The Boston Globe (12/19, Weisman) reports on research released by the Gerontology Institute of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston that found depression diagnoses among seniors over 65 appear to have grown in the last three years. Indeed, nearly one third of seniors were treated for depression in Massachusetts, higher than the overall rate for New England (25 percent), according to Medicare records.

Related Links:

— “Depression, ranging in severity, shadows old age for nearly a third of Mass. seniors, ” Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe , December 19, 2018.

Endocrine Today (12/19, Neuffer) reports, “Use of substances such as alcohol, opioids and sedative medications may be higher among adults with type 1 diabetes [T1D] compared with the overall U.S. population,” researchers concluded in a 4,311-adult study. The findings were published online in the journal Diabetes Education

Related Links:

— “Substance Use Higher Among Adults With Type 1 Diabetes Vs. General Population, “Phil Neuffer, Healio, December 19, 2018.

Healio (12/19, Demko) reports, “Observational study findings” published online Dec. 11 in the American Journal of Psychiatry that described “the emergent course of bipolar disorder in high-risk offspring of affected parents revealed that the course of bipolar disorder usually evolves in a progressive clinical sequence.” In addition, the study, which “analyzed the emergent clinical course of bipolar disorder over one to 21 years follow-up in 279 high-risk offspring of affected parents and 87 control patients,” revealed “important predictors of bipolar disorder included childhood sleep and anxiety disorders, clinically significant mood symptoms, and psychotic symptoms in depressive episodes.”

Related Links:

— “Emergent course of bipolar disorder among at-risk offspring develops over time, “Savannah Demko, Healio, December 19, 2018.

Forbes (12/18) contributor David DiSalvo writes, “People suffering from anxiety and depression may be at higher risk for developing other major health conditions like heart disease, suggests new research” published online Dec. 18 in the journal Health Psychology. For the study, investigators “analyzed health data for more than 15,000 adults over a four-year period from the Health and Retirement study, a large US population-based study of older adults.” The study revealed that “compared to those without anxiety and depression, participants suffering from those conditions were at 65% increased risk of a heart condition, 64% for stroke, and 50% for” hypertension, plus an “especially high” risk “for arthritis at 87%.” Healio (12/18, Demko) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Depression And Anxiety Linked To Higher Risk Of Other Major Health Conditions, Suggests New Study, “David DiSalvo , Forbes, December 18, 2018.

Reuters (12/18, Rapaport) reports, “More than two in five teens who use marijuana experience psychotic symptoms like hallucinations, paranoia and anxiety,” researchers found after surveying “146 teen marijuana users, ages 14 to 18.” The study revealed that 40 teens, “or 27 percent, reported hallucinations while using the drug and 49, or 34 percent, said they had experienced paranoia or anxiety.” The findings were published online Dec. 17 in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Teen pot users may hallucinate, become paranoid, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, December 18, 2018.

The New York Times (12/17, Jacobs) reports that researchers have “found a nearly fourfold increase in confirmed reports of child abuse on the Saturdays immediately after the distribution of report cards at Florida public schools.” The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Reuters (12/17, Rapaport) reports that the study indicated “abuse cases were more than three times more likely to happen on Saturdays after a report-card Friday than on Saturdays when children hadn’t gotten their grades the day before.” The increase “in abuse only appeared when report cards came home on Fridays, not when kids received them on other days of the week.”

Related Links:

— “When Report Cards Go Out on Fridays, Child Abuse Increases on Saturdays, Study Finds, “Julia Jacobs, The New York Times, December 17, 2018.

A nearly 4,500-word article in the Huffington Post (12/17, Raghavan) examines mental healthcare coverage for children, focusing in particular on the case of Logan, a boy from Allen, Texas, who was reportedly denied full-time care by United Behavioral Health after he set fire to his home and who was later arrested for threatening via social media to “shoot up a school.” The Post adds, “Data gathered by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration and a study by Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions suggest that one percent of the nation’s population under age 18, or roughly 740,000 children and adolescents, may qualify as having a psychotic disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Care Coverage Is Leaving Kids Behind And Families Reeling, “Anita Raghavan, The Huffington Post, December 17, 2018.

Reuters (12/14, Crist) reported on research published online in the Journal of the American Osteopathic Association that found seniors “have the highest rates of gun ownership, depression and suicide in the U.S.,” and “are more likely to become victims of their own guns.” The researchers suggest physicians are in a unique position to identify seniors at risk because this population sees physicians regularly.

Related Links:

— “Doctors struggle to help older gun owners, “Carolyn Crist, Reuters, December 14, 2018.

The NBC News (12/15, Compton) website reported that even though “teenage girls attempt suicide more often than teenage boys, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, boys are more likely to die by suicide.” In fact, “suicide rates for teenage boys and girls rose steadily from 2007 to 2015,” figures from the CDC reveal.

Related Links:

— “Boys need better access to mental health care. Why aren’t they getting it?, “Julie Compton, NBC News, December 15, 2018.

CNN (12/13, Howard) reports on its website that there were almost 40,000 gun deaths in the U.S. last year, “the highest number…in decades,” according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence first analyzed the data, and then later “CNN replicated that analysis and found that 39,773 people died by guns in 2017, which is an increase of more than 10,000 deaths from the 28,874 in 1999.”

The Hill (12/13, Gstalter) reports the number includes “an estimated 14,542 people…killed in homicides with guns,” “an estimated 23,854 people” who “died from suicide using guns in 2017,” as well as 486 “unintentional” gun deaths, 338 “undetermined” deaths, and 553 that “contributed to legal intervention and operations of war.”

Related Links:

— “Gun deaths in US reach highest level in nearly 40 years, CDC data reveal, “Jacqueline Howard, CNN, December 13, 2018.