NBC Nightly News reported, “Tonight we are presenting a special report on a special challenge facing upwards of 15 million American families and that’s Alzheimer’s,” an incurable disease that “an estimated 5.5 million Americans are living with” currently. NBC News correspondent Maria Shriver “visited one innovative program where medical students learn from the people who are actually living with Alzheimer’s.”

On its website, NBC News (9/4, Kernis, Carroll) reports that the Buddy Program, “created in 1998 by Darby Morhardt of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine…pairs medical students with Alzheimer’s patients, or ‘mentors.’” The program aims to help “improve medical student knowledge and familiarity with Alzheimer’s, while heightening sensitivity and empathy towards dementia patients.” This particular program “has been replicated at Boston University, Dartmouth College and Washington University and other medical schools around the country.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s patients mentor med students in buddy program, “Jay Kernis, NBC News, September 3, 2013.

USA Today (9/4, Hellmich) reports on the findings of a new study published in the journal Child Development that found parents who engage their teens by “shouting…yelling, screaming, swearing, insulting or calling them names,” can “increase the risk that the adolescent will misbehave and suffer symptoms of depression.” Exposure to prolonged stress, and ongoing discipline and criticism can lead to mental health and physical problems, fueling “difficulties and rebellion in kids.” Experts note a better method is constructive consequences, which educate rather than cause humiliation.

Related Links:

— “Parents: Yelling and swearing at teens can backfire, “Nanci Hellmich, USA Today, September 4, 2013.

HealthDay (8/31, Reinberg) reported that, according to a study published Aug. 30 in the journal BMC Medicine, “alcohol in moderation may benefit mental health.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after following “more than 5,500 light-to-moderate drinkers for up to seven years,” none of whom had drinking problems or depression at the start of the study. After adjusting for confounding factors, researchers found that “participants who drank two to seven glasses a week were the least likely to suffer from depression,” compared to people who did not drink at all.

Related Links:

— “Glass of Wine a Day May Ward Off Depression, Study Suggests, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 30, 2013.

Reuters (8/29, Doyle) reports that research published in JAMA Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery suggests that depression may be common among individuals who have survived head and neck cancer, but these patients rarely seek help for the mental health. Investigators looked at questionnaire responses from more than 200 survivors of head and neck cancer who had undergone radiation treatment. The researchers found that while a small proportion of the individuals found to report the highest levels of depression took antidepressants or underwent psychotherapy one year after completing radiation treatments, none of these patients were receiving such mental health treatments five years after radiation.

Related Links:

— “Few head and neck cancer survivors seek mental help, “Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, August 28, 2013.

MedPage Today (8/29, Gever) reports that, according to a study published online Aug. 28 in JAMA Psychiatry, “suspicions that psychiatric medications increase the mortality risk associated with mental illness were not borne out in a review of clinical trial data.” In the majority of cases, “death rates among more than 90,000 adult participants in trials of drugs for depression, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) were, for the most part, the same or lower in those assigned to active” medications versus placebo, with the sole exception of “heterocyclic antidepressants, a class of old-line agents such as imipramine and amitryptiline.”

Related Links:

— “Psych Drugs Don’t Raise Death Risk in Mental Illness, “John Gever, MedPage Today, August 29, 2013.