Healio (11/17, Gramigna) reports, “Prevention and intervention targets for prescription stimulant misuse vary by age and education level,” investigators concluded in a study that “used data from the 2015 to 2018 National Survey on Drug Use and Health to examine numerous prescription stimulant misuse among 86,918 adolescents and young adults aged 14 to 25 years.” The researchers “examined individual prescription stimulant misuse motives, such as study aid, and motive categories, such as cognitive enhancement only, recreational only, weight loss only and combined motives, by age,” then “used logistic regression models to evaluate associations between individual motives or motive categories and educational status, substance use, DSM-4 substance use disorder and mental health correlates.” The findings were published online Nov. 3 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Motivating factors for prescription stimulant misuse vary by age, education level “Joe Gramigna, Healio, November 17, 2020

HealthDay (11/16, Murez) reports, “Less screen time and more sleep are critical for preventing depression,” investigators concluded after analyzing “UK Biobank data from 85,000 people to determine impact of lifestyle on depression.” The study revealed that “physical activity, a healthy diet and getting between seven and nine hours of sleep nightly was associated with less frequency of depressed mood.” What’s more, “screen time and tobacco smoking were significantly associated with higher frequency of depression,” researchers discovered. The findings were published online Nov. 11 in the journal BMC Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Two Key Lifestyle Factors May Ward Off Depression, HealthDay, November 16, 2020

CNN (11/16, LaMotte) reports new research “comparing poor sleep among more than a million adults and children in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and the United States found women experience more insomnia problems than men in all three countries.” What’s more, “the trend emerges during puberty, ‘suggesting sex hormones, among other social factors such as stress or parenting,’ might contribute to the development of insomnia in women,” investigators concluded after comparing “sleep studies on 1.1 million people from the US, the UK and the Netherlands.” The findings were published online in the journal Nature Human Behavior.

Related Links:

— “More women than men struggle to fall asleep in both Europe and the US, study finds “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, November 16, 2020

Healio (11/16, Gramigna) reports, “Prescription opioid use appeared to increase risk for depression,” investigators concluded in a “mendelian randomization analysis” that included data from “737,473 participants with predominantly European ancestry who were included in the population-based U.K. Biobank and Lundbeck Foundation Initiative for Integrative Psychiatric Research studies.” The findings were published online Nov. 11 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Prescription opioid use may increase depression risk “Joe Gramigna, Healio, November 16, 2020

Clinical Endocrinology News (11/12, Splete) reports, “All patients with postpartum depression should be screened for thyroid dysfunction, as postpartum thyroiditis is often missed and misdiagnosed, according to” a presentation given by Christine Kessler, CNS, ANP, at the Metabolic & Endocrine Disease Summit by Global Academy for Medical Education. Kessler explained that “postpartum thyroiditis (PPT) is ‘an inflammatory, autoimmune thyroid condition’” that “can involve high or low thyroid-stimulating hormone and may occur during the first postpartum year in women who were euthyroid prior to pregnancy.” Patients who present “with PPT in the hyperthyroid phase display symptoms including insomnia, anxiety, irritability, heat intolerance, fatigue, and palpitations, Ms. Kessler said,” and “these women ‘are often told they have postpartum depression; they aren’t sleeping well, and they feel like they are failing as a mom.’”

Related Links:

— “Don’t miss postpartum thyroiditis “Heidi Splete, Clinical Endocrinology News, November 12, 2020