USA Today (9/6, Zoroya) reports there “is emerging evidence that” American’s newest combat veterans “appear to be growing old before their time,” with former troops in their 20s and 30s showing “early signs of heart disease and diabetes, slowed metabolisms and obesity — maladies more common to middle age or later.” If this is early aging, scientists say it won’t be proven “until they can study these veterans over the next few years.” Still, “scientists with the Department of Veterans Affairs are rushing to understand” the research, which suggests the condition is “most common to those with both blast-related concussion and PTSD.” Scientists suggest that “early aging might stem from the nature of the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, where troops served long and repeated deployments at an unprecedented rate.”

Related Links:

— “War might be making young bodies old, “Gregg Zoroya, USA Today, September 6, 2012.

In continuing coverage, American Medical News (9/4, Krupa) reports on the recent study which found nearly half of doctors suffer from at least one symptom of burnout. The article explains, “The many rigors and stresses of medical practice mean that physicians experience burnout at higher rates than the general population. They work an average of 10 hours more per week and are nearly twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study published online Aug. 20.”

Related Links:

— “Nearly half of physicians struggle with burnout, “Carolyne Krupa, American Medical News, September 3, 2012.

The CNN (9/4, Landau) “The Chart” blog reports that a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “found the brains of soldiers who go into combat show impairment in function and structure upon returning, but that these effects largely go away over time.” Investigators looked at 33 Dutch soldiers who had been deployed to Afghanistan, and compared them to 26 soldiers who were not deployed. The researchers found that “the combat group showed reduced functioning in the midbrain, as well as structural differences in that area” Additionally, deployed soldiers generally performed worse on cognitive function tests. However, “a year and a half later, researchers found that the soldiers who had been deployed had, on average, returned to normal with respect to both brain structure and cognitive performance.” Nonetheless, imaging tests indicated that certain regions of the brains of deployed solders still had reduced connectivity.

Related Links:

— “Stress may harm brain – but it recovers, “Elizabeth Landau, CNN Health, September 3, 2012.

The New York Times (9/4, O’Connor) “Well” blog reports, “Research published [online] on Monday in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine shows that children with autism spectrum disorders, who typically have difficulty in communicating and forming relationships, are far more likely to be bullied than their” peers without autism. The study “data, collected from a nationally representative sample of 920 middle- and high-school students with an autism disorder, shows that 46 percent have been bullied.” In contrast, “in the general adolescent population, an estimated 10.6 percent of children have been bullied.”

HealthDay (9/4, Reinberg) reports, “Some of the most common factors of the victims of bullying included having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), poor social skills and taking more general education classes,” the study also found. Reuters (9/4, Seaman) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “School Bullies Prey on Children With Autism, “Anahad O’Connor, New York Times, September 3, 2012.

HealthDay (8/30, Preidt) reports, “A ‘happy’ gene that affects females but not males may explain why women are often happier than men,” according to a study published online in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. After analyzing “data from 193 women and 152 men who were assessed for happiness and underwent DNA testing as part of a long-term study of mental health,” researchers found that “women with the low-expression version of the MAOA gene were much happier than other women.” The low-expression MAOA gene appeared not to have the same happiness effect for men.

Related Links:

— “Scientists ID ‘Happy’ Gene in Women, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 29, 2012.

Reuters (8/30, Joelving) reports on a study, published in the journal Addiction, which found that substance abusers recently discharged from hospitals face elevated death rates. Researchers discovered that the rates of deaths from overdose and suicide were more than ten times higher for addicts who had been discharged from a hospital for less than a month than those who had been discharged for a year or more. The study authors concluded, “Like prison-release, hospital discharge marks the start of a well-defined period of heightened vulnerability for drug-treatment clients.” Additionally, the researchers suggest that “hospital contact may simply represent a desperate, sometimes final, call for help.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide, OD risks high when addicts leave hospital, “Frederik Joelving, Reuters, August 29, 2012.

Reuters (8/29) reports that a study published online Aug. 27 in the journal Pediatrics (8/29) found that routine screening of abuse in children treated in the ER appears to have improved child abuse detection rates in the Netherlands. Researchers involved with the study tested a checklist that nurses in the ER used to screen for possible abuse. If a child was found to exhibit any of the checklist’s warning signs, the nurse would inform a physician who was responsible for investigating further. While acknowledging that the use of a standard checklist may have improved abuse detection rates in Netherlands, Dr. Michael J. Gerardi, who serves on the board of the American College of Emergency Physicians, doubted that the findings could be applicable in the US. Gerardi suggests that electronic medical records hold more promise than standard checklists in detecting abuse.

Related Links:

— “Routine screening catches child abuse in ER, “Amy Norton, Reuters, August 28, 2012.

Medscape (8/28, Brauser) reports, “Smartphone users are inundated with all types of downloadable applications (apps) for their smartphones, including a myriad of so-called ‘mental health self-help apps.'” As to whether such apps are helpful for patients with psychiatric disorders, psychiatrist Lori Simon, MD, who is a volunteer member of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Electronic Health Records, said, “I don’t see them as something to be used instead of being treated by a practitioner, but I see them as adjuncts or if the patients are fairly stable. And if a person is in between treatment sessions, these can be good for them.”

On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (8/28, Neighmond) reported that “researchers have found a link between disrupted sleep and cognitive decline.” After conducting “a series of studies evaluating more than 1,300 adults older than 75, initially assessing their sleep patterns and, five years later, their cognitive abilities,” researchers “found that those with sleep-disordered breathing or sleep apnea had more than twice the odds of developing dementia years later.” Theresearch was recently presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s annual conference.

Related Links:

— “Sleepless Nights May Put The Aging Brain At Risk Of Dementia, “Patti Neighmond, NPR, August 27, 2012.

The Wall Street Journal (8/28, D2, Wang, Subscription Publication) reports that elderly people, in general, suffer less from stress and anxiety than their younger counterparts, according to research. Unlike those who are young, many seniors appear to learn to distance themselves from negative feelings, focusing instead on pleasurable situations in the present. In comparison, happiness, enjoyment, and other positive emotions may hardly vary at all throughout the course of a person’s lifetime.

Related Links:

— “Tricks From the Elderly to Stop Worrying, “Shirley S. Wang, The Wall Street Journal, August 27, 2012.