In continuing coverage, American Medical News (9/4, Krupa) reports on the recent study which found nearly half of doctors suffer from at least one symptom of burnout. The article explains, “The many rigors and stresses of medical practice mean that physicians experience burnout at higher rates than the general population. They work an average of 10 hours more per week and are nearly twice as likely to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance, according to an Archives of Internal Medicine study published online Aug. 20.”

Related Links:

— “Nearly half of physicians struggle with burnout, “Carolyne Krupa, American Medical News, September 3, 2012.

The CNN (9/4, Landau) “The Chart” blog reports that a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences “found the brains of soldiers who go into combat show impairment in function and structure upon returning, but that these effects largely go away over time.” Investigators looked at 33 Dutch soldiers who had been deployed to Afghanistan, and compared them to 26 soldiers who were not deployed. The researchers found that “the combat group showed reduced functioning in the midbrain, as well as structural differences in that area” Additionally, deployed soldiers generally performed worse on cognitive function tests. However, “a year and a half later, researchers found that the soldiers who had been deployed had, on average, returned to normal with respect to both brain structure and cognitive performance.” Nonetheless, imaging tests indicated that certain regions of the brains of deployed solders still had reduced connectivity.

Related Links:

— “Stress may harm brain – but it recovers, “Elizabeth Landau, CNN Health, September 3, 2012.

The New York Times (9/4, O’Connor) “Well” blog reports, “Research published [online] on Monday in Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine shows that children with autism spectrum disorders, who typically have difficulty in communicating and forming relationships, are far more likely to be bullied than their” peers without autism. The study “data, collected from a nationally representative sample of 920 middle- and high-school students with an autism disorder, shows that 46 percent have been bullied.” In contrast, “in the general adolescent population, an estimated 10.6 percent of children have been bullied.”

HealthDay (9/4, Reinberg) reports, “Some of the most common factors of the victims of bullying included having attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), poor social skills and taking more general education classes,” the study also found. Reuters (9/4, Seaman) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “School Bullies Prey on Children With Autism, “Anahad O’Connor, New York Times, September 3, 2012.

HealthDay (8/30, Preidt) reports, “A ‘happy’ gene that affects females but not males may explain why women are often happier than men,” according to a study published online in the journal Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology & Biological Psychiatry. After analyzing “data from 193 women and 152 men who were assessed for happiness and underwent DNA testing as part of a long-term study of mental health,” researchers found that “women with the low-expression version of the MAOA gene were much happier than other women.” The low-expression MAOA gene appeared not to have the same happiness effect for men.

Related Links:

— “Scientists ID ‘Happy’ Gene in Women, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 29, 2012.

Reuters (8/30, Joelving) reports on a study, published in the journal Addiction, which found that substance abusers recently discharged from hospitals face elevated death rates. Researchers discovered that the rates of deaths from overdose and suicide were more than ten times higher for addicts who had been discharged from a hospital for less than a month than those who had been discharged for a year or more. The study authors concluded, “Like prison-release, hospital discharge marks the start of a well-defined period of heightened vulnerability for drug-treatment clients.” Additionally, the researchers suggest that “hospital contact may simply represent a desperate, sometimes final, call for help.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide, OD risks high when addicts leave hospital, “Frederik Joelving, Reuters, August 29, 2012.