Healio (3/21, Burba ) reports, “The average number of deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 29.3% from 2016 to 2021, with an age-standardized rise in death rate from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population, according to data in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.” Investigators found that “the average number of annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by 5.3% from 2016 to 2019 (137,927 to 145,253) and ‘increased more sharply’ — by 22.8% — from 2018 to 2021 (145,253 to 178,307), an overall increase of 29.3% from 2016 to 2021.” Meanwhile, “the age-standardized death rates increased from 38.1 to 47.6 per 100,000 population between 2016 and 2021.”

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Annual deaths from excessive alcohol use increased by nearly 30% from 2016 to 2021, Kate Burba, Healio, March 25, 2024

MedPage Today (3/22, Monaco) reported, “Concomitant use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and oral anticoagulants (OACs) in patients with atrial fibrillation was tied to an increased risk of major bleeding compared with OAC use alone, a case-control study suggested.”

This “population-based study from the U.K. showed that taking an SSRI and OAC (both direct OACs and vitamin K antagonists [VKAs]) together was associated with a 33% increased risk of major bleeding compared with OACs alone.” The data indicated that “compared with use of OACs alone, concomitant use of SSRIs plus OACs was linked to a significantly higher risk for several specific types of major bleeding.”

The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

The AP (3/23, Perrone ) reported that “hundreds of free apps…are being pitched to address a crisis in mental health among teens and young adults.” The FDA does not regulate them “because they don’t explicitly claim to diagnose or treat medical conditions,” but “this hands-off approach is coming under new scrutiny with the startling advances of chatbots powered by generative AI.” The industry’s “argument is simple: Chatbots are free, available 24/7 and don’t come with the stigma that keeps some people away from therapy.” However, there are “limited data that they actually improve mental health.”

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— “Ready or not, AI chatbots are here to help with Gen Z’s mental health struggles,” Matthew Perrone, Associated Press, March 23, 2024

HealthDay (3/20, Mundell , Miller) reports that approximately “1 in every 10 U.S. children ages 5 to 17 has been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), according to” data from the National Center for Health Statistics. These “data from the National Health Interview Survey covers the years 2020 through 2022 and came from in-person or phone interviews involving a representative sample of American homes.”

The survey “found that 11.3% of school-age children have been diagnosed with ADHD, with boys more likely to have this diagnosis (14.5%) than girls (8%).” These findings were published as an NCHS Data Brief.

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— “One in 10 U.S. School-Age Kids Have ADHD: Report,” Ernie Mundell, Carole Tanzer Miller, HealthDay, March , 2024

Bloomberg Law (3/20, Pazanowski , Subscription Publication) reports, “A Trump administration rule that eliminated the Affordable Care Act’s protections for LGBTQ+ people must be vacated, Boston-based advocacy groups told a federal court in a long-running case.” The Biden Administration “has been promising to undo former President Donald Trump’s 2020 ‘rollback rule’ since early 2021 and still hasn’t done so, the advocacy groups said.”

And though HHS “keeps saying a new version is imminent, the potential for another change of administration means people can’t wait any longer, the groups said in Tuesday’s brief to the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts.”

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— Bloomberg Law (requires login and subscription)