Bullying May Affect Health In Later Years.

The UK’s Telegraph (6/28, Adams) reports, “Researchers have discovered that teenagers who are ostracised at school are more likely to be at risk of developing heart disease and diabetes when they enter middle age.” And “girls appear much more susceptible to the ruthless social world of adolescence than boys, according to the Swedish study, which followed almost 900 students in the north of the country from 16 to 43.” It was published in the journal PLoS One. “The academics, from the universities of Umea and Stockholm, found those who had the worst time at school socially – being bullied, cast out orf isolating themselves – tended to be at the highest risk of poor health by their early 40s.”

Related Links:

— “Bullied girls ‘suffer poorer health in middle age’, “Stephen Adams, The Telegraph, June 28, 2012.

Study Examines High Rates Of Medical Illness In Patients With BD.

MedWire (6/28, Cowen) reports, “Results from a US study show that more than half of patients with bipolar disorder (BD) have a significant burden of comorbid medical illnesses.” The 264-patient study revealed that “medical comorbidity most commonly affected the musculoskeletal/integumentary (33%), the respiratory (27%), and the endocrinologic/metabolic (25%) systems, and the most common individual conditions were migraine (25%), history of head trauma with loss of consciousness (19%), and hypertension (16%).” In addition, investigators “found that 31% (n=87) of patients were overweight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 25.0-29.9 kg/m2, and 38% (n=105) were obese, with a BMI of more than 30.0 kg/m2.” The findings were presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the New Clinical Drug Evaluation Unit in Phoenix, Arizona.

Related Links:

— “High medical illness rates in bipolar disorder, “Mark Cowen, MedWire News, June 28, 2012.

Failed Attempts At IVF Associated With Anxiety, Depression.

Reuters (6/28, Norton) reports that according to a study published online Jun3 13 in the journal Fertility and Sterility, women who undergo unsuccessful attempts to have a baby through in vitro fertilization (IVF) may be at increased risk for depression or a clinical anxiety disorder in the months immediately following the failed procedure. A second study also appearing online June 13 in the same journal found that women who were anxious and depressed while trying to conceive through natural methods appeared to have about the same chances of becoming pregnant naturally as their less stressed and depressed peers.

Related Links:

— “Failed IVF attempt tied to depression, anxiety, “Amy Norton, Reuters, June 27, 2012.

ABC Report Highlights Growing AD/HD Medication Abuse Among Mothers.

ABC World News (6/26, story 8, 3:50, Stephanopoulos) reported on what it called a “hidden underworld of mothers” who abuse the attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) medication Adderall [amphetamine, dextroamphetamine mixed salts], which some are calling “mother’s new little helper.” Correspondent Dan Harris reported that ABC News received “a wave of anonymous voicemails and e-mails” from women saying they’ve used the medication. “And these women don’t have AD/HD,” Harris added. The report featured interviews with several women who claim to have abused the medication, and showed Marvin Seppala, MD, of the Hazelden Clinic, saying, “We’re seeing an increase in the use of Adderall and other amphetamines by women. A really powerful stimulant, it can cause seizures, strokes, heart attacks, even death.”

Event Being Held In DC Today Will Try To Encourage Veterans With PTSD To Seek Help.

On its website, WUSA-TV Washington (6/27, Brikman) reports, “An event entitled ‘Visible Honor for Invisible Wounds’ will be taking place in Upper Senate Park on Capitol Hill Wednesday morning, June 27th. The idea is to recognize how post traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, severe depression, and survivor’s guilt can wound our veterans as much as roadside bombs or a sniper’s fire.” During the event, there will be “an ‘open mike’ portion of the event in which any active duty service member or veteran can share his or her story, all in an effort to further chip away at the stigma of PTSD and to seek mental health help.”

Related Links:

— “Visible Honor For Invisible Wounds, “Anita Brikman, WUSA9, June 26, 2012.

Report: Virginia Spends $12M Annually On Unnecessary Psychiatric Hospitalizations.

The Washington Post (6/27, Vozzela) reports that in Virginia, “a shortage of group homes and other community-based housing for the mentally ill keeps many patients hospitalized far longer than needed — at significant state expense and possibly in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to a report that will be presented to legislators Thursday.” Specifically, “it costs $214,000 a year, on average, to keep a patient in a state psychiatric hospital, compared with $44,000 a year for community-based housing, according to the report, prepared by the inspector general’s office for the Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.” Currently, “with at least 70 ‘discharge-ready’ patients stuck in state hospitals, the report says, Virginia is spending about $12 million a year on unnecessary psychiatric hospitalizations.”

