Medscape (6/3, Lowry, Subscription Publication) reports that after examining survey responses from 256 women, researchers “found that rates of suicidal ideation concurrent with” premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) “ranged from 11% to 32% for passive and from 9% to 23% for active suicidal ideation.” Currently, “suicidal ideation (SI) is not included in the fifth edition of the” American Psychiatric Association’s “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) diagnostic criteria for PMDD,” Medscape adds. The findings were presented at the American Society of Clinical Psychopharmacology 2019 annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “Suicidal Thoughts Common in Women With PMDD, “Fran Lowry, Medscape, June 3, 2019

In a video segment for Healio (6/3) recorded at the American Psychiatric Association’s recent annual meeting, Rashi Aggarwal, MD, “associate professor and program director of residency training, department of psychiatry, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, discussed” the importance of resilience, happiness, and well-being in the prevention of burnout in physicians and medical students. Dr. Aggarwal emphasized, “Physician burnout is a widespread, systemic problem that needs a systemic organizational response to solve.” While “resiliency and well-being is not yoga and broccoli alone, and it is not a solution to burnout…it is definitely something we should all know more about,” she said.

Related Links:

— “Resiliency, well-being alone are not solutions to burnout, Healio, June 3, 2019

The San Diego Union-Tribune (5/31, Fikes) reported a new study conducted by Scripps Research found that drug rebates may be contributing to “soaring” drug prices. Researchers who “used proprietary data from Blue Cross/Blue Shield on insurance claims by more than 35 million Americans” found that the “median price of 49 top-selling brand name drugs rose 76 percent over six years,” and 48 increased in price. The study indicates the “lack of transparency on actual drug prices, along with American patent law, enable these price increases,” and while rebates “give the appearance of price reductions, they are based on ever-increasing list prices.” The findings appear “in JAMA Network Open, published by the American Medical Association.”

Related Links:

— “Price of top prescription drugs rises 76% over 6 years, Scripps Research study finds, “Bradley J. Fikes, The San Diego Union-Tribune, May 31, 2019

Reuters (5/31, Crist) reported that attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “may be more common in elite athletes,” researchers concluded after conducting a medical literature review. The findings were published online May 16 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

Related Links:

— “ADHD may be more common among elite athletes, “Carolyn Crist, Reuters, May 31, 2019

Reuters (5/30, Carroll) reports researchers found that “seniors with declining vision are more likely than peers with good eyesight to experience discrimination as well as depression that may result from this bias.” The findings of the 7,677-adult study were published online in JAMA Ophthalmology.

Related Links:

— “Seniors with vision loss experience discrimination, depression, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, May 31, 2019

Medscape (5/30, Melville, Subscription Publication) reports that “with a spectrum of cognitive and mental health symptoms known to affect people with multiple sclerosis (MS), new research suggests hoarding and cluttering may be among them.” Medscape adds, “Though preliminary, the study showed rates among those with MS to be more than twice that of the general population.” The findings of the 198-patient study were presented at the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers 2019 Annual Meeting.

Related Links:

— “Increased Hoarding, Cluttering in MS?, “Nancy A. Melville, Medscape, May 30, 2019

Millions of consumers safely use loperamide, a prescription and over-the-counter anti-diarrheal medication approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Recent reports show a small but growing number of people are taking very high doses of loperamide in an attempt to self-manage opioid withdrawal or to achieve a euphoric high. At high doses, these individuals may be at risk of severe or fatal cardiac events. Learn more about preventing loperamide misuse at LoperamideSafety.org.

Related Links:

— “Understanding Loperamide Abuse

MedPage Today (5/29, Hlavinka) reports, “Suicides increased among young people following the March 2017 release of 13 Reasons Why, the Netflix series exploring a fictional 17-year-old girl’s suicide, and were associated at least temporally with social media activity surrounding the show,” researchers concluded after gathering “1,416,175 tweets from 870,056 users and 26,322 Instagram posts from 7,875 influencers, who each had at least 15,000 followers,” then examining “monthly suicide data from the CDC’s Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiologic Research (WONDER) system from 1999 to 2017.” The findings were published online May 29 in JAMA Psychiatry. The authors of an accompanying editorial observed the study’s “findings still provide ‘compelling evidence’ that the uptick of suicides was related to the series.”

Related Links:

— “Medscape Today, (requires login and subscription)

CBS News (5/28, Ivanova) reports on its website that the World Health Organization “now includes ‘burnout’ in its International Classification of Diseases Handbook, where it is described as an occupational-related condition ‘resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.’” The story explains that “according to the WHO, doctors can issue a diagnosis of burnout if a patient exhibits three symptoms: feeling depleted of energy or exhausted; feeling mentally distanced from or cynical about one’s job; and problems getting one’s job done successfully,” although “burnout is to be used specifically ‘in the occupational context’ and that it ‘should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.’”

NPR (5/28, Wroth) reports that “despite earlier reports to the contrary, WHO does not classify the problem as a medical condition” but instead “calls burnout an ‘occupational phenomenon’ and includes it in a chapter on ‘factors influencing health status or contact with health services.’”

Study Shows Physician Burnout Costs Approximately $4.6 Billion Each Year TIME (5/28, Oaklander) reports that US physicians “experience symptoms of burnout at almost twice the rate of other workers, often citing as contributors the long hours, a fear of being sued, and having to deal with growing bureaucracy, like filling out clunky and time-consuming electronic medical records.” Now, TIME writes, “the economic impacts of burnout are also significant, costing the U.S. some $4.6 billion every year, according to a new study published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine.”

HealthDay (5/28, Reinberg) reports that for this study, lead researcher Joel Goh from the National University of Singapore “and a team of researchers from Stanford University, the Mayo Clinic, and the American Medical Association created a mathematical model to estimate the cost of doctor turnover and the shorter hours that result from burnout.” Goh said, “We found that at an organizational level, the annual burnout-associated cost was estimated at approximately $7,600 per physician per year. At a national level, the estimated cost ranged from $3 billion to $6 billion a year.”

Related Links:

— “World Health Organization classifies work “burnout” as an occupational phenomenon, “Irina Ivanova, CBS News, May 28, 2019

The NPR (5/28, Neilson) “Shots” blog reports, “Participation in team sports as a young person can significantly reduce the long-term likelihood of depression and anxiety for people with childhood trauma,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from 9668 teens who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health.” The findings were published online May 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

MedPage Today (5/28, Hlavinka) reports the authors of an accompanying editorial wrote, “The wins and losses of sports teach the emotional dexterity required for success in life, including resilience.” They added, “These beneficial characteristics of sport participation may lead to better mental and social health and academic success and may lower the likelihood of participating in risky behaviors.”

Related Links:

— “Playing Teen Sports May Protect From Some Damages Of Childhood Trauma, “Susie Neilson, NPR, May 28, 2019