Reuters (11/7, Rapaport) reports on a study published online in Pediatrics finding that state laws requiring schools to help students return to school after a concussion fail to state what sort of help should be given and do not result in the students receiving sufficient help. Illinois alone has a law setting standards for aid, following guidelines developed by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The study only looked at state laws and did not examine school policies or practices or the experiences of individual students.

HealthDay (11/7, Norton) reports that just eight states have laws regarding students returning to the classroom. The laws do not require any training for teachers, nor do they declare who is responsible for ensuring that the students are helped to return to studies.

MedPage Today (11/7, Basen) reports lead author Monica Vavilala, MD, of the Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center in Seattle, and colleagues wrote that no state law “provided guidance on support of students with persistent postconcussive symptoms.”

Related Links:

— “‘Return-to-Learn’ laws may not help students after concussions,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 7, 2016.

The New York Times (11/7, Pear, Subscription Publication) reports the Obama Administration “is stepping up enforcement of laws that require equal insurance coverage for mental and physical illnesses, a move officials say will help combat an opioid overdose epidemic.” In late October, a White House task force “found that compliance” with Federal mental health parity laws and regulations has been “lagging” and “said insurers needed to understand that coverage for the treatment of drug addiction must be comparable to that for other conditions like depression, schizophrenia, cancer and heart disease.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Enforcing Insurance Law to Help Fight Opioid Abuse,”Robert Pear, The New York Times, November 7, 2016.

In the Washington Post (11/5) “Wonkblog,” Christopher Ingraham wrote, “The autumn shift” from daylight savings “to standard time appears to be closely linked to a jump in depression diagnoses,” researchers found after examining “a database of 185,419 depression diagnoses in Denmark from 1995 to 2012.” After “comparing the rates of depression diagnoses before and after time changes in the spring and fall,” investigators “found that ‘the transition from summer time to standard time were associated with an 11 percent increase…in the incidence rate of unipolar depressive episodes.” The study was published online Oct. 20 in Epidemiology. HealthDay (11/6, Preidt) and Healio (11/4, Oldt) also covered the study.

Related Links:

— “Turning back the clock 1 hour takes a serious toll on your mental health,”Christopher Ingraham, The Washington Post, November 5, 2016.

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.