The Salt Lake (UT) Tribune (4/30, Lyon) reports that neuropsychologist Sam Goldstein, PhD, of Salt Lake City, UT, has expressed “skepticism for recent findings that one in 47 children in Utah and one in 88 children in the nation fall on the autism spectrum. The study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, he believes, is ‘extremely flawed.'” He may not be alone in his skepticism. “Critics question whether increased awareness accounts for the jump, or the expanded definition of autism spectrum disorders. Children may be being misdiagnosed, or parents may be seeking the diagnosis to access services.” Still other experts believe many youngsters may have always displayed such behaviors, but their behavior was not considered as a disability.

Related Links:

— “Are increases in autism rates in Utah, U.S. truly real?,”Julia Lyon , The Salt Lake Tribune, April 29, 2012.

On its front page, in the first part of a two-part story, the Boston Globe (4/30, A1, Lazar, Carroll) reports, “Federal data show that roughly 185,000 nursing home residents in the United States received antipsychotics in 2010 contrary to federal nursing home regulators’ recommendations — often elderly people…who have Alzheimer’s or other dementias.” The medications, “which are intended to treat severe mental illness such as schizophrenia, can leave people in a stupor.” What’s more, “the US Food and Drug Administration has issued black-box warnings — the agency’s most serious medication alert — about potentially fatal side effects when antipsychotics are taken by patients with dementia.”

A separate Boston Globe (4/30, Carroll) piece explains the methodology used by the Globe in arriving at its conclusions. “The Boston Globe examined data on more than 15,600 nursing homes across the nation for its investigation of antipsychotic drug overuse. The information was supplied by the US Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 19 months after a Freedom of Information Act request was submitted.” The first set of data involved “the percentage of long-term residents without a psychosis or related condition who received antipsychotics contrary to federal nursing home regulators’ recommendations,” while “the characteristics of each home, such as staffing levels, number of patients on Medicaid, and the number reported by staff to have behavioral problems” made up the second set of data.

According to the USA Today (4/30, Eversley) “On Deadline” blog, “At more than one in five US nursing homes, anti-psychotic drugs are administered to people who do not have a condition that warrants their use, the Globe reports.” However, “members of the nursing-home industry…told the Globe the drugs are sometimes necessary to keep people from hurting themselves and/or others.” In fact, “Frank Grosso, vice president of pharmacy services at Genesis Health Care, owner of more than 200 nursing homes, told the news organization that sometimes patients are given lower doses than someone with a psychosis and the data do not reflect that.”

Related Links:

— “Use of antipsychotic drugs raises alarm,”Kay Lazar , The Boston Globe, April 29, 2012.

MedWire (4/27, Cowen) reports, “The use of progestin-only contraceptives is associated with an increased risk for current mood disorders in women, while the use of combined estrogen and progestin contraceptive agents is associated with a reduced risk,” according to a study published online April 24 in the Journal of Affective Disorders. In 498 Australian women of childbearing age, all of whom were evaluated for mood disorders, researchers found that “women taking progestin-only contraceptives were more likely to have a current mood disorder than those who were not taking progestin-only agents, at an odds ratio of 3.0.” In comparison, “women taking combined contraceptive agents were less likely to have a mood disorder than those who were not taking such agents, at an OR of 0.3.”

Related Links:

— “Contraceptive use linked to current mood disorder risk in women,”Mark Cowen , MedWire News, April 27, 2012.

MedWire (4/27, Grasmo) reports, “Adolescents who use methamphetamine or methylenedioxy-methamphetamine (MDMA) are at risk for developing subsequent depressive symptoms,” according to a study published online April 19 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. After following some 3,880 Canadian secondary-school children for five years, researchers found that “both MDMA and methamphetamine use significantly increased the likelihood for having elevated depressive symptoms in the following year (odds ratio [OR]=1.7 and 1.6, respectively).” What’s more, “individuals who used both MDMA and methamphetamine, but not those who used just one of the drugs, were significantly more likely than nonusers to report elevated depressive symptoms the following year (OR=1.9).”

Related Links:

— “Methamphetamine, MDMA use increases risk for depressive symptoms,”Ingrid Grasmo , MedWire News, April 27, 2012.

HealthDay (4/27, Goodwin) reports that “nearly two-thirds of US children with an autism spectrum disorder have been bullied at some point — according to a recent survey of nearly 1,200 parents by the Kennedy Krieger Institute’s Interactive Autism Network.” The story quotes Connie Anderson, community scientific liaison for the Interactive Autism Network, saying, “Part of the reason the children are so vulnerable is that the heart of autism is a social disability. It’s really hard for them to read the social world, to interpret what’s going on, to make an appropriate response, something most people do naturally.” Bullying is said to reach its height in grades 5-8.

Related Links:

— “Battling the Bullying of an Autistic Child,”Jenifer Goodwin , HealthDay, April 26, 2012.