HealthDay (4/11, Preidt) reports that according to a study published online March 6 in the Journal of Adolescent Health, male teens who have been sexually abused may be more likely to engage in unsafe sex. After analyzing data on some 40,000 US and Canadian high-school males, researchers found that “compared to those with no history of sexual abuse, young males who were sexually abused were five times more likely to cause teen pregnancy, three times more likely to have multiple sexual partners and two times more likely to have unprotected sex.”

Related Links:

— “Sexual Abuse May Put Boys at Risk for Unsafe Sex,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, April 10, 2012.

The UK’s Telegraph (4/11, Smith) reports, “Doctors are warning that pressure to be young, beautiful, slim and clever, is driving a generation into buying illicit drugs online in the belief they are not ‘good enough’.” But “the products often contain banned and harmful substances or experimental and adulterated drugs that can cause allergic reactions, liver damage, mercury poisoning, brain damage and even death,” according to the Human Enhancement Drugs – The Emerging Challenges to Public Health report. “The report…charts unprecedented growth over the past few years in the usage of such drugs, sourced from a vast and illicit market.”

Related Links:

— “Warning over online ‘smart drugs’ that can kill,”Rebecca Smith, The Telegraph, April 11, 2012.

The Louisville Courier-Journal (4/11, Ungar) reports, “More than 250 faces stare out from a wall of photos at the National Rx Drug Abuse Summit — men and women, many of them young, lost to drug overdoses.” On Tuesday, US Surgeon General Regina Benjamin, MD, said, “There are too many faces on that wall. There are too many faces that could be on that wall,” and added, “Prescription drug abuse is the nation’s fastest-growing drug problem.” The surgeon general “was one of the keynote speakers at the inaugural national three-day summit organized by the Eastern Kentucky anti-drug group Operation UNITE” that “drew about 700 people involved in battling the prescription-drug abuse epidemic.”

“At the National Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in Orlando Tuesday, Gov. Steve Beshear called for states and the federal government to develop aggressive shared tactics to thwart the devastating scourge of prescription drug abuse,” the Kentucky New Era (4/11) reports. “He also encouraged Kentucky legislators to keep the state on the leading edge of effective anti-drug strategies by passing a broad prescription drug bill,” known as House Bill 4, “on the final day of the legislative session this week.”

Related Links:

— “Prescription drug abuse summit draws 700,”Laura Ungar, The Courier-Journal, April 10, 2012.

MedWire (4/11, Robertson) reports, “Depression is associated with a significantly increased risk for dementia among patients with type 2 diabetes,” according to a study published online in the Archives of General Psychiatry. After analyzing data on some 20,000 patients with diabetes who partook in the Diabetes and Aging Study, researchers found that “depression at baseline was associated with a 2.02-fold greater risk for dementia compared with those without diabetes, after adjustment for covariates.”

Related Links:

— “Depression impacts on dementia risk in diabetes,”Sally Robertson, MedWire News, April 10, 2012.

The Los Angeles Times (4/11, Kaplan) “Booster Shots” blog reports, “Nearly two-thirds of Americans who are obese try to lose weight, and about 40% of them actually succeed. How did they do it? The old-school way: By eating less, exercising more and switching to more healthful foods,” according to a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Researchers examined 4,021 adults who had been obese between 2001 and 2006 before participating in the study. As the blog post notes, “2,523 — or 63% — said they had tried to lose weight in the previous 12 months. And among them, 1,026 — or 41% — were able to shed at least 5% of their body weight…Even better, 510 people — or 20% — succeeded in losing at least 10% of their body weight.” Among participants who lost at least 10%, exercise and healthier eating — not shortcuts –were typical practices.

The Time (4/11, Sifferlin) “Healthland” blog notes that “the most popular strategies were eating less, exercising more, eating less fat and switching to lower-calorie foods. People who used commercial weight-loss programs and prescription weight-loss pills also saw success, but only a small portion of the study participants used them.” Also covering the story are MedPage Today (4/11, Fiore), WebMD (4/11, Mann) and HealthDay (4/11, Doheny).

