating disorders had a higher burden of morbidity, other mental health problems and mortality,” researchers concluded in a study that involved some “15,558 people” who “received an eating disorder diagnosis between 1990 and 2017 in Wales.” The findingswere published online July 1 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Long-term burden of morbidity, mortality in eating disorders, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 05, 2019

The New York Times (7/3, Bakalar) reported that researchers have found that “hormone therapy for prostate cancer is associated with an increased risk for dementia.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Hormone Therapy for Prostate Cancer Tied to Dementia, ” Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, July 03, 2019

HealthDay (7/3, Gordon) reported, “Treating depression may have an added benefit for people with diabetes – longer life,” research indicated. The study, which included more than 53,000 Taiwanese, “found that antidepressants cut the risk of dying during the study period by more than one-third for people with diabetes and depression.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

Related Links:

— “Easing Depression Can Bring Longer Life to People With Diabetes, ” Serena Gordon, HealthDay, July , 2019

HealthDay (7/2, Thompson) reports a new study suggests that “social media is helping spur the e-cigarette epidemic among America’s teens.” Researchers found that “nearly 15,000 Instagram posts related to Juul, the most popular e-cigarette brand, were released between March and May 2018,” and “more than half of the posts focused on youth culture or lifestyle-related content that would appeal to teens.” The study was published in the journal Tobacco Control.

Related Links:

— “Social Media a Big Driver of Teen Vaping Craze: Study, ” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, July 02, 2019

Healio (7/2) reports a study found that “higher levels of self-reported physical activity were associated with a lower risk of developing anxiety and anxiety disorders.” Researchers “searched databases, including PubMed, Embase and Web of Science, to identify prospective studies that measured the odds ratio of incident anxiety in individuals with high levels of physical activity against those with low physical activity.” The findings were published in Depression and Anxiety.

Related Links:

— “High levels of physical activity protect against anxiety-related disorders, “Alexandria Brooks, Healio, July 02, 2019

The Wall Street Journal (7/1, Chapman, Subscription Publication) reports the New York Police Department is seeking help from other departments on decreasing suicide among its officers. The article points out that six NYPD officers have died by suicide so far this year.

Related Links:

— “NYPD Turns to Other Departments for Help After Series of Suicides, ” Ben Chapman, The Wall Street Journal, July 01, 2019

Reuters (7/1, Carroll) reports, “Just like cigarettes, alcohol creates secondhand harms,” research indicated. After examining “data from two nationally representative surveys: the 2015 National Alcohol’s Harm to Others Survey, which contained information on 2,830 adults, and the 2015 National Alcohol Survey, which contained data on 7,071 adults,” investigators found that “more than one in five women and nearly one in four men experienced some harm related to someone else’s drinking.” The findings were published online June 30 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

CNN (7/1, Howard) reports that for the study, “each adult was asked whether they had experienced any of 10 different types of harm in the past 12 months caused by ‘someone who had been drinking.’” Included in the “different types of harm” were “harassment; feeling threatened or afraid; having belongings ruined; having property vandalized; being pushed, hit or assaulted; being physically harmed; being in a traffic accident; being a passenger in a vehicle with a drunk driver; having family or marital problems; and having financial trouble.” Healio (7/1, Miller) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Alcohol’s secondhand harms prevalent among U.S. women and men, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, July 01, 2019