In the New York Times (2/3, Ellison) “Well” blog, author Katherine Ellison writes that an increasing number of physicians “who treat the estimated 6.4 million American children diagnosed with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “are hearing that stimulant medications not only help treat the disorder but may actually be good for their patients’ brains” and may even be “neuroprotective.” Other experts on AD/HD suggest that stimulant medications for AD/HD “may change the brain over time so as to undermine the long-term response to the medication and even exacerbate symptoms when people aren’t taking them.” Meanwhile, “Dr. Peter Jensen, the former associate director of child and adolescent research at the National Institute of Mental Health, cautioned that parents should not try to force children with” AD/HD “to take medication when they don’t want to, adding that ‘most kids don’t want to.’”

Related Links:

— “Can Attention Deficit Drugs ‘Normalize’ a Child’s Brain?,” Katherine Ellison, New York Times, February ,2 2015.

HealthDay (2/3, Preidt) reports that a study published online Feb. 2 in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that delirium “is common among older hospital patients and raises their risk of falls, physical decline and longer hospital stays.” After reviewing “14 studies that assessed the use of drug-free strategies to reduce delirium in older patients at 12 hospitals around the world,” researchers concluded that “proper nutrition and hydration, adequate sleep, daily exercise, activities to improve thinking and memory and telling patients where they are, and the date and time, every day” seemed to lower the odds of patients experiencing delirium.

Related Links:

— “Non-Drug Options Can Help Curb Delirium in Hospital Patients, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 2, 2015.

The New York Times (2/3, Belluck) “Well” blog reports that a study published in the January issue of The Lancet Psychiatry “has documented unexpected links in the timing and severity of symptoms of maternal depression, which could help mothers and doctors better anticipate and treat the condition.” After following some “8,200 women from 19 centers in seven countries,” researchers found that in women “with the severest symptoms — suicidal thoughts, panic, frequent crying — depression most often began during pregnancy, not after giving birth, as is often assumed.” Women with moderate depression, however, “often developed their symptoms postpartum, and were more likely than severely depressed women to have experienced complications during pregnancy like pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes or hypertension.”

Related Links:

— “Maternal Depression Often Starts Before Giving Birth, Study Says,” Pam Belluck, New York Times, February 2, 2015.

Medscape (1/30, Anderson) reports that a study published in the January issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence suggests that “as users of heroin and other opioids get older, their risk for overdose death increases dramatically.” Researchers also found that even though “male users had almost double the rate of drug-related poisoning in early adulthood compared with female drug users, the difference narrowed considerably with age.” The investigators came to these conclusions After studying more than 198,000 “men and women actively using or being treated for opioid use in England from April 1, 2005, to March 31, 2009.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (1/30, Preidt) reports that research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine “supports the notion that repeated blows to the head in boxing or the martial arts can damage the brain.” Investigators studied “93 boxers and 131 mixed martial arts experts,” as well as 22 individuals who had never suffered a head injury. “MRI brain scans and tests of memory, reaction time and other intellectual abilities showed that the fighters who had suffered repeated blows to the head had smaller brain volume and slower processing speeds, compared to non-fighters.”

Related Links:

— “More Evidence That Boxing Can Lead to Brain Damage,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 30, 2015.

The CBS News (1/30, Firger) website reports that a study suggests that “people who binge-watch television tend to be among the most depressed and lonely.” In the study, investigators “surveyed 316 young people about their television-viewing habits.” In addition, “the study participants, all between the ages of 18 and 29…answered questions about how frequently in life they experienced feelings of depression and loneliness.”

Newsweek (1/30, Kutner) reports that researchers at the University of Texas “discovered a correlation between binge-watching and loneliness, depression, and having self-regulation deficiency, which is an inability to control compulsions.”

Related Links:

— “Depression, loneliness linked to binge-watching TV,” Jessica Firger, CBS News, January 29, 2015.

The Washington Post (1/24, Johnson, Weiner) reports a “wave of heroin overdoses” that is killing dozens of people in Maryland and Virginia “inner-city neighborhoods, suburbs and rural enclaves.” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe have scrambled to make fighting the latest heroin surge afflicting their states. The Post says the “governors’ actions reflect mounting concern among public officials up and down the East Coast about the escalation in overdoses, which some say has become a public health epidemic.” The Post adds that experts say there is “no simple or inexpensive cure for heroin addiction — and there are differing views on which approach to try first.”

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths from heroin galvanizing leaders in Maryland and Virginia,” Jenna Johnson and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, January 24, 2015.

In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe (1/24), writer Ruth Graham wrote that in 2014, “a program called Mental Health First Aid received federal funding for the first time.” In the US, approximately 300,000 individuals have been trained in Health First Aid. While “the program has the support of many mental health professionals, who say that its broad approach to a wide array of mental health emergencies is sorely needed,” Graham writes that such “programs also inadvertently illuminate the extraordinary complexity of mental illness, and the limitations of a fraying safety net.”

Related Links:

— “The promise and limits of ‘mental health first aid’,” Ruth Graham, Boston Globe, January 23, 2015.

Reuters (1/24, Kennedy) reported that according to a study published online Jan. 8 in The Lancet, a school-based program designed to prevent suicide appears to diminish the likelihood that adolescents will want to commit suicide or attempt suicide. Some 11,000 high-school students in Europe took part in the study.

Related Links:

— “School-wide prevention program lowers teen suicide risk,” Madeline Kennedy, Yahoo News, January 23, 2015.

HealthDay (1/23, Norton) reports that a study recently published online in the journal Acta Neuropathologica suggests that “the brains of some veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who were injured by homemade bombs show an unusual pattern of damage.” After studying “autopsied brain tissue from five US combat veterans” who had survived blasts from improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and then comparing those samples with autopsied brain tissue from 24 people who died from various causes, researchers found “a distinct pattern of damage to nerve fibers in key regions of the brain – including the frontal lobes, which govern memory, reasoning and decision-making.” The study authors theorized that this damage pattern may help “explain the phenomenon of ‘shell shock.’”

Related Links:

— “‘Hidden’ Brain Damage Seen in Vets With Blast Injuries,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, January 22, 2015.