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MedWire (4/10, Cowen) reports that according to a study published April 1 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, “methamphetamine users are at increased risk for developing schizophrenia.” After examining “data from California inpatient hospital discharge records for the period 1990-2000 to identify 42,412 patients with methamphetamine, 39,390 with cocaine, 408,604 with alcohol, 56,844 with opioid, 23,335 with cannabis use disorders, and a comparison group of 188,732 patients with appendicitis,” investigators “found that, compared with appendicitis patients, methamphetamine users had the greatest risk for schizophrenia (hazard ratio [HR]=9.37), followed by cannabis users (HR=8.16), cocaine users (HR= 5.84), those with alcohol use disorder (HR=5.56), and opioid users (HR=3.60), after accounting for age, gender, ethnicity, and other variables.”

Related Links:

— “Methamphetamine use may increase schizophrenia risk,”Mark Cowen, MedWire News, April 10, 2012.

The Los Angeles Times (4/8, Murphy) reported that “in a small but growing number of cases across the nation, lawyers are blaming the US military’s heavy use of psychotropic drugs for their clients’ aberrant behavior and related health problems.” According to the Times, “more than 110,000 active-duty Army troops last year were taking prescribed antidepressants, narcotics, sedatives, antipsychotics and anti-anxiety drugs. … Nearly 8% of the active-duty Army is now on sedatives and more than 6% is on antidepressants — an eightfold increase since 2005.”

VA Part Of Effort To Reduce Painkiller Usage. On its front page, the New York Times (4/9, A1, Meier, Subscription Publication) reports, “Data suggests that hundreds of thousands of patients nationwide may be on potentially dangerous dosages” of powerful painkillers like oxycodone. The “Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs are trying new programs to reduce use among active-duty troops and veterans. Various states are experimenting with restrictions.”

Related Links:

— “A fog of drugs and war,”Kim Murphy, Los Angeles Times, April 7, 2012.

In a special analysis piece, the New York Times (4/9, SR3, Harmon, Subscription Publication) reports, “The report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that one in 88 American children have an autism spectrum disorder has stoked a debate about why the condition’s prevalence continues to rise,” conceding that the increase could possibly be attributed to better methods of detection or perhaps to some unknown factor in the environment. However, last month’s report also “appears to be serving as a lightning rod for those who question the legitimacy of a diagnosis whose estimated prevalence has nearly doubled since 2007.” Meanwhile, an American Psychiatric Association workgroup “in charge of autism criteria for the new version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders has proposed changes that would exclude some who currently qualify, reducing the combination of behavioral traits through which the diagnosis can be reached from a mind-boggling 2,027 to 11, according to one estimate.”

Related Links:

— “The Autism Wars,”Amy Harmon, The New York Times, April 7, 2012.

The Boston Globe (4/7, Lazar) reported, “Violence is uncommon among people suffering from dementia, and acts of extreme violence are rarer still,” according to experts “stunned by allegations that a Shrewsbury [MA] man stricken with the condition had brutally slain his wife.” The piece pointed out, however, that “statistics on the frequency of violence by dementia patients are hard to find. One small 1992 study by University of Illinois researchers found that roughly 16 percent of Alzheimer’s patients had been violent toward a family member who cared for them in the year since their diagnosis. The violence was defined as hitting, kicking, biting, punching, or threats with a weapon.”

Studies Underscore Stress Of Caregiving For Patients With Dementia. In a lengthy article, the Knoxville (TN) News Sentinel (4/8, Nelson) reported, “More than 400,000 Tennesseans are caregivers for patients with Alzheimer’s or another type of dementia.” The caregiving comes with a steep cost. “Study after study highlights the stress of caregiving for someone with Alzheimer’s. In one report, more than 60 percent of dementia caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as ‘high’ or ‘very high.’ A third of caregivers said they had experienced symptoms of depression.” One study, conducted by the University of Pittsburgh on behalf of the National Caregivers Alliance, found an association between a person’s Alzheimer’s progression with a decline in health of the caregiver.

Related Links:

— “Extreme violence by dementia patients is rare,”Kay Lazar, Boston.com, April 7, 2012.

MedPage Today (4/6, Walsh) reports, “Patients with psychiatric disorders and those with chronic pain used a disproportionally high amount of healthcare resources because of frequent hospital readmission, a researcher said” at the Society of Hospital Medicine meeting. “In a chart review of 29 patients who had an index admission during 2011 and six or more readmissions,” researchers found that “55% had psychiatric conditions and 52% had chronic pain.” The investigators reported that “other common diagnoses included pneumonia, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, end-stage renal disease, and persistent vomiting.”

Related Links:

— “Study IDs Hospital Frequent Flyers,”Nancy Walsh, MedPage Today, April 5, 2012.