The New York Times (8/29, Richtel) reports, “More than one-fifth of people who use cannabis struggle with dependency or problematic use, according to” findings published online Aug. 29 in JAMA Network Open. The study, which “drew its data from nearly 1,500 primary care patients in Washington State, where recreational use is legal, in an effort to explore the prevalence of cannabis use disorder among both medical and nonmedical users,” revealed that “21 percent of people in the study had some degree of cannabis use disorder, which clinicians characterize broadly as problematic use of cannabis that leads to a variety of symptoms, such as recurrent social and occupational problems, indicating impairment and distress.”
       
According to CNN (8/29, LaMotte), “using both medical and recreational weed led to a more severe addiction than using medical marijuana alone, the study” concluded. This study’s findings mirror those “from other countries such as the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and France.” In fact, “a 2020 meta-analysis of those countries and the US found 22% of cannabis users would develop a cannabis disorder during their lifetime – the risk rose to 33% for younger people who engaged in weekly or daily use of weed.”

Related Links:

— “Cannabis Use Disorder Is ‘Common’ Among Marijuana Users, Study Finds,”Matt Richtel, The New York Times, August 29, 2023

According to CNN (8/28, McPhillips, Christensen), researchers have found that “recurring gun injuries” are not uncommon. “About one of every 14 gunshot victims will be harmed by a firearm again within a year, according to” findings published online in the Annals of Internal Medicine. “Within five years, that risk rises to about one in eight, and it jumps to about one in six after eight years,” the study revealed.

Healio (8/28, Rhoades) reports, “Firearm injury survivors often experienced recurrent firearm injuries, particularly those who were young, uninsured, male and Black,” researchers concluded in an analysis that “included data from the St. Louis Region-Wide Hospital-Based Violence Intervention Program…repository on 10,293 adult and pediatric patients who presented with a firearm injury to a St. Louis level 1 trauma hospital from 2010 to 2019.” Of those patients, “9,553 survived the injury,” and “1,155 patients suffered a recurrent firearm injury.”

Related Links:

— “Shooting survivors have ‘distressingly high’ risk of repeat firearm injury, study finds, especially young Black males,”Deidre McPhillips and Jen Christensen, CNN, August 28, 2023

CNN (8/28, Musa) reports, “A new study from Boston University’s CTE Center has discovered more than 60 cases of chronic traumatic encephalopathy, known as CTE, in athletes who were under the age of 30 at the time of their death.” Additionally, the study “includes what researchers believe to be the first case of an American female athlete diagnosed with the disease.”
MedPage Today (8/28, George) reports, “Brain pathologies including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a neurodegenerative disease, were identified in young deceased athletes, autopsy data” from “152 contact sports players under age 30 at the time of death” revealed. The study revealed that “CTE was diagnosed in 41.4%,” and “the mean age at death for players with evidence of autopsy-confirmed CTE was 25.” The findings were published online in JAMA Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Largest study of brains of athletes younger than 30 finds early signs of CTE even in amateur players,”Amanda Musa, CNN, August 28, 2023

HealthDay (8/28, Reinberg) reports, “Suicide has become an urgent issue among American military veterans, with rates increasing by more than 10 times in nearly two decades,” researchers concluded after examining data on “more than 8,200 suicides among veterans, comparing them with more than 562,000 U.S. adults in the general population.” The study also revealed that “the suicide rate for those with a” traumatic brain injury (TBI) “was 56% higher than among veterans who didn’t suffer a TBI.” The findings were published online Aug. 28 in the journal Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Suicides Among U.S. Veterans Jumped 10-Fold in Decades After 9/11,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 28, 2023

Psychiatric News (8/28) reports, “Individuals who take multiple antipsychotics to manage schizophrenia symptoms have three times the risk of developing hypertension relative to those taking one antipsychotic,” researchers concluded in a study that included “1,663, 1,268, and 1,668 adults with schizophrenia…assessed for incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and hyperlipidemia, respectively.” The study revealed that “the risk of hypertension was greatest when the patients were taking multiple first-generation antipsychotics.” The findings were published online Aug. 25 in the Schizophrenia Bulletin.

Related Links:

— “Antipsychotic Polypharmacy Increases Risk of Hypertension, Study Suggests, Psychiatric News, August 28, 2023

MedPage Today (8/28, Robertson) reports, “For mothers with opioid use disorder (OUD), the use of medication for their addiction such as buprenorphine or methadone during the prenatal period was associated with improved outcomes in infants,” investigators concluded in findings published online in JAMA Pediatrics. Utilizing “data from a multistate Medicaid database on over 10,000 mother-infant dyads, prenatal use of medications for OUD was found to be associated with 20% higher odds of infants receiving six well-child visits…and 20% lower odds of readmissions” during “the first year of life,” the study found.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (8/25, Solomon) reported, “Extreme heat exposure can disproportionately undermine cognitive health in later life for socially vulnerable populations,” researchers concluded after merging “data from seven waves of the Health and Retirement Study (2006 to 2018) with historical temperature data to assess the role of extreme heat exposure on trajectories of cognitive function among U.S. adults aged 52 years and older.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

Related Links:

— “Extreme Heat Exposure Tied to Faster Cognitive Decline in Vulnerable Populations,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, August 25, 2023

KFF Health News (8/25, Szabo) reported on the problem of social media’s “role in escalating gun violence.” The article interviewed a number of experts who “note that social media can have a particularly pernicious effect in communities with high rates of gun violence.” Now, “at a time when virtually every teen has a cellphone, many have access to guns, and many are coping with mental and emotional health crises, some say it’s not surprising that violence features so heavily in children’s social media feeds.” For that reason, police departments “search social media after the fact to gather evidence against those involved in violence,” and certain programs “monitor influential social media accounts in their communities to de-escalate conflicts.”

Related Links:

— “‘All We Want Is Revenge’: How Social Media Fuels Gun Violence Among Teens,”Liz Szabo, KFF Health News , August 25, 2023

The New York Times (8/25, Barry) reported, “Use of mental healthcare increased substantially during the coronavirus pandemic, as teletherapy lowered barriers to regular visits, according to a large study of insurance claims published” online Aug. 25 in a research letter in JAMA Health Forum. The study revealed that “from March 2020 to August 2022, mental health visits increased by 39 percent, and spending increased by 54 percent.” Additionally, the “examination of 1,554,895 claims for clinician visits…identified a tenfold increase in the use of telehealth.” This “rise in use of mental health services reflects both receding stigma and a lowering of practical barriers to mental health visits, said” Robert L. Trestman, PhD, MD, “chairman of the American Psychiatric Association’s council on healthcare systems and financing.”

Psychiatric News (8/25) quoted the study’s authors, who concluded, “These findings suggest that telehealth utilization for mental health services remains persistent and elevated.” But, should “this increased utilization” affect “spending, insurers may begin rejecting the new status quo,” a concern that “is particularly relevant when considered against the backdrop of telehealth policies that expired alongside the national [public health emergency] declaration.”

HCPlive (8/25, Kunzmann) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— “Mental Health Spending Surged During the Pandemic,”Ellen Barry, The New York Times , August 26, 2023

MedPage Today (8/24, George) reports, “A novel 14-year risk score helped identify people from age 50 onward at risk for all-cause dementia, a large U.K. study” revealed. The “U.K. Biobank Dementia Risk Score (UKBDRS), was developed and validated in two U.K. cohorts.” Included in the UKBDRS are “11 predictive variables: age, education, parental history of dementia, material deprivation, history of diabetes, stroke, depression, hypertension, high cholesterol, household occupancy (living alone), and sex.” The findingswere published online in BMJ Mental Health.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)