One major television network, two television websites, two national newspapers, one major wire source and several consumer medical websites cover a new study indicating that Alzheimer’s deaths are seriously undercounted due to inaccurate information entered on death certificates. Currently, Alzheimer’s is listed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as the sixth-leading cause of death. The new study, however, calculates that it may actually be the third-leading cause of death.

In a segment on the NBC Nightly News (3/5, story 6, 2:40, Williams), chief medical editor Nancy Snyderman, MD, reported that according to a study (3/5) issued by the Rush University Medical Center, “the actual number of deaths each year from Alzheimer’s disease may be as many as half a million,” a figure “six times more than the 83,000 currently reported.” The discrepancy may arise because “death certificates are notoriously inaccurate, focusing only on the immediate cause of death.”

Bloomberg News (3/6, Cortez) focuses on the study’s methodology, pointing out that researchers “tracked two groups of people who enrolled in long-term studies and agreed to donate their brains after death,” noting “who developed Alzheimer’s and who didn’t, and then compar[ing] death rates among the two groups.” None of the 2,566 older adults tracked had dementia at the start of the study. Eventually, investigators “calculated the number of deaths that could be ascribed to Alzheimer’s by comparing the number of expected deaths based on those without the disease to the number of people who actually did die after an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s Estimated to Be No. 3 Killer Disease in U.S.,” Michelle Fay Cortez, Bloomberg News, March 5, 2014.

The AP (3/4, Sherman) reports that a majority of Supreme Court justices on Monday indicated “that states should look beyond an intelligence test score in borderline cases of mental disability to determine whether a death row inmate is eligible to be executed.” The court “heard arguments about how states evaluate claims of mental disability that, if substantiated, protect inmates from being put to death,” and five justices “pointed repeatedly to the margin of error inherent in IQ and other standardized tests” and “voiced skepticism about the practice in Florida and certain other states of barring an inmate from claiming mental disability when his IQ score is just above 70.”

USA Today (3/4, Wolf) reports that the key issue in the case at bar “is whether states such as Florida can apply a rigid test score cutoff without including the ‘standard error of measurement’ relied on by the tests’ designers and endorsed by two key clinical groups.” The court’s decision in the Florida case “will mark the first time it has returned to its landmark 2002 decision in Atkins v. Virginia that said executing people with intellectual disabilities violates their 8th Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment.”

Related Links:

— “Justices lean toward defendant in mental disability case
,” Richard Wolf, USA Today, March 3, 2014.

USA Today (3/4, Zoroya) reports that the largest study ever conducted on suicide in the military has found that suicide rates “soared among soldiers who went to war in Iraq and Afghanistan and those who never left the United States.” The ongoing, $65 million study, “scanned records from nearly a million soldiers,” and “produced three separate research papers published online Monday by The Journal of the American Medical Association Psychiatry.” The study found that “while suicide rates for soldiers who served in Iraq and Afghanistan more than doubled from 2004 to 2009 to more than 30-per-100,000, the trend among those who never deployed nearly tripled to between 25- and 30-per-100,000.”

The New York Times (3/4, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports that the research found that “most of the Army’s enlisted men and women with suicidal tendencies had them before they enlisted, and that those at highest risk of making an attempt often had a long history of impulsive anger.” According to the study, “about one in 10 soldiers qualified for a diagnosis of ‘intermittent explosive disorder,’ as it is known to psychiatrists – more than five times the rate found in the general population.”

Related Links:

— “Study: High suicide rates for soldiers in, out of war,” Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, March 3, 2014.

Medscape (3/1, Brauser) reported that “depression should join the ranks of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, and smoking as an official heart disease risk factor, according to an expert panel convened by the American Heart Association (AHA).” This “recommendation is based on an extensive literature review examining the risks for depression conducted by the panel.” According to Medscape, “The AHA Scientific Statement notes that the combined findings support the call to formally “elevate depression to the status of a risk factor” for adverse outcomes, such as all-cause and cardiac mortality, in patients who have acute coronary syndrome (ACS).”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Boston Globe (3/3, Salahi) reports in “Be Well” that research published in Sleep suggests that “children who often have nightmares or night terrors may be more likely to experience psychotic episodes such as hallucinations by early adolescence.”

