Report Examines Alzheimer’s Disproportionate Toll On Women

USA Today (3/19, Weintraub) reports that according to a report (pdf) released March 18 by the Alzheimer’s Association on its website, “Alzheimer’s takes a disproportionate toll on women.” The report found that “women are far more likely to develop the fatal disease than men: one in six women over 65 will get it during their lifetime, compared with one in 11 men.” What’s more, “women are more likely to be caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s, and to pay a bigger personal and professional price for that care than men do.”

CNN (3/19, Goldschmidt) explains that “age is the greatest risk factor for gender differences among Alzheimer’s patients, but it’s not the only reason.” Scientists “are also looking at genetic and hormonal differences, according to Maria Carrillo, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association.” Currently, two-thirds of the “five million Americans” affected by Alzheimer’s are women.

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s takes heavy toll on women,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, March 19, 2014.

Op-Ed: Alzheimer’s Kills Roughly As Many As Cancer But Is Largely Neglected

Alzheimer’s patient-advocate George Vradenburg and Nobel Prize winner Stanley Prusiner call for greater attention to be paid to the magnitude of Alzheimer’s disease in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal (3/17, Subscription Publication). Citing the example of President Ronald Reagan, who died from the disease but whose death certificate lists “pneumonia” as the cause of death, the authors argue that the true death toll of the disease is six times higher than officially reported.

The CDC uses official causes of death in calculating that Alzheimer’s kills 84,000 people per year. However, a recent study in the journal Neurology estimates the real number could be greater than half-a-million, which would rival the number of deaths from cancer. However, while Congress provides $5.7 billion annually to cancer research, Alzheimer’s only receives $550 million. The authors call for both greater funding and greater attention to the widespread killer.

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s and Its Uncounted Victims,” George Vradenburg, Wall Street Journal, March , 2014.

Stress May Impact Kids’ Health, Well-Being

HealthDay (3/15, Preidt) reported that according to research presented at the American Psychosomatic Society’s annual meeting, “stressful events can have an almost immediate impact on children’s health and well-being.” After analyzing data on some 96,000 US children, researchers also found that youngsters “who experienced three or more stressful events were six times more likely to have physical or mental health problems or a learning disorder than those who had no stressful experiences.”

Related Links:

— “Stress Can Quickly Harm Kids’ Health: Study,” Robert Preidt, HaelthDay, March 14, 2014.

Environmental Pollution May Be Contributing To Autism Risk

HealthDay (3/14, Norton) reports that according to a study published March 13 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, “environmental pollution might be contributing to autism risk, although the specific culprit toxins remain unknown.” After analyzing “nearly 100 million US health insurance claims,” researchers “found a correlation between US counties’ autism rates and their rates of genital birth defects in boys, which could be a sign of some common environmental contributors.”

MedPage Today (3/14, Raeburn) reports the investigators also “used male congenital malformations as a surrogate for parental exposures to environmental insults – including pesticides, lead, sex hormone analogs, medication, and plasticizers, among others – which are believed to play a role in the causation of” autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). The study authors concluded, “Adjusted for gender, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geopolitical factors, the ASD incidence rates were strongly linked to population-normalized rates of congenital malformations of the reproductive system in males – an increase in ASD incidence of 283% for every percent increase in incidence of malformations (95% CI 91-576, P<6 x 10⁻⁵).” The study received financial support from the National Institutes of Health. Related Links:

— “More Evidence Environmental Exposures Contribute to Autism,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, March 13, 2014.

NYTimes Calls For Intensified Alzheimer’s Research

n an editorial, the New York Times (3/13, A26, Subscription Publication) points out that a study published in the journal Neurology “has suggested that Alzheimer’s disease causes six times as many deaths as the official statistics would indicate,” catapulting the disease “from the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States to the third, behind heart disease and cancer.” The Times concludes that an aging population, coupled with the economic burden of Alzheimer’s, make “it imperative to intensify research into ways to treat and prevent the disease.”

Related Links:

— “High Mortality From Alzheimer’s Disease,” New York Times, March 12, 2014.

Review: Smokers Who Quit See Mental Health Improve

Reuters (3/13, Raven) reports a recent review of past studies published in the British Medical Journal indicates former smokers tend to benefit from an improved mood after quitting, while improvements in mental health were also apparent. Researchers analyzed data from 26 smoking cessation studies comparing patients’ mental health before they quit with their health six months later, People who quit experienced less anxiety, depression and stress as well as psychological quality of life improvements.

Related Links:

— “Quitting smoking linked to improved mood,” Kathleen Raven, Reuters, March 12, 2014

Experts Call For More Cautious Use Of AD/HD Medications

In an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal (3/12, A19, Hinshaw, Scheffler, Subscription Publication), Stephen P. Hinshaw, PhD, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of California-Berkeley, and Richard M. Scheffler, PhD, a professor of health economics and public policy at the University of California-Berkeley, call for physicians in countries around the world to use medications for AD/HD more cautiously. The pair recommend that physicians first need to diagnose AD/HD using medical association guidelines, taking into account a patient’s full medical and behavioral history, before deciding to prescribe medications. While acknowledging the value of stimulant medicines in certain cases, Hinshaw and Scheffler assert that medication should not always be the primary or sole treatment for AD/HD.

Related Links:

— “How Attention-Deficit Disorder Went Global,” Stephen P. Hinshaw, , March 11, 2014.

Report: Number Of Young US Adults Taking AD/HD Meds Increasing

The New York Times (3/12, A16, Schwarz, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a report to be released today by Express Scripts, the biggest prescription medicine manager in the US, “the number of young American adults taking medications for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] nearly doubled from 2008 to 2012.” The report also reveals that nearly “one in 10 adolescent boys were taking medications for the disorder.” According to some experts, “the report provided the clearest evidence to date that the disorder is being diagnosed and treated with medication in children far beyond reasonable rates, and that steeply rising diagnoses among adults might portend similar problems.”

Related Links:

— “Report Says Medication Use Is Rising for Adults With Attention Disorder,” Alan Schwarz, New York Times, March 14, 2014.

Maryland Bill Would Make It Easier To Force Patients In Mental Hospitals To Take Medications

The Baltimore Sun (3/10, Walker) reports that Maryland legislators are considering a bill that would “make it easier to medicate mental hospital patients against their will, while examining the idea of court-ordered therapy for mentally ill people who aren’t hospitalized.” The proposal has drawn the ire of some patient advocates. One of the bill’s sponsors notes the tension between “necessary treatment and having high respect for people’s individual rights.”

Related Links:

— “Legislation pushes involuntary mental health treatment,” Andrea K. Walker, Baltimore Sun, March 10, 2014.

For The Majority Of People, “Senior Moments” May Not Lead To Dementia

HealthDay (3/11, Reinberg) reports that according to the results of a three-year study published in the March/April issue of the journal Annals of Family Medicine, “only about 20 percent of people who experience ‘senior moments’ of forgetfulness, memory lapses and poor judgment will go on to development serious brain-related disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease.” After collecting “data on more than 350 people aged 75 and older who had been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment but didn’t have dementia,” researchers found that “42 percent returned to normal mental function, 36 percent retained their mild impairment and only 22 percent developed dementia.”

Related Links:

— “‘Senior Moments’ Don’t Seem to Lead to Dementia for Most,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, March 10, 2014.