The New York Times (8/4, Span, Subscription Publication) reported on the social isolation that often results when caregivers focus their energies on caring for individuals with dementia. The article said the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Family Support Program at New York University, which offers counseling and support groups, “has been adopted throughout New York and in several other states” with success. Moreover, according to the article, “other initiatives, like Savvy Caregiver and REACH, have demonstrated similar effectiveness,” and some “program developers are also testing online versions.”

Related Links:

— “Caregiving Is Hard Enough. Isolation Can Make It Unbearable.,” Paula Span, New York Times, August 4, 2017.

USA Today (8/7, Vanden Brook) reports a study by the RAND Corp. and commissioned by the Pentagon found, “Just 30% of troops with depression and 54% with PTSD received appropriate care after they were deemed at risk of harming themselves.” The report, titled “Quality of Care for PTSD and Depression in the Military Health System,” also determined “that one third of troops with PTSD were prescribed a medication harmful to their condition.”

Related Links:

— “Troops at risk for suicide not getting needed care, report finds,” Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, August 7, 2017.

The AP (8/4, Izaguirre) reports many homeless people who are addicted to illicit substances are denied treatment for lack of valid photo identification. According to 2016 data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, less than one of every 10 of the US’ “substance abuse treatment facilities offer certified opioid treatment programs.”

A SAMHSA spokesman said ID requirements are aimed at preventing people from enrolling in multiple programs and selling opioid medications, although one expert said some facilities deny applicants who present alternate forms of identification, despite the fact that such documents are in fact acceptable.

Related Links:

— “For homeless on heroin, treatment can be elusive with no ID,” ANTHONY IZAGUIRRE, Associated Press via Washington Times, August 4, 2017.

NBC Nightly News (8/3, story 7, 2:20, Holt) reported on “an alarming rise in girls taking their own lives.” NBC’s Rehema Ellis said that “disturbing new numbers from the CDC” indicate “too many teenagers are not getting the help they need, especially girls aged 15 to 19.”

On its website, NBC News (8/3, Fox) reports that the analysis, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, indicates that “the suicide rate among teenaged girls continues to rise and hit a 40-year high in 2015.” Researchers found that “suicide rates doubled among girls and” increased “by more than 30 percent among teen boys and young men between 2007 and 2015.”

CNN (8/3, Scutti) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Suicides in Teen Girls Hit 40-Year High,” MAGGIE FOX, NBC News, August 3, 2017.

NPR examines the suicide of Madison Holleran, a track runner at the University of Pennsylvania, and her hidden struggle with anxiety and depression.

Related Links:

— “Trying To Understand ‘What Made Maddy Run’,” Ailsa Chang, NPR, August 2, 2017.

The AP (8/2, Tanner) reports that research published in JAMA Surgery “suggests many surgery patients often end up with leftover opioid” pain medications and “store the remaining” tablets “improperly at home.”

Reuters (8/2, Cohen) reports that investigators found that in “six earlier studies, 67 percent to 92 percent of patients who were prescribed opioids following surgery reported winding up with leftover” medication. Meanwhile, “five studies found that only one in four patients reported storing opioids in a locked location.”

Related Links:

— “LEFTOVER OPIOIDS ARE A COMMON DILEMMA FOR SURGERY PATIENTS,” LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press, August 2, 2017.

HealthDay (8/2, Reinberg) reports that expectant mothers who take prescription opioid analgesics plus psychiatric medications “for depression or anxiety have a 30 to 60 percent greater risk of giving birth to an infant” with neonatal abstinence syndrome “than those taking opioids alone, researchers found.” What’s more, “use of two or more psychiatric drugs in addition to opioids was associated with a twofold increased risk of infant withdrawal,” the study revealed. Included in the study were data on some 200,000 pregnant women enrolled in Medicaid who had “received a prescription for an opioid” medication. The findings were published online Aug. 2 in the BMJ.

According to Medscape (8/2, Kuehn), the authors of an accompanying editorial wrote, “As the US opioid epidemic accelerates in complexity, there is an urgent need to focus resources on this issue, including expansion of research funding for drug safety in pregnancy and improvement of outcomes for mothers and infants affected by opioid use disorder, more funding for prevention of the disorder, and an expansion of treatment options for affected mothers and their infants.”

Related Links:

— “Is Infant Drug Withdrawal Likelier When Opioids Used With Psychiatric Drugs?,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 2, 2017.

Reuters (8/2, Seaman) reports, “People should opt for face-to-face cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] if they’re looking for the fastest way to address their binge eating disorder,” researchers concluded.

Healio (8/2, Oldt) reports, “In-person cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] was more effective than internet-based guided self-help for binge-eating disorder in overweight or obese adults,” researchers found after conducting a “randomized clinical trial among 178 adult volunteers with full or subsyndromal binge-eating disorder from seven university-based outpatient clinics.” The findings were published online Aug. 2 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Face-to-face therapy best to treat binge eating disorder,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, August 2, 2017.

Healio (8/1, Oldt) reports that teenagers “were more than twice as likely to abuse inhalants in 2015 than adults,” a report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found after analyzing “data from the 2015 National Survey on Drug Use and Health for individuals aged 12 to 17 years.” The report can be accessed here.

Related Links:

— “Inhalant abuse twice as common in adolescents vs. adults,” Lipari RN, Healio, August 1, 2017.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (7/31, Murgia) reports that the season finale of the Netflix TV series “13 Reasons Why” in which a 17-year-old girl kills herself may “have triggered suicidal thoughts in its viewers, many of whom are young people.” Researchers found that “overall,” Internet “suicide queries were 19 percent higher in the 19 days following the series’ release, reflecting 900,000 to 1.5 million more searches than expected.” The findings were published online July 31 as a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine.

Reuters (7/31, Rapaport) reports that Kimberly McManama O’Brien, PhD, LICSW, “co-author of an accompanying editorial (7/31) and a psychiatry researcher at Harvard Medical School in Boston,” said in an email to Reuters, “The choice to graphically depict the suicide death of the star of the series was a controversial decision.” O’Brien added, “Research has shown that pictures or detailed descriptions of how or where a person died by suicide can be a factor in vulnerable individuals.”

Also covering the story are the Washington Times (7/31, Kelly), the AP (7/31, Tanner), AFP (7/31), TIME (7/31, Schrobsdorff), HealthDay (7/31, Mozes), Healio (7/31, Tedesco), and Medical Daily (7/31, Delzo).

Related Links:

— “A million more web searches about suicide after ‘13 Reasons Why’,” Lisa Rappaport, Reuters, July 31, 2017.