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

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.

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.

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.

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.

The Los Angeles Times (3/11, Kaplan) “Science Now” blog reports that according to a review published online March 10 in JAMA Pediatrics, “victims of bullying were more than twice as likely as other kids to contemplate suicide and about 2.5 times as likely to try to kill themselves.” The review “identified 34 reliable studies that addressed the issues of peer victimization and suicidal ideation,” studies which “included data on 284,375 people ages 9 to 21” from countries around the world.

Related Links:

— “Teens taunted by bullies are more likely to consider, attempt suicide,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, March 10, 2014.

The Scranton (PA) Times Tribune (3/8) editorialized, “The Pennsylvania Medical Society and the American College of Emergency Physicians recently reported that one of the biggest problems faced by hospital emergency rooms is finding beds for psychiatric patients,” which leads to some of these patients ending up in jail.

The Times Tribune argues that “the Legislature and the administration should examine the entire mental health system to determine what role the” state’s mental “hospitals can play in alleviating the pressing need for outpatient or sporadic care.”

According to the paper, individuals “suffering from mental illness would benefit from increased access to care; taxpayers would benefit from diminishing prisons’ roles as de facto mental health centers.”

Related Links:

— “Explore uses for mental hospitals,” Scranton Times-Tribune, March 7, 2014.

The Wall Street Journal (3/6, Subscription Publication) reported that Pfizer Inc. recalled three lots of Effexor (venlafaxine HCl), an antidepressant, after a report a pharmacist found one capsule of another medicine in a bottle of Effexor. The company is recalling the three lots as a precautionary measure, although it didn’t receive any other such reports.

The news was also covered by the AP (3/6) and Reuters (3/7).

Related Links:

— “Pfizer Recalls Some Lots of Antidepressant Effexor,” John Kell, Wall Street Journal, March 6, 2014.

HealthDay (3/7, Doheny) reports that according to a study published online March 6 in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, “hearing loss is associated with depression among American adults, especially women and those younger than age 70.” After examining data on some 18,000 adults over the age of 18 and taking into account self-reported participant information on hearing status and depression, researchers found that “as hearing declined, the percentage of depressed adults increased – from about five percent in those who had no hearing problems to more than 11 percent in those who did.” Study author Chuan-Ming Li, MD, PhD, a researcher at the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, stated, “We found a significant association between hearing impairment and moderate to severe depression.”

Related Links:

— “Hearing Loss Tied to Depression in Study,” Kathleen Doheny, HealthDay, March 6, 2014.

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.