The Los Angeles Times (11/9, Morin) “Booster Shots” blog reports that whether it’s called “‘pre-drinking,’ ‘pre-partying’ or ‘pre-funking’…it usually involves chugging cheap alcoholic drinks before heading out to a bar, club or sporting event.” And, “while addiction experts estimate that 65% to 75% of college-age youths engage in such boozy behavior, a Swiss study” published online Nov. 8 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research “concludes that such ‘pre-loaded’ evenings are far more likely to end in blackouts, unprotected sex, unplanned drug use or injury.”

HealthDay (11/9, Dotinga) reports that in order to arrive at these conclusions, “researchers tracked the drinking behavior of 183 young adults — average age 23 — over five weeks on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. By cellphone, the researchers kept tabs on what the participants drank and where.” Notably, “those who drank before going out to bars consumed an average of 7.1 drinks a night, compared to 4.2 drinks by those who just went to bars and 4.3 who drank elsewhere, such as home or a public place.” The Daily Mail (UK) (11/9, Bates) also covers the story.

Impulsive Female College Students At Risk For Problem Drinking. HealthDay (11/9, Preidt) reports, “Female college students who act impulsively when they’re distressed are at increased risk of developing a drinking problem,” according to a study published online Nov. 8 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. “The study included 319 women (235 drinkers and 84 nondrinkers) in their first semester at a large university in the southeastern United States.” Notably, “The largest increase in alcohol dependence symptoms was seen in women who had high negative urgency and said they wanted to drink to change their emotions (either to enhance positive feelings or get rid of negative feelings),” the study found.

Related Links:

— ““Pre-drinking” or “pre-funking” common among young alcohol users, “Monte Morin, Los Angeles Times, November 8, 2012.

Medscape (11/7, Brauser) reports, “A study to assess national trends showed that clinical visits from 1996 to 2009 for anticonvulsants to treat youth diagnosed with any psychiatric illness increased 1.7-fold.” According to research published in the November issue of the journal Psychiatric Services, “the individual disorders that saw the greatest increase in treatment with these medications were attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), pediatric bipolar disorder, and disruptive behavior disorders.” Of the “six specific anticonvulsants examined, lamotrigine showed the greatest increase in use during the study period, whereas use of divalproex decreased significantly.”

The NPR (11/7, Rau) “Shots” blog reports, “Depression is the most costly among 10 common risk factors linked to higher health spending on employees, according to” an analysis published in the journal Health Affairs. The study, which was “drawn from the experience at seven companies,” revealed that “these factors — which also included obesity, high blood sugar and high blood pressure — were associated with nearly a quarter of the money spent on the healthcare of more than 92,000 workers.”

MedPage Today (11/7, Pittman) reports, “Depressed employees — making up roughly 11% of the work force — spent on average $2,184, or about 48% more on healthcare than their nondepressed coworkers,” the study found. MedPage Today points out that the “study surveyed more than 92,400 employees.” The Business Courier of Cincinnati (11/7, Ritchie, Subscription Publication) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Depression And Health Spending Go Together, “Jordan Rau, NPR, November 06, 2012.

HealthDay (11/2, Reinberg) reports, “Some of the numbers are staggering: more than 75 Americans dead, thousands evacuated from their homes, millions left without power for days and billions of dollars in damage from ‘superstorm’ Sandy.” According to mental-health professionals, “the effect of all this sudden, violent loss on people’s psyches will be powerful. Not only those who suffered the loss of a loved one or a beloved home, but also people who just watched the constant storm coverage may be scared and unsettled, experts say.”

Psychiatrists Left Struggling To Connect With Patients. Psychiatric News (11/2) reports that according to Charles Ciolino, MD, chair of the New Jersey Psychiatric Association’s Disaster Preparedness Committee, “there will be a long period of rebuilding physically and psychologically”.

Related Links:

— “For Many, ‘Superstorm’ Sandy Could Take Toll on Mental Health, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, November 1, 2012.

The Washington Post (11/6, Butler) reports that “more than a dozen double-blind research trials on children’s diets — both from candy and chocolate and from natural sources — has failed to find any behavioral differences between those young people who consume sugar and those who don’t. That’s even true for kids with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). Pediatrician Ivor Horn, MD, MPH, of Children’s National Medical Center, explained that “environmental and social factors surrounding sugar-centric events or holidays may also contribute to the madness and a general uptick in a child’s activity level.” Other “experts have speculated that other ingredients in candy and sugary snacks, such as food dyes, artificial preservatives and other additives, may also play a role in hyperactivity, especially for certain children.”

