According to the Los Angeles Times (4/4, Healy), “New statistics on death rates in the United States appear to confirm a grim prediction – that obesity is reversing decades of steady expansion in Americans’ life spans.” CDC data show that “in the first nine months of 2015, more Americans of all ages died of obesity-related diseases compared with the same period in 2014,” as “deaths from stroke ticked up 4%, chronic liver disease deaths jumped 3% and deaths attributed to heart disease and to diabetes rose by 1% each.”

Meanwhile, deaths linked to “Alzheimer’s disease, which has been linked to midlife obesity, rose 19% over the year before.” The Times says Dr. David S. Ludwig of Boston Children’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School is “calling for…the urgent adoption of policies that could improve Americans’ food and drink choices.

Related Links:

— “Will obesity reverse the life-span gains made over decades of health triumphs?,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 2016.

HealthDay (4/6, Preidt) reports that use of the epilepsy and off-label depression medication lamotrigine “during pregnancy may not raise the risk for certain birth defects,” the findings of a study published online April 6 in Neurology suggest. After analyzing “data on more than 10 million births over 16 years, including almost 227,000 babies with birth defects,” researchers found that infants “born with cleft lip, cleft palate or clubfoot were not significantly more likely than those with other birth defects to have been born to mothers who took lamotrigine in the first trimester of pregnancy.”

Related Links:

— “Study Sees No Link Between Common Epilepsy Drug, Certain Birth Defects,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 6, 2016.

Nature (4/6, Anthes) reports on the number of smartphone apps claiming “to help conditions from addiction to schizophrenia.” Even though “there is some evidence that empirically based, well-designed mental-health apps can improve outcomes for patients, the vast majority remain unstudied.” Psychiatrist John Torous, MD, chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s Smartphone App Evaluation Task Force, said, “If you type in ‘depression,’ it’s hard to know if the apps that you get back are high quality, if they work, if they’re even safe to use.” Dr. Torous added, “Right now it almost feels like the Wild West of health care.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health: There’s an app for that,” Emily Anthes, Nature, April 6, 2016.

Medscape (4/5) reports two new studies showed that sleep disturbances increased the severity of depression for adolescents, “regardless of the treatment they receive.” The studies were presented at the Anxiety and Depression Association of America Conference 2016.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Los Angeles Times (4/6, Levey) reports mental health advocates are urging Democrats and Republicans not to abandon a bipartisan push to “modernize the nation’s mental health system amid rising partisan tensions over” election year politics. An estimated 1 in 5 Americans suffered from a mental illness in the past year, per federal data. The US has “long had a patchwork system of mental health care” in place that “leaves tens of millions of people without access to vital services.”

The Senate Health Committee advanced a package of bills last month that should “strengthen a 2008 law that requires health insurers to cover mental health services at the same level they cover treatments for physical health conditions.”

Angela Kimball, policy director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, said the legislation represented “a significant step in the right direction.” However, a House version of the Senate Bill has “been stalled for months, in part over opposition from some GOP lawmakers to increased funding.”

Related Links:

— “Despite bipartisan support, mental health reform bill could be derailed,” Noam N. Levey, Los Angeles Times, April 6, 2016.

The Wall Street Journal (4/4, Lukits, Subscription Publication) reports that a new study published in Psychology and Aging concluded that compared to women, men experience a more rapid decline in their mental faculties as they age. The study took place at the National Institute on Aging in Baltimore and involved data collected between 1979 and 2013 from over 2,000 participants in a larger study of aging.

Related Links:

— “Male Intellect, Memory May Deteriorate Faster,” Ann Lukits, Wall Street Journal, April 4, 2016.

HealthDay (4/4, Preidt) reports that a “study of 7,550 people found that effective treatment for depression could lower a patient’s heart risks to the same level as those who never had depression, reducing their chances of stroke, heart attack, heart failure and death.” Investigators found that “the risk of major heart problems was: 4.6 percent among those successfully treated for depression: 4.8 percent among those without depression; 6 percent among those with depression who did not respond to treatment; and 6.4 percent among those who developed depression during the study.” The research was presented at the American College of Cardiology meeting.

Related Links:

— “Treating Depression Might Help Stem Heart Woes: Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 4, 2016.

HealthDay (4/1, Rauf) reported, “Teens who own caps, shirts, and other merchandise displaying alcohol logos are more likely to drink,” the findings of a 13-study review published online April 1 in Pediatrics suggest. Included in the reviewed studies were 26,000 youngsters and adolescents.

Related Links:

— “Booze-Branded Merchandise May Spur Teen Drinking,” Don Rauf, HealthDay, April 1, 2016.

HealthDay (4/1, Preidt) reported, “Mindfulness training can trigger brain changes that help veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) manage disturbing memories and thoughts,” the findings of a 23-patient functional magnetic resonance imaging study published April 1 in Depression and Anxiety suggest. The Psychiatry Advisor (4/1, Stiles) also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “Mindfulness Training May Ease PTSD,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 1, 2016.

HealthDay (4/1, Norton) reported, “There is a large variation in how often US pediatricians diagnose and prescribe” medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “and other mental health conditions,” the findings of a study published online April 1 in Pediatrics suggest. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after examining data from “electronic medical records for almost 295,000 children and teenagers seen at 43 US pediatric practices between 2009 and 2014.”

Related Links:

— “Pediatricians Vary Widely in Diagnosing ADHD, Depression,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, April 1, 2016.