The Hampton Roads (VA) Virginian-Pilot (2/23, Simpson) reports that “a widening mix of frail elderly people and those with behavior problems” are landing “in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes and supportive-housing situations.” About 10 percent of the more than 17,000 people discharged from Virginia psychiatric hospitals between 2010 and last year “went to assisted-living facilities, adult care homes or nursing homes, according to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.” Robert Palmer, MD, MPH, who directs the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said, “They are invisible populations, but they are there, and they are increasing in numbers.”

Related Links:

— “Senior care facilities mix the frail and the disturbed,” Elizabeth Simpson, Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, February 22, 2015.

HealthDay (2/21, Preidt) reported that a study published in the February issue of the journal Pain suggests that “high doses of” opioids may be associated with an increased risk for depression. The study, which “involved 355 patients in Texas who reported low back pain at an initial medical visit and still had the pain one and two years later,” revealed that patients “who used higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage their pain were more likely to have an increase in depression.”

Related Links:

— “Narcotic Painkiller Use Tied to Higher Risk for Depression,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 20, 2015.

MedPage Today (2/21, Firth) reported that a report on children published in the January/February issue of the journal American Pediatrics reveals that “inpatient visits for suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-injury rose by 104% from 29,000 in 2006 to just below 59,000 in 2011, while ‘all-cause’ children’s hospitalizations have not increased.” The report was “based on the 2006 and 2011 AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) which sources data from two national databases that estimate hospital visits and analyzes patterns of emergency department use.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals See Alarming Increase in Suicidal Children,” Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, February 20, 2015.

NPR (2/19, Hamilton) reports in its “Shots” blog and on its “All Things Considered” program reports that a study in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that “positive emotions — like feeling calm and safe and connected to others — can minimize pain,” whereas “negative emotions tend to have the opposite effect.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after monitoring “the brain waves of a dozen people” who were asked to take part in a series of experiments.

Related Links:

— “Pain Really Is All In Your Head And Emotion Controls Intensity,” Jon Hamilton, National Public Radio, February 18, 2015.

The NBC News (2/19, Fox) website reports that a study published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B suggests that “teenage fathers pass along six times as many genetic mutations to their kids as do teenage mothers.” After examining “the DNA of more than 24,000 parents and their children,” investigators “found that when the father was 20 or younger, the children had many more mutations than did children of older dads, as well as many more mutations than the offspring of teen mothers and adult dads.”

The Telegraph (UK) (2/18, Donnelly) reported that the study authors “said the findings could explain why the children of younger fathers have been found to have a higher risk of disorders such as autism, schizophrenia and spina bifida, which have some genetic links.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Dads Pass Mutations to Their Kids,” Maggie Fox, NBC News, February 17, 2015.