MedPage Today (9/21, Hlavinka) reports, “Transgender youth who presented to a clinic for gender-affirming care in early adolescence had fewer mental health problems than adolescents who first sought care when older, or in later stages of puberty,” investigators found in a study that revealed that “among 300 teens seeking gender-affirming care, a significantly higher proportion of adolescents older than 15 reported experiencing mental health problems compared with children under 15.” The findings were published online Sept. 16 in Pediatrics.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (9/18) reported, “Hospitals and emergency services should be prepared for a possible influx of adolescents and young adults with alcohol-related emergencies as their localities open up after COVID-19 lockdowns,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data on ED visits of patients aged 13 to 24 years that occurred during…the last three weeks of lockdown, April 10, 2020, to May 3, 2020,” and “the first three weeks after reopening, May 4, 2020, to May 27, 2020.” The study revealed that “the proportion of alcohol-related emergency department (ED) visits to two Italian hospitals jumped for this population in the weeks following the end of this spring’s lockdown compared with the same time frame in 2019.” The findings were published online Sept. 15 in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

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— “Researchers Warn of Post-Lockdown Influx of Alcohol-Related Emergencies Among Youth, Psychiatric News, September 18, 2020

Healio (9/18, Gramigna) reported, “Alcohol-induced loss of consciousness appeared associated with a subsequent increase in dementia risk,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data of 131,415 participants in seven cohort studies conducted in the U.K., France, Sweden and Finland.” Included in the data were people “aged 18 to 77 years, were free of diagnosed dementia and reported alcohol consumption at baseline.” The findings of the “multicohort study” were published online in JAMA Network Open.

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— “People who lose consciousness due to alcohol at greater risk for dementia “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 18, 2020

Medscape (9/17, Yasgur, Subscription Publication) reports, “Vitamin B1 deficiency may play a role in the development of alcohol-related dementia,” investigators concluded after exploring in a medical literature review “the hypothesis that the accumulation of iron in the brain is caused by a breakdown of the blood-brain barrier…attributable to thiamine depletion induced by alcohol consumption.” The findings were published online Aug. 18 in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

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— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (9/17, Preidt) reports, “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may significantly increase the risk of dementia later in life,” investigators concluded after analyzing data from “13 studies from four continents that included a total of nearly 1.7 million people.” The analysis revealed that “people with a history of PTSD were up to two times more likely to develop dementia than those who never had PTSD.” The findings of the systematic review and meta-analysis were published online Sept. 16 in the British Journal of Psychiatry.

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— “PTSD May Be Tied to Greater Dementia Risk “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 17, 2020