CNN (8/14, Williams) reports California high school and middle school students “will have some lifesaving information at their fingertips as they go back to school this year.” A law that went into effect in July “requires schools to print the number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on student ID cards for seventh- through 12th-graders in public, private and charter schools.” The law “also says that student IDs may have information on the Crisis Text Line – which can be reached by texting HOME to 741741 – as well as local suicide prevention resources.”

Related Links:

— “California law puts a suicide hotline number on school ID cards, “David Williams, CNN, August 14, 2019

Nina Feldman writes in the NPR (8/13) “Shots” blog about buprenorphine “that curbs cravings and treats the symptoms of withdrawal from opioid addiction.” Feldman highlights one “mobile medical clinic parked on a corner of Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood” that facilitates the prescribing of buprenorphine to people addicted to opioids. The clinic “is a project of Prevention Point, Philadelphia’s only syringe-exchange program, and is part of the city’s efforts to expand access to this particular form of medication-assisted treatment for opioid addiction.” The piece adds that “doctors must apply for a special waiver from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to prescribe buprenorphine,” which is a barrier “to buprenorphine access.”

Related Links:

— “It’s The Go-To Drug To Treat Opioid Addiction. Why Won’t More Pharmacies Stock It?, “Nina Feldman, NPR, August 13, 2019

CNN (8/13, Asmelash) reports that while “social media use has been linked to depression, especially in teenage girls,” research interviews with nearly “10,000 children between the ages of 13 and 16 in England” contends “that the issue may be more complex than experts think.”

TIME (8/13, Ducharme) reports, “Social media is associated with mental health issues, the research says – but only under certain circumstances, and only for certain people.” The study found that “in girls, frequent social-media use seemed to harm health when it led to either cyberbullying and/or inadequate sleep and exercise.” However, “these factors did not seem to have the same effect on boys, and the study didn’t pick up on specific ways that social networks could be harming them.” The findings were published in the Lancet Child & Adolescent Health.

TODAY (8/13, Pawlowski) reports, “Still, heavy social media use predicted later poor mental health and well-being in both sexes.”

Related Links:

— “Social media use may harm teens’ mental health by disrupting positive activities, study says, “Leah Asmelash, CNN, August 13, 2019

Healio Cardiology Today (8/13, Dobkowski) reports, “Patients who had sustained hypertension in midlife to late life and those with midlife hypertension and late-life hypotension had an increased risk for dementia later in life compared with patients with normal BP in midlife and late life,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from 4,761 patients (59% women; mean age at fifth visit, 75 years) aged 45 to 65 years.” The findings were published in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Hypertension in midlife, late life increases risk for dementia, “Darlene Dobkowski, Healio Cardiology Today, August 13, 2019

According to HealthDay (8/13, Preidt), “researchers report they have identified 16 new genes linked to” autism spectrum disorder. After conducting “genetic analyses of 2,300 people from nearly 500 families with at least two children with autism,” investigators “pinpointed 69 genes that were associated with an increased risk of autism, 16 of which had not previously been linked to the disorder.” In addition, the scientists “found several hundred genes they suspect may increase the risk of autism based on their proximity to genes previously identified with an increased risk, and also identified several new biological pathways not previously identified in autism research.” The findings were published online Aug. 8 in the journal Cell.

Related Links:

— “Scientists Uncover More Autism Genes, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 13, 2019