Kaiser Health News (7/11, Ostrov) discusses and dubunks four myths about mental illness. The article points out that “nearly 20 percent of American adults will suffer from a mental illness at some point in a given year, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.”

Related Links:

— “Busting Myths About Mental Illness,” Barbara Feder Ostrov, Kaiser Health News, July 11, 2016.

US News & World Report (7/11, Leonard) reports that research indicates “state laws that require health insurance companies to cover autism treatment still aren’t reaching the vast majority of children with the disorder.” The findings were published in JAMA Pediatrics. Investigators “found that in states without insurance mandates, the treated prevalence of autism was 1.6 per 1,000 children, compared with 1.8 per 1,000 children in states with insurance mandates.” Although “the difference represents an increase in treated prevalence of 12.7 percent, the higher total still makes up only a small fraction of the” CDC’s “estimate of 15 in 1,000 children who have autism.”

HealthDay (7/11) reports that since Indiana first implemented insurance mandates 15 years ago, “43 other states have also made autism treatment more accessible to families that couldn’t afford it.”

Related Links:

— “Do Autism Laws Help Kids?,” Kimberly Leonard, US News & World Report, July 11, 2016.

HealthDay (7/11) reports several common operations can slightly increase a patient’s risk of becoming addicted to opioids, according to a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine. Researchers examined the number of opioid prescriptions patients filled before and after 11 common operations in order to determine how many patients became addicted to opioids following surgery.

MedPage Today (7/11, Fiore) reports the 11 procedures that the study focused on were: “total knee arthroplasty, total hip arthroplasty, laparoscopic cholecystectomy, open cholecystectomy, laparoscopic appendectomy, open appendectomy, cesarean delivery, functional endoscopic sinus surgery [FESS], cataract surgery, transurethral prostate resection [TURP], and simple mastectomy.” Researchers found that some of the procedures, including total knee arthroplasty, laparoscopic cholecystectomy [gall bladder removal], and cesarean delivery, increased patients’ risk for becoming addicted to opioids, while there was no increased risk of opioid addiction for patients who underwent “cataract surgery, laparoscopic appendectomy, FESS, and TURP.”

Related Links:

— “Common Surgeries Raise Risk for Opioid Dependence: Study,” HealthDay staff, HealthDay, July , 2016.

In a more than 1,200-word article in “The Upshot,” the New York Times (7/8, SR7, Kolata, Subscription Publication) reported that “something strange is going on in medicine,” as many “major diseases, like colon cancer, dementia and heart disease, are waning in wealthy countries, and improved diagnosis and treatment cannot fully explain it.” According to the Times, while “scientists marvel at this good news, a medical mystery of the best sort,” others “are puzzled.”

Related Links:

— “http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/10/upshot/a-medical-mystery-of-the-best-kind-major-diseases-are-in-decline.html,” Gina Kolata, New York Times, July 8, 2016.

The New York Times (7/11, Peachman) reports that a study release today in the journal Pediatrics finds that “many teenagers who never would have smoked cigarettes are now ‘vaping’ with flavored e-cigarettes, leading to a new generation using nicotine at rates not seen since the 1990s.” According to University of Southern California researchers, “e-cigarettes do not appear to have made a dent in regular cigarette use,” and “the rate of teenagers using nicotine — either through tobacco cigarettes or e-cigarettes — is on the rise” at 14%, which is the highest it has been since 1995.

Related Links:

— “More Nonsmoking Teens Inhaling Flavored Nicotine Through Vaping,” RACHEL RABKIN PEACHMAN, New York Times, July 11, 2016.