HealthDay (6/25) reports that a British study has found that adults with Asperger syndrome are “much more likely to think about and attempt suicide than those in the general population.” Researchers surveyed “374 British adults with Asperger syndrome.” The results indicated that “66 percent reported having suicidal thoughts and 35 percent had planned or attempted suicide.”
Related Links:
— “Adults With Asperger Syndrome May Have Higher Suicide Risk,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 24, 2014.
The Houston Chronicle (6/20) wrote in an editorial that some veterans claim marijuana helps alleviate their post-traumatic stress disorder, but points out that “a vet who is suffering from PTSD and who uses marijuana to self-medicate is committing a crime.” The National Institute on Drug Abuse has agreed “after years of resistance…to a study at the University of Arizona College of Medicine to assess marijuana’s potential for treating” PTSD in veterans. The Chronicle agrees “that more scientific research is needed as to the therapeutic effects of cannabinoids.”
Related Links:
— “Worth exploring: If cannabis works, we owe our veterans access to this PTSD treatment option.,” Houston Chronicle, June 21, 2014.
The New York Times (6/22, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports that the US mental health system is under scrutiny in the wake of several shootings and violent incidents committed by young males, particularly from “questions of how best to help them and how to pay for it.”
Even for families with premium health insurance, services and treatments for violent sons are not always covered. Because of this, “many affluent families” are taking their complaints to court in order to force school districts, for instance, to spend more money on special education services and therapeutic schools for troubled youths.
Related Links:
— “Seeing Sons’ Violent Potential, but Finding Little Help or Hope,” Benedict Carey, New York Times, June 21, 2014.
HealthDay (6/21, Preidt) reported that according to a study published online June 18 in the BMJ, medications “used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) do not increase the risk of suicide attempts or suicide, and may actually provide a protective effect.”
Researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining data on “the nearly 38,000 people in Sweden diagnosed with AD/HD between 1960 and 1996” and tracking “their rates of suicidal behaviors between 2006 through 2009, at times when they were taking AD/HD drugs or not taking the medications.”
Related Links:
— “No Sign That ADHD Meds Raise Suicide Risk: Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 20, 2014.
USA Today (6/21, Zoroya) reported that according to a 300-page report released June 20 by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), the Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs “are not ready for a potential flood of war-related post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD] among troops and veterans, particularly from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts.” The IOM panel, which consisted of 16 experts and was chaired by physician Sandro Galea, MD, DrPH of Columbia University in New York, cited as a “key failure…delay in treating those who need therapy, a central element of the current wait-time scandal that led to the May 30 resignation of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.”
According to the Los Angeles Times (6/21, Zarembo), the report found that the US “government spent $3 billion on PTSD treatments for veterans in 2012 and $294 million more for service members,” but neither the Pentagon “nor the VA have consistently collected data on how patients are faring or even what treatments they have received, making it impossible to assess the quality of care.”
What’s more, “the report described PTSD care in the military health system as ‘ad hoc, incremental and crisis driven’ and said the Department of Veterans Affairs had not hired mental health” professionals “fast enough to keep pace with the rising demand.”
Related Links:
— “Flood of PTSD cases coming, scientists warn,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, June 20, 2014.
Medscape (6/20) reports that according to a report (pdf) called the “National Health Interview Survey: Early Release Program,” published online June 19 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the latest figures on how prevalent serious psychological stress is in the United States may appear to show an increase in 2013 over previous years.”
The survey found that “3.7% of adults aged 18 years and older reported they had experienced serious psychological stress in the 30 days before the interviews compared with 2.7% in 2007 and 3.4% in 2011.”
The study’s first author, Jeannine S. Schiller, MPH, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, pointed out, however, that these “estimates need to be taken in context not only for stress but also for other health conditions.”
Related Links:
— Medscape (requires login and subscription)
In the “Your Money Adviser” column in the New York Times (6/20, Subscription Publication), Ann Carrns discusses “a self-assessment test from Ohio State University to help detect early signs of dementia.” Called the Self-Administered Gerocognitive Examination (SAGE), “the four-page test can be completed in about 10 to 15 minutes by patients at home, or while in the waiting room” at a physician’s office.
The test, which is available as a free download from the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center’s “website, is now used at doctors’ offices nationally.” Poor tests results are not automatically predictive of dementia, but instead indicate a need for more comprehensive psychological and neurological testing.
Related Links:
— “A Test for the Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease,” Ann Carrns, New York Times, June , 2014.19
TIME (6/20, Park) reports that a survey conducted by the Alzheimer’s Association revealed that 80% of those surveyed believe “the neurodegenerative condition is a normal part of aging” while 40% “believed that only those with a family history of the disease could be affected.” In response to the survey Harry Johns, president and CEO of the Alzheimer’s Association said, “anyone with a brain is at risk for Alzheimer’s disease, so everyone with a brain should join the fight against it.”
Related Links:
— “80% of People Think Alzheimer’s Is A Normal Part of Aging,” Alice Park, Time, June 19, 2014.
Bloomberg News (6/19, French) reports that nearly half of North Carolina physicians indicated that “they don’t feel qualified to judge a person’s mental competency to carry a concealed weapon, according to a survey, despite being asked to make that call by local sheriffs.” The survey, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, indicated that “among medical professionals, 84 percent said they would prefer someone with specific training assess a patient’s mental and physical ability to safely have a concealed gun.” Among “those surveyed, 47 percent said they couldn’t adequately assess a person’s mental fitness to carry a firearm.”
HealthDay (6/19) reports that the survey indicated that “21 percent had been asked in the past year to sign “competency permits” for patients to carry a concealed weapon.” A physician, “by signing…attests to the patient’s mental and physical ability to safely carry a firearm.” However, “the problem, experts say, is that there are no standard definitions of physical or mental ‘competence,’ and doctors have been left to make those calls on their own.”
Related Links:
— “Doctors Say Not Qualified When Asked About Gun Permits,” Marie French, Bloomberg News, June 18, 2014.
Medscape (6/19) reports that research published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association suggests that depression may “be particularly harmful to the heart in younger women.” Investigators analyzed data on “3237 participants in the Emory Cardiovascular Biobank, who were enrolled before undergoing elective or emergent coronary angiography.”
HealthDay (6/19, Mozes) reports that the researchers found that although “depression didn’t appear related to heart disease risk among men of any age or elderly women…among women 55 and younger,” each “one-point rise in depression symptom ratings translated into a 7 percent rise in heart disease risk.” Thus, “depressed young and middle-aged women faced a 2.17 times greater risk for experiencing a heart attack, or for needing an invasive procedure to widen their diseased arterial pathways.” These “women also faced similar elevated risk for dying from heart disease, and a 2.45 greater risk for dying from any cause during the study follow-up period.”
Related Links:
— “Depression Doubles Odds of Heart Attack for Younger Women: Study,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, June 18, 2014.