The Pittsburgh Business Times (11/2, Mamula, Subscription Publication) reported that new research from the University of Pittsburgh and the VA Pittsburgh Medical Center shows that “more than one in four older veterans in nursing homes were taking antipsychotic medications,” while 40 percent of those on the medications had no related diagnosis. That finding, lead author Walid Gellad said, shows that “VA is not immune” to the trend of overuse of such medications in nursing home settings. Gellad and colleagues “collected data on all veterans age 65 and older who were admitted for 90 or more days to one of the 133 VA Community Living Centers between January 2004 and June 2005.” The data suggested “veterans in dementia units had 66 percent greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic and residents with aggressive behavior had nearly three times greater odds of receiving an antipsychotic.”

Related Links:

— “Inappropriate drug use found at VA, “Kris B. Mamula, The Pittsburgh Business Times, November 2, 2012.

The New York Times (11/5, A15, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports, “The rate of suicide in the United States rose sharply during the first few years since the start of the recession,” according to a report published online Nov. 5 in The Lancet. After examining data on suicide and death rates collected by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “researchers found that the rate between 2008 and 2010 increased four times faster than it did in the eight years before the recession. … Without the increase in the rate, the total deaths from suicide each year in the United States would have been lower by about 1,500, the study” found.

“From 1997 to 2007, the rate of increase in suicides was 0.12 per 100,000 people, but from 2008 to 2010 it jumped to 0.51 per 100,000 people,” HealthDay (11/5, Reinberg) reports. The study authors “estimated that about 25 percent of these additional suicides can be blamed on rising unemployment.”

Related Links:

— “Increase Seen in U.S. Suicide Rate Since Recession, “Benedict Carey, New York Times, Nevember 4, 2012.

The Orlando (FL) Sentinel (11/2, Jameson) reports, “Getting regular exercise and drinking coffee have both been shown to reduce the risk of dementia in seniors, and two recent studies released Thursday help show why.” In one study, published in the November issue of the Journal of Nuclear Medicine, researchers used PET scans to find that “typical caffeine doses result in a high A1 adenosine receptor occupancy,” which may explain why caffeine appears to be protective against neurodegenerative diseases.

Focusing on the second study, HealthDay (11/2, Reinberg) reports, “Older people who exercise regularly may reduce their risk of dementia and help keep their minds sharp,” according to a study published online Nov. 1 in the journal Stroke: Journal of the American Heart Association. Researchers “had more than 600 men and women in their 60s and 70s undergo brain scans at the start and end of the study to look for changes that indicate declining mental function. Almost two-thirds of the participants took exercise classes, walked or biked for 30 minutes a day three times a week.”

MedPage Today (11/2, Neale) reports, “Even after adjustment for white matter changes seen on MRI and history of stroke, those who met criteria for physical activity had significantly lower risks of developing any cognitive impairment, any dementia, and vascular dementia over a three-year period,” the study found. “The relationship between physical activity and vascular dementia remained significant after further adjustment for baseline cognitive function (HR 0.49, 95% CI 0.26 to 0.94), the researchers reported.” Important to note, however, is that “physical activity was not…related to Alzheimer’s disease risk.”

Related Links:

— “Exercise and coffee may ward off dementia, studies say,”Marni Jameson, Orlando Sentinel, November 1, 2012.

Medwire (11/2, Cowen) reports, “Caregiving strain is associated with depressive symptoms among family members of patients with bipolar disorder [BD],” according to astudy published in the November issue of the journal Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after having “studied 149 male (n=55) and female (n=94) caregivers of patients enrolled in the Systemic Treatment Enhancement Program for Bipolar Disorder — a national longitudinal study evaluating treatment effectiveness and outcomes in patients with the mood disorder.” Each caregiver was “evaluated for depression, caregiver burden (strain), and rumination using the Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D), the Social Behavior Assessment Scale (SBAS), and a 10-item shortened form of the Ruminative Style Questionnaire (RSQ).”

Related Links:

— “Caregiver strain link to depression mediated by rumination,”Mark Cowen, Medwire News, November 02, 2012.

MedPage Today (11/1, Petrochko) reports, “Cancer survivors may be cured of their disease, but they are still more likely to report a poorer quality of physical and mental health than adults who have not had cancer,” according to a study published online Oct. 30 in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, & Prevention. Investigators found, “in a national survey on health-related quality of life, 24.5% of cancer survivors reported poor physical quality of life and 10.2% said they had poor mental quality of life.” This “compared with 10.2% and 5.9%, respectively, among adults with no history of cancer, a significant difference.”

Related Links:

— “Cancer Survivors Report Lower Quality of Life,”Cole Petrochko, MedPage Today, October 31, 2012.