The San Diego Union-Tribune (5/9, Fikes) reports that a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that insurers and patients “could safely save many billions of dollars annually by swapping out a more expensive drug for a less expensive generic in the same class of drugs.” The researchers suggest going “beyond the common practice of substituting a generic drug for a brand-name drug with the identical active ingredient” because “in many instances, a generic with a different chemical makeup, prescribed for the same disease, could work just as well.”

STAT (5/9, Silverman) reports that consumers paid “nearly one-third of those additional costs” from prescribing brand-name drugs over generics “through out-of-pocket payments.” Researchers found that “most of the extra spending was for widely prescribed medicines, including drugs used to treat high cholesterol; schizophrenia and bipolar disorder; depression; acid reflux; and high blood pressure.”

Related Links:

— “,” Bradley J. Fikes, San Diego Union-Tribune, May 9, 2016.

Medwire News (5/9, Piper) reports, “Patients with late-life depression have an increased risk of dementia if their symptoms increase over time, whereas a single episode of depression, even if severe, does not carry a significant risk,” research suggests. The findings of the 3,325-participant study were published online April 29 in The Lancet Psychiatry. An accompanying editorial observed, “More studies of depression trajectories over a long period, with inclusion of biological measures, are necessary to understand the link between depression and dementia, in particular the underlying mechanisms.”

Related Links:

— “Depression course predicts dementia risk,” Lucy Piper, Medwire News, May 9, 2016.

The Kansas City (MO) Star (5/7, Robertson) reported that “police departments in Missouri and Kansas and much of the nation are training more officers to defuse potentially volatile situations of mental illness,” using crisis intervention team training to calmly defuse situations involving people with severe mental illnesses. Whenever possible, CIT-trained officers try to get “people into mental health services before there is a crisis.”

Related Links:

— “Growing mental health crisis lands on specially trained officers,” Joe Robertson, Kansas City Star, May 7, 2016.

In “Speaking of Science,” the Washington Post (5/7, Kaplan) reported that researchers at the UK’s University of East Anglia are “behind an unlikely effort to turn a video game into a tool for research into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.” The game “has already been downloaded some 150,000 times, according to Alzheimer’s Research UK, a nonprofit group that supported the project.” The Post added, “If each person who downloaded plays for just two minutes, they’ll supposedly provide researchers with the equivalent of 70 years of lab data on human spatial memory and navigation.”

Related Links:

— “Two minutes playing this video game could help scientists fight Alzheimer’s,” Sarah Kaplan, Washington Post, May 7, 2016.

The NPR (5/5, Gourlay) “Shots” blog runs a piece from RINPR reporting, “In 2013 and 2014, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, people ages 45 to 64 accounted for about half of all deaths from” medication overdose, with “a particular increase for people over 55…says” Boston Medical Center epidemiologist Traci Green, PhD, MSc. Jeffrey Bratberg, PharmD, BCPS, a University of Rhode Island Pharmacy professor, “says the way people in this age group tend to take drugs is also putting them at higher risk.” He explained that not only are people, “taking longer-acting opioids,” but they are also “taking doses that, at certain thresholds, are associated with increased overdose death.” What’s more, “Bratberg says, they’re more likely to have chronic health conditions that put them at higher risk of respiratory depression.”

Related Links:

— “In Prince’s Age Group, Risk Of Opioid Overdose Climbs,” Kristin Gourlay, National Public Radio, May 5, 2016.

USA Today (5/5, Zoroya) reports a “stinging” April report by the GAO found that even as troop suicides occur at record levels, the Pentagon has been unable to persuade servicemembers to seek mental help due to the fear that doing so will damage their career opportunities. The most recent survey of US troops found that little change from a 2011 survey that found 37% of active duty servicemembers – almost 600,000 – felt seeking help “would probably or definitely hurt their career.” One key problem, according to the report, is that many Defense Department policies regarding job assignments and security clearances “still discriminate against anyone who receives mental health care.”

Related Links:

— “Pentagon perpetuates stigma of mental health counseling, study says,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, May 5, 2016.

Medscape (5/5) reports that in over “10,000 patients with different diseases who were receiving warfarin therapy to prevent clots and stroke, those who had atrial fibrillation (AF) as opposed to thromboembolism or a mechanical heart valve were more likely to develop dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, during about a 7-year follow-up.” The findings were presented at the Heart Rhythm Society 2016 Scientific Sessions.

HealthDay (5/5) reports that the researchers found that “patients on the clot-preventing drug warfarin showed a higher dementia risk if their blood levels of the medication were frequently too high or too low.” Over six to eight years, “almost 6 percent of the atrial fib patients developed dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease – versus less than 2 percent of other warfarin patients.”

Related Links:

— “Widely Used Heart Drug Tied to Dementia Risk,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, May 5, 2016.

In “Data Mine,” US News & World Report (5/4, Leonard) reports, “People with psychological problems have been increasingly gaining health insurance coverage in recent years,” particularly since the passage of the Affordable Care Act. Now, “data in a study released Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” in a National Center for Health Statistics Data Brief “raise questions about whether they are also receiving medical care.”

MedPage Today (5/4, Fiore) reports that after analyzing data from the National Health Interview Survey, researchers found that “the number of uninsured adults ages 18 to 64 fell from 28.1% in 2012 to 19.5% in first 9 months of 2015.” No change was seen, however, “in the proportion of adults with serious psychological distress who had a usual place to go for medical care or who had talked to a healthcare” professional in the past 12 months. Those findings were even “worse for mental healthcare specifically – the proportion of distressed adults who had seen a mental health professional in the past year fell during that time, from about 42% to 34%,” researchers found.

Related Links:

— “Here’s What Obamacare Did for Mental Health,” Kimberly Leonard, US News & World Report, May 4, 2016.

The Washington Post reports that according to a report by Common Sense media, 50 percent of adolescents “say they feel addicted to their mobile devices.” The Common Sense Media poll of some 1,200 parents and youngsters also found “their parents know it (59 percent) and many parents themselves can’t put their own devices down (27 percent).” .

The NBC News (5/3, Fox) website reports that “66 percent of parents say their teens spend too much time on mobile devices.” An equal percentage “of parents ban the devices at dinner.”

Related Links:

— “Teens say they’re addicted to technology. Here’s how parents can help.,” Amy Joyce, Washington Post, May 3, 2016.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (5/3, Cha) reports officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are now “urging parents of preschoolers with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) to try behavior therapy first before trying” medications. In addition, the CDC is “calling on insurers to cover the treatments.” Currently, about 75 percent of children with AD/HD are receiving medication for treatment. CDC principal deputy director Anne Schuchat, MD, MPH, said in a call with reporters yesterday, “Until we know more, the recommendation is to first refer parents of children under six years of age who have AD/HD for training and behavior therapy.”

The CBS News (5/3, Marcus) website reports the CDC made its recommendations in a Vital Signs report released May 3. The recommendations echo those made by the American Academy of Pediatrics. That AAP recommends that “the first line of treatment for the youngest of children with AD/HD should be behavior therapy, even before medications are tried.”

Related Links:

— “CDC warns that Americans may be overmedicating youngest children with ADHD,” Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, May 3, 2016.