ProPublica (11/20, Ornstein) reports that a ProPublica analysis of data on the user review website Iodine found no significant difference in patient satisfaction between branded and generic medications. ProPublica “compared the reviews of brands and generics in three drug categories: antipsychotic medications that treat schizophrenia, antidepressants, and drugs that lower cholesterol.” For each of the three categories, “a generic scored best on each of the three questions.”

Related Links:

— “Brand-Name Drugs Increase Cost But Not Patient Satisfaction,” Charles Ornstein, ProPublica, November 19, 2015.

The New York Times (11/20, Rogers, Subscription Publication) provides tips to readers who may feel anxious and fearful in wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Mental health professionals interviewed for the article advise readers to “compare…fear with the facts,” limit their “exposure to social media and the media,” create a plan how to contact family members should something happen, maintain daily routines, and follow “basic self-care guidelines that help reduce stress.”

Related Links:

— “How to Cope With Anxiety During Terror Threats,” Katie Rogers, New York Times, November 19, 2015.

A number of news outlets based in different parts of the country cover the release of a new report, which found that from 1999 to 2013, there was a large increase in overdose deaths among teenagers and young adults in the US.

USA Today (11/20, Thadani) reports that 35 US “states saw youth drug overdose deaths increase dramatically” during the time period analyzed in the Trust for America’s Health report. The organization’s report found that in “five states – Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming – the overdose death rates more than quadrupled.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/20, Sapatkin) reports, “Pennsylvania leads the nation – and New Jersey is fourth – in drug overdose deaths among young adult men, according” to the Trust for America’s Health report. The report, the Inquirer adds, raises “the level of urgency about an epidemic that over the last decade has killed more than twice as many Americans as homicide.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Youth drug overdose deaths up in 35 states over a decade,” Trisha Thadani, USA Today, November 20, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (11/19, Zarembo) reported, “Stimulant medications used to treat” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “and keep service members alert during long stretches of combat might increase vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD],” according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Researchers arrived at the study’s conclusions after tracking “25,971 active-duty troops who screened negative for PTSD…from 2001 to 2008.” After controlling for confounding factors, investigators found that service members “with prescriptions for the stimulants were five times more likely to have PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Pentagon study links prescription stimulants to military PTSD risk,” Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2015.

The CBS News (11/16, Welch) website reported in light of Friday evening’s terrorist attacks in Paris that although “survivors, witnesses and first responders of such violent events often struggle with post traumatic stress disorder… viewing images and videos of these violent events through news coverage and social media can affect people who weren’t there in similar ways.”

Robert Ursano, MD, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters, told CBS News, “The more similarities you see between you and the victims, the more things that remind you of ‘it could be like me,’ the higher your level of psychological distress.” People who were not at the scene of the attacks “may still experience responses like depression and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as psychological distress, which includes sleep disturbances, desire to stay at home and avoidance of reminders of the trauma, Ursano explained.”

Related Links:

— “Watching news coverage of Paris attacks may take toll on viewers,” Ashley Welch, CBS News, November 16, 2015.