HealthDay (12/25, Haelle) reported that according to a study published online Dec. 1 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, adolescents may be “more likely to start smoking or drinking with each additional symptom they have of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) or conduct disorder.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “data on more than 2,500 teens, aged 12 to 15, in a national survey conducted with their parents between 2000 and 2004.”

Notably, adolescents diagnosed both with AD/HD and with conduct disorder “were more than three times more likely to use tobacco or alcohol, even after accounting for differences in age, race/ethnicity, sex, household income and having a household member who smoked.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD May Raise Teens’ Odds for Smoking, Drinking,” Tara Haelle, HealthDay, December 24, 2014.

On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (12/26, B1, Singer, Subscription Publication) reported that recently the UK suicide-prevention group the Samaritans “introduced a free web app,” called Samaritans Radar, “that would alert users whenever someone they followed on Twitter posted worrisome phrases like ‘tired of being alone’ or ‘hate myself.’”

To some psychiatrists, however, “the notion of consumer apps like Samaritans Radar that would let untrained people parse the posts of individual friends and strangers for possible mental health disorders amounts to medical quackery.”

Meanwhile, some researchers are still mining social media platforms for insight into various health trends and issues. “The National Institutes of Health, for instance, recently committed more than $11 million to support studies into using sites like Twitter and Facebook to better understand, prevent and treat substance abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Risks in Using Social Media to Spot Signs of Mental Distress,” Natasha Singer, New York Times, December 26, 2014.

The Los Angeles Times (12/24, Mohan) “Science Now” blog reports that smartphone use appears to “leave a strong mark” on the somatosensory cortex, the portion of the brain that “processes touch,” according to a study published in the journal Current Biology. For the study, investigators “downloaded 10 days of activity from 26 touch screen users and 11 others who still fumble around with old cellphones (all were right-handed).” Next, “they stimulated the users’ thumbs, index and middle fingers 1,250 times while the subjects were hooked up to an electroencephalogram (EEG), which measures voltage changes from brain activity.”

The New York Daily News (12/24, Engel) reports that researchers “found that activity in the brain regions connected to the thumb and index finger was higher in people who regularly text-message via a touchscreen smartphone compared to those who don’t.” In fact, “the more the person used a smartphone over the last 10 days, the higher activity in the brain.”

Related Links:

— “Does smartphone use smarten up the brain?,” Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times, December 23, 2014.

MedPage Today (12/24, Wallan) reports that according to research presented Dec. 6 at the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry’s annual meeting, “a tobacco treatment program in a psychiatric ward for inpatients with comorbid mental health and substance abuse disorders [SUDs] led to lower rates of alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis use.” The 216-patient study revealed that “compared with patients in a usual care group, patients in a tobacco cessation group were twice as likely to stay off tobacco 1 year later (22% versus 11%), and have lower rates of drinking (22% versus 58%) and cannabis use (18% versus 42%).”

Related Links:

— “Psych Patients Benefit from Smoking Cessation,” Sarah Wickline Wallan, MedPage Today, December 23, 2014.

MLive (12/23, Hicks) reports that according to a study published online Dec. 22 in JAMA Pediatrics, “laws regulating concussion treatment have increased treatment among school-age athletes.” Since passage of the first concussion law in the US “in 2009, states without legislation have seen a 20 percent increase in treatment rates annually.” In the meantime, “states with such laws have seen roughly a 33 percent yearly surge.”

HealthDay (12/23, Preidt) reports that investigators came to this conclusion after examining “data collected from privately insured 12- to 18-year-olds across the United States between 2006 and 2012.”

Related Links:

— “Michigan study: Increased concussion laws, public awareness result in treatment surge,” Justin P. Hicks, MLive, December 22, 2014.

In its continuing “The Cost of Not Caring” series, USA Today (12/23, Szabo) reports in a 2,700-word article that “according to the National Institute of Mental Health, neglect of Americans with serious mental illness costs the nation $444 billion a year – mostly from lost earnings – and consigns millions to lives of suffering, addiction, homelessness or incarceration.”

However, research suggests that “supported housing, which provides a variety of services beyond low-cost apartments, not only reduces homelessness, but also helps participants spend less time in shelters, hospitals and jail.” In addition, “supported employment programs, which provide one-on-one help to people with serious mental illness, have been proved effective in 20 high-quality studies,” in some cases even tripling the rate of employment of people challenged by severe psychiatric illnesses.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Agency has found, however, that just two percent of people in US public mental health systems are getting either of these services.

Related Links:

— “Solutions to woes of mentally ill exist but aren’t used,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, December 22, 2014.

The New Orleans Times-Picayune (12/21, O’Donoghue) reported that according to a report issued by the Pew Charitable Trusts, “Louisiana has decreased government spending on mental health” over the past two fiscal year budget cycles, even though 29 states and the District of Columbia “increased mental health spending during the current fiscal year.” In addition, the advocacy organization Mental Health America “ranked Louisiana as one of the worst states for mental health services and access, according to a recent report.”

Related Links:

— “Most states increase mental health budgets, but not Louisiana, Pew reports,” Julia O’Donoghue, New Orelans Times-Picayune, December 19, 2014.

MedPage Today (12/22, Walker) reports that according to a study published online in the journal Pediatrics, teens appear to be “more likely to engage in substance use and risky behavior if they were exposed to symptoms of maternal depression during their middle childhood years.” The study, which involved “2,910 mother-youth pairs,” revealed that “adolescents who had been exposed to ‘high symptoms’ of maternal depression from ages four to eight, and ‘decreasing symptoms’ as they got older were more likely to engage in ‘nonviolent delinquent behaviors’ (P=0.03) as teenagers than adolescents exposed to a ‘lower level of maternal depressive symptoms.’” Such behaviors could include staying out all night, destroying property or “running away.”

Related Links:

— “Do Depressed Moms Predispose Kids to Behavorial Problems?,” Molly Walker, MedPage Today, December 22, 2014.

In a 1,880-word story titled “Substance Abuse Treatment Often Impossible to Find,” USA Today (12/19, Copeland) reported in its ongoing series called “Mental Illness: The Cost of Not Caring,” that research suggests that “about two-thirds of people who have a substance abuse condition also have a mental health condition, says Ron Manderscheid, executive director of the National Association of County Behavioral Health and Developmental Disability Directors.”

Many substance abusers cannot conquer addiction until they seek professional help for underlying mental illness. Unfortunately, “the lack of treatment options for people with substance addictions and mental illness ‘remains a huge problem in the United States,’ says Frances Levin, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Addiction Psychiatry.”

Dr. Levin added, “Programs need to be set up to recognize general mental health issues as well as attending to substance abuse problems.”

Related Links:

— “Substance abuse treatment often impossible to find,” Larry Copeland, USA Today, December 19, 2014.

The Kansas Health Institute (12/19, Smith) reports that in an article published in the Journal of Special Education, Jason Travers, an assistant professor in the special education department at the University of Kansas, “demonstrates that Hispanic and black children are diagnosed with autism at lower rates than white children.” Instead, many of these children may be diagnosed with “adjustment disorder” or having some sort of “intellectual disability.” Currently, according to statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one out of every 68 youngsters in the US has been diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

Related Links:

— “KU researcher questions lower autism diagnoses among minority children,” Alex Smith, Kansas Health Institute, December 18, 2014.