The AP (3/5, Tanner) reports researchers found that a growing number of minors in the US are being hospitalized because of opioid poisonings or overdoses, according to a study published in Pediatrics. The study found that such “hospitalizations were most common among kids aged 12-17 and those aged 1 to 5.”

CNBC (3/5, Lovelace) reports that the researchers found that “the number of pediatric opioid hospitalizations requiring intensive care nearly doubled to 1,504 patients between 2012 and 2015, from 797 patients between 2004 and 2007.”

HealthDay (3/5, Norton) reports that Dr. Sheryl Ryan, the chief of adolescent medicine at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, wrote in an accompanying commentary, “This epidemic is not limited to adults.” Ryan advised parents to store prescription opioids appropriately and to dispose of unused opioids, so they could not be accidentally ingested or abused by their children.

Additional coverage is provided by: NBC News (3/5, Fox), CNN (3/5, Lieber), TIME (3/5, MacMillan), Newsweek (3/5, Lee), and Medscape (3/5, Hackethal).

Related Links:

— “Opioid poisonings, overdoses send more US kids to hospitals,” LINDSEY TANNER, Associated Press, March 5, 2018.

The Wall Street Journal (3/5, Bernstein, Subscription Publication) reports that in an effort to help parents discern whether their adolescent children are depressed or merely moody, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated its guidelines in February to recommend that youngsters age 12 and older be screened by their pediatricians for depression. The Journal also points out that depression can manifest itself in teens as physical ailments such as headaches or in anger or irritability. Teens who are having difficulty in several areas of their life and who don’t seem to be getting any enjoyment out of anything may be suffering from depression.

Related Links:

— “How to Spot Teenage Depression,” Elizabeth Bernstein, Wall Street Journal, March 5, 2018.

In a perspective piece in the Washington Post (3/1, Morris) “Health & Science” blog, Nathaniel Morris, MD, a resident physician in psychiatry at the Stanford University School of Medicine, wrote that “evidence suggests that gun availability is a far better explanation for mass shootings than mental illness and that gun regulations targeted exclusively toward people with mental health issues will have minimal impact on the American epidemic of gun homicides.” Dr. Morris concluded that “when it comes to the link between guns and mental illness, gun-related suicides are an overlooked issue that takes more than 20,000 lives each year.”

Related Links:

— “We need to rethink mental health laws. But not because of mass shootings.,” Nathaniel Morris, Washington Post, March 2, 2018.

The AP (3/3, Rathke) reported that last month, the Agri-Mark dairy cooperative sent “a list of mental health services and the number of a suicide prevention hotline” to its 1,000 New England and New York farmer members who are under financial and psychological stress due to falling milk prices. According to the article, “a 2016 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report” found that “people working in farming, fishing and forestry had the highest rate of suicide.”

Related Links:

— “Milk co-op mailing highlights suicide risk for dairy farmers,” LISA RATHKE, Associated Press, March 3, 2018.

Medscape (3/2, Anderson) reported that “central hearing loss may share the same mechanism of neurodegeneration with cognitive decline,” research indicated. The 1,604-participant “study showed that patients with central hearing loss, or central presbycusis, were twice as likely to have mild cognitive impairment (MCI) as those with no hearing loss, but there was no association between age-related hearing loss, or peripheral presbycusis, and cognitive impairment.” The study is scheduled for presentation during the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 2018 Annual Meeting.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)