HealthDay (11/2, Thompson) reports, “Young adults who are problem drinkers tend to suffer from more health problems later in life than non-drinkers, even if they conquered their alcoholism years earlier,” researchers found after reviewing “the long-term health records of over 600 US male veterans, about half of whom had a drinking problem in their youth.” The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs.

Related Links:

— “Heavy Drinking While Young May Mean Hefty Health Tab Later,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 2, 2016.

HealthDay (11/2, Thompson) reports, “Subtle feelings of loneliness might warn of impending Alzheimer’s disease in older folks,” researchers say after finding that “healthy seniors with elevated brain levels of amyloid – a type of protein fragment associated with Alzheimer’s disease – seem more likely to feel lonely than people with lower levels of amyloid.”

Healio (11/2, Oldt) points out, “Cognitively normal older adults with higher cortical amyloid burden or apolipoprotein E 4 were more likely to report loneliness, suggesting it may be a neuropsychiatric symptom of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers theorized after conducting “cross-sectional analyses of data from the Harvard Aging Brain Study for 79 community-dwelling participants” in which “cortical amyloid burden was measured by Pittsburgh Compound B-positron emission tomography (PiB-PET).”

The findings were published online Nov. 2 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed that the study’s conclusions merit “replication in larger samples and longitudinal designs.”

Related Links:

— “Could Loneliness Be an Early Sign of Alzheimer’s?,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 2, 2016.

Healio (11/1, Oldt) reports, “Rates of violent reoffending were lower among released prisoners in Sweden when they were dispensed antipsychotics, psychostimulants and medication for addictive disorders,” researchers found after analyzing “data from population-based registers for 22,275 released prisoners in Sweden.”

HealthDay (11/1, Preidt) reports, “Antidepressants and antiepileptics” appeared not to “have an effect on violent crime rates, the study found.” While “psychological treatments targeting general criminal attitudes and substance abuse also helped lower the likelihood of violent crimes,” the effects “weren’t stronger than those for medications, the researchers said.” The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric Drugs May Reduce Ex-Prisoners’ Violent Crime Rate,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, November 1, 2016.

The New York Times (10/31, A23, De La Cruz, Subscription Publication) reports, “The number of children being hospitalized because of prescription opioid poisoning has risen sharply since 1997, especially among toddlers and older teenagers,” investigators found in a study published online Oct. 31 in JAMA Pediatrics.

The Wall Street Journal (10/31, A3, Whalen, Subscription Publication) reports that children fours years of age and under are especially at risk of being poisoned after swallowing medicines their parents have. Adolescents are also poisoned while abusing opioid medications, and some teens use such medicines as a way of committing suicide, the study revealed.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (10/31, Cha) reports that the study authors arrived at these conclusions after analyzing “discharge papers collected every three years from a representative sample of pediatric hospitals nationwide.” Those data revealed that “13,052 children were hospitalized for poisonings from opioid prescriptions of” medications containing opioids “during six years between 1997 to 2012. Of those, 176 died.”

Related Links:

— “Opioid Poisonings Rise Sharply Among Toddlers and Teenagers,” DONNA DE LA CRUZ, New York Times, October 31, 2016.

In continuing coverage, Kaiser Health News (10/31, Gold) reports, “Acknowledging that ‘there is more work to be done’ to ensure that patients with mental illness and addiction do not face discrimination,” the Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force “made a series of recommendations” in a report (pdf) released last “Friday, including $9.3 million in funding to improve enforcement of the federal parity law.”

According to Kaiser Health News, “the American Psychiatric Association was also on board.” APA CEO and medical director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, said, “Adoption of the Task Force recommendations is essential to achievement of parity for patients with mental illness.” Dr. Levin added, “APA trusts that Congress and the Administration will work together to ensure that the recommendations become reality.”

Related Links:

— “Presidential ‘Parity’ Panel Offers Steps To Treat Mental Illness Like Other Disease,” Jenny Gold, Kaiser Health News, October 31, 2016.

The Washington Post (10/31, Cha) reports young people with access to mobile devices around bedtime “are more than twice as likely to sleep less than nine hours a night” than their peers who do not have access to such devices, according to a review published in JAMA Pediatrics. The researchers also found that young people who keep such devices in their rooms “are 50 percent more likely to get poor sleep and 200 percent more likely to be excessively sleepy during the day.”

CNN (10/31, Scutti) reports Dr. Ben Carter, the review’s lead author, said that the researchers found “a consistent pattern” in many “countries and settings.”

Reuters (10/31, Doyle) reports researchers reviewed 20 previous studies and found that “kids using portable media devices around bedtime were more than twice as likely as kids who didn’t use them to have short sleep times, but so were kids who had access to such devices at night but didn’t use them.”

Related Links:

— “Children’s sleeplessness may be linked to bedtime use of electronic gadgets,” Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, October 31, 2016.

Medscape (10/28, Salamon) reported, “Teenage athletes with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] are more likely than their peers to report concussion-like symptoms during preseason baseline tests,” researchers found after analyzing data from a “cross-sectional study of 37,510 high school athletes from Maine.” The findings were presented at the American Academy of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation’s 2016 Annual Assembly.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (10/28, Brooks) reported, “In its final report, the White House’s Mental Health and Substance Use Disorder Parity Task Force” outlined “a series of actions and recommendations” to increase “compliance with mental health parity laws.”

Those actions “include $9.3 million in funds from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to states to help insurance regulators monitor compliance with mental health and substance use disorder parity protections.”

For its part, “‘the American Psychiatric Association (APA) ;welcomes this much-needed report to strengthen implementation and enforcement of existing mental health parity laws,’ APA President Maria A. Oquendo, MD, PhD, said in a statement.” Dr. Oquendo added, “Full implementation and stronger enforcement will help ensure that psychiatric conditions are treated the same as other illnesses and individuals can access the treatment they need.” APA CEO and Medical Director Saul Levin, MD, MPA, stated, “APA trusts that Congress and the Administration will work together to ensure that the recommendations become reality.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (10/27, Hamilton) reports that dementia, including Alzheimer’s, “can wreak havoc on even the best financial planning for retirement.” Nina Silverberg, program director of the National Institute on Aging’s Alzheimer’s Disease Centers Program, said, “‘I think it’s important for people to have some awareness that financial problems can be some of the most notable symptoms’ of dementia.”

According to the Post, “dementia can manifest itself in unpaid bills, giving away money needed for living expenses to charities or to the phone and Internet scams or other poor financial decisions.” People with dementia may have to leave the “workplace early,” thereby diminishing their future Social Security benefits.

The article advises people to have “a health-care power of attorney or living will naming someone you trust to make health-care decisions if you are incapable, designating someone to take care of your finances and having a regular will to distribute your assets when you die.”

Related Links:

— “
Facing financial reality when early dementia is diagnosed,” Martha M. Hamilton, Washington Post, October 28, 2016.

Reuters (10/27, Rapaport) reports, “Veterans may be more likely to commit suicide during the first year after they leave the military than after more time passes,” researchers found after analyzing “data collected on almost 3.8 million current and former service members from 2001 to 2011.” The findings were published online Sept. 30 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Veterans may face higher risk of suicide during first year home,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, October 27, 2016.