Related Links:

— “Sugar may not be the only reason your kid is hyper after Halloween, “Carolyn Butler, The Washington Post, November 5, 2012.

Modern Healthcare (11/3, McKinney, Subscription Publication) reported, “Use of an Internet-based mental health management program may improve symptoms among patients with depression, according to a study in the journal Psychiatric Services.” For the study, “researchers used eCare for Moods, a 12-month-long management program that allows patients to submit data about their medication adherence, side effects, mood, daily functioning and other aspects of their care and access informational content using a Web-based interface.” Notably, “after two years, 43% of the participants in the eCare program were depression-free, compared with 30% of the patients who received the usual regimen of mental healthcare.” In an emailed new release, the American Psychiatric Association announced, “Completion of more education modules was positively associated with less severe depression.”

Related Links:

— “Online mental health management program shows benefits, “Maureen McKinney, Modern Healthcare, November 2, 2012.

Reuters (11/2, Grens) reported that only about 4.5 percent of patients with chronic pain, who are prescribed opioid-based prescription medications, become addicted to the medication, according to a study published in the Oct. 18 issue of the journal Addiction. Researchers from the Cochrane Collaboration came to this conclusion after conducting a meta-analysis of 17 studies comprising more than 88,000 patients who were treated for non-cancer related chronic pain. Ten of the 17 studies provided the length of the treatment protocols, one of which was only a matter of days whereas the remaining nine ranged from three months to several years. Reuters pointed out that some experts questioned the whether the results are useful, considering the wide range of sources and treatment regimens.

Related Links:

— “Painkillers not as addictive as feared: study, “Kerry Grens,Reuters, November 2, 2012.

In the New York Times (11/3) “Well” blog, Pauline W. Chen, MD, “For almost three decades now, health care experts have been studying the psychological effects of natural disasters and have found that disasters…left significant, disabling and lasting psychological scars in their wake.” Chen added, “Most commonly and most immediately, the survivors suffered post-traumatic stress symptoms like recurrent nightmares, flashbacks, a hair-trigger temper and an emotional ‘numbing,’ much of which could be considered normal in the first couple of months after a disaster.” If symptoms did not abate, “or when other mood disorders like anxiety and depression appeared, mental health issues quickly became a leading cause of disability for survivors, further hampering other efforts at recovery.”

Related Links:

— “Easing the Trauma After the Storm, “Pauline W. Chen, The New York Times, November 2, 2012.

The Pittsburgh Business Times (11/2, Mamula, Subscription Publication) reported that new research from the University of Pittsburgh and the VA Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that “more than one in four older veterans in nursing homes were taking antipsychotic medications,” while 40 percent of those on the medications had no related diagnosis. That finding, lead author Walid Gellad said, shows that “VA is not immune” to the trend of overuse of such medications in nursing home settings. Gellad and colleagues “collected data on all veterans age 65 and older who were admitted for 90 or more days to one of the 133 VA Community Living Centers between January 2004 and June 2005.” The data suggested “veterans in dementia units had 66 percent greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic and residents with aggressive behavior had nearly three times greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic.”

Related Links:

— “Inappropriate drug use found at VA, “Kris B. Mamula, The Pittsburgh Business Times, November 2, 2012.

The New York Times (11/5, A15, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports, “The rate of suicide in the United States rose sharply during the first few years since the start of the recession,” according to a report published online Nov. 5 in The Lancet. After examining data on suicide and death rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “researchers found that the rate between 2008 and 2010 increased four times faster than it did in the eight years before the recession. … Without the increase in the rate, the total deaths from suicide each year in the United States would have been lower by about 1,500, the study” found.

“From 1997 to 2007, the rate of increase in suicides was 0.12 per 100,000 people, but from 2008 to 2010 it jumped to 0.51 per 100,000 people,” HealthDay (11/5, Reinberg) reports. The study authors “estimated that about 25 percent of these additional suicides can be blamed on rising unemployment.”

Related Links:

— “Increase Seen in U.S. Suicide Rate Since Recession, “Benedict Carey, New York Times, Nevember 4, 2012.