The New York Times (7/26, A9, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reports, “The World Health Organization is moving toward declassifying transgender identity as a mental disorder in its global list of medical conditions.” This comes as “a new study lend[s] additional support to a proposal that would delete the decades-old designation.”

The Times adds that “in the fifth and most recent edition,” the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, “the designation was changed to ‘gender dysphoria,’ and was defined to apply to only those transgender people who are experiencing distress or dysfunction, said” psychiatrist Jack Drescher, MD, a “psychoanalyst at New York Medical College, who serves on the WHO working group and served on a similar working group for the DSM-5.”

Related Links:

— “W.H.O. Weighs Dropping Transgender Identity From List of Mental Disorders,” PAM BELLUCK, New York Times, July 26, 2016.

The Washington Post (7/27, Love) reports a new study indicates a type of computer game “could decrease the risk of symptoms of dementia by almost half, compared to not having any brain training at all.” The findings are still being reviewed, so they are considered preliminary.

This type of game is known as “a speed-of-processing task,” which is “one of three types of cognitive training that 2800 people took part in during The Advanced Cognitive Training for Independent and Vital Elderly (ACTIVE) study, a randomized longitudinal study funded by NIH” in 2014.

The Post adds that “even with this compelling ACTIVE data analysis, researchers are hesitant to accept the findings right away,” because “the 2014 ACTIVE study wasn’t designed to track dementia, Jonathan King” said. King “was the project director and co-author of the 2014 study and is a program director at the National Institute on Aging.”

Related Links:

— “Could this computer game delay Alzheimer’s symptoms? New study suggests it could.,” Shayla Love, Washington Post, July 27, 2016.

The ABC News (7/26, Mohan-Sivasankar) website reports that “men with Alzheimer’s” may have “atypical symptoms” and may be “younger at diagnosis,” research suggests. What’s more, physicians “may be able to screen men for Alzheimer’s at even younger ages,” investigators posit. The findings of the 1,606-brain study were presented July 26 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016.

In “Social Issues,” the Washington Post (7/26, Bahrampour) reports that the study “also found that the disease attacks different areas of the brain in men and women.” In males, Alzheimer’s “spreads more quickly and more commonly attacks the cortex, which is responsible for behavior, language, and motor skills,” whereas in females, “the spread is slower and the disease more typically attacks the hippocampus, leading to memory problems.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s May Affect More Men Than Previously Thought, Researchers Say,” DR. SHYAM MOHAN-SIVASANKAR, ABC News, July 26, 2016.

HealthDay (7/25, Preidt) reports, “People with bipolar disorder [BD] may face a long wait from when their symptoms start to the time they get a proper diagnosis,” research indicates. On average, the delay “is six years.” The findings of the 27-study meta-analysis encompassing some 9,400 patients were published July 25 in the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Bipolar Diagnosis May Take Up to 6 Years,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 25, 2016.

HealthDay (7/25, Bernstein) reports, “Teenage athletes are less likely to abuse prescription” pain medications “than kids who don’t play sports or exercise,” research published online July 25 in Pediatrics suggests. The study’s findings “run counter to some research in recent years detailing concerns about injured teen athletes abusing opioid” pain medications prescribed by physicians “and then moving on to use heroin.”

MedPage Today (7/25, Walker) reports that in arriving at the study’s conclusions, investigators “examined data from 191,660 respondents – 52% eighth graders and 48% tenth graders.”

Related Links:

— “Painkillers for Teen Athletes Won’t Spur Addiction: Study,” James Bernstein, HealthDay, July 25, 2016.

The Washington Times (7/25, Ernst) reports, “A survey by the George W. Bush Institute’s Military Service Initiative” of about 1,000 US adults suggests that “Americans have a warped understanding of veterans’ mental health issues.” The survey found that approximately “40 percent of adults in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom hold the erroneous belief that more than half of 2.8 million post-9/11 veterans have psychological problems.” Estimates made by the Rand Corporation, however, found that “10 and 20 percent of veterans struggle with mental health issues.”

