HealthDay (11/11, Preidt) reports, “People with rheumatoid arthritis [RA] have higher-than-normal rates of depression, which could increase their risk of death, according to a new study” scheduled to be presented at the American College of Rheumatology annual meeting. Investigators followed 530 patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Altogether, the researchers found that patients who were depressed faced twice the risk of death during the study period compared to patients who were not depressed. The study found that “the risk of death among depressed men was twice that for depressed women.” Male patients “with depression were five times more likely to die than women without depression.”

Related Links:

— “Study: Rheumatoid Arthritis Plus Depression May Be Deadly, “Robert Preidt, Healthday, November 12, 2012.

In an op-ed for USA Today (11/12), Warren Kinghorn, MD, a psychiatrist at the Veterans Affairs hospital in Durham, NC, said veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are dealing with more than a medical problem. Kinghorn said VA and other healthcare systems “need adequate resources to provide medical and psychiatric care for returning combat veterans. But perhaps even more than good medical care, veterans need individuals and communities who will commit to walk patiently alongside them, allowing them to tell their stories if and when they are ready to do so, even when these stories are distressing or complex or unbearably sad.” Veterans, Kinghorn said, “need a civilian culture that refuses to distance itself from them either through reflexive condemnation or, more commonly, through reflexive valorization.”

Related Links:

— “Column: PTSD, the moral dimensions, “Warren Kinghorn, USA TODAY, November 11, 2012.

Medscape (11/10, Brown) reported, “Female veterans who experience military sexual trauma (MST) often find it difficult to seek help; even with treatment, they can live with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for years, according to a presentation” given at the American Psychiatric Nurses Association 26th Annual Conference held last month. “Ursula Kelly, PhD, ANP-BC, PMHNP-BC, assistant professor at the Emory University School of Nursing and a nurse scientist at Atlanta Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Georgia, works with female veterans who have experienced MST.” Medscape Medical News interviewed Kelly, who is “currently conducting research on factors that influence the ability of these women to seek treatment for PTSD.”

USA Today (11/12, Healy) reports, “In a study that’s already being greeted with notes of caution, Danish researchers report that children whose mothers had the flu or ran a fever lasting more than a week during pregnancy had an increased risk of developing an autism spectrum disorder [ASD].” However, Coleen Boyle, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, stressed that “the new study, out in today’s Pediatrics, is ‘exploratory’ and does not offer a specific cause of the developmental disability.” USA Today notes, “The study analyzed data collected from 97,000 mothers of children born from 1997 through 2003.”

Drawing a different conclusion from USA Today, MedPage Today (11/12, Walsh) reports, “It remains unclear whether mothers who develop common infections during pregnancy are more likely to have” children with autism. “Overall, no associations were seen for infections and autism spectrum disorder [ASD], although a twofold increased risk was seen for the more severe subtype of infantile autism (adjusted HR 2.3, 95% CI 1 to 5.3) following maternal influenza infection,” researchers reported. “There also was a threefold increase in risk for infantile autism when mothers reported having had a febrile episode lasting for a week or more (aHR 3.2, 95% CI 1.8 to 5.6),” the study found. Also covering the story are the NBC News (11/12, Fox) “Vitals” blog, theHuffington Post (11/12, Pearson) and Reuters (11/12, Pittman).

Related Links:

— “Study: Flu, fever in pregnancy linked to autism risk, “Michelle Healy, USA TODAY, November 12, 2012.

HealthDay (11/9, Mundell) reports that a study including 9,200 people presented at the American Heart Association annual meeting found that “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)…may raise the risk for major bleeding in patients also taking warfarin.” Nevertheless, “because depression is such a tough-to-treat illness, experts say the finding is no reason for patients on warfarin to immediately drop their SSRI” antidepressants.

Related Links:

— “Common Antidepressants Tied to Higher Bleeding Risk in Warfarin Users: Study, “E.J. Mundell, HealthDay, November 8, 2012.