Reuters (3/20, Emery) reports, “Children and young adults with” attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “who are treated with the stimulants amphetamine or methylphenidate face a small but significant risk of developing psychosis, with amphetamine products twice as likely to spark a problem,” researchers concluded. The study revealed that “among 110,923 patients getting amphetamine (Adderall, Adzenys XR-ODT, others), 237 subsequently received a psychosis diagnosis, or 0.21 percent.” Meanwhile, “in the same-sized group prescribed methylphenidate (Concerta, Ritalin, Daytrana, others), there were 106 episodes, or 0.10 percent,” the study revealed. According to HealthDay, 12 years ago, “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration required stimulant manufacturers to warn that their products might unexpectedly cause psychotic or manic symptoms.” The findings were published online March 20 in the New England Journal of Medicine.

MedPage Today (3/20, Hlavinka) reports the author of an accompanying editorial “emphasized this study’s findings ‘should not be considered definitive,’ as it was not possible to exclude certain confounding factors.” For instance, “certain individuals might have lower or higher vulnerabilities to the onset of psychosis when taking stimulants, he wrote.” As a result, “whether psychosis is due to stimulant use, to inherent vulnerability to psychosis, or to the interaction of those two factors remains unclear,’” the editorialist observed. Also covering the story are CNBC (3/20, Bursztynsky), Medscape (3/20, Brauser, Subscription Publication), and HealthDay (3/20, Norton).

Related Links:

— “With ADHD, amphetamine has double the psychosis risk of methylphenidate, “Gene Emery, Reuters, March 20, 2019

HealthDay (3/19, Norton) reports, “Some toddlers thought to have mild autism ‘outgrow’ the diagnosis, but most continue to struggle with language and behavior,” researchers concluded after examining “records for 569 children who were diagnosed with autism at the researchers’ center between 2003 and 2013.” Thirty-eight of these children “no longer met the diagnostic criteria” for autism “four years later.” The findings were published online March 12 in the Journal of Child Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Can Some Children Outgrow Autism?, ” Amy Norton, HealthDay, March 19, 2019

Bloomberg (3/19, Tanzi) reports more than one third of adults in the US between the ages of 18 and 64 who did not have health insurance “did not take their prescription medication as prescribed in the past 12 months in order to reduce costs, according to data released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Furthermore, about one fifth of all US adults “asked their doctor for alternative medication to lower the cost.”

Additional coverage is provided by CNN (3/19, Luhby), Fortune (3/19, Sherman), FierceHealthcare (3/19, Landi), and The Hill (3/19, Sullivan).

Related Links:

— “One in Five U.S. Adults Ask Doctor for Lower Cost Medication, “Alexandre Tanzi, Bloomberg, March 19, 2019

The AP (3/19, Cheng) reports, “Smoking high-potency marijuana every day could increase the chances of developing psychosis by nearly five times,” researchers concluded in a study comprised of “about 900 people who were diagnosed with a first episode of the disorder at a mental health clinic, including those with delusions and hallucinations,” who “were compared with more than 1,200 healthy patients.” The findings were published online March 19 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Also covering the study are Reuters (3/19, Kelland), The Guardian (UK) (3/19, Davis), BBC News Online (UK) (3/20, Roberts), the Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer (3/19, Wood), The Hill (3/19, Burke), the NPR (3/19, Chatterjee) “Shots” blog, NBC News (3/19), and HealthDay (3/19, Thompson).

Related Links:

— “Smoking strong pot daily raises psychosis risk, study finds, “Maria Cheng, AP, March 19, 2019

Psychiatric News (3/18) reports, “About 12% of adolescents who had suicidal thoughts or engaged in self-harm at age 16 went on to attempt suicide by age 21, but the risk factors for transition differed from established thinking on the subject,” investigators concluded in “a large, longitudinal study of adolescents” published online March 14 in The Lancet Psychiatry. In “participants with suicidal thoughts at age 16, the following factors strongly predicted a suicide attempt by age 21, all of which were associated with two to three times higher risk of suicide attempt: Nonsuicidal self-harm; cannabis use; other illicit drug use,” and “higher levels of the personality type intellect/openness.”

Related Links:

— “Study Suggests Factors Linked to Teens’ Suicide Attempts, Psychiatric News, March 18, 2019