CNN (8/15, Nedelman) reports on its website that medical researchers are discussing how to differentiate between Munchausen syndrome by proxy – a disorder in which parents falsify, agitate, or induce an illness in children to secure “their role as the desperate, knowledgeable parent,” one researcher said – and medical child abuse.

CNN follows the story of one woman who faked her own cancer scare and then “infected her daughter with harmful bacteria” and allegedly “removed blood from her daughter so that she would become anemic.” One researcher termed the behaviors “disorders of deception,” while others say it is an intentional form of abuse rather than a psychological condition.

The American Psychiatric Association’s diagnostic manual includes a diagnosis of a “factitious disorder imposed on another,” although the medical community has not reached a consensus on how to characterize it.

Related Links:

— “A ‘disorder of deception’: When a mom makes her child sick,” Michael Nedelman, CNN, August 15, 2017.

NBC Nightly News (8/15, story 8, 0:30, Holt) reported, “New numbers out from the CDC show about one in eight Americans over age 12 reports taking antidepressants.”

According to TIME (8/15, Sifferlin), the report from the National Center for Health Statistics indicates “that from 2011 through 2014, the most recent data available,” nearly “13% of people 12 and older said they took an antidepressant in the last month.” This “number is up from 11% in 2005-2008.”

Medscape (8/15, Brooks) reports, “For the period 2011-2014, women were about twice as likely as men to report past-month antidepressant medication use (16.5% vs 8.6%).” Meanwhile, “Overall, antidepressant use increased with age, from 3.4% among people aged 12 to 19 years to 19.1% among those aged 60 years and older.” Medscape adds, “Increased use with age occurred in both men and women.” HealthDay (8/15, Mundell) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “13% of Americans Take Antidepressants,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 15, 2017.

Medscape (8/14, Yasgur) reports that research suggests “clozapine…reduces mortality and protects against self-harm in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia.” Researchers “found a nearly twofold higher mortality rate among patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia who were not being treated with clozapine, compared with those treated with the” medication. The findings also “suggest a deleterious effect of other antipsychotics on self-harm compared to clozapine.” The research was published online July 28 in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (8/14, Preidt) reports that research suggests “smoking during pregnancy is on the rise among American women with depression.” Investigators looked at data on approximately “8,500 mothers-to-be who took part in an annual government health survey.” The data showed “a 2.5 percent rise in smoking rates among pregnant women with depression between 2002 and 2014.” The findings were published online in the October issue of Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Related Links:

— “Smoking on the Rise Among Pregnant Women With Depression,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 14, 2017.

Reuters (8/14, Rapaport) reports that while “pain and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among the most common reasons people use medical marijuana in the U.S., there isn’t much proof cannabis works for either one of these conditions, two research reviews” published in Annals of Internal Medicine suggest. In one review, investigators “examined 27 previously published studies on this topic,” and “found too little information to determine whether the drug helps most types of pain.”

The other “analysis of five previous studies of cannabis for PTSD found too little data to determine whether this would help relieve symptoms.” Also covering the story are CNN (8/14, Scutti), MedPage Today (8/14, Boyles), Healio (8/14), and HealthDay (8/14, Dotinga).

Related Links:

— “Little evidence shows cannabis helps chronic pain or PTSD,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, August 14, 2017.

STAT (8/11, Ross) reported “the cost of treating opioid overdose victims in hospital intensive care units” increased by 58 percent “between 2009 and 2015,” according to a study published Friday in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society. The average cost spiked from $58,500 to $92,500 over the seven-year period, which “far outpaced the overall medical inflation rate in the U.S.,” the article says.

HealthDay (8/11, Preidt) reported the study’s authors said the findings demonstrate the US “has reached a ‘new level of crisis’ and that opioid-related demand for acute medical care has exceeded the available supply.”

MedPage Today (8/13, Boyles) and Healthcare Finance News (8/11, Sanborn) also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “The cost of treating opioid overdose victims is skyrocketing,” CASEY ROSS, STAT, August 11, 2017.

In continuing coverage, Medical Daily (8/10, Delzo) reports, “Women and older adults in the United States are drinking a concerning amount of alcohol,” a finding that is “leading researchers” at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism “to label the problem a ‘public health crisis.’” NIAAA investigators arrived at the study’s findings after examining research “carried out in 2001-02 and 2012-13” that “involved about 43,000 and 36,000 participants, respectively.” The findings were published online Aug. 9 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Psychiatric News (8/10) reports that “a related editorial…described the costs associated with alcohol-related problems and noted that the populations that appear to be at greatest risk may also be least likely to have access to care.” The editorialist wrote that the study “makes a compelling case that the United States is facing a crisis with alcohol use, one that is currently costly and about to get worse.”

Related Links:

— “Alcoholism Among Americans Deemed A Public Healt,” Janissa Delzo, Medical Daily, August 10, 2017.

In an analysis piece, the Washington Post (8/10, Strauss) reports that “people who feel bad about feeling bad – that is, people who get sad about their own negativities and judge themselves harshly for having them – wind up with even more mental stress than people who learn to accept their emotions and thoughts,” according to a 1,300-adult study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. The study was funded by the National Institute on Aging.

Related Links:

— “Feeling bad about feeling bad can make you feel really, really bad. New research really says this.,” Valerie Strauss, Washington Post, August 10, 2017.

Healio (8/10, Oldt) reports, “More than one-third of the US adult population misused prescription” medications “at least once in the past year,” researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration found after analyzing “data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.”

Related Links:

— “One-third of US adults misused prescription drugs in 2015,” Rachel N. Lipari, PhD, Healio, August 10, 2017.

The Washington Times (8/9, Kelly) reports, “Americans, especially women and minorities, are drinking more alcohol amid a public health crisis that is being overshadowed by the opioid epidemic and the debate over legalizing marijuana,” researchers concluded. The study, which was conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), revealed “increased alcohol use, abuse and disorders in all US demographic groups, with higher instances among women, older adults, minorities and those with low levels of education and income.” The findings were published online Aug. 9 in JAMA Psychiatry.

According to Bloomberg News (8/9, Tozzi), “the number of adults who binge drink at least once a week could be as high as 30 million, greater than the population of every state save California,” the study revealed. The overall rise in alcohol consumption “is ‘startling,’ said” study lead author Bridget F. Grant, PhD, “a researcher at” the NIAAA. Grant added, “We haven’t seen these increases for three or four decades.”

MedPage Today (8/9, Boyles) reports that in arriving at the study’s conclusions, “Grant and colleagues compared data from two editions of the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions – one covering 2001-2002 and the other 2012-2013 – which track alcohol consumption patterns to identify changes in 12-month alcohol use, 12-month high-risk drinking, and 12-month alcohol use disorder.” After examining the findings, Grant “noted that alcohol dependence is still widely stigmatized and undertreated in the United States, far more than other mental health disorders.”

Meanwhile, the author of an accompanying editorial observed that “proposed cuts to the National Institutes of Health budget would be ‘potentially disastrous for future efforts to decrease alcohol problems.’” Funding for the study was provided by the NIAAA and the National Institute on Drug Abuse. Also covering the story are Reuters (8/9, Seaman), TIME (8/9, Sifferlin), HealthDay (8/9, Preidt), and Healio (8/9, Miller).

Related Links:

— “Alcohol abuse in U.S. increasing as researchers warn of ‘public health crisis’,” Laura Kelly, Washington Times, August 9, 2017.