MedPage Today (11/4, Kneisel) reported that research suggests “amyloid brain scans can change diagnosis and treatment choice in patients with cognitive impairment.” However, “the researchers cautioned that the effect of amyloid PET scanning on morbidity and mortality, as well as its cost-effectiveness, remains to be assessed.” The findings of the 228-patient study were published online in JAMA Neurology.

Related Links:

— “Amyloid Scans Change Dementia Diagnoses,”Kate Kneisel, MedPage Today, November 4, 2016.

The San Diego Union-Tribune (11/1, Prine) reports that according to a new “report from the federal Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration,” wives of military service members appear to be “more likely than their civilian peers to abuse prescription medications meant to treat anxiety,” attention-deficit/hyperactivity “disorder and other psychological problems.” Additionally, military wives may be “more likely than other married women to suffer from mental illness, consume liquor and binge drink, according to the analysis.”

Related Links:

— “Report: military wives more likely to suffer mental illness, alcohol abuse,” CARL PRINE, San Diego Union-Tribune, November 2, 2016.

Medwire News (11/2, McDermid) reports investigators “say that physicians should be alert for worsening depression in patients with type 1 diabetes, after finding it to be associated with poor metabolic control.” The study included “313 patients, aged 28 years on average, 258 of whom participated in all five annual follow-up assessments.” The findings were published online Oct. 27 in Diabetologia.

Related Links:

— “Worsening depression flags poor glycemic control in type 1 diabetes,” Eleanor McDermid, MedWire News, November 2, 2016.

HealthDay (11/2, Thompson) reports, “Young adults who are problem drinkers tend to suffer from more health problems later in life than non-drinkers, even if they conquered their alcoholism years earlier,” researchers found after reviewing “the long-term health records of over 600 US male veterans, about half of whom had a drinking problem in their youth.” The findings were published in the November issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol & Drugs.

Related Links:

— “Heavy Drinking While Young May Mean Hefty Health Tab Later,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 2, 2016.

HealthDay (11/2, Thompson) reports, “Subtle feelings of loneliness might warn of impending Alzheimer’s disease in older folks,” researchers say after finding that “healthy seniors with elevated brain levels of amyloid – a type of protein fragment associated with Alzheimer’s disease – seem more likely to feel lonely than people with lower levels of amyloid.”

Healio (11/2, Oldt) points out, “Cognitively normal older adults with higher cortical amyloid burden or apolipoprotein E 4 were more likely to report loneliness, suggesting it may be a neuropsychiatric symptom of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease,” researchers theorized after conducting “cross-sectional analyses of data from the Harvard Aging Brain Study for 79 community-dwelling participants” in which “cortical amyloid burden was measured by Pittsburgh Compound B-positron emission tomography (PiB-PET).”

The findings were published online Nov. 2 in JAMA Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying editorial observed that the study’s conclusions merit “replication in larger samples and longitudinal designs.”

Related Links:

— “Could Loneliness Be an Early Sign of Alzheimer’s?,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, November 2, 2016.