TIME (8/18, Thompson) reports that Lieut. General Nadja West, the US Army’s surgeon general, “is skeptical that the first-ever federally-approved study will show that marijuana can help US veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD].” Proponents of marijuana treatment for PTSD, she “adds, too often emphasize the benefits without acknowledging the downsides.” General West said, “So to make [marijuana] sound as if it’s perfectly safe, the impact that it has long-term on certain areas of the brain, especially young people developing, that’s been proven: irreversible damage to the hippocampus and things like that that can really have impacts on individuals long-term.”

Related Links:

— “Top Army Doctor Leery of Treating PTSD with Marijuana,” Mark Thompson, Time, August 18, 2016.

In a nearly 1,700 word article, the New York Times (8/17, Heffernan, Wallace) reports people are at high risk for alcohol abuse, depression, and sexual assault during the first weeks of college, so parents should talk with their children about those risks before and after they begin college, according to “Robert Turrisi, professor of biobehavioral health and director of the PRO Health Lab at Penn State,” and other experts. The article highlights research by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism that has found binge-drinking among college students has declined overall, but the number of alcohol-related hospitalizations among college students has increased.

Related Links:

— “For Freshmen, Campus Life Poses New Risks,” LISA HEFFERNAN and JENNIFER BREHENY WALLACE, New York Times, August 17, 2016.

TIME (8/17, Sifferlin) reports a new study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that “being physically or emotionally abused as a child can increase a woman’s risk of death.” The study did not determine a causal realtion as to why childhood abuse is linked “with a higher risk for death, but the researchers speculate that abuse may heighten women’s risk for mental health issues, like depression, that can take a toll later on.”

NPR (8/17, Hobson) reports the research examined “a government-funded study that” asked roughly 6,200 men and women about their childhood experiences with physical and emotional abuse, tracking them for 20 years. Edith Chen, an author of the study, pointed out in an email that “the link to early death was with self-reported abuse, not abuse confirmed by courts or independently documented in other ways.” Researchers also said it was unclear why the association appeared in women, but not men.

Related Links:

— “Women Who Were Abused As Children Are Likely to Die Earlier,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 17, 2016.

Reuters (8/17, Seaman) reports that expectant mothers taking antipsychotics “can continue taking most of those medications without worrying the” medicines “will increase the risk of their newborns having birth defects,” researchers found in a study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry. Investigators arrived at the study’s conclusion after examining “data on over 1.36 million U.S. pregnant women enrolled between 2000 and 2010 in Medicaid.”

HealthDay (8/17, Preidt) reports, “The study focused on the most often used” medicines in both typical and atypical antipsychotic “classes: aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperdal) and ziprasidone (Geodon).” The study authors “reported birth defects in about 3.8 percent of babies born to women who had taken a typical antipsychotic and 4.45 percent whose mothers had taken atypical antipsychotics.” In comparison, “the birth defect rate of babies whose mothers had not taken an antipsychotic” were found to be “3.27 percent.”

Related Links:

— “Most antipsychotic drugs not tied to birth defects,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, August 17, 2016.

HealthDay (8/16, Preidt) reports, “If your significant other is depressed, you are at increased risk for chronic pain,” researchers found after analyzing “data from more than 100,000 people in the UK.” Investigators “found that chronic pain is caused partly by genetics and partly by still-unknown risk factors shared by partners or spouses.” The findings were published online Aug. 16 in PLOS Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Study Finds Links Between Chronic Pain, Depression in Couples,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August , 2016.

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (8/15, Healy) reports that a study published online Aug. 15 in JAMA Pediatrics associates acetaminophen with “behavioral problems in children born to mothers who used it during pregnancy.”

The findings of the 7,796-mother study revealed that “compared to women who reported no acetaminophen use at 18 weeks of pregnancy, those who took the medication at that point of gestation were 42% more likely to report hyperactivity and 31% more likely to report conduct problems in the children they bore.”

Expectant mothers who took the medicine “at 32 weeks of pregnancy were 29% more likely than women who did not to report emotional difficulties in their child at age seven.”

Related Links:

— “Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to kids’ behavioral problems,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2016.

Kaiser Health News (8/15) reports a growing number of elderly patients are being prescribed too many medications to treat chronic illnesses, “raising their chances of dangerous drug interactions and serious side effects.”

Furthermore, the piece points out that different drugs are often prescribed by different physicians, “who don’t communicate with each other,” further complicating the situation. Data from the Institute of Medicine show that in 2006, “at least 400,000 preventable ‘adverse drug events’ occur[ed]… in American hospitals.”

Similarly, a 2013 study found that nearly 20 percent of patients discharged from hospitals “had prescription-related medical complications during their first 45 days at home.”

Related Links:

— “‘America’s other drug problem’: Giving the elderly too many prescriptions,” Anna Gorman, Washington Post, August 15, 2016.

HealthDay (8/12, Preidt) reported, “College students who misuse stimulant” medications may have an increased likelihood of having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “or other psychiatric problems,” researchers found. The study, which “included 300 undergraduates between the ages of 18 and 28 at Boston-area campuses,” also revealed that “immediate-release stimulants are more likely to be misused than extended-release versions of the” medicines. The findings were published online July 27 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “ADHD Common Among College Students Who Misuse Stimulant Drugs,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 12, 2016.

Medscape (8/12, Lowry) reported, “Too often, depression in individuals aged 60 years and older goes unrecognized and untreated or not treated appropriately,” researchers found in a 3,084-participant study. The findings were published in the August issue of the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (8/11, Norton) reports, “People undergoing fertility treatment often suffer symptoms of depression or anxiety, but few get any formal help,” research indicated. The study of “352 women and 274 men seen at one of five San Francisco-area fertility clinics” revealed that “more than half of women and one-third of men had clinical-level depression symptoms at some point,” and that “76 percent of women and 61 percent of men…had symptoms of clinical anxiety.”

Despite that, “only about one-quarter of all patients said their fertility center had given them any information on mental health resources.” The findings were published in the July issue of Fertility and Sterility.

Related Links:

— “Infertility Patients’ Mental Health Problems Often Unaddressed,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, August 11, 2016.