HealthDay (3/19, Reinberg) reports that according to a study published online March 17 in the journal Pediatrics, “nearly 10 percent of children hospitalized in America are there because of a mental health problem.” After analyzing “data from the Kids’ Inpatient Database and Pediatric Health Information System to look at all hospital discharges in 2009 for patients aged three to 20,” researchers found that the majority of kids hospitalized for mental illness appeared to “suffer from depression, bipolar disorder or psychosis.”

Older children were more likely than younger children to be hospitalized. The study also noted that the shortage of pediatric mental health professionals, including psychiatrists, makes it more difficult to treat youngsters with serious mental health issues.

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness to Blame for 10 Percent of Kids’ Hospitalizations: Study,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, March 18, 2014.

USA Today (3/19, Weintraub) reports that according to a report (pdf) released March 18 by the Alzheimer’s Association on its website, “Alzheimer’s takes a disproportionate toll on women.” The report found that “women are far more likely to develop the fatal disease than men: one in six women over 65 will get it during their lifetime, compared with one in 11 men.” What’s more, “women are more likely to be caregivers for someone with Alzheimer’s, and to pay a bigger personal and professional price for that care than men do.”

CNN (3/19, Goldschmidt) explains that “age is the greatest risk factor for gender differences among Alzheimer’s patients, but it’s not the only reason.” Scientists “are also looking at genetic and hormonal differences, according to Maria Carrillo, vice president of medical and scientific relations for the Alzheimer’s Association.” Currently, two-thirds of the “five million Americans” affected by Alzheimer’s are women.

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s takes heavy toll on women,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, March 19, 2014.

Alzheimer’s patient-advocate George Vradenburg and Nobel Prize winner Stanley Prusiner call for greater attention to be paid to the magnitude of Alzheimer’s disease in an opinion piece for the Wall Street Journal (3/17, Subscription Publication). Citing the example of President Ronald Reagan, who died from the disease but whose death certificate lists “pneumonia” as the cause of death, the authors argue that the true death toll of the disease is six times higher than officially reported.

The CDC uses official causes of death in calculating that Alzheimer’s kills 84,000 people per year. However, a recent study in the journal Neurology estimates the real number could be greater than half-a-million, which would rival the number of deaths from cancer. However, while Congress provides $5.7 billion annually to cancer research, Alzheimer’s only receives $550 million. The authors call for both greater funding and greater attention to the widespread killer.

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s and Its Uncounted Victims,” George Vradenburg, Wall Street Journal, March , 2014.

HealthDay (3/15, Preidt) reported that according to research presented at the American Psychosomatic Society’s annual meeting, “stressful events can have an almost immediate impact on children’s health and well-being.” After analyzing data on some 96,000 US children, researchers also found that youngsters “who experienced three or more stressful events were six times more likely to have physical or mental health problems or a learning disorder than those who had no stressful experiences.”

Related Links:

— “Stress Can Quickly Harm Kids’ Health: Study,” Robert Preidt, HaelthDay, March 14, 2014.

HealthDay (3/14, Norton) reports that according to a study published March 13 in the journal PLoS Computational Biology, “environmental pollution might be contributing to autism risk, although the specific culprit toxins remain unknown.” After analyzing “nearly 100 million US health insurance claims,” researchers “found a correlation between US counties’ autism rates and their rates of genital birth defects in boys, which could be a sign of some common environmental contributors.”

MedPage Today (3/14, Raeburn) reports the investigators also “used male congenital malformations as a surrogate for parental exposures to environmental insults – including pesticides, lead, sex hormone analogs, medication, and plasticizers, among others – which are believed to play a role in the causation of” autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and intellectual disability (ID). The study authors concluded, “Adjusted for gender, ethnic, socioeconomic, and geopolitical factors, the ASD incidence rates were strongly linked to population-normalized rates of congenital malformations of the reproductive system in males – an increase in ASD incidence of 283% for every percent increase in incidence of malformations (95% CI 91-576, P<6 x 10⁻⁵).” The study received financial support from the National Institutes of Health. Related Links:

— “More Evidence Environmental Exposures Contribute to Autism,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, March 13, 2014.