The Los Angeles Times (9/10, Healy) reports that according to a study published online Sept. 9 in the BMJ, “older people who have relied on a class of drugs called benzodiazepines to reduce anxiety or induce sleep are at higher risk of going on to develop Alzheimer’s disease…with those whose use of the medications is most intensive almost twice as likely to develop the mind-robbing disorder.”

For the study, researchers “compared the pattern of benzodiazepine use in 1,796 people elderly people diagnosed with Alzheimer’s with that of 7,184 similar people who had no such diagnosis.” The medications “specifically considered by the researchers were the short-acting anti-anxiety medications alprazolam (Xanax), lorazepam (Ativan), oxazepam (Seresta) and diazepam (Valium), and the longer-acting anti-seizure and ‘hypnotic’ drugs frequently used to treat insomnia: clonazepam (Klonopin), flurazepam (Dalmane), midazolam (Versed), nitrazepam (Mogadon), temazepam (Restoril) and triazolam (Halcion).”

Related Links:

— “Drugs used for anxiety, sleep are linked to Alzheimer’s disease in older people,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, September 8, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (9/10, Healy) “Science Now” blog reported that a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found “more than half of nursing home patients” suffering from severe dementia, who are likely to die within a year or two, are being “administered medications that offer little or no benefit” by physicians and families, causing “pointless discomfort,” health risks and “inflating the cost of care.” Two kinds of medicines the study discussed are for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and lipid-lowering medications.

The New York Times (9/9, Span) “The New Old Age” blog reported that the study findings were deeply troubling, focusing on the potential harm from such medications and the patients often being unable to communicate their discomfort from the treatments. According to study’s lead author, Dr. Jennifer Tija, the drugs with “questionable benefits” have their proponents and therefore “discontinuing them remained controversial.” Dr. Tija adds that due to set “cultures and practice patterns,” these medications are continued to be prescribed even after the little value and purpose they provide.

Related Links:

— “Dementia patients continue to get medications with little, no benefit,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2014.

MLive (9/8, Allen) reports, “Daily marijuana use among college students is the highest it’s been in more than three decades, and 51 percent of all full-time college students have admitted to smoking pot at some point in their lives.” The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study found that “illicit drug use has been rising gradually among American college students since 2006, when 34 percent indicated that they used some illicit drug in the prior year.” The “long-term MTF study…also tracks substance use among the nation’s secondary students and older adults under research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Regular marijuana use among college students at a three-decade high, survey says,” Jeremy Allen, MLive, September 8, 2014.

HealthDay (9/9, Dotinga) reports that according to a study published online Sept. 8 in the journal Pediatrics, children “who were bullied by siblings were more than twice as likely to report depression or self-harm at age 18 as those who weren’t bullied by siblings.” Additionally, these youngsters were “nearly twice as likely to report anxiety as they entered adulthood.”

Researchers arrived at these conclusions after having “examined the results of studies of just over 2,000 people in the United Kingdom who were surveyed via questionnaire in 2003 and 2004 at an average age of 12, and then answered a survey again at the age of 18.” BBC News (9/8) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— “Sibling Bullies May Leave Lasting Effects,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, September 8, 2014.

USA Today (9/9, Weintraub) reports that according to a study published online in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, “signs of autism symptoms can be erased if babies begin therapy even before they can toddle.” The study, conducted “by the University of California Davis’ MIND Institute, provided directed therapy to babies ages 6-9 months old who were identified as having early signs of autism, such as an inability to make eye contact, lack of babbling and fixations.”

Notably, “by the time the seven babies reached their third birthday – a time when autism can reliably be diagnosed – five didn’t show any autism symptoms and a sixth had only mild symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Autism signs in babies can be erased,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, September 9, 2014.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal (9/8) reported that CMS has expanded access to programs for autistic children by informing states that Medicaid will now cover Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment coverage. This initiative is expected to greatly decrease the amount of children on a wait list for services, which is currently 477 in Nevada.

Related Links:

— “Medicaid change aids autistic children,” Yesenia Amaro, Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 5, 2014.

HealthDay (9/5, Preidt) reports that according to a study recently published in the journal Burns, “adult survivors of childhood burns are at increased risk for depression and suicidal thoughts.” The study of “300 people in Australia who were hospitalized for burns between 1980 and 1990” revealed that “42 percent of the participants had experienced some type of mental illness, 30 percent had suffered depression and 11 percent had attempted suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Serious Childhood Burns Tied to Long-Term Mental Health Risks,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 4, 2014.

HealthDay (9/5, Preidt) reports, “Nearly 10 percent of Americans aged 12 and older were illicit drug users in 2013, and almost 20 million said they used marijuana, making it the most widely used drug,” according to a report issued yesterday by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). The report “also found that more than 14 percent of adults aged 18 and older said they received mental health treatment or counseling in the past year, and that nearly 44 million had a mental illness in 2013.” In addition, 10 “million adults aged 18 and older said they had a serious mental illness in the past year that interfered with a major life activity, according to the report.”

Related Links:

— “10 Percent of Americans Admit to Illicit Drug Use,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 4, 2014.

Bloomberg News (9/4, Kitamura) reported that according to a report (9/5) issued by the World Health Organization, “a death by suicide occurs every 40 seconds somewhere in the world.” The WHO’s first-ever global report on suicide also found that approximately “three-quarters of those suicides occur in low- and middle-income countries, where self-poisoning by pesticide is the leading cause, and other common methods include hanging and firearms, the WHO said.”

McClatchy (9/5, Zarocostas, Subscription Publication) reports that around the world, “an estimated 804,000 people killed themselves in 2012, a rate of about 11.4 per 100,000 population.” Men “were almost twice as likely as females to kill themselves, WHO reported, with a rate of 15.0 per 100,000 for men, versus 8.0 for women.” In the US, “of the 43,361 Americans who killed themselves in 2012, 34,055 were male and 9,306 for female.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Every 40 Seconds Requires Prevention Measures,” Makiko Kitamura, Bloomberg News, September 4, 2014.

On its front page, the Washington Post (9/3, A1, Kunkle) reports that “recent findings suggest that biological, genetic and even cultural influences may play heavy roles” in why more women than men get Alzheimer’s disease. For example, “a recent study…found that women with the APOe4 gene were twice as likely to get Alzheimer’s as women who did not carry the gene,” even though “the risk factor appeared to be little different between men who had the APOe4 gene and those who did not.”

Women are more likely to develop depression, and previous research has tied late-life depression to dementia. Scientists are also trying to narrow down the role played by the hormone estrogen, which helps regulate brain metabolism in females.

Related Links:

— “Why do more women get Alzheimer’s? Research points to genetics, other factors,” Fredrick Kunkle, Washington Post, September 3, 2014.