The AP (9/18, Mulvihill, Raby) reports a 37-state coalition of attorneys general “asked health insurers Monday to encourage pain treatment through means other than prescriptions for opioid” pain medications, an effort they are conducting by sending letters to companies to request they prioritize alternative treatments.

Related Links:

— “States ask insurers to prioritize non-opioid pain treatment,” GEOFF MULVIHILL and JOHN RABY, AP via Washington Times, September 18, 2017.

Reuters (9/18, Cohen) reports women who took folic acid supplements during their pregnancies were less likely to have children with autism even when the mothers were exposed to pesticides that have been linked to the disorder, according to a 510-child study published in Environmental Health Perspectives. The study suggests that “folic acid might reduce, though not eliminate, an increased risk of autism associated with maternal pesticide exposure.”

Related Links:

— “Pregnant moms who take folic acid cut autism risk from pesticides,” Ronnie Cohen, Reuters, September 18, 2017.

The New York Times (9/17, A1, Thomas, Ornstein, Subscription Publication) reports that the New York State Attorney General’s office sent letters last week to the state’s three largest pharmacy benefit managers requesting information on “how they were addressing the crisis” with opioids amid questions that insurers are “are limiting access to pain medications that carry a lower risk of addiction or dependence, even as they provide comparatively easy access to generic opioid medications.”

The Times and ProPublica analyzed Medicare prescription drug plans covering 35.7 million people and found access to less-risky or more expensive painkillers was limited, but “almost every plan covered common opioids and very few required any prior approval.”

Related Links:

— “Amid Opioid Crisis, Insurers Restrict Pricey, Less Addictive Painkillers,” KATIE THOMAS and CHARLES ORNSTEIN, New York Times, September 17, 2017.

The AP (9/16, Yen) reported, “Suicide among military veterans is especially high in the western US and rural areas,” researchers from the Department of Veterans Affairs found. The data reveal that “wide state-by-state disparities and suggest social isolation, gun ownership and access to health care may be factors.” The article also cited statistics on suicide rates for veterans versus non-veterans, and quotes a RAND epidemiologist who said the data begs “closer investigation into why suicide rates by veteran status are higher, including the role that opiates play.” The Hill (9/16, Delk) and the Fox News (9/17) website also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “Suicide among veterans highest in western US, rural areas,” HOPE YEN, AP via The Brunswick News, September 16, 2017.

In the New York Times (9/14, Span, Subscription Publication) “The New Old Age” blog, Paula Span writes, “Epidemiologists at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism…reported” that “problem drinking is rising fast among older Americans.”

Researchers arrived at that conclusion after comparing “data from a national survey taken in 2001 and 2002 and again in 2012 and 2013, each time with about 40,000 adults.” The findings were published in the September issue of JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed, “The trajectory over time is remarkable.”

Lead study author and NIAAA epidemiologist Bridget Grant, PhD, and her “team didn’t investigate causes” for late-life drinking, “but she speculates that anxiety caused by the recession, which hit right between the two surveys, may have played a part.”

Related Links:

— “Alcohol Abuse Is Rising Among Older Adults,” Paula Span, New York Times, September 14, 2017.