HealthDay (10/5, Reinberg) reports, “Taking a multivitamin during pregnancy may reduce a child’s risk of developing autism,” research indicated. After analyzing data on “more than a quarter-million mother-child pairs in Sweden,” investigators found that “multivitamin use with or without added iron or folic acid was associated with a lower likelihood of child autism with intellectual disability, compared with mothers who did not use supplements.” The findingswere published online Oct. 4 in the BMJ. Healio (10/5, Oldt) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Prenatal Multivitamins Linked to Lower Autism Risk,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, October 5, 2017.

USA Today (10/3, Weintraub) reports that according to a new report to be released today by the advocacy group UsAgainstAlzheimer, American families are decreasingly able to provide care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s. American families have fewer financial resources and “Medicare and Medicaid are simply not prepared to cope with the growing numbers of people with this disease,” according to UsAgainstAlzheimer chairman George Vradenburg. While “fewer 75-year-olds are getting the disease, … more people are living to 85, and roughly half of them will develop Alzheimer’s, statistics show.”

Related Links:

— “Caregiving for Alzheimer’s patients at risk in coming years, report says,” Karen Weintraub, USA Today, October 3, 2017.

The AP (10/3, Tanner) reports that people who survived this week’s shootings in Las Vegas may be at risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Also at risk for “psychological fallout” are first responders, medical staff, eyewitnesses, and bystanders. Studies indicate “PTSD is particularly common among people exposed to mass shootings versus other types of trauma, with rates as high as 90 percent reported” by some researchers.

Related Links:

— “Concert shooting puts many at risk for post-traumatic stress,” Associated Press, October 4, 2017.

Medscape (10/4, Harrison) reports that research indicates “the financial costs associated with frontotemporal degeneration (FTD), the most common dementia in patients under age 60 years, are nearly twice as high as those associated with Alzheimer’s disease.” Data “from the web-based survey show the total annual per-patient cost of caring for a patient with FTD was $119,654 in 2016 US dollars,” approximately “two times higher than reported costs of taking care of a patient with AD.” The survey indicated “the median annual household income” one year “before an FTD diagnosis was in the range of $75,000 to $99,000. But 12 months after diagnosis it fell to the $50,000 to $59,000 range – a drop of up to 50%.” The findings were published online Oct. 4 in Neurology.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Healio (10/4, Oldt) reports, “Analysis of a population-based cohort of” 11,108 “twins revealed a causal association between exposure to bullying and concurrent anxiety, depression, hyperactivity and impulsivity, and other mental health symptoms,” researchers reported. The findings were published online Oct. 4 in JAMA Psychiatry. The authors of an accompanying editorial “applauded the contribution of these findings to the mental health field.”

Related Links:

— “Bullying in childhood linked to poorer mental health,” Silberg J, et al., Healio, October 4, 2017.