MedPage Today (4/10, Lyles) reports that research indicates “clinically-confirmed stress conditions, such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or acute stress reaction, may be linked to an increased cardiovascular disease risk.” In the study that included “130,000 people with stress-related disorders, 170,000 of their unaffected full siblings, and 1.4 million matched unexposed individuals in the general population,” researchers found that “cardiovascular disease was most common among such patients, at 10.5 per 1,000 person-years compared with 8.4 and 6.9 per 1,000 person-years for unaffected full siblings and for the matched unexposed individuals, respectively, over up to 27 years of follow-up.” The data indicated that “the highest hazard ratios were 3.37 for cardiac arrest, 5.64 for cerebrovascular disease other than stroke or arachnoidal bleeding, 5.00 for conduction disorders, and 6.95 for heart failure, all of which were significant within the first year of a stress related disorder diagnosis.” The findings were published online in the BMJ.

Related Links:

— “

In a nearly 4,000-word piece, Kaiser Health News (4/9, Bailey, Aleccia) reports that as suicide rates rise across the US, “such deaths among older adults – including the 2.2 million who live in long-term care settings – are often overlooked.” The piece says “a KHN analysis of new data from the University of Michigan suggests that hundreds of suicides by older adults each year – nearly one per day – are related to long-term care.” The piece also states, “Thousands more people may be at risk in those settings, where up to a third of residents report suicidal thoughts, research shows.”

PBS NewsHour (4/9, Wise, Carlson, Nagy) provides the transcript of a recent program reporting in partnership with Kaiser Health News on the risks of suicide among senior citizens. The program featured Julie Rickard, a psychologist at a crisis stabilization center in Wenatchee, Washington, who said that with regard to treatment in long-term care, it is important to consider what professionals are “doing on the backside to make sure that the person is transitioning well when they are going into long-term care, that we are doing the things to support them and stay connected.”

Related Links:

— “Lethal Plans: When Seniors Turn To Suicide , “Melissa Bailey and JoNel Aleccia, Kaiser Health News, April 9, 2019

Reuters (4/8, Rapaport) reports that research suggests that “it’s possible that as many as one in 13 boys in the U.S. have sex before reaching their teens,” but “the chance that they will do this varies widely depending on where they live.” Investigators looked at data from two surveys and found that “overall, 7.6 percent of high school students in the first survey and 3.6 percent of participants in the second survey reported having sex for the first time before age 13.” The study also found that “across cities nationwide, the proportion of boys who reported having sex before age 13 ranged from as small as one in 20 in San Francisco to as large as one in four in Memphis, Tennessee.” The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Up to 1 in 13 boys in U.S. have sex before adolescence, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, April 8, 2019

The New York Times (4/8, Kolata) reports that even though nearly all elderly patients with dementia “are given a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, nearly every one of them has a mixture of brain abnormalities.” For scientists seeking treatments, “these so-called mixed pathologies have become a huge scientific problem,” research published last year in the journal BRAIN found. Investigators “can’t tell which of these conditions is the culprit in memory loss in a particular patient, or whether all of them together are to blame.”

Related Links:

— “The Diagnosis Is Alzheimer’s. But That’s Probably Not the Only Problem, “Gina Kolata, The New York Times, April 8, 2019