According to the NBC News (4/24, Gammon) website, data from the National Institute on Drug Abuse reveal that “approximately one in seven people who try addictive substances will get hooked, and the abuse of illicit drugs costs the economy $193 billion each year in healthcare, crime prevention, and loss of productivity.” Currently, scientists “are working on vaccines that block drugs from reaching the brain, preventing addicts from getting high.”

Related Links:

— “Anti-Drug Vaccines Could Be a Game-Changer for People Battling Addiction,” KATHARINE GAMMON, NBC News, April 24, 2017.

The AP (4/25, Johnson) features the stories of several teenagers who have received opioid abuse treatment at “special schools that use peer communities to support sobriety.” The piece centers on students at Hope, which offers services to 41 teenagers who have “abused marijuana, alcohol, painkillers and heroin.” Unlike other treatment facilities, Hope “embraces treatment with medication and doesn’t see it as a crutch.” The school is the subject of a study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, in which a researcher who “is studying whether kids who’ve been treated for addiction do better in recovery schools” has found some “evidence [which] shows recovery-school students are less likely to relapse than students who attend traditional schools after treatment.”

Related Links:

— “Overcoming Opioids: Special schools help teens stay clean,” CARLA K. JOHNSON, Associated Press via KWWL, April , 2017.

Healio (4/24, Oldt) reports, “Adults with mental illness were significantly more likely to smoke, compared with adults without any mental illness,” SAMHSA researchers found after analyzing “data from the 2012 to 2014 National Surveys on Drug Use and Health.” The study revealed that “adults with mental illness were more likely to report past-month cigarette use, compared with those without mental illness (33.3% vs. 20.7%).” The data can be seen here.

Related Links:

— “Smoking more common in adults with mental illness,” Amanda Oldt, Healio, April 24, 2017.

Healio (4/21, Oldt) reported, “Moderate-severe menopausal vasomotor symptoms were independently and significantly associated with moderate-severe depressive symptoms in women aged 40 to 65 years,” researchers found after conducting “a nationally representative cross-sectional survey of 2,020 Australian women aged 40 to 65 years,” then adjusting for confounding factors. The findings were published online March 6 in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Related Links:

— “Severe hot flashes increase risk for depression,” Worsley R, et al., Healio, April 21, 2017.

The CBS Evening News (4/18, story 9, 1:15, Pelley) reported, “Studies have shown that pregnant women who take antidepressants are more likely to have children with autism.” Now, research looks into whether the medication is causing this.

TIME (4/18, Park) reports that in two studies, investigators “found that other factors, including genes linked to mental illness, may be more strongly associated with autism than exposure to antidepressants.” One study “analyzed data from more than 1.5 million children whose mothers reported on whether they used antidepressants during pregnancy,” while the other study examined “more than 35,000 births and also compared rates of autism among brothers and sisters whose mothers used antidepressants during some pregnancies but not others.” The studies, both of which were published April 18 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Related Links:

— “Does Taking Antidepressants During Pregnancy Cause Autism?,” Alice Park, Time, April 18, 2017.

Reuters (4/17, Seaman) reports, “Antidepressant use right before and during pregnancy may be linked with a higher risk of an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children,” researchers concluded after examining data from 10 studies. The findings of the review were published online April 17 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Anti-depressant use before, during pregnancy tied to autism risk,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, April 17, 2017.

HealthDay (4/17, Preidt) reports that research published in online in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, indicates “cervical cancer screening rates are much lower among women with severe mental illness than among other women.” Investigators looked at 2010-11 California Medicaid data. The data indicated “that 20 percent of women with severe mental illness were screened for cervical cancer.” However, “42 percent of women in the general population received screening.”

Related Links:

— “Just 1 in 5 Mentally Ill Women Gets Cervical Cancer Screenings,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 17, 2017.

The AP (4/17) reports that a lawsuit filed in federal court in Connecticut and “seeking class-action status” contends “the US Army has issued less-than-honorable discharges for potentially thousands of service members without adequately considering the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] and other mental health conditions.” Plaintiffs in the suit are “two Army veterans from Connecticut who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan” who allege “they were wrongly denied honorable discharges.”

Related Links:

— “LAWSUIT: ARMY SHOULD FACTOR PTSD IN DISCHARGE DECISIONS,” Associated Press, April 17, 2017.

Healio (4/17, Oldt) reports there appears not to be “a strong association between mental and behavioral disorders and” Alzheimer’s disease, researchers concluded after conducting “a nationwide nested case-control study of all Finnish individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and matched controls (n = 27,948 pairs).” The findings were published in the June issue of European Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Mental, behavioral disorders do not increase Alzheimer’s disease risk,” Tapiainen V, et al., Healio, April 17, 2017.

Reuters (4/17, Rapaport) reports, “More than eight million American adults suffer from serious psychological distress, and they’re less likely to access healthcare services than other people,” researchers found after examining “survey data on health care use from 2006 to 2014 for a nationwide sample of 207,853 US adults ages 18 to 64.” The study revealed that “people with serious psychological distress, which includes any mental illness severe enough to require treatment, are three times more likely to be too poor to afford care and 10 times more likely to be unable to pay for medications.” The findings were published online April 17 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

CNN (4/17, Scutti) reports, “The study may help explain why the suicide rate is up to 43,000 people each year, said” lead study author Judith Weissman, PhD, JD, a research manager at New York University’s Langone Medical Center. Weissman “noted that the affected groups are late baby boomers and Generation Xers,” people whom “‘some have described as experiencing not a better horizon but a worse horizon than their parents,’ she said.” Weissman added, “The Great Recession of 2008 had a tremendous impact on adults with serious psychological distress.”

Related Links:

— “Mentally ill accessing less U.S. health care,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, April 17, 2017.