The Washington Times (8/24, Kelly) reports that on Aug. 24, tech giant “Google entered the realm of public health awareness to help people determine if they are clinically depressed, launching a questionnaire…in response to the query: Am I depressed?” Individuals typing “in a search term related to depression will now be given the option to take the PHQ-9 questionnaire, a clinically validated assessment, in addition to the most relevant information pertaining to depression.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/24, Pirani), the PHQ-9 “test aims to help determine a person’s depression and his or her need for an in-person medical evaluation.”

Newsweek (8/24, Firger) points out, “Roughly 6.7 percent of the US population reported having at least one symptom of depression in 2015, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).”

Related Links:

— “Are you depressed? Google it,” Laura Kelly, Washington Times, August 24, 2017.

HealthDay (8/23, Dotinga) reports researchers found children and young adults targeted by cyberbullies appear to be twice as likely to hurt themselves or attempt suicide than their non-bullied peers. Investigators said cyberbullies also are more likely to have suicidal thoughts and take suicidal actions. Included in the study were some “150,000 kids and young adults from 30 countries” who were followed “for over 21 years.” The findings were announced in a news release from the UK’s University of Birmingham.

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying Weighs Heavily on Young People,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, August 23, 2017.

In its “Shots” blog, NPR (8/22, Hsu) reports that in cases of non-fatal overdoses, not enough is being done “during hospital encounters” to intervene in patients’ opioid addictions, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that “among people who had overdosed on heroin, the filling of opioid prescriptions fell by 3.5 percent, while medication-assisted treatment increased by only 3.6 percent,” following their hospitalizations.

HealthDay (8/22, Reinberg) reports that the study covered “more than 6,000 people who survived an overdose from an opioid.” The study’s lead author, Julie Donahue, said, “Forty percent of those with a heroin overdose and 60 percent of those with a prescription opioid overdose filled a prescription in the six months after overdose for the very kind of medication that contributed to the overdose in the first place.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study Suggests,” Andrea Hsu, NPR, August 22, 2017.

HealthDay (8/22, Reinberg) reports new research found playing contact sports like football or ice hockey can change the structure and function of the brain. After scanning the brains of 65 varsity athletes prior to the start of their sport’s season, researchers found that the 23 people who played collision and contact sports “had differences in brain structure and function compared to people who took part in non-contact sports.” Differences include “changes in the structure of the brain’s white matter, the fibers that connect different parts of the brain, allowing them to communicate with each another.” The findings were published online in Frontiers of Neurology.

Related Links:

— “More Evidence Contact Sports Can Affect the Brain,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 22, 2017.

HealthDay (8/22, Mozes) reports, “Caring for a family member with a neurological disorder such as dementia is vastly more expensive than caring for a senior who is dementia-free,” researchers found after examining data “from a computer analysis that modeled expenses incurred caring for about 16,000 hypothetical seniors.”

The study revealed that “the average yearly cost of caring for a dementia-free senior is roughly $137,000,” compared to “$321,000 for care of those struggling with dementia.” The findings were published online Aug. 17 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Related Links:

— “Dementia Care: A Huge Financial Burden for U.S. Families,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, August 22, 2017.

In a 4,700-word piece, Reuters (8/22, Eisler, Szep, Reid, Smith) reports on the number of cases in which a police officer using a Taser results in an unintended death and the litigation that follows.

A Reuters examination of 1,005 fatal police Taser incidents found that a quarter of the victims “were suffering from a mental health breakdown or neurological disorder.” In 90 percent of the incidents, the deceased was unarmed. Over 100 of the fatal encounters began with a 911 call for help during a medical emergency.

Denise Juliano-Bult, who helps coordinate research on services for people with mental illness at the US National Institute of Mental Health, explained people in a mental crisis are often confused and frightened when confronted by police, which may cause tensions to escalate rapidly. She said, “That can lead to unfortunate incidents where the people with mental illness can get injured and the police can get injured.”

Related Links:

— “Special Report: A 911 plea for help, a Taser shot and the toll of stun guns,” Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Tim Reid and Grant Smith, Reuters via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 22, 2017.

Healio (8/22, Oldt) reports that just 42 percent of “older adults who screened positively for suicidal ideation and were discharged received a mental health evaluation during their visit” to the emergency department, researchers found. In fact, “older adults with current suicidal ideation or attempt were less likely to receive referral resources, compared with younger adults with current suicidal ideation or attempt (34% vs. 60%).” The findings were published online July 28 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. The abstract notes that “a total of 800 charts were reviewed” by investigators.

Related Links:

— “Suicide follow-up severely lacking in older adults,” Arias SA, et al., Healio, August 22, 2017.

Healio (8/22) reports investigators “found that anxiety and depression are strongly linked with glaucoma, an association that does not change with age,” researchers found after examining data on “4,439,518 patients.” The findings were published online in the American Journal of Ophthalmology.

Related Links:

— “Study confirms strong association between anxiety, depression, glaucoma,” Zhang X, et al., Healio, August 22, 2017.

The New York Times (8/21, Yin, Subscription Publication) reports there were “nearly 1.3 million hospitalizations involving opioids…in the United States in 2014,” representing “a 64 percent increase in inpatient stays and a doubling” in opioid-related emergency room visits since 2005, according to data “published this year” by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ).

The article extensively quotes senior AHRQ researcher Dr. Anne Elixhauser, who said the data “cover all areas, all age groups, male and female. And it’s only getting worse in the time frame we’re looking at here.” The article adds that online data managed by AHRQ “show that most inpatient stays involving opioids over the last decade were among patients covered by Medicaid, closely followed by Medicare patients.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals Are Clogged With Patients Struggling With Opioids,” STEPH YIN, New York Times, August 21, 2017.

HealthDay (8/21, Reinberg) reports that research published in JAMA Neurology suggests “for seniors, and particularly” black patients, with hypertension, “lowering it may help keep their minds sharp.”

MedPage Today (8/21, Bacher) reports that during “a 10-year period, the greatest decline in cognitive status was seen in people with” systolic blood pressure (SBP) “levels of 150 mm Hg or higher.” Comparatively, “the least cognitive decline occurred in those with SBP levels of 120 mm Hg or lower.”

Healio (8/21) reports that the investigators “found that when compared with white patients, black patients had a greater difference in cognition between the higher and lower systolic BP levels: adjusted differences between the group with levels of 150 mm Hg or higher and the group with levels of 120 mm Hg or lower were –0.05 in white patients and –0.08 in black patients for Modified Mini-Mental State Examinations…and –0.07 in white patients and –0.13 in black patients for the Digit Symbol Substitution Test.” Data from “1,657 cognitively intact older adults” were used in the study.

Related Links:

— “Lower Blood Pressure Best for Seniors’ Minds,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 21, 2017.