The Wall Street Journal (1/6, Kamp, Subscription Publication) reported that new Federal data indicate opioid overdose fatalities rose 16 percent in 2015 from the previous year, totaling 33,091. Many local jurisdictions are still compiling data from last year, but many expect there was another increase in 2016.

The New York Times (1/6, Subscription Publication) reported that opioid overdose deaths “were nearly equal to the number of deaths from car crashes” in 2015, while “for the first time, deaths from heroin alone surpassed gun homicides.”

Related Links:

— “,”Jon Kamp, The Wall Street Journal, January 6, 2017.

Endocrine Today (1/5, Cox) reports, “Adults with diabetes – even those treated in a specialized diabetes clinic – often remain undiagnosed for cognitive disorders, including mild cognitive impairment and dementia,” researchers found after evaluating “30 adults with diabetes from the Mount Sinai Diabetes Center, as well as data from the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center on 189 adults without diabetes or cognitive impairment and 98 adults without diabetes and a diagnosis of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.” The findings were published online Dec. 22 in the Journal of Diabetes.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive disorders often missed in adults with diabetes, Healio, January 5, 2017.

The Los Angeles Times (1/4, Healy) reports that new research shows that “brain shrinkage” is “less pronounced” in older people whose diets “hew closely to the traditional diet of Mediterranean peoples,” which consists of “lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts and olive oil, little red meat and poultry, and regular, moderate consumption of fish and red wine.” Findings from this study and other similar ones “have established that following a Mediterranean diet is effective at driving down heart attack, stroke and premature death risks, and improving the health conditions…that raise those risks,” but researchers “are less sure of the particulars of how the diet promotes better health.”

Related Links:

— “Less shrinkage: This is your aging brain on the Mediterranean diet,”Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, January 4, 2017.

Reuters (1/4, Kelland) reports, “People who live near busy roads laden with heavy traffic face a higher risk of developing dementia than those living further away,” researchers found after analyzing “records of more than 6.5 million Ontario residents aged 20 to 85,” then mapping “residents’ proximity to major roadways using postal codes.”

CNN (1/4, Senthilingam) reports investigators “found that people living within 50 meters (164 feet) of” a major “road had a 7% greater risk of developing dementia.” The findings were published online in The Lancet.

According to MedPage Today (1/4, Bachert), the author of an accompanying editorial observed that “the study ‘opens up a crucial global health concern for millions of people.

Related Links:

— “Scientists link higher dementia risk to living near heavy traffic,”Kate Kelland, Reuters, January 4, 2017.

MedPage Today (1/3, Walker) reports, “Teens with a history of substance use, as well as substance use within their families and neighborhoods, had an increased risk of death by gun violence,” researchers found after identifying and analyzing “data from police and medical examiner’s reports in Philadelphia…from January 2010 to December 2012.”

The findings were published online Jan. 3 in JAMA Internal Medicine. The author of an accompanying editorial “said that these findings suggested violence prevention efforts should target substance use at multiple levels – the individual, the family, and the neighborhood.”

The authors of an invited commentary “argued that alcohol is a key modifiable factor driving homicides and recommended that healthcare providers use the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration tool, Screening, Brief Intervention, Referral and Treatment (SBIRT)” to identify and treat “treating substance use disorders in adolescents and young adults.”

Related Links:

— “Environment of Drug Use Ups Risk of Teen Gun Death,” Molly Walker, MedPage Today, January 3, 2017.

STAT (1/3, Thielking) reports investigators “at Harvard and Yale have” used a “mathematical model to predict potential victims of gun violence in Chicago.” After examining “Chicago police data from 138,163 individuals who were arrested between 2006 and 2014, nearly 10,000 of whom were also victims of gun violence,” researchers found that “in 63 percent of the shootings they studied…social contagion played a key role.” Their study was published online Jan. 3 in JAMA Internal Medicine.

HealthDay (1/3, Mozes) reports that “social networks” are “acting as a breeding ground for the spread of gun exposure and violence,” the study findings suggest. Study author Ben Green, PhD, a doctoral candidate at Harvard Law School, said, “Those at the highest risk of gun violence are the individuals with the most associates who have recently been shot.”

Related Links:

— “Gun violence spreads like an infectious disease, new research finds,” MEGAN THIELKING, STAT, January 3, 2017.

The Washington Post (1/3, Johnson) “Wonkblog” reports, “A new analysis” published Jan. 3 “in the Journal of the American Medical Association suggests that little has changed over the past three decades” when it comes to Federal funding of research into firearms as a “common cause of death and injury” in the US. Three decades ago, after “scouring a database of the research funded by the National Institutes of Health,” researchers at that time concluded that “a thorough review of research awards for 1983 failed to identify a single research project on the topic of firearm injuries.”

Now, the authors of the present study theorize that “if public health issues were funded based on their death toll, gun violence injuries would have been expected to receive about $1.4 billion in federal research funding over about a decade – compared with the $22 million that it actually got.” This time, investigators “didn’t limit their analysis to NIH; they used a database that contains projects funded by multiple federal agencies.”

Related Links:

— “The reasons we don’t study gun violence the same way we study infections,” Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post, January 3, 2017.

Healio (1/3, Oldt) reports, “Approximately two-thirds of females with eating disorders recovered by age 22 years and [while recovery from] bulimia nervosa occurred earlier, recovery from anorexia nervosa continued over the long-term,” researchers found after conducting “clinical interviews with females with DSM-III-R or DSM-IV anorexia or bulimia at 9 years’ follow-up and 20 to 25 years’ follow-up,” then re-interviewing “77% of the original cohort…(n = 228).” The findings were published in the January issue of Child Abuse & Neglect.

Related Links:

— “Long-term recovery is common in eating disorders,” Eddy KT, et al., Healio, January 3, 2017.

HealthDay (1/2, Preidt) reports that research suggests “sleeping soon after a traumatic event can help some people cope.” In the small study, participants divided into two groups viewed a video containing “traumatic images.” Study author Birgit Kleim said, “Our results reveal that people who slept after the film had fewer and less distressing recurring emotional memories than those who” stayed awake. The findings were published in the December issue of Sleep.

Related Links:

— “Sleep May Help People Process Traumatic Events,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 2, 2016.

MedPage Today (12/29, Firth) reports that the 21st Century Cures Act, “the nearly 1,000-page healthcare spending bill which President Obama signed in mid-December, also aims to reform the nation’s fragmented mental health system.” About 13 million Americans “have a serious mental illness or substance use disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), which applauded the 21st Century Cures Act, calling its reforms to mental health a ‘huge step forward.’”

Related Links:

— “What Else is in the 21st Century Cures Act?,”Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, December 29, 2016.