CNN (8/12, Azad) reports research examining over 20 studies on people between the ages of 10 and 24 “found that the odds of marijuana use were 3.5 times higher in people who vaped compared to those who didn’t.” Lead study author Dr. Nicholas Chadi said the findings indicate that “e-cigarettes really need to be considered in the broad category of addictive and harmful substances.” The findings were published online in JAMA Pediatrics.

HealthDay (8/12, Mundell) reports the investigators wrote, “Odds of using marijuana in youth with e-cigarette use were higher in adolescents age 12 to 17 [more than four times the risk] than young adults age 18 to 24 years [a 40% higher risk].” Moreover, the researchers “found that use of e-cigarettes typically comes before the use of marijuana in the young – suggesting that the vaping habit is a ‘gateway’ to the drug.”

Related Links:

— “Vaping linked to marijuana use in young people, research says, “Arman Azad, CNN, August 12, 2019

Healio (8/12, Demko) reports, “Veterans with a history of traumatic brain injury, or TBI, were twice as likely to die by suicide compared with veterans without history of TBI,” researchers concluded after looking at “the connections between TBI, suicide and suicide method among 215,610 veterans with a previous/current TBI diagnosis compared with 1,187,683 veterans without TBI receiving VHA care between 2006 and 2015.” The findings were published online July 30 in the Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation.

Related Links:

— “TBI may increase suicide risk among veterans, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 12, 2019

Healio (8/12, Demko) reports research indicates that “more frequent social contact with friends at age 60 years was linked to lower risk of developing dementia over a 28-year follow-up and higher subsequent cognitive performance over a 15-year follow-up.” Investigators arrived at these conclusions after examining “the link between social contact frequency and dementia over a long period in a retrospective analysis of the Whitehall study, a prospective cohort study of English participants aged 35 to 55 years at baseline assessment in 1985 to 1988 and followed to 2017.” The findings were published online Aug. 2 in PLOS Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Social contact during midlife appears to lower dementia risk, “Savannah Demko, Healio, August 12, 2019

HealthDay (8/12, Preidt) reports researchers found “a significant link between worsening depression symptoms and mental decline over two to seven years, and both of these trends seemed to be linked to a buildup of amyloid protein in brain tissue.” The study’s lead author, Dr. Jennifer Gatchel of Massachusetts General Hospital, said the study’s results suggest that “depression symptoms themselves may be among the early changes in the preclinical stages of dementia syndromes.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Health IT Analytics (8/12, Kent) reports the researchers “found that mild or moderate depression together with brain amyloid, a biological marker of Alzheimer’s disease, could result in changes in thinking and memory over time.”

Related Links:

— “Depression, Alzheimer’s Might Be Part of Same Process in Some Aging Brains: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 12, 2019

Healio Cardiology Today (8/9, Buzby) reported, “Among adolescents and adults with congenital heart disease, mental illness is a significantly more prevalent comorbidity in those who experienced at least two cardiac procedures during a three-year period or had greater lesion complexity than in others,” researchers found after analyzing “the data of 2,192 adolescents aged 11 to 17 years (42% girls), and 6,924 adults aged 18 to 64 years (53% women), with congenital heart disease between 2011 and 2013.” The findings were published in the Aug. 15 issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Related Links:

— “Mental illness odds elevated in congenital heart disease, “Scott Buzby, Healio Cardiology Today, August 09, 2019