HealthDay (11/25, Preidt) reported that new research from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) found that reported alcohol consumption in the previous 30 days among women rose from about “45 percent to more than 48 percent, while it fell among men, from slightly more than 57 percent to just over 56 percent.” The investigators analyzed data from 2002 to 2012 and found that “the average number of drinking days in the past month also increased among women, from 6.8 to 7.3 days, but fell among men, from 9.9 to 9.5 days.” The findings were published online Nov. 23 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research.

Related Links:

— “Women starting to match men’s drinking habits,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay via CBS News, November 25, 2015.

Medscape (11/27, Brauser) reports that a study suggests that “not only is major depression common in black patients, it’s also associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events.” The “analysis of more than 3000 participants from the Jackson Heart Study, which is comprised of black individuals from Jackson, Mississippi, showed that those with major depressive symptoms at baseline (22%) had almost twice the hazard of having a stroke or CHD up to 10 years later compared with those without depressive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Examiner (11/25) reports that officials with the Department of Veterans Affairs “spent millions of taxpayer dollars promoting the Affordable Care Act to veterans who didn’t even need the coverage, but have dedicated relatively few resources to helping veterans on the agency’s long waiting list get access to their benefits, internal documents show.” Internal reports obtained by the Washington Examiner show the VA spent $6.125 million on an outreach campaign for the ACA that ended last year. An August documents “indicates the VA sent 2.8 million Affordable Care Act ‘buddy’ letters in Aug. 2013.”

By comparison, in August of this year, “the VA sent just 10,000 letters warning combat veterans that their eligibility for health care benefits was about to expire.” According to the article, many veterans with pending applications for the VA system were never told they needed to turn in their discharge papers as proof of military service.

Related Links:

— “VA spends millions promoting Obamacare, little cutting wait times,” Srah Westwood, Washington Examiner, November 24, 2015.

Medscape (11/25, Brooks) reports that approximately “one in 10 children as young as age three years may have suicidal thoughts or suggestive behaviors, and these linger into middle childhood for three of four children, particularly for those with depression or externalizing disorders,” according to the findings of a 306-child study published in the November issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and funded by the National Institutes of Health. An editorial accompanying the study observed that “the numbers of children who express suicidal thoughts and engage in these behaviors are ‘larger than we might have guessed.’”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (11/25, Kelland) reports that an intervention review published online Nov. 25 in the Cochrane Library calls attention to side effects of the stimulant medication methylphenidate for the treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) in children, such as lack of appetite and loss of sleep. The review also concludes that evidence on the use of the medicine in youngsters is of low quality. Researchers arrived at these conclusions after analyzing data from 185 studies encompassing some 12,000 children and teens in the UK, the US, and Canada.

Related Links:

— “Research raises questions over ADHD drug effects,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, November 24, 2015.