The Washington Post (7/24, Achenbach, Koh, Bennett, Mara) reports, “Southwest Virginia is among the regions in the United States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which has roots in prescription” analgesics. Newly-released “Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post” demonstrate “the swollen pipeline of prescription opioids from factories to pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.” The opioid epidemic “has been particularly brutal…in central Appalachia, which has seen the coal industry contract and now has some of the highest poverty and disability rates in the nation.” As to “how and why Appalachia became the epicenter of the epidemic,” this “is partly due to the real need for painkillers among workers hurt in coal mines and in other types of physically demanding jobs,” and also to the fact that opioid analgesics “were more addictive than people realized.”

Related Links:

— “Flooded with opioids, Appalachia is still trying to recover, “Joel Achenbach, Joyce Koh, Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, July 24, 2019

Healio (7/24, Demko) reports, “Compensatory strategies – techniques to disguise autism – increased social integration, but were associated with poor mental health and delayed diagnosis among people with autism,” research indicated in a study that included “58 adults with a clinical diagnosis of autism, 19 with self-identified (but not formally diagnosed) autism and 59 without a diagnosis or self-identified autism (but with social difficulties).” The findings were published online July 23 in The Lancet Psychiatry. The author of a related commentary observed that “an important question for future research is whether subjective distress should be listed in the diagnostic criteria for” autism spectrum disorder. She wrote, “For example, DSM-5 could be revised to read: ‘Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning [including subjective distress].’” She added, “This change would codify the experience of individuals with autism who function in the typical range, but do so through intense compensation that causes subjective distress.”

Related Links:

— “Compensatory strategies that mask autism may impede diagnosis, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 24, 2019

HealthDay (7/23, Preidt) reports that extreme eating habits “in young children…could be a sign of autism, researchers say.” The study, which included more than 2,000 youngsters, revealed “atypical eating behaviors – such as hypersensitivity to food textures or pocketing food without swallowing – in 70% of kids with autism,” representing a rate 15 times of that usually “found in children.” The findings were published in the August issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Extreme Eating Habits Could Be an Early Clue to Autism, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 23, 2019

CNN (7/23, Azad) reports, “People are more likely to try…party drugs and marijuana during the summer, researchers found, with over a third of LSD use and around 30% of ecstasy and marijuana use starting in the season.” In addition, “around 28% of cocaine use also began in the summer,” the study revealed. The findings were published online July 23 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine.

HealthDay (7/23, Preidt) reports researchers arrived at the study’s conclusions after examining “data from nearly 395,000 people, aged 12 and older, who took part in the U.S. National Survey on Drug Use and Health between 2011 and 2017.”

Related Links:

— “More people try drugs for the first time in the summer, study says, “Arman Azad, CNN, July 23, 2019

Psychiatric News (7/23) reports, “Twelve-year-old children who exhibit symptoms associated with borderline personality disorder – such as experiencing extremes of rage, despair, or excitement – are at higher risk of having poor mental health by age 18,” researchers concluded after assessing a “total of 2,232 British children in the Environmental Risk Longitudinal Twin Study (representing 1,116 families with same sex twins)…during home visits at age five, seven, 10, and 12; during these visits their mothers were also interviewed.” Later, “at age 18, the participants were interviewed alone.” The findings were published online July 17 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Borderline Symptoms at Age 12 Predict a Variety of Negative Outcomes at Age 18, Psychiatric News, July 23, 2019