The Royal Oak (MI) Daily Tribune (6/4, Murray) reports that according to a review (6/4) published June 5 in the new England Journal of Medicine, Nora Volkow, MD, director of the US National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), and colleagues argue that marijuana may “reduce teens’ IQ, that it impairs driving, and that today’s version is more potent than in the past.” Dr. Volkow stated, “It is important to alert the public that using marijuana in the teen years brings health, social, and academic risk.” She added, “Physicians in particular can play a role in conveying to families that early marijuana use can interfere with crucial social and developmental milestones and can impair cognitive development.”

HealthDay (6/4, Thompson) reports that because the drug “is potentially addictive, proven to contribute to fatal motor-vehicle crashes, and can disrupt the brain function and learning of young users,” its legalization “will lead to the sort of nationwide health problems now attributed to alcohol and tobacco, said Volkow.”

MedPage Today (6/5, Gever) reports that Volkow and “and colleagues based their conclusions on findings in 77 previously published papers.” The review also “found an increased likelihood of anxiety and depression, increased likelihood of psychosis, worsened symptoms of schizophrenia, and earlier onset of psychotic events.”

Related Links:

— “National study links marijuana use to adverse effects,” Diana Dillaber Murray, Royal Oak Daily Tribune, June 4, 2014.

The NPR (6/4, Singh) “Shots” blog reported on the difficulties faced by newly graduated college students seeking care for mental health conditions. Even though “finding and paying for a psychologist or psychiatrist can be difficult at any age, for young people who don’t have steady jobs or stable paychecks, the task can be especially daunting.” To lessen some of these difficulties, “‘the trick is planning ahead’ long before graduation, says Luis Ramirez, the associate director of clinical services at New York University,” where counselors help students locate mental health professionals in the community. In addition, NYU also assists graduating students moving out of New York to locate therapists in their new city.

Related Links:

— “For New College Grads, Finding Mental Health Care Can Be Tough,” Maanvi Singh, National Public Radio, June 4, 2014.

Medwire (6/4, Cowen) reports that a study published online May 29 in the journal Bipolar Disorders has “identified differences in suicide risk factors between people with and without bipolar disorder [BD].” After examining data on people who committed suicide in Toronto, Canada, between the years 1998 and 2010, researchers found that “compared with people without bipolar disorder (n=2716), those who died by suicide and had bipolar disorder (n=170) were 1.8 times more likely to be female, twice as likely to have previously attempted suicide and 1.6 times more likely to have had recent contact with psychiatric or emergency services.” However, patients with BD “who died by suicide were two-thirds less likely than controls to have had recent medical stressors.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide risk factors are not generalisable,” Laura Cowen, Medwire News, June 4, 2014.

The Hill (6/4, Al-Faruque) reports that HHS announced on Tuesday that it will disburse “$300 million to help community health centers treat newly insured patients under the Affordable Care Act.” The funds will be used to “expand service hours, hire more healthcare” professionals, “and add oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy, and vision services according to HHS.” In a statement, outgoing Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said, “Health centers are key to the Affordable Care Act’s goal of expanding access to health care.”

Alabama Live (6/4, Oliver) adds that the “funding will be awarded through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), which oversees the centers.”

Related Links:

— “HHS offering $300M to community health centers,” Ferdous Al-Faruque, The Hill, June 3, 2014.

In its “The New Old Age” section, Paula Span writes for the New York Times (6/4, Span) that “purpose,” while hard to define, is vital for aging, and according to one researcher, is “a very robust predictor of health and wellness in old age.” Dr. Patricia Boyle of the Rush Alzheimer’s Disease Center found that a study of 1,000 people over the age of 80 “found that the ones with high purpose scores were 2.4 times more likely to remain free of Alzheimer’s than those with low scores; they were also less likely to develop mild cognitive impairment, often a precursor.”

Related Links:

— “Living on Purpose,” Paula Span, New York Times, June 3 , 2014.