Medscape (11/25, Brooks) reports that approximately “one in 10 children as young as age three years may have suicidal thoughts or suggestive behaviors, and these linger into middle childhood for three of four children, particularly for those with depression or externalizing disorders,” according to the findings of a 306-child study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and funded by the National Institutes of Health. An editorial accompanying the study observed that “the numbers of children who express suicidal thoughts and engage in these behaviors are ‘larger than we might have guessed.’”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (11/25, Kelland) reports that an intervention review published online Nov. 25 in the Cochrane Library calls attention to side effects of the stimulant medication methylphenidate for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) in children, such as lack of appetite and loss of sleep. The review also concludes that evidence on the use of the medicine in youngsters is of low quality. Researchers arrived at these conclusions after analyzing data from 185 studies encompassing some 12,000 children and teens in the UK, the US, and Canada.

Related Links:

— “Research raises questions over ADHD drug effects,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, November 24, 2015.

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (11/24, Venteicher) reports that HR 2646, “a mental health reform proposal from US Rep. Tim Murphy [R-PA], would start to counter a 50-year trend of moving treatment to patients’ homes and communities, rather than hospitals.” The American Psychiatric Association supports the measure, “saying hospitalization and outpatient treatment can benefit people with serious mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.” APA president Renee Binder, MD, “said hospitals are better equipped than community-based programs to stabilize someone having a mental health crisis.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health bill would allow doctors to inform families

Read more: http://triblive.com/news/healthnews/9481966-74/mental-bill-health#ixzz3uUhIuhWp
Follow us: @triblive on Twitter | triblive on Facebook,” Wes Venteicher, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, November 23, 2015.

NBC News (11/24, Fox) reports a study by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), using data from 2002 to 2012, found that US women are drinking more while men are drinking a little less. This is an “especially clear trend among college students.” NIAAA researcher Aaron White said, “Males still consume more alcohol, but the differences between men and women are more diminishing.” The percentage of women who had an alcoholic drink in the past 30 days increased from 45 to 48 percent, while the percentage of men decreased from 57.4 to 56 percent. The number of days women consumed alcohol also increased from 6.8 days to 7.3 days on average, while men drank on 9.5 days, down from 9.9 days a month.

The Connecticut Post (11/24, Cuda) adds that White and his team found that binge drinking by 18 to 25 year olds in college did not change during the decade, but “among 18 to 25 year olds not in college, there was a significant increase in binge drinking among females and a significant decrease among males, effectively narrowing the gender gap in binge drinking in this age group.” The NIAAA also found that among 18 to 25 year old male drinkers, the behavior of mixing alcohol with marijuana increased 15 to 19 percent, while the percentage among female drinkers remained at about 10 percent.

Researchers noted that the rates of alcohol use disorder and driving under the influence did not increase for women during the decade, LiveScience (11/24, Miller) reports. Medical Daily (11/24, Smith) says the study was published in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Related Links:

— “Male, Female Drinking Habits Becoming More Similar: Study,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, November 23, 2015.

The Washington Post (11/24, Bernstein) reports that nearly four in 10 Americans “know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers, including 25 percent who say it was a close friend or family member and two percent who acknowledge their own addiction, according to a new poll” released today by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The survey also found that 16 percent of people say they know someone who has died from an opioid overdose. The Post adds that by “a margin of 77 percent to 58 percent, those polled say it is easy to get non-prescribed painkillers than say it is easy for people who medically need the drugs to get them.”

Bloomberg News (11/24, Tozzi) reports that the demographics of those “touched by the crisis skew white, higher-income, college-educated, younger, and male.” According to the article, overdoses “are eclipsing car crashes as a leading cause of accidental death for American adults.”

Related Links:

— “Four in 10 say they know someone who has been addicted to prescription painkillers,” Lenny Bernstein, Washington Post, November 24, 2015.

HealthDay (11/21, Preidt) reported that research published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology suggests that “daughters who were born to older mothers may be at increased risk for stress, anxiety and depression when they reach young adulthood.” Investigators “followed 1,200 Australians born between 1989 and 1991 for two decades.” The researchers “found that daughters born to mothers who were aged 30-34 had higher levels of stress at age 20 compared with those born to younger mothers.”

Related Links:

— “Depression More Common in Daughters of Older Mothers, Study Suggests,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, November 20, 2015.

TIME (11/21) reported that research suggests that kids “who take commonly-prescribed stimulants to treat their attention disorders are more likely to be” bullied “at school than children who do not have AD/HD.”

HealthDay (11/21, Pallarito) reported that investigators “surveyed nearly 5,000 middle and high school students over four years about their use of stimulant medications for AD/HD and self-reported bullying.” The researchers found that “of those taking AD/HD medicines, 20 percent had been approached to sell or share their medicines, and about half of them did.” The findings were published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.

Related Links:

— “Kids on ADHD Medication Are More Likely to Be Bullied, Study Says,” Belinda Luscombe, Time, November 20, 2015.

The Texas Tribune (11/18, Silver) reports that yesterday, the Vera Institute of Justice issued a report (pdf) called “First Do No Harm: Advancing Public Health in Policing Practices,” which “recommends that law enforcement agencies change their practices regarding mental illness, sex workers and addiction without waiting for legislative action.” The report cites San Antonio, TX as an example of a city that has made “policy changes in the right direction.”

Related Links:

— “Report Recommends Police Reform Mental Health Policies,” Johnathan Silver, Texas Tribune, November 17, 2015.

HealthDay (11/18, Preidt) reports that a study based on data from the Jackson Heart Study in Jackson, MS and published recently in Circulation: Quality and Outcomes suggests that black Americans with depression were more likely to have a heart attack or stroke.

The study covered over 3,300 black patients aged 21 to 94. Of those, 22 percent were diagnosed with major depression at the beginning of the study and those were over the course of the first ten years of the study more likely to have heart disease (5.6% to 3.6%) and stroke (3.7% to 2.6%) than were patients who did not have depression.

Patients with depression were also more likely to have “chronic health problems, get less exercise, have lower incomes, smoke, and have a higher body mass index.”

Related Links:

— “Depressed Black Americans May Be at Risk for Heart Woes,” Robert Preidt, Health Day, November 17, 2015.

ProPublica (11/20, Ornstein) reports that a ProPublica analysis of data on the user review website Iodine found no significant difference in patient satisfaction between branded and generic medications. ProPublica “compared the reviews of brands and generics in three drug categories: antipsychotic medications that treat schizophrenia, antidepressants, and drugs that lower cholesterol.” For each of the three categories, “a generic scored best on each of the three questions.”

Related Links:

— “Brand-Name Drugs Increase Cost But Not Patient Satisfaction,” Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, November 19, 2015.