Related Links:

— “Space in Va. group homes scarce, some mentally ill languish in state care, “Laura Vozzella , The Washington Post, June 26, 2012.

Report Identifies Barriers To Mental Health Services For Latinos.

The Fresno Bee (6/26, Anderson) reports, “Hispanics in the central San Joaquin Valley and the state are not getting the mental-health services they need, a UC Davis report released Monday said.”

In a front-page story, the Sacramento (CA) Bee (6/26, 1A, Craft) reports, “According to Sergio Aguilar-Gaxiola, the study’s lead author and director of the health disparities center, up to 75 percent of Latinos who do seek mental health services opt not to return for a second appointment.” The study, “based on input from more than 550 Latinos, including some in Sacramento, found that the current workforce of psychologists and psychiatrists is ill-equipped to penetrate the disparities and bridge the cultural gulf.” While “the law says mental health services must be provided in native languages of major immigrant groups, the study’s authors found Spanish-speaking professionals few and far between within Latino communities.”

Related Links:

— “UC Davis study: Hispanics shorted on mental-health care, “Barbara Anderson, The Fresno Bee, June 25, 2012.

Study: Prescription Painkiller Abuse On The Rise.

Bloomberg News (6/26, Ostrow) reports, “Taking prescription painkillers without a medical need increased 75 percent from 2002 to 2010, and most users were men, according to the first study to look at who is likely to abuse the drugs and how often it occurs.” A research letter published in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that men and people between the ages 26 and 49 experienced the greatest increase in prescription medicine abuse, and that over 15,500 people died from overdosing on medicines such as oxycodone — more than twice the number recorded in 2002.

MedPage Today (6/26, Walsh) reports, “To see if this skyrocketing rate of fatal overdoses was accompanied by an overall increase in nonmedical use of these painkillers,” researchers “analyzed data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health. … The analysis showed no increase in the number of people reporting any nonmedical use of prescription painkillers, or use on 1 to 200 days in the past year. But the total number of days of use rose by 35% to 612,829,084 in 2010 from 451,031,411 in 2002.”

According to Medscape (6/26, Fox), the study’s lead author “reports that during the study period, the rate of chronic (at least 200 days per year) nonmedical use of the drugs increased significantly (P < .05), although the overall number of people using these drugs for nonmedical purposes did not change." WebMD (6/26) reports that the "study shows the number of people who abused prescription pain killers for more than 200 days in the last year rose by nearly 75% between 2002-03 and 2009-10." However, "estimates for overall past-year abuse have stayed about the same since 2002." Related Links:

— “Prescription Painkiller Abuse Surged In U.S., Study Finds, “Nicole Ostrow , Bloomberg News, June 25, 2012.

Teens Who Spend More Time Being Active Outdoors May Be Healthier, Happier.

HealthDay (6/23, Holohan) reported, “Teens who engaged in more moderate-to-vigorous outdoor activity reported better health and social functioning than their peers who spent hours in front of television and computer screens,” according to a study published in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics. Of the 1,216 teens studied, those “who had the highest perceived health in the study spent an average of 2.5 hours more per day playing sports or doing other high-intensity activity than their least-active counterparts.” What’s more, “youths in the study overall spent an average of 3.3 hours a day playing video games, watching television or doing other sedentary activities, compared with only 2.1 hours in physical activity.”

Related Links:

— “Active, Outdoor Teens Are Happier Teens: Study, “Ellin Holohan, HealthDay, June 22, 2012.

Sickest Mental-Health Patients Ending Up In Jails, Homeless Shelters.

In a lengthy piece in its magazine section, the New York Times (6/24, MM24, Interlandi, Subscription Publication) reported, “Deinstitutionalization, the systematic closure of state psychiatric hospitals, was codified by the Community Mental Health Centers Act of 1963 and supported by patients’ rights laws secured state by state. Chief among those laws were strict new standards: only people who posed an imminent danger to themselves or someone else could be committed to a psychiatric hospital or treated against their will.” However, “in the decades since, the sickest patients have begun turning up in jails and homeless shelters with a frequency that mirrors that of the late 1800s.” Such patients also end up in the emergency department. The article detailed the story of Joseph Interlandi, the article author’s father and a patient with bipolar disorder who was bounced around between the ED, jail cells, and short-term psychiatric hospitals before finally receiving long-term psychiatric help through a community mental-health center.

Related Links:

— “When My Crazy Father Actually Lost His Mind, “Jeneen Interlandi, , June 22 , 2012.