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.

MedWire (8/28, Cowen) reports, “More than four-fifths of patients with schizophrenia spectrum or affective disorders have a history of childhood trauma (CT),” according to a study published online Aug. 15 in the journal Comprehensive Psychiatry. In “305 psychiatric patients from three major hospitals in Oslo, the team found that 250 (82%) had experienced at least one type of CT, 49 (16%) had experienced two types, 58 (19%) three types, 52 (17%) four types, and 27 (9%) had experienced five types of trauma.” The study authors concluded, “Clinicians should be alert of childhood abuse in [the] severely mentally ill, as the consequences may contribute to the clinical picture and may require special attention and measures to be taken into treatment.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood trauma common in schizophrenia, affective disorders, “Mark Cowen, MedWire News, August 28, 2012.

The New York Times (8/28) “Well” blog reports, “People in a study who began smoking marijuana as teenagers and continued to use it heavily for decades lost a few IQ points along the way, while those who started in adulthood did not,” according to research published online in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. “The findings, from a study tracking people’s habits from childhood through middle age, suggest that the developing teenage brain is especially vulnerable to drug use, the authors concluded.”

The USA Today (8/28, Winter) “On Deadline” blog reports, “The study, which tracked more than 1,000 New Zealanders from birth to 38, found an average eight-point decline in IQ among “persistent, dependent” users of marijuana younger than 18. About 5% of the study group were considered “marijuana-dependent” — using more than once a week before they were 18 years old, according to the news release (8/28).” What’s more, “quitting did not appear to reverse the effects, and the IQ decline could not be explained by alcohol, other drug use or by having less education, said lead researcher Madeline Meier at Duke University.”

Interestingly, “the researchers didn’t find the same IQ dip for people who became frequent users of pot after 18,” the AP (8/28, Ritter, Perry) reports. “Although experts said the new findings are not definitive, they do fit in with earlier signs that the drug is especially harmful to the developing brain.”

Bloomberg News (8/28, Lopatto) reports, “Because marijuana is the most frequently used illegal drug in the US, looking into how it changes the brain is important, said” Meier. “Daily use among high school seniors is at a 30-year peak, according to a 2011 survey by the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

HealthDay (8/28, Goodwin) reports, “Though pot has a reputation among many teens for being benign, Meier urged adolescents and their parents to take the findings seriously.”

MedPage Today (8/28, Gever) points out, “The current analysis was supported by the UK Medical Research Council, the US National Institutes of Health, and the Jacobs Foundation.” Also covering the story are WebMD (8/28, Boyles), Medscape (8/28, Harrison), Reuters (8/28, Kelland), and BBC News (8/28, Hughes).

Related Links:

— “Early Marijuana Use Linked to I.Q. Loss, “Benedict Carey, The New York Times, August 27, 2012.