In a nearly 3,000-word article, the AP (4/4, Crary) reports on the “Gun Shop Project, a state-funded pilot program in which gun sellers and range operators in five western Colorado counties were invited to help raise awareness about suicide.” The effort is needed, because “in several western Colorado counties, and in some other Rocky Mountain states with high gun-ownership rates, more than 60 percent of suicides involve firearms.” Suicide prevention expert Catherine Barber, of the Harvard School of Public Health, “says numerous studies show that residents of gun-owning homes are at substantially higher risk of suicide than other people – simply because a suicide attempt is more likely to involve a gun and thus prove fatal.”

Related Links:

— “IN WEST, REGION OF GUNS AND SUICIDE, OUTREACH TO CURB DEATHS,” David Crary, Associated Press, April 4, 2016.

The AP (3/31, Stobbe) reports that on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a surveillance summary showing “no change in how common autism is among US children.” Currently, approximately one “in 68 school-aged children” appears to “have autism or related disorders,” the same figure “as it was when health officials checked two years earlier,” the report published April 1 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals. It is “too soon,” however, to determine if “the number is stabilizing, said Daisy Christensen,” PhD, the report’s lead author.

According to CNN (3/31, Manella), data for the report were “collected from the CDC’s Autism and Development Disabilities Monitoring Network, which is a tracking system that provides estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of autism among eight-year-old children in 11 communities” across the US.

Related Links:

— “NO CHANGE IN HOW COMMON AUTISM IS IN US KIDS: ABOUT 1 IN 68,” Mike Stobbe, Associated Press, March 31, 2016.

The AP (3/31, Stobbe) reports that on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a surveillance summary showing “no change in how common autism is among US children.” Currently, approximately one “in 68 school-aged children” appears to “have autism or related disorders,” the same figure “as it was when health officials checked two years earlier,” the report published April 1 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals. It is “too soon,” however, to determine if “the number is stabilizing, said Daisy Christensen,” PhD, the report’s lead author.
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In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (3/30, A13, Wen, Subscription Publication), emergency physician Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, FAEEM, health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, MD, writes about the dangers of prescribing opioid medications simultaneously with benzodiazepines. Dr. Wen, along with more than 40 other city and state public health directors, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a required boxed warning detailing the dangers of taking benzodiazepines and opioids at the same time.
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In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (3/30, A13, Wen, Subscription Publication), emergency physician Leana S. Wen, MD, MSc, FAEEM, health commissioner for the city of Baltimore, MD, writes about the dangers of prescribing opioid medications simultaneously with benzodiazepines. Dr. Wen, along with more than 40 other city and state public health directors, has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration for a required boxed warning detailing the dangers of taking benzodiazepines and opioids at the same time.

Related Links:

— “The Accidental Deadly Drug Prescription,” Leana S. Wen, Wall Street Journal, March 30, 2016.

TIME (3/30, Szalavitz) reports that “specific genes associated with marijuana addiction have been identified – and some of them are also linked to increased risk for depression and schizophrenia.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying “the genes of nearly 15,000 people from three different groups.” The study’s findings may “help explain why 90% of people with marijuana addictions also suffer from another psychiatric condition or addiction.”

Related Links:

— “The Genes for Pot Addiction Have Been Identified,” Maia Szalavitz, Time, March 30, 2016.

TIME (3/30, Szalavitz) reports that “specific genes associated with marijuana addiction have been identified – and some of them are also linked to increased risk for depression and schizophrenia.” Researchers arrived at this conclusion after studying “the genes of nearly 15,000 people from three different groups.” The study’s findings may “help explain why 90% of people with marijuana addictions also suffer from another psychiatric condition or addiction.”
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The AP (3/31, Stobbe) reports that on Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a surveillance summary showing “no change in how common autism is among US children.” Currently, approximately one “in 68 school-aged children” appears to “have autism or related disorders,” the same figure “as it was when health officials checked two years earlier,” the report published April 1 in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report reveals. It is “too soon,” however, to determine if “the number is stabilizing, said Daisy Christensen,” PhD, the report’s lead author.

According to CNN (3/31, Manella), data for the report were “collected from the CDC’s Autism and Development Disabilities Monitoring Network, which is a tracking system that provides estimates of the prevalence and characteristics of autism among eight-year-old children in 11 communities” across the US.

Related Links:

— “NO CHANGE IN HOW COMMON AUTISM IS IN US KIDS: ABOUT 1 IN 68,” Mike Stobber, Associated Press, March 31, 2016.

Modern Healthcare (3/29, Dickson, Subscription Publication) reports “CMS has finalized a rule that provides states and plans no flexibility in meeting requirements to provide Medicaid enrollees and children the same level of benefits for mental health or substance-abuse treatment that they provide for medical and surgical care.” The rule was created to apply the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to Medicaid managed-care plans and CHIP.

Related Links:

— “States, plans get no flexibility under final mental health parity rule,” Virgil Dickson, Modern Healthcare, March 29, 2016.

Modern Healthcare (3/29, Dickson, Subscription Publication) reports “CMS has finalized a rule that provides states and plans no flexibility in meeting requirements to provide Medicaid enrollees and children the same level of benefits for mental health or substance-abuse treatment that they provide for medical and surgical care.” The rule was created to apply the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008 to Medicaid managed-care plans and CHIP.
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