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.

Reuters (7/21, Doyle) reports that research published in Stroke suggests “having heart disease risk factors” prior to “suffering a stroke may influence a person’s risk for a second stroke or dementia years later.” Investigators studied approximately 1,200 individuals older than 45 who had experienced a first stroke and nearly 5,000 individuals who had not had a stroke. After one “year of recovery, stroke survivors were about three times as likely as others to have another stroke and twice as likely to develop dementia.” The researchers found that “for stroke survivors, having high blood pressure, diabetes, low levels of good cholesterol or smoking earlier in life accounted for almost 40 percent of the risk for second strokes and 10 percent of risk for post-stroke dementia.”

Related Links:

— “Pre-stroke lifestyle tied to long term risk of more strokes, dementia,” Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, July 21, 2016.

USA Today (7/20, Perez) reports that according to a new poll of 537 parents surveyed by i9 Sports, 100 percent of parents said they are “affected in some way by concussions” of their children. Moreover, 62.3 percent of respondents said they felt “tackle football under age 12 is unsafe” and 55.7 percent think “there isn’t enough concern about the risk of concussions in youth sports.” The survey’s results reflect those shown in another “released by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion on Wednesday that polled 1,000 American adults.”

The Washington Post (7/20, Boren) also reports, adding that “a steady stream of information from new studies, coupled with reports of high-profile athletes who have suffered from the effects of concussions, appears to be having an effect on attitudes.”

Related Links:

— “Survey: 100% of parents ‘affected in some way by concussions’,” A.J. Perez, USA Today, July 20, 2016.