USA Today (3/29, Szabo) reports, “A new study finds that children who receive the full schedule of vaccinations have no increased risk of autism.” The study, which appears “today in the Journal of Pediatrics, is the latest of more than 20 studies showing no connection between autism and vaccines, given either individually or as part of the standard schedule. The paper is the first to consider not just the number of vaccines, but a child’s total exposure to the substances inside vaccines that trigger an immune response.”

Related Links:

— “Full vaccine schedule safe for kids, no link to autism, “Liz Szabo, USA Today, March 29, 2013.

ABC News (3/28, Moisse) reports in its “Medical Unit” blog that a study by Consumer Reports found that “a little research can save you a lot of cash on prescription drugs.” After checking over 200 pharmacies, the magazine found that the cost of a month’s supply of Actos (Pioglitazone), Lexapro (Escitalopram), Lipitor (Atorvastatin), Plavix (Clopidogrel), and Singulair (Montelukast) “varied by as much as $749.” Lisa Gill, prescription drugs editor for Consumer Reports, said, “One of the big takeaways is that you have to ask for the best price and see if your pharmacist will work with you.” Tips for getting the best value include getting generics, asking for a better deal, going to rural pharmacies, seeking discounts for multi-month supplies, and checking for discount generic-drug programs.

CBS News (3/29, Jaslow) reports the magazine found “Costco had the lowest prescription prices”; for instance Lipitor cost $17 for a month’s supply there, compared to $126 at CVS. Similarly, “a month supply of generic Lexapro cost $7 a month at Costco and $126 at CVS, with the shoppers also reporting high prices on average at grocery stores, Rite Aid and Walgreens.”

Also covering this story are Reuters (3/29, Sherman), HealthDay (3/29), the Cleveland Plain Dealer (3/29, Suchetka, 315K), and the Puget Sound Business Journal (3/29, Subscription Publication).

Related Links:

— “Cheap Prescription Drug Secrets Revealed By Consumer Group, ” Katie Moisse, ABC News, March 28, 2013.

USA Today (3/28, Groppe) reports, “Even as the Senate prepares to take up legislation next month to include private sales among the types of gun purchases that require a background check, there remains a great variation among states on the submission of mental health records to the federal background-check database.” What’s more, “the federal government can’t require states to submit records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS).” And, while “the Justice Department has distributed grants to states to help them improve record keeping,” the group “Mayors for Illegal Guns said most states aren’t eligible because they haven’t created a way for someone to petition to get their mental health records out of the database.”

Related Links:

— “Checking gun buyers for mental illness hinges on states, “Maureen Groppe, USA Today, March 28, 2013.

Medscape (3/29, Brooks) reports, “Untreated symptoms of depression can negate the anti-inflammatory benefits typically associated with physical activity and light to moderate alcohol consumption,” according to a study published online March 25 in the journal Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having “assessed the moderating effect of depressive symptoms, using the Beck Depression Inventory, on leisure-time physical activity and light to moderate alcohol intake in 222 healthy nonsmoking men and women aged 18 to 65 years with no history or diagnosis of psychiatric conditions.” Interestingly, “the effect seems to be specific to inflammation as measured by CRP, given that depression did not affect other health markers, such as fasting triglyceride or cholesterol levels, the investigators” noted.

HealthDay (3/28, Preidt) reports, “Adult diabetes patients who don’t understand basic health information are less likely to continue taking newly prescribed antidepressants,” according to a study published in the March issue of the Journal of General Internal Medicine. “The nearly 1,400 patients in the study were followed for 12 months after being prescribed an antidepressant. Most of the patients filled the prescription at least once, but 43 percent did not refill the prescription and nearly two-thirds had stopped taking their antidepressant medication by the end of the study.” The study authors found that nearly three-quarters (72%) of the patients had difficulties comprehending basic instructions regarding their health, a finding they termed “poor health literacy.” It was this group of patients that had a lesser likelihood of taking antidepressants prescribed for them.

Related Links:

— “Poor ‘Health Literacy’ Keeps Patients From Taking Meds, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 27, 2013.

On its website, CBS News (3/27, Jaslow) reports, “Too much television may turn a five-year-old into a real problem child by the time they turn seven, according to a new study” published online March 25 in the Archives of Disease in Childhood. “British researchers looked at a representative sample of over 11,000 kids born between 2000 and 2002, and found those who watched television longer than three hours per day were more likely to develop antisocial behaviors such as fighting, stealing or bullying.”

HealthDay (3/27, Preidt) reports, “For the study, the investigators analyzed data gathered from about 11,000 children in the United Kingdom who were born between 2000 and 2002. When the children were ages five and seven, their mothers filled out a questionnaire designed to assess how well-adjusted the children were, and also provided information about the amount of time their children spent at age seven watching TV and playing computer or electronic games.” Then, “after taking into account other factors, such as parenting and family dynamics, the researchers concluded that there was a significant association between watching TV for three or more hours a day at age five and a ‘very small’ increased risk of antisocial behavior by age seven.”

MedPage Today (3/27, Struck) reports that the researchers found no “link between behavior problems and time spent playing video games,” however. “Further, ‘we did not find strong evidence for effects of TV or electronic games use on attentional problems,’ they wrote.”

Related Links:

— “Over 3 hours of television a day may make kids more antisocial, “Ryan Jaslow, CBS News, March 26, 2013.

USA Today (3/27, Ritger) reports that, according to “the 2012 National Survey of Counseling Center Directors (NSCCD)…approximately 2.2 million students across the country sought professional counseling assistance” in 2012. “The annual survey included 293 counseling centers, which represent 2.7 million students who are eligible for counseling services at their institutions.” In addition, the survey “found that the number of students seeking help has increased in recent years and 88% of directors said accommodations for more students with serious psychological problems has posed staffing problems.” The article points out that a number of counseling centers have no psychiatrists permanently on staff.

Related Links:

— “University mental-health resources strained under increased need, “Clara Ritger, USA Today, March 26, 2013.

The Los Angeles Times (3/26, Mohan, Times) reports, “People who are socially isolated are more likely to die prematurely, regardless of their underlying health issues, according to a study of the elderly British population.” The study’s “findings, published online Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, showed that when mental and physical health conditions were factored out, the lack of social contact continued to lead to early death among 6,500 men and women tracked over a seven-year period.”

Related Links:

— “Social isolation increases risk of early death, study finds, “Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, March 26, 2013.

HealthDay (3/26, Preidt) reports, “Having regular family suppers is good for teens’ mental health,” according to a study published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after having “examined data from about 26,000 adolescents, aged 11 to 15, who took part in a 2010 study on health behaviors in school-aged children in Canada.” Notably, “the positive effects of family mealtime were the same regardless of gender, age or family income,” the study found.

Related Links:

— “Family Meals Nourish Teens’ Mental Health: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 25, 2013.