TIME (8/17, Sifferlin) reports a new study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests that “being physically or emotionally abused as a child can increase a woman’s risk of death.” The study did not determine a causal realtion as to why childhood abuse is linked “with a higher risk for death, but the researchers speculate that abuse may heighten women’s risk for mental health issues, like depression, that can take a toll later on.”

NPR (8/17, Hobson) reports the research examined “a government-funded study that” asked roughly 6,200 men and women about their childhood experiences with physical and emotional abuse, tracking them for 20 years. Edith Chen, an author of the study, pointed out in an email that “the link to early death was with self-reported abuse, not abuse confirmed by courts or independently documented in other ways.” Researchers also said it was unclear why the association appeared in women, but not men.

Related Links:

— “Women Who Were Abused As Children Are Likely to Die Earlier,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, August 17, 2016.

Reuters (8/17, Seaman) reports that expectant mothers taking antipsychotics “can continue taking most of those medications without worrying the” medicines “will increase the risk of their newborns having birth defects,” researchers found in a study published online Aug. 17 in JAMA Psychiatry. Investigators arrived at the study’s conclusion after examining “data on over 1.36 million U.S. pregnant women enrolled between 2000 and 2010 in Medicaid.”

HealthDay (8/17, Preidt) reports, “The study focused on the most often used” medicines in both typical and atypical antipsychotic “classes: aripiprazole (Abilify), olanzapine (Zyprexa), quetiapine (Seroquel), risperidone (Risperdal) and ziprasidone (Geodon).” The study authors “reported birth defects in about 3.8 percent of babies born to women who had taken a typical antipsychotic and 4.45 percent whose mothers had taken atypical antipsychotics.” In comparison, “the birth defect rate of babies whose mothers had not taken an antipsychotic” were found to be “3.27 percent.”

Related Links:

— “Most antipsychotic drugs not tied to birth defects,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, August 17, 2016.

HealthDay (8/16, Preidt) reports, “If your significant other is depressed, you are at increased risk for chronic pain,” researchers found after analyzing “data from more than 100,000 people in the UK.” Investigators “found that chronic pain is caused partly by genetics and partly by still-unknown risk factors shared by partners or spouses.” The findings were published online Aug. 16 in PLOS Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Study Finds Links Between Chronic Pain, Depression in Couples,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August , 2016.

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (8/15, Healy) reports that a study published online Aug. 15 in JAMA Pediatrics associates acetaminophen with “behavioral problems in children born to mothers who used it during pregnancy.”

The findings of the 7,796-mother study revealed that “compared to women who reported no acetaminophen use at 18 weeks of pregnancy, those who took the medication at that point of gestation were 42% more likely to report hyperactivity and 31% more likely to report conduct problems in the children they bore.”

Expectant mothers who took the medicine “at 32 weeks of pregnancy were 29% more likely than women who did not to report emotional difficulties in their child at age seven.”

Related Links:

— “Acetaminophen use in pregnancy linked to kids’ behavioral problems,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, August 15, 2016.

Kaiser Health News (8/15) reports a growing number of elderly patients are being prescribed too many medications to treat chronic illnesses, “raising their chances of dangerous drug interactions and serious side effects.”

Furthermore, the piece points out that different drugs are often prescribed by different physicians, “who don’t communicate with each other,” further complicating the situation. Data from the Institute of Medicine show that in 2006, “at least 400,000 preventable ‘adverse drug events’ occur[ed]… in American hospitals.”

Similarly, a 2013 study found that nearly 20 percent of patients discharged from hospitals “had prescription-related medical complications during their first 45 days at home.”

Related Links:

— “‘America’s other drug problem’: Giving the elderly too many prescriptions,” Anna Gorman, Washington Post, August 15, 2016.