HealthDay (3/24, Preidt) reported that adolescents in the US with autism may be “four times more likely to visit an emergency” department (ED) than teens without autism, researchers found. After analyzing “nine years of private insurance health-care claims of 12- to 21-year-olds,” investigators also found that “the proportion of” ED “visits by teens with autism for a mental health crisis rose from 12 percent in 2005 to 22 percent in 2013.” The findings were published in the February issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Teens With Autism More Likely to Land in ER, Study Finds,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 24, 2017.

CNN (3/21, Scutti) reports that research published online in the American Journal of Public Health indicates “preventable injuries often lead to death among people with autism.” The study found that people with autism “are three times more likely than the general population to die because of injuries.” Meanwhile, the study indicates that “for children and young teens with this developmental disability, the numbers are more striking: They are 40 times more likely to die from injury than the general child population.”

HealthDay (3/21, Thompson) reports that the study, which included data on “nearly 1,370 people diagnosed with autism who died between 1999 and 2014,” found that children “with an autism spectrum disorder are 160 times more likely to die from drowning compared with the general pediatric population.”

Related Links:

— “Children with autism 40 times more likely to die from injury, study says,”Susan Scutti, CNN, March 21, 2017.

Healio (3/21, Oldt) reports that Romanian “adoptees exposed to institutions shortly after birth had increased risk for mental and neurodevelopmental impairment later in life, despite living in supportive families for more than 20 years,” researchers found after analyzing “data from the English and Romanian Adoptees study, a longitudinal, natural experiment investigation of long-term outcomes of individuals severely deprived from soon after birth to up to 43 months in Romanian institutions before being adopted in the United Kingdom.” The findings were published online Feb. 22 in The Lancet. The author of an accompanying comment observed the “study elegantly support the rule of the earlier the better for improving the caregiving environment for young children whose basic needs are profoundly violated.”

Related Links:

— “Deprivation prior to adoption negatively affects later mental health, Healio, March 21, 2017.

Medical Daily (3/23, Delzo) reports that an addiction to tanning may be related to “other addictive behaviors,” researchers found after surveying “499 white, non-Hispanic males and females who had previously tanned indoors or outdoors.” The study revealed that “participants who were tanning dependent were six times as likely to be dependent on alcohol, five times more likely to exhibit ‘exercise addiction,’ and three times as likely to suffer from Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).” The findings were published online Feb. 21 in the Journal of the European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology.

Related Links:

— “Tanning Addiction Linked To Alcohol Dependence, Other Addictive Behaviors, Study Finds,” Janissa Delzo, Medical Daily, March 23, 2017.

The Washington Post (3/20, Naqvi) reports that research published in Pediatrics indicates that “from January 2000 until December 2015, about 188,000 calls were placed to poison control centers regarding pediatric and teenage exposure to opioids.” The data indicated “sixty percent of the children exposed to opioids were younger than 5, while teenagers accounted for 30 percent.”

Reuters (3/20, Seaman) reports, “A companion paper in Pediatrics…reports a strong link between prescribed opioids and their recreational use.” The study indicated that “teens who abused opioids were often prescribed the drugs at some point by a” physician.

Related Links:

— “Poison control centers receive 32 calls a day about children exposed to opioids,”Jia Naqvi, The Washington Post, March 20, 2017.

HealthDay (3/20, Mozes) reports, “A daily dose of vitamin E or selenium supplements won’t keep dementia at bay in older men,” researchers found after studying some “7,500 males across the United States (including Puerto Rico) and Canada,” all of whom were aged 60 or older. The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.

MedPage Today (3/20, Jenkins) and LiveScience (3/20, Rettner) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Vitamin E, Selenium Supplements Won’t Curb Men’s Dementia Risk,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, March 20, 2017.

USA Today (3/20, Slack) reports the Department of Veterans Affairs’ “suicide hotline is still sending nearly a third of calls to outside back-up centers despite pledges by Veterans Affairs officials to stop the practice last year after a scathing report found the centers had routed veterans to voicemail, an inspector general investigation found.” According to the IG’s new report, 30% of calls received by the hotline “rolled over to backup centers” as of November.

The Hill (3/20, Kheel) reports the IG also found that “none of the recommendations made in the original February 2016 report have been fully implemented.”

Related Links:

— “VA suicide hotline still riddled with problems, investigation finds,”Donovan Slack, USA Today, March 20, 2017.

A greater than 5,500-word Politico Magazine (3/17, Hattem) “Friday Cover” story reported that facing a growing number of suicides among his soldiers, Fort Bliss commander Major General Dana Pittard made it a top priority to focus on how to combat the problem and to find “the roots and causes” to prevent more suicides. A solution he came up with, Politico said, was to “aggressively expand mental health services at the base.” This included increasing mental health staff, “creat[ing] new social spaces and nighttime services, [and] treatment for substance abuse and post traumatic stress disorder.” The services were made available to all, regardless of “whether or not there was any reason to believe they were at risk of killing themselves – because he believed everyone was vulnerable to suicide.”

Related Links:

— “The General Who Went to War On Suicide,”Ben Hatten, Politico Magazine, March 17, 2017.

HealthDay (3/17, Preidt) reported, “US veterans with substance abuse problems have a higher risk of suicide than veterans who don’t,” researchers found after examining data on “more than four million veterans.” The findings were published online March 16 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “Drinking, Drug Abuse Doubles Veterans’ Suicide Risk: Study,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 17, 2017.

STAT (3/15, Sheridan) reports, “Richer countries have higher rates of anxiety in their population than poorer countries and” such “anxiety also interfered more with daily activities and responsibilities,” researchers from the World Health Organization’s World Mental Health Survey Consortium found. In particular, “there was a higher proportion of people in higher-income countries with generalized anxiety disorder [GAD]…and with severe GAD.” The findings were published online March 15 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Rich countries are more anxious than poorer countries,”Kate Sheridan, STAT, March 15, 2017.