The Orange County (CA) Register (6/24, Marcos) reports, “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 2.2 million American adults suffer from” obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The American Psychiatric Association’s “2014 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders updated OCD to its own category.”

Related Links:

— “‘Normal’ often serious for those with obsessive compulsive disorder,” Angie Marcos, Orange County Register, June , 2015.23

USA Today (6/24, Hughes) reports in continuing coverage on a study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence on June 23 where researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse measured how “combined alcohol and marijuana use impairs drivers more than consuming just one or the other.” The study “examined drivers’ ability to stay within their lane after smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and smoking and drinking in combination.”

The study “found that people with of 13.1 nanograms per liter of THC” had “similar driving impairment to someone with a .08 blood-alcohol level.” The article adds, “this study for the first time measures precisely how impaired users become when they smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, said co-author Marilyn Huestis, chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Study analyzes how much pot impairs drivers,” Trevor Hughes, USA Today, June 23, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (6/24, Kaplan) reports in “Science Now” that researchers reviewed studies testing the effectiveness of medical marijuana on 10 different conditions and concluded that “there’s very little reliable evidence to support the drug’s use,” according to a review published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While the review found “moderate-quality evidence” for the use of medical marijuana to treat “chronic neuropathic pain or cancer pain,” it also found that “trials testing the pain-relieving effects of medical marijuana in people with fibromyalgia, HIV-associated sensory neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other conditions did not show that it worked,” only “low-quality evidence” that medical marijuana could “relieve nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, that it could stimulate appetite in people with HIV to help them gain weight, that it could help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders get more rest, and that it could reduce the severity of tics in people with Tourette syndrome,” and no reliable evidence that medical marijuana was useful to treat depression, anxiety disorders, psychosis, or to reduce eye pressure for patients with glaucoma.

According to CBS News (6/23, Welch), the JAMA study also found “an increased risk of adverse side effects, including dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance, and hallucination.”

Related Links:

— “Most uses of medical marijuana wouldn’t pass FDA review, study finds,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2015.

Reuters (6/23, Rapaport) reports that adolescents with psychiatric disorders appear to have a decreased likelihood of finishing high school or college, or of establishing lucrative careers, according to a review of 27 studies published online June 22 in Pediatrics.

MedPage Today (6/23) reports that the review defined “mental health disorders…as depressive disorders, AD/HD, anxiety disorders, conduct disorders, and undiagnosed psychiatric conditions.” The review found “the most significant association between adolescent mental health and education” to be the “failure to complete secondary school.” HealthDay (6/23, Haelle) and LiveScience (6/23, Nierenberg) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Mentally ill teens struggle with school and work as adults,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, June 22 2015.

Reuters (6/22, Seaman) reports that approximately 23 percent teens may be cyberbullied through social media, according to a review published online June 22 in JAMA Pediatrics. Researchers came to that conclusion after examining 36 studies.

HealthDay (6/23, Dotinga) reports that in addition, the review “found an association between depression and cyberbullying.”

MedPage Today (6/23, Walker) reports that the “association with suicidal thoughts or anxiety was inconsistent,” however. The review also revealed that “the most common forms of cyberbullying were name-calling or insults, gossip or rumors, and circulating pictures.”

Related Links:

— “Social-media cyberbullying not uncommon among youths,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, June 22, 2015.