HealthDay (1/19, Thompson) reports that despite mass shootings that have “prompted agony, anger and angst in the United States,” the US government continues to have a ban on funding for research into gun violence. HealthDay reports that “without that funding, experts say, crucial questions on gun safety and gun violence have been left unanswered.” Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine “noted that more than 33,000 people died from gunshot injuries and more than 84,000 were wounded in 2013.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Ban on Gun Research Continues Despite Deadly Shootings,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, January 18, 2016.

On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (1/19, Neighmond) reports that an increasing number of “adults over the age of 50” are being diagnosed for the first time with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). In the case of adults, “the problem is not disruptive behavior or keeping up in school.” Instead, “it’s an inability to focus, which can mean inconsistency, being late to meetings or just having problems managing” tasks on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, MedPage Today (1/19, Blum) reports that adults whose AD/HD remains undiagnosed may “have impaired quality of life, productivity, and functioning compared with those who don’t have such symptoms, researchers reported” at the American Professional Society of AD/HD and Related Disorders (APSARD) meeting. In the study, which involved “more than 22,000 adults who had responded to the 2013 National Health & Wellness Survey,” adults with “AD/HD symptoms had significantly worse quality of life than those without symptoms as measured by the EQ-5D-5L index in adjusted analyses.”

Related Links:

— “Adult ADHD Often Disabling: Study,” Karen Blum, MedPage Today, January 18, 2016.

On its front page, the New York Times (1/17, A1, Kolata, Cohen, Subscription Publication) reported, “Drug overdoses are driving up the death rate of young white adults in the United States to levels not seen since the end of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago.” According to a New York Times analysis of death certificates, “the rising death rates for those young white adults, ages 25 to 34, make them the first generation since the Vietnam War years of the mid-1960s to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that preceded it.”

Related Links:

— “Drug Overdoses Propel Rise in Mortality Rates of Young Whites,” Gina Kolata and Sarah Cohen, New York Times, January 16, 2016.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1/14, Munz) reported, “With the prevalence of mental illness and shortage of mental” healthcare professionals, both patients and “clinicians are increasingly interested in how mobile applications and social media can be used to help improve care.” As a result, the number of mental health apps is growing. A report recently issued by the IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics found that almost a third of new health apps “are related to mental health – most addressing anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or Alzheimer’s.” The article listed a number of mental health apps currently available.

Related Links:

— “Treating and preventing mental illness through your smartphone,” Michele Munz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 14, 2016.

The CBS News (1/15, Welch) website reports that a new study, “published online…in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, found that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes are actually 28 percent less likely to stop smoking cigarettes.” The study’s lead author wrote, “As currently being used, e-cigarettes are associated with significantly less quitting among smokers,” and the devices “should not be recommended as effective smoking cessation aids until there is evidence that, as promoted and used, they assist smoking cessation.”

HealthDay (1/15, Thompson) elaborates on the methods of the study, reporting that researchers “combined the results of 20 studies that had control groups of smokers not using e-cigarettes, comparing them to smokers who also use e-cigarettes to see which group quit tobacco more often.” They concluded that “the odds of quitting smoking were 28 percent lower in smokers who used e-cigarettes compared to those who did not.”

Related Links:

— “Study: E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit,” Ashley welch, CBS News, January 14, 2016.

The Washington Post (1/15, Nutt) reports in “Health & Science” that mental health advocates “are divided over whether” gun control “proposals to ease the sharing of information with the FBI’s background-check system breach patient rights.” Two proposals in particular are causing concerns. The first “involves a new rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that makes it clear that health agencies and medical facilities can report the names of certain people without violating privacy laws.” The second is a White House push “to get the Social Security Administration to share with the FBI the names of mentally ill beneficiaries who do not manage their own affairs.” Some advocates claim such measures would “unfairly target” people with mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Are the mentally ill being unfairly targeted by the FBI’s gun list?,” Amy Ellis Nutt, Washington Post, January 14, 2016.

HealthDay (1/14, Preidt) reports, “Men with high levels of uric acid in their blood may be less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease,” a study published online Jan. 13 in Neurology suggests. After comparing “400 people in ongoing studies who developed Parkinson’s disease and more than 1,200 people in the same studies” who did not, researchers found that men with the highest urate levels “were nearly 40 percent less likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those with the lowest levels.”

Related Links:

— “High Uric-Acid Levels, Lower Risk of Parkinson’s?,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 13, 2016.

Reuters (1/14, Rapaport) reports that a meta-analysis revealed the use of the antidepressant paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat) early in pregnancy may be associated with an increased risk of giving birth to babies with congenital malformations. The findings were published online in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology.

Related Links:

— “Paroxetine in early pregnancy once again linked to birth defects,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, January 13, 2016.

In a nearly 1,700-word article, National Journal (1/14, Askarinam, Subscription Publication) reports that about “forty percent of youth who needed mental health care between 2011-12 didn’t receive the necessary treatment, according to the Children’s Defense Fund’s 2014 State of America’s Children report.” That percentage is even higher among minorities and children “living in poverty.” Now, a new US Federal education law called the Every Student Succeeds Act may change that situation. The law “includes funding for schools to invest in the mental and behavioral health of their students,” authorizing “grants to the tune of $1.6 billion.”

Related Links:

— “Schools in Poor Areas Have More Students with Mental Health Needs,” Leah Askarinam, National Journal, January 13, 2016.

The New York Times (1/13, A11, Tavernise, Subscription Publication) reports that a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 12 to 5 to recommend approval of “a new way of treating opioid addicts, using a slender rod implanted into the arm that delivers medicine for months at a time.” The device, “about the size of a small matchstick,” administers daily doses of buprenorphine for periods of six months.

USA Today (1/13, Szabo) reports that the device “has been shown to ease withdrawal symptoms, decrease cravings and cut the risk of relapse.”

Related Links:

— “Implant for Opioid Addicts Urged for Federal Approval,” Sabrina Tavernise, New York Times, January12 , 2016.