Related Links:

— “Americans grossly overestimate number of veterans with mental problems, poll says,” Douglas Ernst, Washington Times, July 25, 2016.

In “Social Issues,” the Washington Post (7/24, Bahrampour) reported, “Work that involves complex thinking and interaction with other people seems to help protect against the onset of Alzheimer’s,” research indicated.

One study revealed that “while a ‘Western’ diet (characterized by red and processed meats, white bread, potatoes, pre-packaged foods, and sweets) is associated with cognitive decline, people who ate such food could offset the negative effects and experienced less cognitive decline if they also had a mentally stimulating lifestyle.”

A second study, which involved brain scans, revealed that “people with increased white matter hyperintensities (WMHs) – white spots that appear on brain scans and are commonly associated with Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline – were able to better tolerate WMH-related damage if they worked primarily with other people rather than with things or data.”

Related Links:

— “Complex jobs and social ties appear to help ward off Alzheimer’s, new research shows,” Tara Bahrampour, Washington Post, July 24, 2016.

The New York Times (7/24, Belluck, Subscription Publication) reported that on July 24 at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, “neuropsychiatrists and Alzheimer’s experts” proposed that certain behavior or personality changes lasting more than six months may “indicate a very early stage of dementia.” Also proposed was “the creation of a new diagnosis: mild behavioral impairment [MBI].”

The AP (7/24, Neergaard) reported that the experts “proposed a checklist of symptoms” of MBI to alert families and physicians. The draft checklist includes “apathy, anxiety about once routine events, loss of impulse control, flaunting social norms,” and “loss of interest in food,” among other things. Should the checklist be “validated,” it could assist physicians in better identifying “people at risk of brewing Alzheimer’s and study changes over time.”

Related Links:

— “Personality Change May Be Early Sign of Dementia, Experts Say,” PAM BELLUCK, New York Times, July 24, 2016.

NBC Nightly News (7/24, story 6, 2:00, Holt) reported in a two-minute segment, “There’s been a debate about whether brain exercises can help ward off” Alzheimer’s disease. On Sunday, “scientists reported for the first time they do work.”

The Los Angeles Times (7/24, Healy) reported in “Science Now” that “older adults who did exercises to shore up the speed at which they processed visual information could cut by nearly half their likelihood of cognitive decline or dementia over a 10-year period.” The findings, which were presented July 24 at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference and involved some 2,802 “cognitively healthy” seniors, “establish specialized brain training as a potentially powerful strategy to prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other afflictions, including normal aging, that sap memory and reduce function.”

Related Links:

— “Brain training may forestall dementia onset for years, new study says,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, July 24, 2016.

In a nearly 1,800-word article, STAT (7/21, Graham) reports that in June, the Association of American Medical Colleges “convened a meeting to address an escalating crisis of depression, burnout, and suicide among physicians” and medical students. Ideas presented include “encouraging medical students to join clubs so they feel less isolated; ensuring that counseling is more accessible and private; and more actively tracking the mental health of students” and physicians.

Meanwhile, in an opinion piece for STAT (7/21), psychiatrist Joan M. Anzia, MD, of Northwestern Medicine and director of the residency program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, writes that some “300 to 400” US physicians commit suicide annually, with the “great majority of these deaths” attributed to “untreated depression.”

Dr. Anzia calls for destigmatizing efforts to seek help, providing “physicians with prompt and targeted mental health assessments, support, and treatment when they’re feeling burned out or depressed,” and working “to prevent burnout and depression by removing barriers such as intensely busy work schedules, the cost of mental health treatment, and the difficulty of finding resources during nonwork hours, which are often few and far between.”

Related Links:

— “Why are doctors plagued by depression and suicide? A crisis comes into focus,” JUDITH GRAHAM, STAT, July 21, 2016.