HealthDay (8/21, Preidt) reports on a study finding that “children whose parents have cancer are more likely to struggle in school and to have lower incomes as adults.” The study included “more than 1 million people born in Denmark from 1978 through 1999,” and of these, “about one in 20 had a parent diagnosed with cancer” while they were under 18. The children so affected were found to have “lower grade averages in school than their classmates,” and “grade averages were lowest among children who had a parent die of cancer or who had low odds of surviving five years.” The study also found that “by age 30, adults with a childhood experience with parental cancer were more likely to earn less than others” and children under five at the time the parent was diagnosed “appeared to be at greatest risk of problems.” The study was published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.

Related Links:

— “When a Parent Has Cancer, Kids Suffer Long Term: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 21, 2018.

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (8/21, Kaplan) reports “new research suggests that taking care of your cardiovascular system will pay off for your brain.”

The New York Times (8/21, Bakalar) reports that in a 6,626-participant study, researchers found that “cardiovascular health in older people is associated with lower risk of dementia and lower rates of cognitive decline.” The findings were published in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

TIME (8/21, Park) reports the researchers found that people with good cardiovascular health, as measured by the American Heart Association’s Life’s Simple 7 Metrics, were less likely to have dementia.

MedPage Today (8/21, George) reports that in another study, also published in the Aug. 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association but involving “125 young adults in England,” researchers found “that better cardiovascular metrics were associated with higher cerebral vessel density and caliber, higher cerebral blood flow, and fewer white matter hyperintensities.” The authors of an editorial accompanying both studies observed that the two new studies examined the relationship between cardiovascular health and brain function in younger and older people, rather than middle-age people as most previous studies have. Healio (8/21, Tedesco) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “The more you do to promote your cardiovascular health, the lower your risk of dementia,”Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, August 21, 2018.

According to the Wall Street Journal (8/20, Reddy, Subscription Publication), research published online Aug. 8 in The Lancet Psychiatry examined how different exercise types may affect mental health. Included in the study were data on 1.2 million adults in the US who responded to a CDC survey. The study revealed that playing on a sports team and bicycling appeared to have the best effect.

Related Links:

— “The Exercise That Helps Mental Health Most,” Sumathi Reddy, The Wall Street Journal, August 20, 2018.

In a front-page article, the New York Times (8/18, A1, Goodnough) reported on the small group of hospitals “that have started initiating opioid addiction treatment in the” emergency department (ED). The facilities provide buprenorphine, “one of three medications approved in the United States to treat opioid addiction,” on demand, with the hope that it may push more addicts to seek addiction treatment. The change was inspired by a 2015 Yale-New Haven Hospital study that found “addicted patients who were given buprenorphine in the” ED “were twice as likely to be in treatment a month later as those who were simply handed an informational pamphlet with phone numbers.” Since it was published, “a few dozen hospital” EDs have implemented similar programs.

Related Links:

— “This E.R. Treats Opioid Addiction on Demand. That’s Very Rare., “Abby Goodnough, The New York Times, August 18, 2018.

Multiple Sclerosis News Today (8/16, Mumal) reports researchers found that one-third of Canadian patients with multiple sclerosis “report a need for mental health care, with symptoms of anxiety and depression…identified as predominant factors.” The findings were published in Multiple Sclerosis and Related Disorders.

Related Links:

— “MS Patients with Anxiety, Depression Symptoms More likely to Report Need for Mental Health Care, Study Shows, “Iqra Mumal, Multiple Sclerosis News Today, August 18, 2018.

McClatchy (8/16, Magness) reports that “exposure to DDE, which forms after the now-banned pesticide DDT breaks down, can as much as double the chance that a woman gives birth to” a child with autism, research indicated.

Newsweek (8/16, Gander) reports that researchers arrived at this conclusion after assessing “the blood taken from pregnant women to identify birth defects of 750 children with autism.” The findings were published online Aug. 16 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

MedPage Today (8/16, Monaco) reports, “Offspring of mothers who fell into the highest 75th percentile of environmental exposure to p, p’-dichlorodiphenyl dichloroethylene (p, p’-DDE) – a metabolite of the insecticide dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) – had 32% higher odds of autism following adjustment for maternal psychiatric history, age, and parity,” the study found. But, “this association only applied to male offspring (OR 1.35, 95% CI 1.02-1.80, P=0.04); it wasn’t significant among female offspring although the point estimate was not markedly lower (OR 1.19, 95% CI 0.67-2.13, P=0.55),” investigators found.

Psychiatric News (8/16) reports, “The authors proposed two reasons for why DDT appeared to be linked with autism.” The first reason is that “DDT exposure is also known to increase the risk of both premature birth and small birthweight – two known autism risk factors.” The second reason is that “DDT can reduce the production of androgen receptors, another autism risk factor.”

