The AP (8/14) reports Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker (R) signed a bill Tuesday “aimed at helping curb the state’s opioid addiction crisis.” The new law requires hospital employees to “either admit a patient battling opioid addiction into an inpatient service or provide a referral to an internal or community-based treatment program when the patient expresses interest.” Additionally, the law “creates a commission to make recommendations about the credentialing of recovery coaches, who help those trying to remain drug-free. It also requires all prescribers to convert to electronic prescriptions by 2020.”

WBUR-FM Boston (8/14) reports on its website that this is the second major bill Baker “has signed to fight the crisis that claimed an estimated 2,016 lives in 2017. He marked the occasion Tuesday with a ceremonial signing at a Roxbury recovery center.”

Related Links:

— “Massachusetts Governor Touts Bill Aimed at Opioid Addiction, AP, August 14, 2018.

The Washington Post (8/14, Nutt) “To Your Health” blog reports researchers found that traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide. The findings were published Aug. 14 in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Reuters (8/14, Rapaport) reports the researchers found that “people who have traumatic brain injuries may be nearly twice as likely to die by suicide as individuals who don’t have a history of injuries like concussions and skull fractures.”

Healio (8/14, Miller) reports the authors of an accompanying editorial wrote, “Among the main questions stimulated by this research is the mechanism. How exactly do TBIs increase suicide risk? … The answers are undoubtedly multifactorial and complex.”

According to Psychiatric News (8/14), the “retrospective cohort study” used “nationwide registers that included more than 7.4 million people aged 10 years and older living in Denmark in 1980.” All of “these individuals were followed up until their dates of death or emigration from Denmark or December 31, 2014, whichever came first.”

Also covering the story are HealthDay (8/14, Mozes), MD Magazine (8/14, Kunzmann), and MedPage Today (8/14, George).

Related Links:

— “A traumatic brain injury may increase the risk of suicide, study says, “Amy Ellis Nutt, The Washington Post, August 14, 2018.

Newsweek (8/13, Gander) reports researchers found “young people who binge drink could be at greater risk of developing conditions such as heart disease and stroke later in life.” The findings of the 4,710-adult study were published online in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Young People who binge drink could increase risk of stroke, study suggests,”Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, August 13, 2018.

In “To Your Health,” the Washington Post (8/13, Bever) reports that after studying some 80,000 youngsters “over a four-year period,” Kaiser Permanent researchers found “no association between the prenatal Tdap (for tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis, also known as whooping cough) vaccine and autism spectrum disorder when looking at tens of thousands of children.” The findings were published online Aug. 13 in Pediatrics.

Also covering the study are Newsweek (8/13, Spear), HealthDay (8/13, Norton), MedPage Today (8/13, Walker), and Medscape (8/13, Subscription Publication).

Related Links:

— “Tdap vaccine given to pregnant women did not increase risk of autism in children, study says, “Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, August 13, 2018.

Medscape (8/10, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports new research shows that “one of the two major psychoactive constituents in kratom has high abuse potential and may also increase the intake of other opiates.” The finding “contradicts claims by kratom makers that the substance has no abuse potential and supports the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA’s) view that kratom is an opioid.” Mitragynine (MG) and 7-hydroxymitragynine (7-HMG) “are the two major psychoactive constituents of kratom,” and the researchers wrote 7-HMG should be considered a kratom constituent with “high abuse potential that may also increase the intake of other opiates.” The study was published online June 27 in Addiction Biology.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)