Medscape (7/19, Melville) reported that “among the wide-ranging comorbidities associated with diabetes, mental-health issues are probably among the most overlooked, despite their potential to compromise self-management and increase the risk for serious complications, according to a new viewpoint published online…in the Journal of the American Medical Association.” The authors wrote, “Despite the potential adverse effects of mental-health problems on diabetes outcomes and healthcare expenditures, only about one-third of patients with these coexisting conditions receive a diagnosis and treatment.”

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (7/21, Preidt) reports that according to a study published July 20 in Nature Genetics, “most of the genetic risk for autism appears to come from common gene variants rather than spontaneous gene mutations.” After studying some 3,000 Swedes without and with autism, researchers “found that about 52 percent of autism was linked to common gene variants and rare inherited variations.” In a news release pertaining to the study, National Institute of Mental Health director Thomas Insel, MD, said, “Common variation may be more important than we thought.”

Related Links:

— “Common Genes Implicated in Autism Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 21, 2014.

Reuters (7/18, Lehman) reports that research published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology suggests that depression in older men prior to a diagnosis of prostate cancer may be linked to more aggressive cancer, a lower likelihood of receiving recommended treatments, and a higher risk of death. Investigators came to this conclusion after analyzing data on more than 40,000 patients with localized prostate cancer.

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— “Depression may keep some men from fighting prostate cancer,” Shereen Lehman, Reuters, July 17, 2014.

TIME (7/18, Sifferlin) reports that research (7/18) published in Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research suggests “that when people drink alcohol with energy drinks they have a stronger desire to keep drinking compared to people who just drank a vodka soda.” In the study, investigators “assigned 75 participants between the ages 18 and 30 to either just drink alcohol, or drink an alcohol and energy drink combination.”

Newsweek (7/18, Mejia) reports that study “participants were asked to take an Alcohol Urge Questionnaire 20 minutes before and after imbibing the libation to indicate how strong their desire was to continue drinking.” Individuals “who drank the alcohol and energy drink combo reported a greater increase in the urge to continue drinking alcohol than the group drinking only vodka.” Additionally, “the energy drink consumers…reported liking the cocktail more and wanting to drink more of it than those who only drank the vodka cocktail.”

Related Links:

— “Alcohol Plus Energy Drinks Makes You Want to Drink More, Study Says,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, July 17, 2014.

Medscape (7/18, Jeffrey) reports that a study presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference that surveyed “access to guns by patients with dementia finds that among consecutive patients being evaluated for cognitive problems, caregivers and family members did not consistently remove guns from their homes or keep them in a locked state.”

The study included 495 patients, 378 of whom had dementia, including Alzheimer’s. The study found that of participants “with a gun in the home, 62 (71%) had dementia; 33 (37%) had delusions, of which the majority (73%) were persecutory or paranoid delusions, and 15 (17%) had hallucinations, roughly half of which (47%) were hostile hallucinations.” The study authors recommended that physicians should ask about the presence of firearms during a patient visit.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)