HealthDay (1/20, Preidt) reports that research published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings suggests “receiving general anesthesia for surgery after age 40 doesn’t appear to raise the risk for mild thinking and memory problems later in life.” Investigators “followed more than 1,700 people in Minnesota, aged 70 to 89, who had normal mental function when the study began.” Approximately “85 percent of the participants had at least one surgery requiring general anesthesia after age 40.”

HCP Live (1/20, Colwell) reports that during the “follow-up period, 31% of the participants developed” mild cognitive impairment (MCI). But, the research “showed no association between MCI incidence and having any anesthesia vs no anesthesia or between the number of exposures or the total cumulative duration of exposure.”

Related Links:

— “Anesthesia After 40 Not Linked to Mental Decline Later, Study Finds,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 20, 2016.

MedPage Today (1/19, Blum) reports that research suggests that children’s “AD/HD symptoms aren’t well controlled in the morning, even when they take their early-morning dose of stimulants, researchers reported” at the American Professional Society of AD/HD and Related Disorders meeting. Responses from a “survey of 201 parents and caregivers” indicated that “74% of children were easily distracted, 73% did not listen to caregivers, and 66% were unable to sustain attention to tasks during the early morning, even when they took their stimulants as directed, according to Floyd Sallee, MD, PhD.”

Related Links:

— “Morning a Challenge for ADHD Symptom Control,” Karen Blum, MedPage Today, January 19, 2016.

Medscape (1/15, Melville) reports that people “with eating disorders have been found to be at increased risk for suicide attempts or death by suicide, even after adjustment for psychiatric comorbidities such as depression,” a study published online Jan. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry indicates. After analyzing data from “a Swedish national birth cohort of 2,268,786 individuals born between January 1979 and December 2001 who were followed from the age of six years,” researchers found that “the risk is notably increased when a close family member also has an eating disorder.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The Washington Post (1/18, Ingraham) “Wonkblog” reports that research has “found no evidence” that teen “marijuana use leads to a decline in intelligence.”

The AP (1/19, Ritter) reports that in arriving at that finding, researchers “focused on 3,066 participants who were given a battery of intelligence tests at ages 9 to 12 – before any of them had used marijuana – and again at ages 17 to 20.” The majority of tests “revealed no difference between the two groups.” Nora Volkow, MD, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, “said that while the study has some limitations, it is important and deserves to be followed up with more research.”

Related Links:

— “Scientists have found that smoking weed does not make you stupid after all,” Christopher Ingraham, Washington Post, January 18, 2016.

HealthDay (1/19, Thompson) reports that despite mass shootings that have “prompted agony, anger and angst in the United States,” the US government continues to have a ban on funding for research into gun violence. HealthDay reports that “without that funding, experts say, crucial questions on gun safety and gun violence have been left unanswered.” Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine “noted that more than 33,000 people died from gunshot injuries and more than 84,000 were wounded in 2013.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Ban on Gun Research Continues Despite Deadly Shootings,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, January 18, 2016.