MedPage Today (10/16, Haelle) reports, “People taking antidepressants lost a similar amount of weight on semaglutide 2.4 mg (Wegovy) compared with those not taking antidepressants, according to a post-hoc analysis of four STEP trials” presented at the ObesityWeek annual meeting. The study revealed that “participants on antidepressants taking the GLP-1 receptor agonist lost an average 10.7% to 19% of their baseline body weight compared to a 9.5% to 15.9% loss in participants not taking antidepressants.”

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

HCPlive (10/16, Brooks) reports, “Hospitalized patients using mirtazapine, nortriptyline, and trazodone are at a greater risk of Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI),” researchers concluded in a study that compared “48,720 patients developed CDI…to 55,615,700 who did not.” The findings were published in the July-Sept. Issue of the journal Arquivos de Gastroenterologia.

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— “Antidepressant Use Linked to Increased Risk of Hospital-Onset C Diff,”Abigail Brooks, HCPlive, October 16, 2023

MedPage Today (10/16, Henderson) reports, “A substantial proportion of young kids from low-income families had elevated levels of emotional and behavioral health problems seen in pediatric primary care, researchers” concluded in findings published online in JAMA Pediatrics. In the “retrospective cohort study of 15,218 children ages two to six years, fully one-third of children had screening tool scores reflecting clinically elevated levels of emotional and behavioral problems over time.” Additionally, “relative to those whose scores remained low over time, kids in the elevated score groups were more likely to be male, white, have public insurance, have had a social need, and a caregiver with depression,” the study revealed.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (10/13, Steenhuysen) reported, “U.S. health officials on Friday lifted curbs on reimbursement of a non-invasive imaging test called amyloid PET used to diagnose Alzheimer’s, ending a once-per-lifetime limitation that clears the way for its use to determine eligibility for new treatments.” These new medications “include Eisai and Biogen’s Leqembi [lecanemab], and an experimental drug from Eli Lilly known as donanemab, which work by removing a protein called beta amyloid from the brain.” The protein clumps “are considered an early hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease that gradually destroy memory and thinking skills. Previously, amyloid positron emission tomography, or PET, scans were only accessible for use in a clinical trial or patient registry.”

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— “US removes coverage curb on PET scans for Alzheimer’s patients,”Julie Steenhuysen, Reuters, October 13, 2023

HealthDay (10/13, Solomon) reported, “Internalizing symptoms among Latinx youth during early adolescence relate to health behaviors and outcomes underlying cardiometabolic risk during middle and late adolescence,” investigators concluded in the findings of a 547-Hispanic adolescent survey study published online in the Journal of Adolescent: “ Kathleen M. Roche, Ph.D., from the Milken Institute School of Public Health at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and colleagues examined how Latinx youth’s internalizing symptoms during early adolescence are related to sleep problems, overweight/obesity, sedentary behavior, physical activity, healthy diet, and hypertension or diabetes risk during middle and late adolescence.”

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— “Internalizing Symptoms in Early Teens Tied to Later Cardiometabolic Risk Factors,”Lori Solomon, HealthDay, October 13, 2023