The Los Angeles Times (9/10, Healy) “Science Now” blog reported that a study published in JAMA Internal Medicine found “more than half of nursing home patients” suffering from severe dementia, who are likely to die within a year or two, are being “administered medications that offer little or no benefit” by physicians and families, causing “pointless discomfort,” health risks and “inflating the cost of care.” Two kinds of medicines the study discussed are for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and lipid-lowering medications.

The New York Times (9/9, Span) “The New Old Age” blog reported that the study findings were deeply troubling, focusing on the potential harm from such medications and the patients often being unable to communicate their discomfort from the treatments. According to study’s lead author, Dr. Jennifer Tija, the drugs with “questionable benefits” have their proponents and therefore “discontinuing them remained controversial.” Dr. Tija adds that due to set “cultures and practice patterns,” these medications are continued to be prescribed even after the little value and purpose they provide.

Related Links:

— “Dementia patients continue to get medications with little, no benefit,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, September 9, 2014.

MLive (9/8, Allen) reports, “Daily marijuana use among college students is the highest it’s been in more than three decades, and 51 percent of all full-time college students have admitted to smoking pot at some point in their lives.” The Monitoring the Future (MTF) study found that “illicit drug use has been rising gradually among American college students since 2006, when 34 percent indicated that they used some illicit drug in the prior year.” The “long-term MTF study…also tracks substance use among the nation’s secondary students and older adults under research grants from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Regular marijuana use among college students at a three-decade high, survey says,” Jeremy Allen, MLive, September 8, 2014.

HealthDay (9/9, Dotinga) reports that according to a study published online Sept. 8 in the journal Pediatrics, children “who were bullied by siblings were more than twice as likely to report depression or self-harm at age 18 as those who weren’t bullied by siblings.” Additionally, these youngsters were “nearly twice as likely to report anxiety as they entered adulthood.”

Researchers arrived at these conclusions after having “examined the results of studies of just over 2,000 people in the United Kingdom who were surveyed via questionnaire in 2003 and 2004 at an average age of 12, and then answered a survey again at the age of 18.” BBC News (9/8) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— “Sibling Bullies May Leave Lasting Effects,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, September 8, 2014.

USA Today (9/9, Weintraub) reports that according to a study published online in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, “signs of autism symptoms can be erased if babies begin therapy even before they can toddle.” The study, conducted “by the University of California Davis’ MIND Institute, provided directed therapy to babies ages 6-9 months old who were identified as having early signs of autism, such as an inability to make eye contact, lack of babbling and fixations.”

Notably, “by the time the seven babies reached their third birthday – a time when autism can reliably be diagnosed – five didn’t show any autism symptoms and a sixth had only mild symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Autism signs in babies can be erased,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, September 9, 2014.

The Las Vegas Review-Journal (9/8) reported that CMS has expanded access to programs for autistic children by informing states that Medicaid will now cover Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic and Treatment coverage. This initiative is expected to greatly decrease the amount of children on a wait list for services, which is currently 477 in Nevada.

Related Links:

— “Medicaid change aids autistic children,” Yesenia Amaro, Las Vegas Review-Journal, September 5, 2014.