The NPR (11/30) “Shots” blog reports, “The number of people who have trouble paying their medical bills has plummeted in the last five years as more people have gained health insurance through the Affordable Care Act and gotten jobs as the economy has improved.” A report “from the National Center for Health Statistics released Wednesday shows that the number of people whose families are struggling to pay medical bills fell by 22 percent, or 13 million people, in the last five years.” This year, about “20 million people…have health insurance because of the ACA, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.” That figure “includes about 10 million people who gained coverage through the expansion of Medicaid and another 10 million who buy insurance on the Obamacare exchanges or are young adults covered through their parents’ insurance.”

Related Links:

— “Millions Of People Are Having An Easier Time Paying Medical Bills,”Alison Kodjak, NPR, November 30, 2016.

Healio (11/29) reports the Food and Drug Administration “is calling for further research on earlier stages of Alzheimer’s disease to attack the disorder head on.” In a press release, Eric Bastings, MD, deputy director of FDA’s Division of Neurology Products, said, “There may be a window of opportunity to affect the disease before people experience symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “FDA calls for more research in early Alzheimer’s disease, Healio, November 29, 2016.

HealthDay (11/28, Dotinga) reports that research suggests “chronically ill women who don’t use the internet may struggle with worse health.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing “information provided by hundreds of American women aged 44 and older with at least one chronic condition,” such as “heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, asthma, emphysema and anxiety.” The findings were published in the Journal of Women’s Health.

Related Links:

— “Many Women With Chronic Ills Don’t Use Online Tools,”Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, November 28, 2016.

According to Medical Daily (11/28, Borreli), “long-term marijuana use may reduce blood flow to the brain, specifically the hippocampus, and increase the susceptibility for Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers found by using single photon emission computed tomography to help gain data from “approximately 1,000 current or former marijuana users and about 100 healthy participants” while “at rest and during a mental concentration task.” The findings were published online Nov. 24 in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Related Links:

— “Effects Of Smoking Marijuana On The Human Brain: Drug Reduces Blood Flow To Hippocampus, Increasing Alzheimer’s Disease Risk,”Liza Borreli, Reuters, November 28, 2016.

Reuters (11/28, Seaman) reports, “Pregnant women who get the flu…are not increasing their baby’s risk for an autism spectrum disorder (ASD),” research suggests.

The NPR (11/28, Shute) “Shots” blog reports that “getting a flu shot while pregnant” also appears not to increase the risk for ASD.

MedPage Today (11/28, Walker) reports researchers arrived at both conclusions after examining “data from 196,929 children in Kaiser Permanente Northern California inpatient and outpatient databases who were born from 2001 to 2010.” The findings were published Nov. 28 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Flu – or flu vaccine – in pregnancy not tied to autism in kids,”Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, November 28, 2016.

In a special piece for the Wall Street Journal (11/27, Agronin, Subscription Publication), geriatric psychiatrist Marc E. Agronin, MD, vice president for behavior health and clinical research at Miami Jewish Health, writes that memory loss in persons in their middle years most often may be attributed to factors besides Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

Related Links:

— “Baby Boomers, Relax. It Probably Isn’t Dementia,”Marc Agronin, The Wall Street Journal, November 27, 2016.

Medscape (11/25, Harrison) reported, “Almost one-third of patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) also have a diagnosis of depression,” researchers found after reviewing some “57 studies involving 20,892 patients.” The findings of the meta-analysis were published online Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HCP Live (11/23) reported that “family-based cognitive behavioral therapy [CBT] may be a key factor in treating children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have problems sleeping.” The findings of the 81-child study were published in the June issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental June issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental.

Related Links:

— “Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children with Autism and Sleep Disorders, MD Magazine, November 23, 2016.

HealthImaging (11/23, Pearson) reported, “The shared environment of twins – possibly in utero as well as in childhood – ups the risk of brain incidental findings associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in both siblings even when only one of them has ASD,” researchers found after comparing magnetic resonance imaging “brain scans of 50 ‘case pairs’ of twin children in whom at least one twin had a diagnosis of ASD with the scans of 32 non-ASD control pairs.” The findingswere published online Nov. 22 in Autism Research.

Related Links:

— “MRI suggested as part of initial autism workup of twins, especially boys,”Dave Pearson, HealthImaging , November 23, 2016.

Healio (11/23, Oldt) reported, “Cognitive processing therapy administered individually was more effective than therapy administered in a group for PTSD among active-duty service members who developed PTSD postdeployment,” researchers found after conducting “a randomized clinical trial among 268 active-duty service members with PTSD after deployment who achieved stability with medication.” The findings were published online Nov. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed the study “also highlights that we have probably come about as far as we can with currently dominant clinical approaches.” For that reason, “other strategies are urgently needed to effectively address remaining research and clinical gaps concerning the health care needs of combat veterans.”

Related Links:

— “Individual cognitive therapy more effective than group therapy for PTSD,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, November 23, 2016.