MedPage Today (11/13, George) reports, “People with Parkinson’s disease had twice the average risk of a suicide attempt or death by suicide, a meta-analysis showed.” Investigators found that “across 10 studies, the odds of suicidal behavior were 2.15-fold higher” among patients with Parkinson’s “compared with general population controls.” The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.
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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)
The New York Times (11/13, Paris) reports, “There are more Americans who say they have serious cognitive problems – with remembering, concentrating or making decisions – than at any time in the last 15 years, data from the Census Bureau shows.” Since the pandemic, “the number of working-age adults reporting ‘serious difficulty’ thinking has climbed by an estimated one million people.” This “sharp increase captures the effects of long Covid for a small but significant portion of younger adults, researchers say, most likely in addition to other effects of the pandemic, including psychological distress.” But experts “also say it’s not yet possible to fully dissect all the reasons behind the increase.”
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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)
Psychiatric News (11/13) says, “Children who do not develop mental health problems early in life despite exposure to multiple adversities may experience such challenges in early adulthood, suggests a report in The American Journal of Psychiatry,” a publication of the American Psychiatric Association. In the study, “researchers found that compared with children with limited exposure to adversity and no childhood disorders (low-risk/no disorders group), resilient children had nearly 3 times the risk of developing anxiety and 4.5 times the risk of developing depression in adulthood.” Additionally, “the resilient group had worse physical and financial health compared with individuals in the low-risk/no disorders group,” but “had better functioning compared with the group of participants with childhood psychiatric problems in the domains of health and social functioning.”
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— “Impacts of Childhood Adversity on Mental Health May Be Delayed for Some Youth, Study Suggests, Psychiatric News, November 13, 2023
CNN (11/13, McPhillips) reports, “Nearly 49 million people in the US ages 12 and older – more than 1 in 6 – had a substance use disorder in 2022, according to survey data released Monday by the US Department of Health and Human Services.” Broken down, “about 30 million people had an alcohol use disorder, and 27 million had a drug use disorder, including about 6 million with [an] opioid use disorder.” Around “8 million people had both alcohol and drug use disorders, the survey found. Substance use disorders were considered severe for more than 1 in 5 people.”
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— “More than 1 in 6 US adults and adolescents had a substance use disorder in 2022, federal survey finds,”Deidre McPhillips, CNN, November 13, 2023
The Hill (11/10, Dress) reported the White House on Friday “announced the expansion of health care coverage for the nation’s veterans, creating a no-cost system for World War II veterans seeking care and accelerating enrollment for all veterans applying for benefits after exposure to toxins.” Beginning this month, “all living World War II veterans can access health care services from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) at no cost, including nursing home care, the White House said in a press release.” Additionally, “the VA will also accelerate eligibility under the PACT Act, a major law that passed last year and expanded benefits for veterans exposed to toxins and chemicals.”
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— “Biden expands veterans’ health care coverage,”Brad Dress , The Hill, November 10, 2023
MedPage Today (11/12, Phend) reports, “Intensive blood pressure control reduced dementia risk among individuals with hypertension, a randomized trial from rural China showed.” The research, presented at AHA Scientific Sessions 2023, showed that “a village doctor-led intervention with a simple stepped-care protocol targeting a blood pressure under 130/80 mm Hg reduced occurrence of any dementia by a relative 15% compared with usual care over 4 years.”
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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)
TCTMD (11/10, Maxwell) reported, “Atrial fibrillation (AF) is not only linked to an increased likelihood of developing dementia, but this risk increases in people who see their AF symptoms start at a younger age, according to…prospective data.” An “analysis of patients with AF showed that younger age of onset was directly related to a higher risk of developing all-cause dementia,” Alzheimer’s disease, and vascular dementia. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
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— “Younger Age at AF Onset Linked to Greater Dementia Risk,”Yael L. Maxwell, TCTMD , November 10, 2023
The Washington Post (11/11, Stillman) reported, “Record warmth made this past week feel like early fall or even late summer across much of the nation, yet winter has already started – ‘solar winter,’ that is.” This “marks the beginning of the darkest – and, for some people, the most depressing ‘‘ stretch of the year. Solar winter is defined as the quarter of the calendar year with the least amount of daylight.” This period “is most closely aligned with the typical onset of winter seasonal affective disorder, or SAD. Those who suffer from SAD – about 5 percent of the U.S. adult population, according to the American Psychiatric Association – experience depression linked to reduced daylight. SAD can last up to five months, well beyond the end of solar winter.”
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— “The Washington Post (requires login and subscription)
The New York Times (11/9, Ghorayshi) reports physicians “and patients have long known that antidepressants can cause sexual problems,” but now “a small but vocal group of patients is speaking out about severe sexual problems that have endured even long after they stopped taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, the most popular type of antidepressants.” When patients report such issues – “like the distinctive symptom of genital numbness – the signal should not be dismissed, said” American Psychiatric Association Council on Research Chair Jonathan Alpert, MD, PhD. Dr. Alpert points to similar side effects experienced by patients who have taken the hair loss drug finasteride or acne medication isotretinoin. These “may point to a common biological mechanism, Dr. Alpert said.”
The New York Times (11/9, Ghorayshi) reports in a second article that when the “S.S.R.I.s went on the market in the late 1980s, patients began telling their psychiatrists that they were having sexual problems.” Dr. Jonathan Alpert said, “Only in going back and looking more carefully and gathering more data did we realize that actually those serotonergic drugs, the older ones, also caused sexual dysfunction.” Still, “in many cases, the problems caused by the medications can be managed.” For instance, “adding the non-S.S.R.I. antidepressant Wellbutrin, which acts on norepinephrine and dopamine in the brain, has been shown to diminish sexual symptoms in many patients, Dr. Alpert said.”
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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)
Endocrinology Advisor (11/9, Kurek) reports, “Antidiabetic medications such as metformin and glucagon-like peptide-1…receptor agonists are associated with reduced risk for dementia, according to” a study. The research was published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism.
Related Links:
— “Antidiabetic Medications Reduce Dementia Risk,”Ellen Kurek, Endocrinology Advisor , November 9, 2023