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.

According to US News & World Report (7/20, Leonard), “researchers who have studied the psychological effects of terrorism say that while atrocities can influence the way people think and make decisions and can damage their mental health, in most cases these effects tend not to linger.” Approximately “30 percent of people who survive disasters develop post-traumatic stress disorder within a month, according to the American Psychiatric Association.” But, even though “victims are unlikely to forget what happened, half will recover within three months.”

Related Links:

— “What Does Terrorism Do to the Mind?,” Kimberly Leonard, US News & World Report, July 20, 2016.

HealthDay (7/20, Dallas) reports that research indicates “sleep disorders are six times more likely among American military veterans than in the general population.” Investigators found that “veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) seem to have the highest rates.” Researchers came to this conclusion after studying “more than 9.7 million veterans treated by the Veterans Health Administration system between 2000 and 2010.” The findings were published in Sleep.

Related Links:

— “Sleep Disorders 6 Times Higher Among Veterans,” Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, July 20, 2016.

Reuters (7/20, Rapaport) reports, “When babies are extremely premature, parents are about 10 times more likely to become depressed than mothers and fathers of full-term, healthy infants,” research suggests. Included in the study were “113 mothers and 101 fathers of preemies, as well as 117 mothers and 151 fathers of healthy, full-term infants.” The findings were published online July 18 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Parents of preemies often depressed after birth,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, July 20, 2016.