MedPage Today (5/14, Bankhead) reports, “Parent- and teacher-reported rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD] do not appear to overestimate the true prevalence of the condition, according to a” research letterpublished online May 13 in JAMA Pediatrics. “The AD/HD prevalence in California was found to be about 6% among children 4 to 17, and 4.7% among insured children ages 5 to 11, using teacher and parent reports, Susanna N. Visser, MS, of the CDC, and co-authors found.” These results “were in line with a recent California study using a large administrative claims database, which found a rate of 4.9% among insured children ages 5 to 11 (JAMA Pediatr 2013; 1o67: 282-288).”

Related Links:

— “Adult-Observed ADHD Reflects True Rate in Kids, “Charles Bankhead, MedPage Today, May 13, 2013.

CQ (5/14, Scully, Subscription Publication) reports that each year, Congress approves “an unknown sum of money” on efforts to reduce the military’s suicide rate, which has doubled over the past decade. However, this means Congress is funding over 900 programs, and now officials are trying to discover which programs are working and which aren’t. Despite efforts to reduce suicides, the “rate has grown from 10.3 to 18.3 out of every 100,000 persons during the past decade.” It is feared that the “shear number of separate suicide prevention initiatives” means the Pentagon or Congress lacks a “coherent strategy to deal with the problem beyond simply throwing money at it.” Defense officials saw a minor decline in suicides to around 300 a year in 2010 and 2011, but “preliminary figures for 2012 indicate that the rate climbed once again to about 349.” The DoD’s Defense Suicide Prevention Office plans to inventory the programs and their costs by Oct. 1.

HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Nearly 10 percent of teenagers experience some form of violence in their dating relationships, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dating violence encompasses physical, emotional and sexual abuse, the CDC notes.” HealthDay added, “A study in the January issue of Pediatrics found that teens who had experienced dating violence were more likely to binge drink, smoke, have depression symptoms, think about suicide and experience additional intimate partner violence than were their peers who’d never experienced dating violence.”

People In Same-Sex Relationships May Also Suffer From Abuse. HealthDay (5/11, Gordon) reported, “Though many teens find it difficult to talk about dating violence or abuse, the shroud of secrecy may be even harder to get through for same-sex couples.” The article went on to recount the experiences of one New York woman who was involved in an abusive relationship with a female partner.

Related Links:

— “When Teen Dating Turns Abusive and Violent, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, May 11, 2013.

In a New York Times (5/13, Stuckler, Basu, Subscription Publication) op-ed headlined “How Austerity Kills,” Sanjay Basu of Stanford’s Prevention Research Center and Oxford sociology researcher David Stuckler write that in their new book on austerity, they “estimate that 4,750 ‘excess’ suicides – that is, deaths above what pre-existing trends would predict – occurred from 2007 to 2010” in the US. They say a “correlation between unemployment and suicide has been observed since the 19th century.” They argue that austerity measures have extended and increased unemployment, and thus deserve some of the blame.

Related Links:

— “How Austerity Kills, “David Stuckler, The New York Times, May 12, 2013.

NBC Nightly News (5/9, story 9, 0:25, Williams) reported, “New numbers on memory loss raising concerns of a full blown Alzheimer’s crisis for the generation now entering middle age. One in eight Americans over 60 now report increasing memory loss.”

Bloomberg News (5/9, Armour) reported, “About one-third of those Americans also said they had functional difficulties including the ability to work or do household chores, according to a report…from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” published in the May 10 issue of the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. However, “only 19 percent of the people with memory loss or confusion discussed their problems with a health-care provider.” The findings come “from a 2011 survey of almost 60,000 people in 21 states, the CDC said.”

Related Links:

— “One in 8 Americans at Least 60 Report Memory Loss, “Stephanie Armour, Bloomberg News, May 9, 2013.

Medscape (5/9, Canavan) reports that according to the results of a 524-patient study presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, “nearly a third of children and adolescents screened in an emergency department program are at risk for suicide, and of these, 17% report knowledge of a gun in or around their home.” The study’s author, Stephen Teach, MD, of the Children’s National Medical Center, stated, “Nearly half of youth suicides involve firearms, and 90% of individuals who attempt suicide with guns kill themselves.”

Reuters (5/7, Seaman) reports that according to a study published online May 6 in JAMA Neurology, the offspring of people who are long-lived appear to develop symptoms of dementia later than other people. Nevertheless, by the time people reach their nineties, the rate of Alzheimer’s appears to be about the same percentage as those from families that are not so long-lived.

HealthDay (5/7, Reinberg) reports that researchers “followed more than 1,800 participants (1,510 family members and 360 spouses as “controls”) in the US-Danish Long Life Family Study, which is evaluating genetic and non-genetic factors associated with extreme longevity.” Next, investigators “looked at the onset of Alzheimer’s disease among blood relatives within long-living families and compared that with similar data on their spouses.” Notably, the “sons and daughters, average age 70, of exceptionally long-lived people had less than half the risk of Alzheimer’s disease than their similarly aged spouses.”

Related Links:

— “Could family longevity protect against dementia?, “Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, May 6, 2013.

HealthDay (5/6, Preidt) reports, “About 16 percent of US high school students are victims of cyberbullying, according to a” study presented yesterday at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting. After analyzing “data collected from more than 15,000 public and private high school students who took part in a yearly survey on risky youth behaviors in 2011,” researchers also found that “girls were more than twice as likely to be targeted than boys – about 22 percent versus 11 percent – and whites were more than twice as likely to be victims as blacks.”

Related Links:

— “16 Percent of U.S. High Schoolers Victims of Cyberbullying: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 6, 2013.

HealthDay (5/6, Preidt) reports that participation in school sports “may reduce teen girls’ likelihood of being involved in violence and some teen boys’ risk of being bullied,” according to a study presented yesterday at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after examining “data from about 1,800 high school students, aged 14 to 18, who took part in the 2011 North Carolina Youth Risk Behavior Survey.” The study’s lead author stated, “Perhaps creating team-like environments among students such that they may feel part of a group or community could lead to less bullying.”

Related Links:

— “School Sports May Cut Rates of Violence, Bullying Among Teens, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, May 6, 2013.

American Medical News (5/3, Lubell) reported, “In refusing to discuss mentally ill patients’ conditions with family members or caretakers, physicians could be misinterpreting federal privacy rules, witnesses told a House panel April 25. There’s a concern that the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is compromising patient care and public safety by interfering with these discussions, said Rep. Tim Murphy (R, Pa.), who chairs the House Energy and Commerce oversight and investigations subcommittee.” In fact, “in instances where patients may pose imminent and serious threats to themselves or others, health care professionals may invoke their ethical ‘duty to warn’ by alerting family members, enforcement officials or perhaps even the targets of those threats…said” Leon Rodriguez, director of the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights.

Related Links:

— “Misreading HIPAA privacy law blocks mental health discussions, “Jennifer Lubell, American Medical News, May 3, 2013.