HealthDay (9/15, Dallas) reported that a new study appearing in the recent issue of the journal Medical Care found that “people who visit multiple doctors and pharmacies to get medications are at greater risk of dying from” a prescription medication overdose. According to the article, the researchers said that “drug-monitoring programs might help identify patients who engage in what’s known as ‘doctor shopping’ or ‘pharmacy shopping.'” Researchers in the study “identified nearly 700 people aged 18 and older who had died,” and “of these, about 25 percent were doctor shoppers, and nearly 17.5 percent were pharmacy shoppers.”

Related Links:

— “‘Doctor Shopping’ Tied to Fatal Prescription Drug Overdoses, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 14, 2012.

MedPage Today (9/14, Phend) reports, “Cognitive behavioral therapy to tackle depression in heart failure patients can improve outcomes for both conditions, research” according to a study presented at the Heart Failure Society of America meeting. Investigators found that “talk therapy with biofeedback was associated with a 1.8-fold lower risk of cardiac hospitalization or death during 12 months of follow-up compared with usual care in a trial.” The researchers reported that “the difference in rates was substantial at 28.2% versus 38.2% with usual care and 39.7% with an extra attention control group.”

Related Links:

— “Depression Tx Boosts HF Outcomes, “Crystal Phend, Medpage Today, September 13, 2012.

HealthDay (9/14, Dotinga) reports, “New research suggests that Hispanic children with developmental delays often are undiagnosed, and both Hispanic and non-Hispanic kids who are diagnosed with developmental delays often actually have autism.” Investigators looked at data on more than 1,000 California children. The researchers found that, “of the Hispanic kids in the study, 6.3 percent had signs of developmental delay compared with 2.4 percent of non-Hispanics.” The investigators reported that, “of the children overall, about 19 percent who had been diagnosed with developmental delay actually appeared to have autism.” The findings are published in the journal Autism.

Related Links:

— “Improved Developmental Screening Urged for Hispanic Kids, “Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, September 13, 2012.

Medscape (9/14, Brauser) reports that “new research suggests that long-term psychotherapy can decrease defensiveness” in patients with psychiatric disorders. “The observational study, which included 21 adults with anxiety, depression, or personality disorders, showed significant changes in the participants’ defensiveness after roughly 2.5 years of dynamic psychotherapy.” The researchers reported that “these changes were then significantly associated with improvements in both symptoms and overall functioning 2.5 years later.”

HealthDay (9/14) reports, “Although depression affects about one-third of all stroke victims, male stroke survivors are more likely to become depressed than females, a small new study suggests.” Investigators followed “36 people who had a first stroke within the previous” three years. The researchers found that “uncertainty about health was strongly associated with greater depression for both men and women,” with the association being “stronger for the men.”

Related Links:

— “Men More Prone to Depression After Stroke: Study, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 13, 2012.

HealthDay (9/13, Dallas) reports, “People who take medication for anxiety, depression or insomnia may be at greater risk of having a car accident than drivers not taking psychotropic” medications, according to a study published Sept. 13 in the British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. After comparing medication “use in nearly 5,200 people involved in major car accidents with that of more than 31,000 similar people with no record of serious accidents,” the researchers concluded that physicians “should think about advising patients not to drive while taking these medications.”

Related Links:

— “Psych, Sleep Meds May Affect Driving, “Mary Elizabeth Dallas, HealthDay, September 12, 2012.

MedWire (9/13, Cowen) reports, “Higher levels of perceived stigma are associated with poorer functioning in patients with bipolar disorder (BD),” according to a study published in the Oct. Issue of the Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing. After studying “60 outpatients (73% women) with BD who were aged an average of 48 years,” researchers “also found that increased depressive symptoms, older age at diagnosis, and older age at onset of treatment were significantly associated with poorer functioning in patients with the mood disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Stigma impacts functioning in bipolar disorder, “Mark Cowen, MedWire News, September 13, 2012.

The New York Times (9/12, Reynolds) “Well” blog reports that “a growing and very appealing body of science has established that exercise spurs the creation of new brain cells, a process known as neurogenesis.” According to a study published last month in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, “male sex hormones surge in the brain after exercise and could be helping to remodel the mind. The research was conducted on young, healthy and exclusively male rats – but scientists believe it applies to female rats, too, as well as other mammals, including humans.”

Related Links:

— “How Testosterone May Alter the Brain After Exercise, “Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, September 12, 2012.

MedWire (9/12, Cowen) reports, “The occurrence of hallucinations and delusions is associated with poorer mental health outcomes in the nonclinical general population,” according to a study published online Sept. 4 in the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. After examining “data on 225,842 individuals (55.6% women), aged 18-65 years (mean age 37.3 years) from 52 countries, who answered questions about psychotic symptoms as part of the World Health Organization’s World Health Survey,” researchers “also found that people who experience both hallucinations and delusions have poorer mental health outcomes than those who experience either of these symptoms in isolation.”

Related Links:

— “Hallucinations, delusions linked to poorer outcomes in general population, “Mark Cowen, MedWire, September 12, 2012.

The Time (9/11, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog reports, “Children of moms who reported depressive symptoms during the first nine months after giving birth were more likely to be shorter than their peers by the time they reached preschool age,” according to a study published online Sept. 10 in the journal Pediatrics.

HealthDay (9/11, Goodwin) reports that for the study, “researchers examined data on 10,700 children from the nationally representative US Early Childhood Longitudinal Study Birth Cohort. The children were born in 2001 and followed through 2007.”

Related Links:

— “Mom’s Depression May Lead to Shorter Kids, “Alexandra Sifferlin, TIME Healthland, September 10, 2012.