HealthDay (12/14, Gray) reports, “As the US Supreme Court prepares to enter the debate about gay marriage, a new study” published online Dec. 13 in the American Journal of Public Health “suggests that being in a legally recognized relationship of any kind may reduce feelings of nervousness, hopelessness and depression.” After analyzing data on some 47,000 adults, “researchers found that psychological distress was lower among people in a legally recognized relationship, whether gay or straight. Those in same-sex relationships that were legally recognized — either as marriage or as a registered domestic partnership — also revealed less psychological distress.”

Related Links:

— “Legal Unions, Including Marriage, Boost Mental Health for Gay People: Study, “Barbara Bronson Gray, HealthDay, December 13, 2012.

HealthDay (12/14, Gray) reports that a study published online Dec. 13 in the journal Stroke “found that people over 65 with the highest levels of psychosocial distress — including depression, a negative outlook and dissatisfaction with life — had triple the risk of death from stroke as compared with those who had lower levels of stress.”

WebMD (12/14, Goodman) reports that for the study, Susan A. Everson-Rose, PhD, MPH, of the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis and colleagues “surveyed more than 4,000 adults over age 65 in the three neighborhoods in Chicago. The majority of people who took part were women and African-American. Their average age was 77.”

Many Cardiac Arrest Survivors May Also Suffer From Psychological Distress. Reuters (12/14, Stokes) reports that according to a review published online Dec. 3 in the journal Resuscitation, approximately 25% of patients who survive an episode of cardiac arrest may end up with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety over the long term. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing data from 11 studies. The review’s authors pointed out the importance of identifying such issues to help treat these mental-health disorders. Reuters also notes that only one out of 10 people who experience cardiac arrest survive. For that reason, the long-term psychological needs of survivors may have been overlooked.

Related Links:

— “Stress, Depression Linked to Raised Stroke Risk in Seniors, “Barbara Bronson Gray, HealthDay, December 13, 2012.

The Toronto (CAN) Star (12/12, Hall) reports on a study published in the December issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry that examines the differences in how a tobacco-cessation medication, naltrexone, affects men and women. According to the article, “the study of 700 smokers — all of them using tobacco patches — showed those men using” the medication “increased their chances of quitting from 17 to 30 per cent after a 12-week trial.” However, for women, “the increase in quit rates were negligible.”

Related Links:

— “Anti-smoking drug Naltrexone has his and hers effects, “Joseph Hall, The Toronto Star, December 11, 2012.

Medscape (12/12) reports, “There is fair evidence to support the effectiveness of psychological therapies for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents,” according to a review published online Dec. 12 in the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. After analyzing data from 14 studies encompassing 758 patients, researchers found that “children and teens diagnosed with PTSD showed signs of improvement up to three months following psychological therapy, and they called for more studies to assess its long-term benefits.”

In its “Well” blog and in print, the New York Times (12/11, D6, Bakalar) reports that “an economist has published an unusual study in the December issue of PLoS One,” which found that “about half of the population has a variation in a specific gene connected to nicotine addiction that makes them more likely to respond to cigarette tax increases.” After looking at data on 6,178 adults in a national health survey, Jason M. Fletcher, an associate professor of health policy at Yale, found that “about half of the subjects had a variation in a gene for a nicotine receptor in the brain that is thought to control the pleasure reward of nicotine consumption.” The article details that Fletcher “found that a 100 percent increase in taxes had a significant effect only on people with this particular genetic variation in DNA sequence,” and the “other half of the population was immune to the effect of taxation.”

Related Links:

— “Efficacy of Tobacco Taxes Tied to Gene Type, “Nicholas Bakalar, The New York Times, December 10, 2012.

Reuters (12/11, Pittman) reports that, according to research published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, youths who engage in binge eating may be more likely to begin using drugs, and may also be more likely to become depressed.

Bloomberg News (12/11, Ostrow) reports, “The study focused on 16,882 boys and girls ages 9 to 15 in 1996.” Participants “were given questionnaires every 12 to 24 months from 1996 to 2005 to assess their eating.” Investigators found that “teens and young adults who reported being binge-eaters or overeaters were almost twice as likely to start using marijuana than those without the eating disorder.
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MedPage Today (12/11, Petrochko) reports, “Perhaps not surprisingly, children and teens who binged on food — but not those who merely overate — were also more likely to become overweight or obese (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.11 to 2.69) and were at twice the risk of becoming depressed (aOR 2.19, 95% CI 1.40 to 3.45).”

Related Links:

— “Youth who overeat more likely to take up drugs, “Genevra Pittman, Reuters, December 10, 2012.

USA Today (12/10, Healy) reports, “Victims of teen dating violence are at increased risk of mood and behavior problems as young adults, and at increased risk for future violent relationships,” according to a study published online Dec. 10 in Pediatrics. “Researchers who analyzed data from a nationally representative survey of 5,681 teens ages 12 to 18 found roughly 30% of both boys and girls said they had been the victim in an aggressive heterosexual dating relationship. This adds to a body of research suggesting that teen dating violence ‘is a substantial public health problem.'”

Related Links:

— “Teen dating violence affects well-being in adulthood,”Michelle Healy, HealthDay, December 10, 2012.

HealthDay (12/8, Preidt) reported, “Children with autism are nine times more likely than other children to be taken to the emergency department for mental health problems, according to a” study recently published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care. After analyzing “data on nearly four million emergency department visits made by US children aged three to 17 in 2008,” researchers found that “thirteen percent of the visits by kids with autism were psychiatric in nature, compared to two percent of all visits made by their peers.”

Related Links:

— “Kids With Autism Common Users of ERs, Study Says, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay,December 7, 2012.

USA Today (12/8, Lopez) reported, “As more kids are diagnosed with bipolar disorder [BD] at earlier ages, parents wonder whether psychiatric drugs such as Depakote [valproic acid, divalproex] and lithium are really the answer — and how they might affect their child’s growth and development.” Just “last week after 10 years of debate, psychiatrists approved updates to their diagnostic manual of mental illnesses, including the addition of Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder, describing children who have outbursts three or more times a week. The new term aims to address concerns about overdiagnosis and overmedication of bipolar disorder in children, and gives psychiatrists a way to differentiate between bipolar and other explosive outbursts.”

Related Links:

— “Parents struggle with decision to medicate bipolar kids, “Korina Lopez, USA Today, December 8, 2012.

The New York Times (12/7, A17, Dao, Subscription Publication) reports that today, “the Department of Veterans Affairs will propose new regulations…that will make it easier for thousands of veterans to receive health care and compensation for certain illnesses that have been linked to traumatic brain injury [TBI].” The proposed “regulations, which will be published on Monday in the Federal Register, list Parkinsonism, unprovoked seizures, certain dementias, depression and hormone deficiency diseases related to the hypothalamus, pituitary or adrenal glands as eligible for the expanded benefits.” The Times points out, “The proposal, which must undergo a 60-day public comment period, could open the door to tens of thousands of veterans filing claims with the Veterans Benefits Administration, which is already struggling to process a huge inventory of such claims.”

Related Links:

— “Rules Eased for Veterans’ Brain Injury Benefits, “James Dao, The New York Times, December 7, 2012.