HealthDay (3/1, Dallas) reported that investigators “analyzed a group of children six times between the ages of 2 and 9.” The investigators “found that children who had frequent nightmares before age 12 were three and a half times more likely to have psychotic experiences early in their teen years,” with the risk being even higher among those who had night terrors.

BBC News (3/1, Gallagher) pointed out that in the study, “nearly 6,800 people were followed up to the age of 12.”

Related Links:

— “Nightmare frequency linked to later psychotic episodes, ” Lara Salahi, Boston Globe, March 3, 2014.

Reuters (2/21, Jegtvig) reported that in a paper published online in the Journal of Adolescent Health, experts say that night eating syndrome needs further study, as it may be associated with other mental health problems. In a study of approximately 1,600 university students, researchers found that approximately 4 percent met the criteria for night eating disorder. The investigators found that the disorder was more common in those who had a history of anorexia nervosa and in those who used medications for AD/HD. The authors pointed out that night eating disorder is included as a distinct diagnosis in the most recent DSM-5.

Related Links:

— “Night eating disorder needs more study, ” Shereen Jegtvig, Reuters, February 21, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (2/24, Lagnado, Subscription Publication) reports on the growing debate over how Medicaid and foster care children are medicated, as there has been an increase in the past 15 years in strong antipsychotic medication prescriptions for these children. The Journal notes that the HHS IG has launched an investigation, while the APA has warned against their overuse. Meanwhile, the piece explains that the FDA sanctions the use of atypicals, although physicians can prescribe them off label to deal with children’s behavioral issues.

Related Links:

— “Drugged as Children, Foster-Care Alumni Speak Out, ” Lucette Lagnado, Wall Street Journal, February 23, 2014.

The Time (2/21, Park) “Healthland” blog reports that a study conducted by researchers at the UK’s Warwick Medical School suggests that changing schools, “and the social isolation that comes with it, might be an independent factor in contributing to…psychosis-like symptoms” in some youngsters. After “working with a database of nearly 14,000 children born between 1991 and 1992 and followed until they were 13 years old,” investigators found that “switching schools three or more times in early childhood seemed to be linked to an up to two-fold greater risk of developing psychosis-like symptoms such as hallucinations and interrupting thoughts.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Switching Schools May Give Your Kids Psychotic Symptoms, ” Alice Park, Time, February 20, 2014.

HealthDay (2/21, Preidt) reports that research published online in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, “older adults with slightly elevated thyroid activity may be at increased risk for depression.” Investigators “analyzed data from more than 1,500 people, average age 70, who were depression-free and had their thyroid activity assessed at the start of the study.” The researchers found, during “eight years of follow-up,” that individuals “with thyroid glands that were more active than average – but still within the normal range – were more likely to develop depression than those with lower levels of thyroid activity within the normal range.”

Related Links:

— “Could Thyroid Activity Raise Depression Risk in Seniors?, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 20, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (2/21, Zarembo) “Science Now” blog reports that according to a 291-page report commissioned by the Department of Defense and produced by a committee from the Institute of Medicine, “many federal programs aimed at preventing psychological problems in military service members and their families have not been evaluated correctly to determine whether they are working and are not supported by science.” In particular, the report criticized “the Pentagon’s biggest and costliest prevention program, known as Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness, which is used throughout the Army.” The report found that the program did not lower rates of depression or of post-traumatic stress disorder.

USA Today (2/21, Zoroya) points out that the report’s findings “come as about 1,000 Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans are being diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder each week, according to data from the Department of Veterans Affairs.” The present report “follows an earlier Institute of Medicine review released last year concluding that the Pentagon and Department of Veterans Affairs are struggling to keep pace with a growing number of mental health problems generated by the wars.”

Related Links:

— “Programs to prevent psychological problems in troops questioned, ” Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times, February 20, 2014.