NBC News (9/26, Snow) says, “A…report about kids and their smartphone use may offer other parents a warning: Children…are inundated with hundreds of pings and prompts on their phones all day and all night – even when they should be paying attention in class or getting a good night’s rest.” The study by “Common Sense Media released Tuesday finds about half of 11- to 17-year-olds get at least 237 notifications on their phones every day.” Around “25% of them pop up during the school day, and 5% show up at night.” And “in some cases, they get nearly 5,000 notifications in 24 hours. The pop-ups are almost always linked to alerts from friends on social media.”

Related Links:

— “Kids and teens are inundated with phone prompts day and night,” Erika Edwards and Kate Snow, NBC News, September 26, 2023

Healthcare Finance News (9/26, Morse) reports, “The Department of Health and Human Services, through the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), has announced $131.7 million in grant programs for behavioral health services.” Addressing “the ongoing mental health crisis, particularly among the nation’s youth, is a top priority of the Biden administration and a key pillar in the president’s Unity Agenda for the nation, HHS said.”

Related Links:

— “HHS awards $131.7 million to support behavioral health,”Susan Morse, Healthcare Finance News , September 26, 2023

Parkinson’s News Today (9/26, Maia) reports, “While it appears that people with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease later in life than are individuals without the neurodevelopmental disorder, further proof is needed to establish a link, according to a new systematic review” published in Frontiers in Psychiatry. Investigators wrote, “Our review provides preliminary results that a diagnosis of ADHD may be a risk factor for the later development of a neurodegenerative disease or dementia,” but “the mechanism of how or why ADHD is associated with an increased risk of developing a neurocognitive disorder is still unclear and should be explored in future studies.”

Related Links:

— “More evidence needed to support link between ADHD, Parkinson’s,”Margarida Maia, Parkinson’s News Today, September 26, 2023

CNN (9/26, Howard) reports, “Compared with people who don’t work in the medical field, health care workers face an increased risk of suicide, especially registered nurses, health care support workers and health technicians, according to a new study.” The research “estimates that the annual suicide rate in the United States among health care workers alone is about 14 per 100,000 person-years compared with about 13 per 100,000 person-years among non-health care workers.” The findings were published in JAMA.

HealthDay (9/26, Collins) reports that physician suicide rates, “meanwhile…were roughly the same as those in the general population, at annual standardized suicide rates of 13 for every 100,000 people.” The research “also found that health care work is more strongly associated with suicide risk among female workers.”

MedPage Today (9/26, Firth) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “US health care workers face elevated risk of suicide, new study finds,”Jacqueline Howard, CNN, September 26, 2023

NBC News (9/25, Edwards) reports “scientists have found clear differences in the blood of people with long COVID – a key first step in the development of a test to diagnose the illness.” The findings of the research published in Nature “also offer clues into what could be causing the elusive condition.” The researchers “compared blood samples of 268 people.” Some of those people had COVID-19 “but had fully recovered, some had never been infected, and the rest had ongoing symptoms of long COVID at least four months after their infection.” A number of “differences in the blood of people with long COVID stood out from the other groups.”

CNN (9/25, Goodman) reports that a second study “used magnetic resonance imaging, or MRI, to scan 259 people who’d been hospitalized with COVID-19.” The researchers “compared their scans with those of 52 people who’d never had COVID-19.” According to CNN, “after an average of five months after discharge, researchers found evidence of damage to the lungs, brain or kidneys of 1 out of 3 people who’d been hospitalized with COVID-19.” The findings were published in the Lancet Respiratory Medicine. Together, CNN says, the two “studies are providing insights about the biology behind long COVID and, if reproduced, could point to potential biomarkers for” long COVID.

Related Links:

— “A blood test for long Covid is possible, a study suggests,”Erika Edwards, NBC News , September 25, 2023

Gastroenterology Advisor (9/25, Lopez) reports “there is a high prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) among individuals with anxiety and depression, and research points to a bidirectional causal relationship, according to study results published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.” The researchers said, “This systematic review and meta-analysis showed a high prevalence of common psychological comorbidities among individuals with GERD, with up to one-third and one-fourth of subjects affected by anxiety and depressive symptoms, respectively.”

Related Links:

— “GERD and Anxiety and Depression: The Bidirectional Causal Relationship,”Maria Arini Lopez, Gastroenterology Advisor, September 25, 2023

The New York Times (9/25, Richtel) reports “many online marijuana dispensaries do not enforce age limits on purchases, and they have other lax policies that enable minors to buy cannabis on the internet, according to a new studypublished” in JAMA Pediatrics. The research “found that 18.8 percent of dispensaries, or nearly one in five, ‘required no formal age verification at any stage of the purchasing process.’ And that more than 80 percent accepted ‘nontraceable’ payment methods, like prepaid cards or cash, thus ‘enabling youth to hide their transactions,’ the authors noted.”

Related Links:

— “Online Marijuana Shops Make It Easy for Minors to Buy, Study Finds,” Matt Richtel, The New York Times , September 25, 2023

Healio (9/22, Rhoades) reported, “Among older adults, more time spent being sedentary was significantly associated with a higher incidence of dementia, a study…found.” Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing data on nearly 50,000 adults, aged 60 and older. The findings were published in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Study ties sedentary lifestyle to dementia risk,”Andrew Rhoades, Healio , September 22, 2023

Healio (9/22, Cooper) reported, “Complex PTSD was significantly associated with the severity of psychotic symptoms among people who experienced developmental trauma though symptom severity had no relationship with the broader diagnosis of ICD-11 PTSD, data show.” The findings were published in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Complex PTSD linked to psychotic symptoms following developmental trauma,”Justin Cooper, Healio , September 22, 2023

HealthDay (9/22, Reinberg) said, “While the start of the school year can give kids and teens the chance to reconnect with friends and enjoy school sports and activities, it can also trigger stressors that send many to the emergency [department] for mental health woes, a…report shows.” For children between 5 and 17, “emergency department visits for depression, suicidal thoughts, stress and substance abuse increased significantly in the fall and remained high through the spring, the report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.”

Related Links:

— “Kids’ ER Visits for Mental Health Crises Rise When School Term Begins,”Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 22, 2023