HealthDay (6/21, Esposito) reports, “Lingering symptoms from combat-related traumatic brain injuries (TBIs) — even ‘mild’ cases — may persist for years,” according to a study presented at the American Headache Society’s annual meeting. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after looking “at 500 veterans who underwent general health and depression screenings between 2008 and 2011 at the Oklahoma City VA Medical Center and were found to have symptoms of mild traumatic brain injury and post-concussion syndrome.” Notably, “whether the injury had occurred two years or eight years earlier made no significant difference in frequency or intensity of symptoms. And the type of injury made no difference.”

Related Links:

— “For Combat Vets, Brain Injury Symptoms Can Last Years, “Lisa Esposito, HealthDay, June 20, 2012.

USA Today (6/21, Lloyd) reports that, according to a study appearing today in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, eating disorders appear to be common in older women. The online study of some 1,849 US women found that “13% of women ages 50 and older struggle with the problem — some for the first time in their lives. Eating disorders are more common in women than men and include purging, binge eating, excessive dieting and excessive exercising.”

Related Links:

— “Eating disorders are common in older women, study shows., “Janice Lloyd, USA Today, June 21, 2012.

The New York Times (6/21, Parker-Pope) “Well” blog reports, “The emotional toll of a heart attack can be so severe that an estimated one in eight patients who survive the experience develop post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition that doubles the risk of dying of a second heart attack, according to new research” by the from Columbia University Medical Center. The Times adds, “While it has long been known that a heart attack affects both physical and mental health, most doctors and patients are not aware that the emotional stress of a life-threatening heart event can develop into full-blown” PTSD.

The Los Angeles Times (6/21, Khan) “Booster Shots” blog reports that investigators “looked at the results from 24 studies involving nearly 2,400 heart patients, and found that about 12% of heart attack patients went on to develop PTSD symptoms.” The researchers reported that “4% of heart patients met the full criteria for the disorder.” The investigators “also found that those heart attack patients with PTSD symptoms were twice as likely to have a second heart attack or die as the heart attack patients without PTSD symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “Heart Attack Survivors May Develop P.T.S.D., “Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times, June 20, 2012.

ABC World News (6/18, story 10, 0:35, Sawyer) reported, “Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University did something unprecedented. They compared stress levels across the country and found that stress has spiked in the past 25 years 18% among women, 24% among men.” However, they “did find that stress goes down as we age.”

Medscape (6/20, Lowry) reports, “Racial-ethnic disparities in the use and adequacy of mental healthcare exist and have even increased over time,” according to a study published in the June issue of the journal Psychiatric Services. “A comparison of 1990 and 2003 national data showed that disparities in the use of any mental healthcare increased, particularly between white and black Americans who used mental healthcare in primary care and between whites and Latinos who used specialty settings.” The study authors theorized that “the growing white-black and white-Latino disparities in receiving specialty mental healthcare could be due to the lack of psychiatrists and psychologists from racial-ethnic minority groups.”