STAT (7/26, Joseph) reported a study of “more than 300,000 women who gave birth between 2008 and 2016” found nearly 2% “showed signs of ‘persistent’ opioid use” after childbirth. However, “both the percentage of women who filled their prescriptions and the rate of persistent opioid use declined” over the study period. HealthDay (7/26, Preidt) reported the study “found 1% to 2% of those women were still filling opioid prescriptions a year later,” and that “those most likely to be doing so were women who were prescribed opioids before giving birth, and those who got the largest initial doses.” MedPage Today (7/26, D’Ambrosio) reported the research showed “during the study period, opioid prescription fills decreased from 26.9% to 23.8% among women who gave birth vaginally and from 75.5% to 72.6% for women that had a C-section.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: 2% of women have ‘persistent’ opioid use after childbirth, “Lauren Joseph, STAT, July 26, 2019

Newsweek (7/24, Gander) reports researchers found that older people “with a high BMI and a big waistline…could be more likely to have a sign of brain aging linked to dementia.” The findings were published in Neurology. Medscape (7/24, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports the researchers found that “greater body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are associated with cortical thinning in the brain, especially in early old age.”

Related Links:

— “Big waist and high BMI associated with brain thinning linked to dementia, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, July 24, 2019

The Washington Post (7/24, Achenbach, Koh, Bennett, Mara) reports, “Southwest Virginia is among the regions in the United States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which has roots in prescription” analgesics. Newly-released “Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post” demonstrate “the swollen pipeline of prescription opioids from factories to pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.” The opioid epidemic “has been particularly brutal…in central Appalachia, which has seen the coal industry contract and now has some of the highest poverty and disability rates in the nation.” As to “how and why Appalachia became the epicenter of the epidemic,” this “is partly due to the real need for painkillers among workers hurt in coal mines and in other types of physically demanding jobs,” and also to the fact that opioid analgesics “were more addictive than people realized.”

Related Links:

— “Flooded with opioids, Appalachia is still trying to recover, “Joel Achenbach, Joyce Koh, Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, July 24, 2019

Healio (7/24, Demko) reports, “Compensatory strategies – techniques to disguise autism – increased social integration, but were associated with poor mental health and delayed diagnosis among people with autism,” research indicated in a study that included “58 adults with a clinical diagnosis of autism, 19 with self-identified (but not formally diagnosed) autism and 59 without a diagnosis or self-identified autism (but with social difficulties).” The findings were published online July 23 in The Lancet Psychiatry. The author of a related commentary observed that “an important question for future research is whether subjective distress should be listed in the diagnostic criteria for” autism spectrum disorder. She wrote, “For example, DSM-5 could be revised to read: ‘Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning [including subjective distress].’” She added, “This change would codify the experience of individuals with autism who function in the typical range, but do so through intense compensation that causes subjective distress.”

Related Links:

— “Compensatory strategies that mask autism may impede diagnosis, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 24, 2019

HealthDay (7/23, Preidt) reports that extreme eating habits “in young children…could be a sign of autism, researchers say.” The study, which included more than 2,000 youngsters, revealed “atypical eating behaviors – such as hypersensitivity to food textures or pocketing food without swallowing – in 70% of kids with autism,” representing a rate 15 times of that usually “found in children.” The findings were published in the August issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Extreme Eating Habits Could Be an Early Clue to Autism, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 23, 2019

CNN (7/23, Azad) reports, “People are more likely to try…party drugs and marijuana during the summer, researchers found, with over a third of LSD use and around 30% of ecstasy and marijuana use starting in the season.” In addition, “around 28% of cocaine use also began in the summer,” the study revealed. The findings were published online July 23 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

HealthDay (7/23, Preidt) reports researchers arrived at the study’s conclusions after examining “data from nearly 395,000 people, aged 12 and older, who took part in the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2011 and 2017.”

Related Links:

— “More people try drugs for the first time in the summer, study says, “Arman Azad, CNN, July 23, 2019

Psychiatric News (7/23) reports, “Twelve-year-old children who exhibit symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder – such as experiencing extremes of rage, despair, or excitement – are at higher risk of having poor mental health by age 18,” researchers concluded after assessing a “total of 2,232 British children in the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (representing 1,116 families with same sex twins)…during home visits at age five, seven, 10, and 12; during these visits their mothers were also interviewed.” Later, “at age 18, the participants were interviewed alone.” The findings were published online July 17 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Borderline Symptoms at Age 12 Predict a Variety of Negative Outcomes at Age 18, Psychiatric News, July 23, 2019

HealthDay (7/22, Preidt) reports, “Teens who are belittled and demeaned by their parents are more likely to be bullied and to bully others,” research indicated. After following “more than 1,400 teens from ages 13 to 15,” investigators “found that derisive parenting can cause significant harm.” The study revealed that “teens who are subjected to derisive parenting can develop dysregulated anger, often a sign of difficulty controlling emotions,” and this “dysregulated anger puts teens at greater risk for bullying and for becoming bully-victims (bullies who also are victimized by other bullies), the study said.” The findings were published in the August issue of the Journal of Youth and Adolescence.

Related Links:

— “Parents Who Belittle Their Children May Be Raising Bullies, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 22, 2019

Kaiser Health News (7/19, Rinker) reported that in the workplace, even with the protections offered by the American Disabilities Act of 1990 and help from employee assistance programs, “some employees” with mental illnesses “can be reluctant to ask for help at work.” Currently, “an estimated eight in 10 workers with a mental health condition don’t get treatment because of the shame and stigma associated with it, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness.” Consequently, “the pressure is growing on employers to adopt better strategies for dealing with mental health.” The article detailed California “legislation that makes it the first state to establish voluntary standards for workplace mental health,” under which “the state will create guidelines to help companies strengthen access to mental health care for their employees and reduce the stigma associated with it.”

Related Links:

— “Employers Urged To Find New Ways To Address Workers’ Mental Health, ” Brian Rinker, Kaiser Health News, July 19, 2019

Politico (7/21, Rayasam) reports on the “largely unseen mental health crisis within the growing population of migrants who are being held in detention centers in border states.” The decision made by President Trump two years ago “to reverse a policy that encouraged releasing vulnerable individuals while they await deportation hearings has left U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement unequipped to deal with conditions ranging from anxiety to schizophrenia.” One current “estimate puts the number of detainees with mental illnesses between 3,000 and 6,000.” Just “21 of the 230 ICE detention facilities offering any kind of in-person mental health services from the agency’s medical staff, according to a 2016 agency oversight report.”

Related Links:

— “Migrant mental health crisis spirals in ICE detention facilities, “Renuka Rayasam, Politico, July 21, 2019