Also covering the study are the ABC News (8/16, Kalra) website, Nature (8/16, Reardon), HealthDay (8/16, Gordon), Medscape (8/16, Brooks, Subscription Publication), Healio (8/16, Demko), and MD Magazine (8/16, Gingerich).

Related Links:

— “This banned pesticide may double the chance women have a baby with autism, study says, “Josh Magness, The Miami Herald, August 16, 2018.

STAT (8/15, Begley) reports that despite an analysis that found there are “literally zero” experimental Alzheimer’s medications being tested in late stage trials to treat moderate to severe cases, thus far, “no patient advocacy groups uttered a peep in protest.” STAT explains, “For more than 20 years drug makers and academic scientists pursued treatments to slow or reverse dementia by targeting amyloid plaques in the brain,” but “every last one failed.” Companies are now focusing on preventing the disease in younger people or trying to address behavioral symptoms such as agitation.

Related Links:

— “As Alzheimer’s drug developers give up on today’s patients, where is the outrage?, “Sharon Begley, STAT, August 15, 2018.

In a front-page story, the New York Times (8/15, A1, Sanger-Katz) reports that drug overdoses killed more than 72,000 Americans in 2017, a rise of about 10 percent from the year prior, according to new preliminary estimates from the Centers for Disease Control. The rising death toll “reflects two major factors: A growing number of Americans are using opioids, and those drugs are becoming more deadly.” Experts who are monitoring the epidemic point to the increase in synthetic opioids like fentanyl “most likely explains the bulk of the increased number of overdoses last year.” According to the CDC estimates, “overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids rose sharply, while deaths from heroin, prescription opioid pills and methadone fell.”

The Washington Post (8/15, Ingraham) reports the CDC “cautions that these figures are early estimates based on monthly death records processed by the agency.” The deaths are geographically distributed similarly to how they have been in past years, with Appalachia and New England showing the highest mortality rates. The highest rates were “seen in West Virginia, with 58.7 overdose deaths for every 100,000 residents. The District of Columbia (50.4), Pennsylvania (44.1), Ohio (44.0) and Maryland (37.9) rounded out the top five.” The CDC data also show, despite the nationwide increase, “overdose rates fell in a number of states, including North Dakota and Wyoming, compared with the prior year. Particularly significant were the decreases in Vermont and Massachusetts, two states with relatively high rates of overdose mortality.”

Fortune (8/15, Mukherjee) reports the nearly 72,000 overdose deaths “outpaced fatalities from suicide, or from influenza and pneumonia, which claimed about 44,000 and 57,000 lives, respectively, in 2016.”

Related Links:

— “Bleak New Estimates in Drug Epidemic: A Record 72,000 Overdose Deaths in 2017, ” Margot Sanger-Katz, The New York Times, August 15, 2018.

The AP (8/14) reports Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed a bill Tuesday “aimed at helping curb the state’s opioid addiction crisis.” The new law requires hospital employees to “either admit a patient battling opioid addiction into an inpatient service or provide a referral to an internal or community-based treatment program when the patient expresses interest.” Additionally, the law “creates a commission to make recommendations about the credentialing of recovery coaches, who help those trying to remain drug-free. It also requires all prescribers to convert to electronic prescriptions by 2020.”

WBUR-FM Boston (8/14) reports on its website that this is the second major bill Baker “has signed to fight the crisis that claimed an estimated 2,016 lives in 2017. He marked the occasion Tuesday with a ceremonial signing at a Roxbury recovery center.”

Related Links:

— “Massachusetts Governor Touts Bill Aimed at Opioid Addiction, AP, August 14, 2018.

The Washington Post (8/14, Nutt) “To Your Health” blog reports researchers found that traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide. The findings were published Aug. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Reuters (8/14, Rapaport) reports the researchers found that “people who have traumatic brain injuries may be nearly twice as likely to die by suicide as individuals who don’t have a history of injuries like concussions and skull fractures.”

Healio (8/14, Miller) reports the authors of an accompanying editorial wrote, “Among the main questions stimulated by this research is the mechanism. How exactly do TBIs increase suicide risk? … The answers are undoubtedly multifactorial and complex.”

According to Psychiatric News (8/14), the “retrospective cohort study” used “nationwide registers that included more than 7.4 million people aged 10 years and older living in Denmark in 1980.” All of “these individuals were followed up until their dates of death or emigration from Denmark or December 31, 2014, whichever came first.”

Also covering the story are HealthDay (8/14, Mozes), MD Magazine (8/14, Kunzmann), and MedPage Today (8/14, George).

Related Links:

— “A traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide, study says, “Amy Ellis Nutt, The Washington Post, August 14, 2018.