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.

Newsweek (8/13, Gander) reports researchers found “young people who binge drink could be at greater risk of developing conditions such as heart disease and stroke later in life.” The findings of the 4,710-adult study were published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Young People who binge drink could increase risk of stroke, study suggests,”Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, August 13, 2018.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (8/13, Bever) reports that after studying some 80,000 youngsters “over a four-year period,” Kaiser Permanent researchers found “no association between the prenatal Tdap (for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough) vaccine and autism spectrum disorder when looking at tens of thousands of children.” The findings were published online Aug. 13 in Pediatrics.

Also covering the study are Newsweek (8/13, Spear), HealthDay (8/13, Norton), MedPage Today (8/13, Walker), and Medscape (8/13, Subscription Publication).

Related Links:

— “Tdap vaccine given to pregnant women did not increase risk of autism in children, study says, “Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, August 13, 2018.

Medscape (8/10, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports new research shows that “one of the two major psychoactive constituents in kratom has high abuse potential and may also increase the intake of other opiates.” The finding “contradicts claims by kratom makers that the substance has no abuse potential and supports the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) view that kratom is an opioid.” Mitragynine (MG) and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-HMG) “are the two major psychoactive constituents of kratom,” and the researchers wrote 7-HMG should be considered a kratom constituent with “high abuse potential that may also increase the intake of other opiates.” The study was published online June 27 in Addiction Biology.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Modern Healthcare (8/11, Kacik, Subscription Publication) reported on how opioid treatment varies across the country. The nonprofit Fair Health “pored through 26 billion privately billed healthcare claims and found tremendous variation in opioid treatment cost and utilization by state and region.” Dr. Martin Makary with the group said, “We need to recognize the downstream impacts of undertreating and improperly treating opioid abuse and restore the reimbursement of outpatient medication treatment and MAT.”

Related Links:

— “Variety of factors drive wide variation in opioid treatment across the U.S., “Alex Kacik, Modern Healthcare, August 11, 2018.

In “Health & Science,” the Washington Post (8/10, Adams) reported, “An in-depth survey of more than 10,000 teens used face-to-face interviews conducted between 2001 and 2004 to screen for psychiatric conditions,” finding that “anxiety disorders are the most common in this age group, far outnumbering behavioral, mood and substance use disorders.” In fact, “one teen in four met diagnostic criteria for an anxiety disorder.” Meanwhile, research from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals that “more than two million American children have been diagnosed with anxiety disorders, including 3.5 percent of those between ages six and 11.” The article interviewed experts who explained the differences between “normal, functional anxiety” experienced by teens and youngsters and anxiety disorders that need professional treatment.

Related Links:

— “Your child is nervous about the new school year, which may be normal — or not, ” Jill U. Adams, The Washington Post, August 10, 2018.

The Denver Post (8/10, Seaman) reported, “Teenagers with serious antisocial behaviors and substance-use histories are more likely to die prematurely,” research indicated. After following some “1,463 youths in their mid- to late- teens who had been arrested or referred to counseling for substance abuse or ‘conduct disorder’ for about 15 years,” investigators “found that ‘conduct disorder,’ a mental health disorder that involves aggressive behaviors, such as property destruction, lying and thievery, in youths may be as much of a predictor of early death as substance abuse.” The findings were published online Aug. 9 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Teenagers with conduct and substance abuse problems are more likely to die young, Colorado researchers find, “Jessica Seaman, The Denver Post, August 10, 2018.

HealthDay (8/9, Preidt) reports, “As a tool to reduce the public health toll of drinking, higher taxes on alcohol get the most bang for the buck,” researchers concluded. After examining “data from 16 countries to find out which of five alcohol-control strategies would be most cost-effective in reducing alcohol-related harm and deaths,” investigators found that “a 50 percent increase in alcohol excise taxes…would cost less than $100 for each healthy year of life gained in the overall population.” In addition, “it would add 500 healthy years of life for every one million people, the” study found. What’s more, “such a tax increase would be pennies per drink, according to” findings published online Aug. 9 in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.

Related Links:

— “For Pennies a Drink, Higher Taxes Would Help Counter Alcohol’s Toll: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 09, 2018.

Reuters (8/9, Rapaport) reports, “Pregnant women who have both severe obesity and diabetes may be more likely to have children with autism,” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), and “other psychiatric disorders than mothers who don’t have either condition during pregnancy,” research indicated.

Healio (8/9, Thiel) reports, “Pregestational diabetes mellitus combined with severe maternal obesity was associated with risk for children’s psychiatric and mild neurodevelopmental disorders, compared with diabetes or obesity separately,” researchers concluded after using “nationwide registry data of all live births in Finland from 2004 and 2014 (n = 649,043).” The findings were published online Aug. 9 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Obesity, diabetes in pregnancy may raise kids’ risk of psychiatric disorders, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, August 09, 2018.