Healio (6/7, Oldt) reports, “Long-acting injectable antipsychotic medications and clozapine were associated with highest rates of prevention of relapse in schizophrenia,” researchers found after analyzing “linked data from nationwide databases to determine risk for rehospitalization and treatment failure among all individuals in Sweden with schizophrenia aged 16 to 64 years.” The findings were published online June 7 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Long-acting injectable antipsychotics best for relapse in schizophrenia,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, June 07, 2017.

Reuters (6/7, Emery) reports on a study finding that women taking lithium for bipolar disorders during their first trimester of pregnancy are not as much at risk of having a child with a heart malformation as once believed. The article reports, “In the analysis of 1.3 million pregnancies, the overall rate of heart malformation in the babies of women treated with lithium was 2.41 percent versus 1.15 percent for women not exposed to the drug, representing a relative risk increase of 65 percent for babies of mothers taking the drug.” However this risk is “a much more modest risk in cardiac effects” than once believed. The findings were published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Risk of heart defect in babies of women on lithium is less than thought,”Gene Emery, Reuters, June 07, 2017.

The Huffington Post (6/7, Fraga) reports many women in rural America who suffer from postpartum depression struggle to find help or get treatment. The article adds that postpartum depression is the most common complication of pregnancy and affects almost one-fifth of new mothers.

Related Links:

— “What It’s Like To Have Postpartum Depression In Rural America,”Juli Fraga, The Huffington Post, June 07, 2017.

HealthDay (6/9, Preidt) reported, “Depression affects about one-third of hospital patients and could slow their recovery,” researchers found after reviewing data from “20 studies on depression screening in hospitals.” The findings were published in the May 2016 issue of the Journal of Hospital Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Depression Can Slow Hospital Patients’ Recovery: Study,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 06, 2017.

Healio (6/5, Tedesco) reports, “Elders reporting persistent moderate-to-severe pain have an increased risk for memory decline and dementia,” researchers found after evaluating data on some “10,065 community-dwelling older adults aged 62 years or older in 2000 who had participated in the Health and Retirement Study.” Participants “were interviewed in 1998 and 2000 and answered questions on pain and cognition.” The findings were published online June 5 in JAMA Internal Medicine. Psychiatric News (6/5) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Persistent pain associated with accelerated cognitive decline,”Alaina Tedesco, Healio, June 5, 2017.

The Huffington Post (6/2, Brenoff) reported the binge drinking rate among women over the age of 60 has been increasing, according to the findings of study conducted by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and published in the May issue of Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research. Researchers arrived at the study’s conclusion after examining data on some 65,000 respondents to the 1997 to 2014 National Health Interview Surveys. The article pointed out that “the risk of alcohol-related liver diseases and memory loss is higher for women than for men, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Related Links:

— “The Face Of Binge Drinking In The U.S. Is A 60+ White Woman,”Ann Brenoff, The Huffington Post, June 02, 2017.

Healio (6/2, Volansky) reported that teen “victims of bullying were more likely to report poor psychological function and desire cosmetic surgery,” researchers found in a two-stage study that included “2,782 adolescents aged 11 to 16 years who underwent screening to determine if bullying had occurred” and an additional “752 adolescents, including bullies, victims, bully-victims, and those uninvolved one way or the other.” The findings were published in the May issue of the journal Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.

Related Links:

— “Bullying may lead to poor psychological function, desire for cosmetic surgery,”Rob Volansky, Healio, June 2, 2017.

Reuters (6/2, Crist) reported, “Being a victim of police violence is tied to a fourfold higher risk of suicide attempts for those who reported physical assault and a greater than tenfold higher risk for those who reported assault with a weapon or sexual victimization,” researchers found after surveying some “1,615 adults in four US cities – Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, DC – who were selected to be representative of the general population.” The findings were published online May 22 in the Journal of Urban Health.

Related Links:

— “Police violence linked to increased risk of suicide attempt,” Carolyn Crist, Reuters, June 02, 2017.

In a nearly 4,500-word article, Newsweek (6/1, Wapner) reports that “rural America is being hit particularly hard” by dementia and Alzheimer’s. As younger people move away, residents left behind as experiencing a rise in dementia as the population ages. Unfortunately, “these counties do not have the money, the professionals or the services to address the coming tidal wave of cognitive decline.” New York state, however, “has dedicated $62.5 million over five years to support caregivers.” New York is not alone. Several “state-funded programs have cropped up across the country, particularly in rural states, such as North Dakota, Minnesota and North Carolina.” Such “initiatives could save billions of dollars,” while making “life bearable again for” caregivers.

Related Links:

— “AS RURAL AMERICA FACES AN ONSLAUGHT OF ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE, STATES LOOK TO RADICAL WAYS TO HELP,”Jessica Wapner, Newsweek , June 01, 2017.

In a greater than 4,000-word article, Washington Post Magazine (6/1, Golden) reports “older African Americans develop Alzheimer’s at a higher rate than any other group of older Americans,” and “are about twice as likely as non-Hispanic whites to develop the disease or other forms of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.” The Post explores the burden of dementia on African-Americans and also discusses the need for more research on the topic, especially because currently African-Americans are underrepresented in clinical trials concerning Alzheimer’s disease. The article mentions that President Trump has proposed reducing funding for the National Institutes of Health, and that the NIH is funding research on Alzheimer’s disease including trials that have African-American participants.

Related Links:

— “African Americans are more likely than whites to develop Alzheimer’s. Why?,”Marita Golden, The Washington Post, June 01, 2017.