The Los Angeles Times (8/7, Holland) reports in a piece focused on alleviating homelessness in greater Los Angeles that approximately “half of homeless people with severe mental illness also have problems with alcohol or drugs,” homelessness researcher Dennis Culhane, PhD, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, has found. Substance use “does not cause severe mental illness,” however. Instead, “homeless people with untreated mental illness” use substances to medicate themselves to alleviate symptoms.

Related Links:

— “Q&A Mental illness and homelessness are connected. But not how you might think,” Gale Holland, Los Angeles Times, August 7, 2017.

Reuters (8/7, Rapaport) reports, “Middle-aged people with risk factors for heart attacks and stroke may be more likely to develop dementia in old age than people with healthy cardiovascular systems,” researchers concluded. The study revealed that smoking, diabetes, hypertension, and prehypertension were associated with “higher odds of dementia.”

HealthDay (8/7, Thompson) reports that “investigators tracked nearly 15,800 participants in the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) study,” which is “a US National Institutes of Health-funded project designed to track the effect of hardened arteries on people’s long-term health.” All participants were followed for about 25 years. The findings were published online Aug. 7 in JAMA Neurology. Healio (8/7, Miller) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Heart disease risk in middle age tied to dementia later,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, August 7, 2017.

Healio (8/4) reported, “Clozapine use in treatment-resistant schizophrenia was associated with lower all-cause mortality and self-harm rates,” researchers found after evaluating “a population-based cohort of 2,370 individuals with treatment-resistant schizophrenia from January 1996 until death, first episode of self-harm, emigration, or June 2013.” The findings were published online July 28 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “Mortality, self-harm lower with clozapine use in schizophrenia,” Wimberley T, et al., Healio, August 4, 2017.

The Washington Post (8/4, Chandler) reported, “At least one in seven women experience anxiety or depression during pregnancy or in the first year after birth,” figures indicate. Still, “maternal depression remains vastly underdiagnosed and undertreated, with just 15 percent of women affected seeking professional help.” In 2015, “the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) recommended…that women be screened at least once for depression during pregnancy and again in the postnatal period.” In 2010, the American Academy of Pediatrics “recommended that pediatricians screen mothers for postpartum depression at well-baby visits during the first six months.”

Related Links:

— “Maternal depression is getting more attention — but still not enough,” Michael Alison Chandler, Washington Post, August 4, 2017.

The New York Times (8/4, Span, Subscription Publication) reported on the social isolation that often results when caregivers focus their energies on caring for individuals with dementia. The article said the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias Family Support Program at New York University, which offers counseling and support groups, “has been adopted throughout New York and in several other states” with success. Moreover, according to the article, “other initiatives, like Savvy Caregiver and REACH, have demonstrated similar effectiveness,” and some “program developers are also testing online versions.”

Related Links:

— “Caregiving Is Hard Enough. Isolation Can Make It Unbearable.,” Paula Span, New York Times, August 4, 2017.