On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (1/19, Neighmond) reports that an increasing number of “adults over the age of 50” are being diagnosed for the first time with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD). In the case of adults, “the problem is not disruptive behavior or keeping up in school.” Instead, “it’s an inability to focus, which can mean inconsistency, being late to meetings or just having problems managing” tasks on a daily basis.

Meanwhile, MedPage Today (1/19, Blum) reports that adults whose AD/HD remains undiagnosed may “have impaired quality of life, productivity, and functioning compared with those who don’t have such symptoms, researchers reported” at the American Professional Society of AD/HD and Related Disorders (APSARD) meeting. In the study, which involved “more than 22,000 adults who had responded to the 2013 National Health & Wellness Survey,” adults with “AD/HD symptoms had significantly worse quality of life than those without symptoms as measured by the EQ-5D-5L index in adjusted analyses.”

Related Links:

— “Adult ADHD Often Disabling: Study,” Karen Blum, MedPage Today, January 18, 2016.

On its front page, the New York Times (1/17, A1, Kolata, Cohen, Subscription Publication) reported, “Drug overdoses are driving up the death rate of young white adults in the United States to levels not seen since the end of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago.” According to a New York Times analysis of death certificates, “the rising death rates for those young white adults, ages 25 to 34, make them the first generation since the Vietnam War years of the mid-1960s to experience higher death rates in early adulthood than the generation that preceded it.”

Related Links:

— “Drug Overdoses Propel Rise in Mortality Rates of Young Whites,” Gina Kolata and Sarah Cohen, New York Times, January 16, 2016.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch (1/14, Munz) reported, “With the prevalence of mental illness and shortage of mental” healthcare professionals, both patients and “clinicians are increasingly interested in how mobile applications and social media can be used to help improve care.” As a result, the number of mental health apps is growing. A report recently issued by the IMS Institute of Healthcare Informatics found that almost a third of new health apps “are related to mental health – most addressing anxiety, depression, autism spectrum disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder or Alzheimer’s.” The article listed a number of mental health apps currently available.

Related Links:

— “Treating and preventing mental illness through your smartphone,” Michele Munz, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 14, 2016.

The CBS News (1/15, Welch) website reports that a new study, “published online…in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, found that adult smokers who use e-cigarettes are actually 28 percent less likely to stop smoking cigarettes.” The study’s lead author wrote, “As currently being used, e-cigarettes are associated with significantly less quitting among smokers,” and the devices “should not be recommended as effective smoking cessation aids until there is evidence that, as promoted and used, they assist smoking cessation.”

HealthDay (1/15, Thompson) elaborates on the methods of the study, reporting that researchers “combined the results of 20 studies that had control groups of smokers not using e-cigarettes, comparing them to smokers who also use e-cigarettes to see which group quit tobacco more often.” They concluded that “the odds of quitting smoking were 28 percent lower in smokers who used e-cigarettes compared to those who did not.”

Related Links:

— “Study: E-cigarettes don’t help smokers quit,” Ashley welch, CBS News, January 14, 2016.

The Washington Post (1/15, Nutt) reports in “Health & Science” that mental health advocates “are divided over whether” gun control “proposals to ease the sharing of information with the FBI’s background-check system breach patient rights.” Two proposals in particular are causing concerns. The first “involves a new rule from the Department of Health and Human Services that makes it clear that health agencies and medical facilities can report the names of certain people without violating privacy laws.” The second is a White House push “to get the Social Security Administration to share with the FBI the names of mentally ill beneficiaries who do not manage their own affairs.” Some advocates claim such measures would “unfairly target” people with mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Are the mentally ill being unfairly targeted by the FBI’s gun list?,” Amy Ellis Nutt, Washington Post, January 14, 2016.