Healio (8/21, Oldt) reports, “Risks for head injuries and traumatic brain injuries [TBI] were significantly higher among adults newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease who recently began using antidepressants,” researchers found after conducting “a matched cohort study of 10,910 new antidepressant users and 21,280 matched nonusers between 2005 and 2011.” The findings were published Aug. 1 in Alzheimer’s Research & Therapy.

Related Links:

— “Antidepressant use in Alzheimer’s disease increases risk for head injury, TBI,” Taipale H, et al., Healio, August 21, 2017.

HealthDay (8/18, Preidt) reported that research published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggests “proton pump inhibitors do not appear to increase Alzheimer’s disease risk.” Investigators analyzed “data from Finland on nearly 71,000 Alzheimer’s disease patients and nearly 283,000 people without the disease.”

The researchers “found that use of the drugs was not associated with an increased risk of Alzheimer’s, even among those who took a higher dose or used the drugs for more than three years.”

Related Links:

— “Popular Heartburn Drugs Don’t Raise Risk of Alzheimer’s: Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 18, 2017.

Reuters (8/17, Rapaport) reports that research suggests “men with gambling addictions are more likely than their peers to have endured childhood traumas like physical abuse or violence at home, and treatment needs to address this underlying stressor.”

In the study of more than 3,000 men, investigators found that “compared with men who rarely if ever placed wagers, the men with a pathological addiction to gambling were more than twice as likely to have witnessed violence at home or to have experienced physical abuse or assault growing up.”

Additionally, “they were…more than three times as likely to have suffered a serious or life-threatening injury as” children. The findings were published in Addictive Behaviors.

Related Links:

— “Adult gambling addiction tied to childhood trauma,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, August 17, 2017.

The New York Times (8/17, Bakalar, Subscription Publication) “Well” blog reports that research indicates “suicide rates are higher in rural counties…and the reason is firearm use by men.” The findings were published in the American Journal of Public Health.

Kaiser Health News (8/17) reports that “in 2015, rural communities saw 19 people per 100,000 kill themselves, compared with 11 per 100,000 in urban areas, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s injury statistics database.” Investigators “analyzed a sample of about 6,200 Maryland residents, age 15 and older, and found that when gun-related suicides were excluded, there was no significant difference in rates between rural and urban areas.”

Healio (8/17) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Guns Play Oversize Role in Rural Suicides,” NICHOLAS BAKALAR, New York Times, August 17, 2017.

U.S. News & World Report (8/15, Levine) contributor David Levine discusses how to safely stop using antidepressants. Levine writes that “deciding to go off antidepressants ‘should be considered thoughtfully and made with the support of your physician or therapist to make sure you’re not stopping prematurely,’ according to Harvard Health Publications, from Harvard Medical School.”

However, “There may in fact be no need to stop.” Dr. Anita Everett, president of the American Psychiatric Association, said, “People have been on antidepressants for 20 or 30 years, with no evidence of any harm.”

Related Links:

— “How to Stop Antidepressants Safely,” David Levine, U.S. News & World Report, August 15, 2017.