TIME (7/17, Ducharme) reports, “From 2013 to 2016, almost 38% of American adolescents ages 16 to 19 said they had tried to lose weight during the past year…a report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Center for Health Statistics” indicates. The NCHS data brief (pdf) “showed that more than three-quarters of adolescents with obesity tried to lose weight,” but “weight-loss attempts outpaced increases in adolescent obesity,” as “obesity rates among adolescents ages 12 to 19 climbed from 18.4% to almost 21% from 2009-2010 to 2015-2016.” Experts caution, however, that “even seemingly healthy behaviors, like working out and cutting back on calories, can quickly spiral into unhealthy territory, especially for” adolescents for whom “eating disorders are thought to be most common.”

MedPage Today (7/17, Lyles) reports that girls in particular “have been attempting to lose weight,” the data revealed, and also “showed 16.5% of teens saying they skipped meals in order to lose weight.”

Related Links:

— “More U.S. Teenagers Are Trying to Lose Weight Than in Years Past. That May Be Reason for Concern, “Jamie Ducharme, TIME, July 17, 2019

Modern Healthcare (7/17, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reports researchers found that “medical marijuana laws had little impact on curbing non-medical use of prescription opioids.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Medical marijuana laws not linked to reduced opioid misuse, “Steven Ross Johnson, Modern Healthcare, July 17, 2019

The New York Times (7/16, Marshall) reports that “Netflix has deleted a graphic scene from the first season of ‘13 Reasons Why’ in which a teenage girl kills herself, more than two years after the episode premiered.”
        
Reuters (7/16, McKay) reports that a study found that “suicides by young Americans rose by almost a third in the month following the 2017 streaming debut of the popular Netflix television series.” The AP (7/16) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Netflix Deletes ‘13 Reasons Why’ Suicide Scene, “Alex Marshall, The New York Times, July 16, 2019

According to Healio (7/16, Miller), “women who took sleep medications were at a slightly higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from 3,656 residents of a Utah county without dementia at baseline (women, 57.8%) that assessed risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive decline.” The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

Psychiatric News (7/16) reports investigators found that participants “who reported taking sleeping medication ‘often’ or ‘almost always’ were 43% more likely to develop dementia than those who reported ‘never’ or ‘rarely’ taking sleep medications.” Further analysis found that “the increased dementia risk among the frequent users was observed only among the white participants (hazard ratio=1.79).”

Related Links:

— “Sleep medications tied to slightly higher risk for Alzheimer’s disease in women, “Janel Miller, Healio, July 16, 2019

CNN (7/15, Nigam) reports, “As the opioid crisis swept across the” U.S., the number of children “entering the foster care system” increased. Investigators found that “from 2000 to 2017, there was a 147% increase in foster care entries due to parents’ drug use.”

NPR (7/15, Neilson) reports that for the study, investigators “analyzed data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).” The researchers examined almost five “million instances of children entering foster care between 2000 and 2017 and analyzed how many times foster children were removed from their homes due to their parents’ drug use each year.” The findings were published online in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “There was a dramatic rise in kids entering foster care due to parents’ drug use, study says, “Minali Nigam, CNN, July 15, 2019

CNN (7/15, Howard) reports, “For every additional hour young people spend on social media or watching television, the severity of depressive symptoms they experience goes up,” research indicated. The study revealed that “high levels of social media use over four years was associated with increased depression – and each one-hour increase in the average time students said they spent on social media was associated with an increase in the severity of depression symptoms within that same year.” CNN adds, “The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents place consistent limits on how many hours per day their preteens or teens spend using screens.” Child and adolescent psychiatrist Gary Maslow, MD, “said in January that he often points his patients’ families to the American Academy of Pediatrics for tips on how to establish healthy social media habits at home.”

MedPage Today (7/15, Hlavinka) reports, “In a group of 3,826 adolescents, those with high levels of social media use had a 0.64-unit increase in depression symptoms (95% CI 0.32-0.51) on a scale of 0 to 28, and on the individual level, each hour of increased social media use within a year was associated with a 0.41-unit increase in depressive symptoms,” the study revealed. The findings were published online July 15 in JAMA Pediatrics. Also covering the study are MD Magazine (7/15, Campbell) and HealthDay (7/15, Preidt).

Related Links:

— “Increasing social media use tied to rise in teens’ depressive symptoms, study says, “Jacqueline Howard, CNN, July 15, 2019

HealthDay (7/12, Preidt) reported, “Teens who take prescription opioid” analgesics “to get high could be taking a step toward heroin use,” researchers concluded after studying some “3,300 students at 10 Los Angeles-area high schools who were followed from freshman year to senior year.” The findings were published online in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Teens’ Opioid Abuse May Be Gateway to Heroin, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 12, 2019

MedPage Today (7/12) reported, “In the first national investigation of nurse suicide in more than” two decades, investigators “found significantly higher rates of suicide among both women and men working in nursing when compared with non-nurses.” The study revealed that “suicide incidence was 11.97 per 100,000 person-years among female nurses and 39.8 per 100,000 among male nurses, both of which were significantly higher compared to women and men in the general population (7.58 and 28.2 per 100,000 person-years, respectively, P<0.001).” The findings of the 14,774-suicide study were published online June 8 in the Annals of Psychiatric Nursing. Related Links:

— “Suicide Risk in Nurses Higher Than General Population, “Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, July 12, 2019

The Washington Post (7/14, Natanson) reports researchers “found that combining five lifestyle habits…can reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent.” The researchers “assessed study participants’ lifestyles on five metrics,” including eating, exercise, smoking, alcohol consumption, “and their ‘engagement in cognitive stimulation activities.’” The research found that those who “pursued four or five healthy behaviors over the period studied – were 60 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s” than those who pursued one or none of the behaviors. The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference.

The AP (7/14, Marchione) reports the findings were also published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The researchers also found that “a healthy lifestyle can cut your risk of developing Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia even if you have genes that raise your risk for these mind-destroying diseases.”

Additional coverage is provided by: CNN (7/14, Christensen), NBC News (7/14, Carroll), Reuters (7/14, Kelland), TIME (7/14, Park), and MD Magazine (7/14, Campbell). Mentally Stimulating Activities May Be Associated With Lower Risk Of MCI In Older People, Researchers Say Psychiatric News (7/12) reported, “Mentally stimulating activities like using a computer, playing games, crafting, and participating in social activities were associated with a lower risk of mild cognitive impairment [MCI] in older people,” researchers concluded after analyzing “five-year data from 2,000 participants in the population-based Mayo Clinic Study of Aging.” The findings were published online July 10 in Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Doing these five things could decrease your risk of Alzheimer’s by 60 percent, new study says, ” Hannah Natanson, The Washington Post, July 14, 2019

Healio (7/11) reports researchers found that many adults with migraine use opioids, “despite practices discouraging patients from using them.” The findings were presented at the American Headache Society Annual Scientific Meeting. The researchers “analyzed data from 21,143 patients with migraine who indicated their level of opioid use as part of an online survey,” and “found that among the 12,299 patients who reported 0 to 3 migraine headache days each month, 15% were current opioid users, 26% were former users and 59% never used opioids. Among the remaining patients – all who indicated 4 or more migraine headache days each month – 23.9% were current opioid users, 31.2% were former users and 44.9% never used opioids.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid use among patients with migraine ‘alarmingly high’, “Janel Miller, Healio, July 11, 2019