Medscape (8/2, Brooks) reports an analysis by a WHO-led global advisory group concluded “dementia prevention, risk reduction, and delivery of high-quality care are global dementia research priorities.” The World Alzheimer Report 2015 found that the number of people living with dementia globally is “expected to rise from the current 46 million to 131.5 million by 2050.” Global treatment costs are estimated to jump from $818 billion in 2015 to $1 trillion by 2018 and $2 trillion by 2030. The WHO analysis, which included input from over 200 researchers and stakeholders, concluded a series of “overarching research goals.” Among the top 10 overall research priorities include “prevention, identification and reduction of dementia risk, and delivery and quality of care for dementia patients and their caregivers.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

In The Hill (8/2, Izenberg) “Congress Blog,” Jacob Izenberg, MD, a psychiatry resident in San Francisco and a member of the Committee of Interns and Residents, urges the Senate to pass the Helping Families in Mental Health Crisis Act. He says the bill will introduce “reforms that seek to expand access to acute psychiatric care while also bolstering community-based programs…that have a proven track record of reducing hospitalization and incarceration.”

Izenberg cites his own experiences in psychiatry resident training to argue that emergency departments “are not designed to deliver the humane care that…mental suffering necessitates.” The “staggering” cuts to mental health services are to blame for the lack of resources, pointing out that the US now has only “11.7 state psychiatric beds per 100,000 people, compared to 14 in 1850.”

Related Links:

— “Reforming our broken mental health system,” Jacob Izenberg, MD, The Hill, August 2, 2016.

The Washington Post (8/1, Stein) covers a new report “from Project Know, a website that connects people to alcohol and drug addiction treatment resources,” that found more American high school students smoke pot than binge drink. The report examined data taken “from state and national agencies to determine drug usage rates in each state and the District.” The District of Columbia had the highest rate of marijuana use at 32.2 percent, but the lowest rate of binge drinking and prescription drug abuse at 12 and 7.3 percent, respectively.

Related Links:

— “More American high school students smoke pot than binge drink, report says,” Perry Stein, Washington Post, August 1, 2016.

The AP (8/1, Ritter) reports, “In a key advance for the study of depression, a comprehensive scan of human DNA has turned up the apparent hiding places of more than a dozen genes linked to the disorder.” Investigators “identified 15 areas of the human DNA…that show signs of harboring genetic variations that affect risk of becoming depressed.”

The Washington Post (8/1, Cha) “To Your Health” blog reports that while “gene association studies…are published” frequently, “this is a particularly important one,” as “it’s the first large study on major depressive disorder in people of European descent, and it shows that the genes that may be involved in the condition correspond to those involved in the development of neurons in the brain.” The research, “published in Nature Genetics, involved an analysis of genetic variations of 75,607 people of European ancestry who self-reported having depression and 231,747 healthy controls.”

Related Links:

— “Large DNA study using 23andMe data finds 15 sites linked to depression,” Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post, August 1, 2016.

Patrice A. Harris, MD, chairwoman of the American Medical Association, writes in a letter to the editor of the Hartford (CT) Courant (8/1) that the AMA concurs “with Aetna medical officer Dr. Mark Friedlander that we need to increase access to medication-assisted treatment for patients with substance use disorders.”

She says the AMA is also urging “Aetna, Cigna and all other payers in Connecticut to remove barriers to evidence-based care, including limits on physical therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, psychiatric care and other multimodal therapies that may be appropriate.”

Harris adds that in order to effectively combat the opioid epidemic, “physicians must continue to play an active role in treating our patients using evidence-based care, and that also means insurance policies must provide our patients with the benefits, coverage and access necessary for that care.”

Related Links:

— “AMA: Insurers Must Broaden Opioid Addiction Coverage,” Patrice A. Harris, M.D., , August 1, 2016.