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.

In an over 1,600 word article, Kaiser Health News (10/26, Szabo) reports terminally ill patients who have sought assisted-suicide in states that have legalized the practice are more concerned about “controlling the way” they die “than controlling pain,” according to research on the subject. The article points out that advocates for assisted-suicide laws often argue that the laws allow people to end their pain, but research suggests this is not the primary motivation for many people who have sought assisted suicide. Dr. Lonny Shavelson of Berkeley, California, who specializes in caring for the terminally ill, said, “It’s almost never about pain. It’s about dignity and control.”

Related Links:

— “Terminally Ill Patients Don’t Use Aid-In-Dying Laws To Relieve Pain,” Liz Szabo, Kaiser Health News, October 26, 2016.

HCP Live (10/26, Lutz) reports, “In the three month period after experiencing a stroke, the risk for developing depression is as much as eight times higher,” researchers found after analyzing data on “157,000 patients” who “had a first time hospitalization for a stroke between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2011,” and a matching “non stroke, hospitalized population” of controls. The findings were published in the October issue of JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Depression Risk Greater Soon after a Stroke,” Rachel Lutz, HCP Live, October 26, 2016.

Medscape (10/26, Lowry) reports, “A study that examined sexual health in persons aged 15 to 24 years who were attending a mental health clinic for a variety of mental disorders found low rates of contraception and high rates of unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs),” researchers found. The findings of the 103-participant study were presented at the IEPA 10th International Conference on Early Intervention in Mental Health.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (10/25, Preidt) reports, “Earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters may raise dementia risk for seniors forced to leave their homes,” researchers found after examining data on “nearly 3,600 survivors of the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan,” all of whom “were 65 and older.” Investigators found that “the rate of dementia in this group was 4.1 percent before the disaster and 11.5 percent two-and-a-half years after the tsunami.”

Related Links:

— “Study Links Disasters to Dementia,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 25, 2016.

Time (10/25, Sifferlin) reports investigators arrived at this conclusion after examining “the results of a study called the Preschool Autism Communication Trial” in which “152 kids from ages two to four were randomly assigned to a year of a parent-led intervention, in which their parents interacted with them and received feedback from a therapist gam), research published online Oct. 25 in The Lancet suggests that “children with autism may be able to work with” their parents “from a young age to help reduce the severity of their symptoms and improve their ability to communicate.”

Related Links:

— “How Parents Can Help Their Children With Autism,” Alexandra Sifferlin , Time, October 25, 2016.