In continuing coverage, the New York Times (3/8, Dao) “At War” blog reports, “Veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are more likely to be prescribed opioid pain killers than other veterans with pain problems and more likely to use the opioids in risky ways, according” to a VA study published March 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. According to the blog, VA “and the Department of Defense have for years been trying to reduce the use of opioid pain therapy among active duty troops and veterans amid reports of overmedication, addiction, rampant drug abuse and accidental deaths caused by overdoses or toxic mixing of medications.” Dr. Robert D. Kerns, VA’s national program director for pain management, “said in an interview that the department would draw attention to the new findings to push doctors to consider alternatives to opioid therapy, particularly” with PTSD patients.

Medscape (3/8, Lowry) notes, “Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan with mental health diagnoses, particularly post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), are more likely to be prescribed opioid drugs for pain than are their counterparts without mental health diagnoses, new research shows. They are also more likely to have patterns of opioid use that put them at high risk for adverse clinical outcomes, lead author Karen H. Seal, MD, MPH, told Medscape.” Medscape adds, “Exploring other options to treat pain, such as the use of higher-dose anti-inflammatory drugs, physical therapy, and complementary or alternative medicine, such as acupuncture and chiropractic, is something that should be tried in this population, said Dr. Seal.”

Related Links:

— “For Veterans With Post-Traumatic Stress, Pain Killers Carry Risks, “James Dao, The New York Times, March 7, 2012.

HealthDay (3/8, Reinberg) reports, “Suicides among US soldiers rose 80 percent from 2004 to 2008,” according to a study published online March 7 in the journal Injury Prevention. The “analysis of data from the US Army Behavioral Health Integrated Data Environment” also revealed that “as many as 40 percent of these suicides may have been linked to combat experience in Iraq, yet nearly a third of the soldiers who committed suicide saw no combat at all.”

“Just one ambulatory visit for a mental health disorder may warn that a soldier is at risk for suicide,” MedPage Today (3/8, Fiore) reports. “Those who sought such help were about four times more likely to commit suicide than those who had not made any mental health visits (RR 3.9, 95% CI 3.0 to 4.9), Michelle Canham-Chervak, PhD, of the Injury Prevention Program of the US Army Public Health Command, and colleagues.” Notably, “patients who were hospitalized with mental illness had more than a 15-fold higher risk of suicide than those not hospitalized (RR 15.5, 95% CI 11.2 to 21.5).”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Army Suicides Rising Sharply, Study Finds Service in Iraq and Afghanistan appears to be the cause of increasing mental-health problems,”Steven Reinberg , Health Day, March 7, 2012.

The New York Times (3/7, B2, Thomas, Subscription Publication) reports that according to a report released Tuesday by AARP, “the prices of drugs used most widely by older Americans rose by nearly 26 percent from 2005 to 2009 — nearly twice the rate of inflation.” The report found that “the increase happened even as the price of generic drugs, which account for the vast majority of prescriptions, has been falling in recent years.” Cheryl Matheis, AARP senior vice president for policy strategy, said that while the “country is contracting economically and inflation is…really low, inflation in the cost of prescription drugs is going in the other direction,” illustrating a trend the organization describes as “relentless because it just doesn’t seem to abate.” Meanwhile, pharmaceutical industry officials criticized AARP’s report, asserting that the increased availability of generic medications has curtailed the increase in medication prices.

Related Links:

— “AARP Study Says Price of Popular Drugs Rose 26%,”Katie Thomas, The New York Times, March 6, 2012.

The AP (3/7, Weissert) reports that 52% “of the young people in Texas’ youth prisons have a moderate or high need for mental health care, and officials should improve their early intervention efforts to help those kids before they end up behind bars, the head of a new state agency told lawmakers Tuesday. Cherie Townsend, executive director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, said” that just over half “of teens and other youngsters held at the state’s six juvenile detention facilities have been diagnosed with at least moderate mental health problems.” What’s more, “including those with at least some kind of mental health care needs would make that tally much higher, she said.”

Related Links:

— “Mental health issues common among youth prisoners, “Will Weissert, The Associated Press, March 6, 2012.

The AP (3/7) reports, “Morphine and similar powerful painkillers are sometimes prescribed to recent war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress along with physical pain, and the consequences can be tragic,” according to a study published March 7 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Despite the fact that veterans “are at high risk for drug and alcohol abuse…they’re two times more likely to get prescriptions for addictive painkillers than vets with only physical pain,” the study found. “Iraq and Afghanistan vets with PTSD who already had substance abuse problems were four times more likely to get these drugs than vets without mental health problems.”

“The research points to the need for doctors to use caution when treating veterans who need pain relief but who also have mental health or substance-use disorders,” the Los Angeles Times (3/6, Roan) “Booster Shots” blog reports. “Even in the civilian population, abuse of opioid medications has skyrocketed, with increased rates of addiction and overdose deaths. But, the authors noted: ‘Most VA primary care clinicians lack specialized training in the management of comorbid pain and PTSD.'”

Karen Seal, MD, MPH, of the VA Medical Center at the University of California-San Francisco, and colleagues “found that a far greater percentage of those with PTSD and those with other mental health problems — including depression, anxiety, alcohol use disorders, drug use disorders, and traumatic brain injury — received opioids for their pain compared with those without mental health diagnoses (17.8% and 11.7% versus 6.5%),” MedPage Today (3/7, Fiore) reports.

HealthDay (3/7, Reinberg) explains, “For the study, Seal’s team looked at the association between mental health problems and unfavorable results — including accidents, overdose and self-inflicted injury — with use of prescription painkillers in more than 140,000 veterans treated for pain at VA hospitals from October 2005 to December 2010.” Investigators found that nearly “16,000 patients received prescriptions for painkillers covering 20 or more days.” The study authors also found that veterans with “PTSD were more likely to take higher doses and more than one painkiller than mentally healthy vets. They were also more likely than the others to take sedatives and to refill their prescriptions early.” Also covering the story are the CNN (3/7, Kounang) “The Chart” blog and Reuters (3/7, Pittman).

Related Links:

— “Vets with mental health problems more likely to abuse painkillers,”Shari Roan, LA Times, March 6, 2012.