Healio (12/21, Demko) reported, “The prevalence of benzodiazepine use among adults in the United States was higher than previously reported,” researchers concluded after “analyzing data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.” In addition, “the analysis found that the prevalence of benzodiazepine use among adults aged 50 to 64 years exceeded the prevalence among those aged 65 years and older, the group that historically had the highest benzodiazepine use,” the study revealed. The findings were published online Dec. 17 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Benzodiazepine use among US adults higher than previously reported, “Savannah Demko, Healio, December 21, 2018.

Healio (12/20, Demko) reports, “Analysis of a large general population-based sample of Swedish twins” demonstrated that “genetic risk factors for psychiatric disorders – including autism,” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, “tic disorders, intellectual disability, anxiety disorders and major depressive disorder – were associated with milder traits of these disorders.” Investigators arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “genetic data from 13,412 people and phenotype data from 13,923 twin pairs at age nine years, 5,165 pairs at age 15 years and 4,273 pairs at age 18 years.” The findings were published online Dec. 19 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Psychiatric disorders show genetic correlations with related traits, “Savannah Demko, Healio, December 20, 2018.

Mason Marks, a visiting fellow at Yale Law School’s Information Society Project, argues in an opinion at the Washington Post (12/20) for strong oversight of emerging suicide prediction tools used commercially by companies such as Facebook. Marks writes that “corporations outside health care are racing to use AI to predict suicide in billions of consumers, and they treat their methods as proprietary trade secrets. These private-sector efforts are completely unregulated,” but he says the FDA “could exercise its power to regulate medical products and treat suicide prediction tools like mobile health apps or software-based medical devices.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide prediction technology is revolutionary. It badly needs oversight, “Mason Marks, The Washington Post, December 21 2018.

The Boston Globe (12/19, Weisman) reports on research released by the Gerontology Institute of the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts-Boston that found depression diagnoses among seniors over 65 appear to have grown in the last three years. Indeed, nearly one third of seniors were treated for depression in Massachusetts, higher than the overall rate for New England (25 percent), according to Medicare records.

Related Links:

— “Depression, ranging in severity, shadows old age for nearly a third of Mass. seniors, ” Robert Weisman, The Boston Globe , December 19, 2018.

Endocrine Today (12/19, Neuffer) reports, “Use of substances such as alcohol, opioids and sedative medications may be higher among adults with type 1 diabetes [T1D] compared with the overall U.S. population,” researchers concluded in a 4,311-adult study. The findings were published online in the journal Diabetes Education

Related Links:

— “Substance Use Higher Among Adults With Type 1 Diabetes Vs. General Population, “Phil Neuffer, Healio, December 19, 2018.