HealthDay (7/24, Preidt) reports that adolescents and “adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder may have a lower risk of developing an alcohol or drug problem if they take medications to treat” AD/HD, researchers concluded after examining data “from three million Americans” with AD/HD. The findings were published online June 29 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Treating ADHD May Help Curb Later Drinking, Drug Problems,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 24, 2017.

On the front of its Science Times section, the New York Times (7/24, D1, Carey, Subscription Publication) reports in a nearly 2,500-word article that “England is in the midst of a unique national experiment, the world’s most ambitious effort to treat depression, anxiety and other common mental illnesses.” The initiative “offers virtually open-ended talk therapy free of charge at clinics throughout the country,” with the goal of the eventual creation of “a system of primary care for mental health not just for England but for all of Britain.”

Related Links:

— “England’s Mental Health Experiment: No-Cost Talk Therapy,” BENEDICT CAREY, New York Times, July 24, 2017.

In an op-ed in the New York Times (7/24, Subscription Publication), Robert Rigo, who recently graduated from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, discusses his experiences with self-harm and depression and even how he has considered suicide. In the classroom, as well as in adult life, people with mental health issues “are suffering – and sometimes dying – in silence because we can’t seem to talk openly about mental health.”

Rigo concludes, “We must push the conversation about mental illness forward whether it be in the classrooms of public schools or with our families and friends.” Mental health “issues are real and lethal, and the first means of prevention is acknowledging their existence.”

Related Links:

— “Let’s Talk About Suicide,” ROBERT RIGO, New York Times, July 24, 2017.

Medscape (7/24, Anderson) reports, “Depression that starts early in life increases the risk for Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers concluded after examining “data from the Prospective Population Study of Women in Gothenburg Sweden, which began almost 50 years ago.” Included in the study sample were some “800 women (mean age, 46 years), born between 1914 and 1930.” The findings were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2017.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

NBC Nightly News (7/22, story 11, 2:25, Diaz-Balart) reported that the city of Buffalo, New York has implemented a new program through its court system to address the opioid problem, in which intervention is begun “immediately after users are arrested, getting them treatment inside the justice system.”

Correspondent Gabe Gutierrez said Judge Craig Hannah is “presiding over the nation’s first opioid crisis intervention court of its kind. Unlike typical drug courts, this program gets users into treatment within hours of their arrest, not weeks. It requires detox, strict curfews, and checking in with Judge Hannah every day for a month.” Hannah said, “I think the tide is changing in our country that you can’t lock away an addict; you have to give treatment.”