Medscape (1/30, Anderson) reports that a study published in the January issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence suggests that “as users of heroin and other opioids get older, their risk for overdose death increases dramatically.” Researchers also found that even though “male users had almost double the rate of drug-related poisoning in early adulthood compared with female drug users, the difference narrowed considerably with age.” The investigators came to these conclusions After studying more than 198,000 “men and women actively using or being treated for opioid use in England from April 1, 2005, to March 31, 2009.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (1/30, Preidt) reports that research published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine “supports the notion that repeated blows to the head in boxing or the martial arts can damage the brain.” Investigators studied “93 boxers and 131 mixed martial arts experts,” as well as 22 individuals who had never suffered a head injury. “MRI brain scans and tests of memory, reaction time and other intellectual abilities showed that the fighters who had suffered repeated blows to the head had smaller brain volume and slower processing speeds, compared to non-fighters.”

Related Links:

— “More Evidence That Boxing Can Lead to Brain Damage,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 30, 2015.

The CBS News (1/30, Firger) website reports that a study suggests that “people who binge-watch television tend to be among the most depressed and lonely.” In the study, investigators “surveyed 316 young people about their television-viewing habits.” In addition, “the study participants, all between the ages of 18 and 29…answered questions about how frequently in life they experienced feelings of depression and loneliness.”

Newsweek (1/30, Kutner) reports that researchers at the University of Texas “discovered a correlation between binge-watching and loneliness, depression, and having self-regulation deficiency, which is an inability to control compulsions.”

Related Links:

— “Depression, loneliness linked to binge-watching TV,” Jessica Firger, CBS News, January 29, 2015.

The Washington Post (1/24, Johnson, Weiner) reports a “wave of heroin overdoses” that is killing dozens of people in Maryland and Virginia “inner-city neighborhoods, suburbs and rural enclaves.” Maryland Governor Larry Hogan (R) and Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe have scrambled to make fighting the latest heroin surge afflicting their states. The Post says the “governors’ actions reflect mounting concern among public officials up and down the East Coast about the escalation in overdoses, which some say has become a public health epidemic.” The Post adds that experts say there is “no simple or inexpensive cure for heroin addiction — and there are differing views on which approach to try first.”

Related Links:

— “Overdose deaths from heroin galvanizing leaders in Maryland and Virginia,” Jenna Johnson and Rachel Weiner, Washington Post, January 24, 2015.

In an opinion piece in the Boston Globe (1/24), writer Ruth Graham wrote that in 2014, “a program called Mental Health First Aid received federal funding for the first time.” In the US, approximately 300,000 individuals have been trained in Health First Aid. While “the program has the support of many mental health professionals, who say that its broad approach to a wide array of mental health emergencies is sorely needed,” Graham writes that such “programs also inadvertently illuminate the extraordinary complexity of mental illness, and the limitations of a fraying safety net.”

Related Links:

— “The promise and limits of ‘mental health first aid’,” Ruth Graham, Boston Globe, January 23, 2015.