MedPage Today (4/13, George) reports, “A healthy lifestyle was tied to a longer life but the extra years did not mean more time living with Alzheimer’s dementia,” investigators concluded after evaluating “data from 2,449 older adults with a mean age of 76 in the Chicago Health and Aging Project…who were recruited from 1993 to 2009.” The study revealed that “people who had four or five healthy lifestyle factors – spanning diet, cognitive activity, physical exercise, smoking, and alcohol patterns – at age 65 lived longer than their counterparts with zero or one healthy factors.” The findings were published online in the BMJ.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

According to the New York Times (4/13, Caron), mental health apps “claim to help with issues as varied as addiction, sleeplessness, anxiety and schizophrenia, often by using tools like games, therapy chatbots or mood-tracking diaries.” Most of these apps are “unregulated,” however, and while “some are considered useful and safe, others may have shaky (or nonexistent) privacy policies and a lack of high-quality research demonstrating that the apps live up to their marketing claims.” In fact, “Stephen Schueller, the executive director of One Mind PsyberGuide, a nonprofit project that reviews mental health apps, said the lack of regulation has created a ‘Wild West,’ that was exacerbated when the Food and Drug Administration loosened its requirements [PDF] for digital psychiatry products in 2020.”

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— “How to Find a Mental Health App That Works for You “Christina Caron, The New York Times, April 13, 2022

According to HealthDay (4/13, Munez), a 15-study systematic review and meta-analysis encompassing some 191,000 participants indicates that exercise may “make a difference in major depressive disorder [MDD].” The review found “an association between physical activity and depression risk,” with researchers positing that “almost 12% of cases of depression could have been prevented with a certain amount of exercise.” The findings were published online April 13 in JAMA Psychiatry.

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— “Exercise Is Powerful Medicine for Depression “Cara Murez, HealthDay, April 13, 2022

The Los Angeles Times (4/12, Reyes) reports “deadly drug overdoses among U.S. teenagers have more than doubled in frequency in recent years, even as those in the age group became less likely to use illegal drugs,” according to an analysis of “overdose deaths among 14- to 18-year-olds.” The results published in a research letter in JAMA revealed “the death rate for drug overdoses in that age group had been generally stable for a decade, then nearly doubled between 2019 and 2020 and continued to rise early in 2021, reaching a rate of 5.49 deaths per 100,000 adolescents.”

CNN (4/12, Holcombe) reports the analysis revealed that “in 2021, fentanyl was involved in more than 77% of adolescent overdose deaths.”

NPR (4/12, Chatterjee) reports, “The highest rates were among Native American and Alaskan Native teens, followed by Latino teens.”

The Hill (4/12, Ali) also reports on the findings.

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— “Deadly overdoses have spiked among teens, even as drug use dropped, UCLA researchers find “Emily Alpert Reyes, The Los Angeles Times, April 12, 2022

Reuters (4/12) reports, “The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have jointly issued warning letters to two websites for illegally selling Adderall, a treatment for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD].” These “warning letters were issued on March 30,” and now the two companies “have 15 business days to respond to the agencies and inform them of the steps being taken to address any violations and prevent their recurrence”.

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— “FDA warns websites illegally selling ADHD drug Adderall, Reuters, April 12, 2022