Citing National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism statistics, the Wall Street Journal (6/29, Ward, Subscription Publication) reports that personalized feedback through electronic means, text message or the Web, may be able to reduce alcohol intake among students. The Wall Street Journal adds that the electronic interventions may mimic in-person techniques, which have about a 13 percent success rate in reducing drinking.

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— “How to Cut Student Drinking,” Lisa Ward, Wall Street Journal, June 29, 2015.

In a 1,000-word article, Prevention Magazine (6/27, Corbett) reported that a 2015 report released by the National Institutes of Health and published in JAMA Psychiatry found that “nearly one-third of American adults at some point in their life have” an alcohol use disorder, “and only 20% seek treatment.”

Related Links:

— “6 Sneaky Signs You Drink Too Much,” Holly C. Corbett, Prevention, June 26, 2015.

In a four-minute segment, NBC Nightly News (6/28, story 8, 4:10, Quintanilla) reported that last year, the VA was “rocked by allegations with problems in its medical system, including long waits for patient care,” while “another controversy” was in Wisconsin, where allegations from whistle blowers claimed that the “chief of staff and other medical personnel have been overmedicating” psychiatric patients. The piece interviewed the father of a former Marine who died from “mixed drug toxicity” seven years ago, and added that the VA has started an initiative to reduce narcotics given to patients with mental health disorders.

Related Links:

— “Families of Two Vets Accuse Wisconsin VA Center of Over-Prescribing [VIDEO],” , http://www.nbcnews.com/nightly-news/video/families-of-two-vets-accuse–wisconsin-va-center-of-over-prescribing-472684611703, June 28, 2015.

MedPage Today (6/26, Minerd) reports, “Women taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) to treat menopausal symptoms are up to 76% more likely to break a bone,” according to a study published in Injury Prevention. After studying “more than 137,000 women ages 40 to 64 with no mental health issues who started SSRIs between 1998 and 2010,” researchers also found that “the increased risk persists for at least five years following initiation of SSRI treatment, suggesting that shortening treatment could reduce the risk.” The National Institute of Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging supported the study.

Related Links:

— “Antidepressants Linked to Bone Fractures in Menopausal Women,” Jeff Minerd, MedPage Today, June 25, 2015.

In its “Sleepless in America” special series, NBC Nightly News (6/24, story 9, 2:45, Holt) reported, “The CDC has called lack of sleep a public health epidemic, and most sleep experts say all our digital devices we’re taking into the bedroom are taking a toll on getting a good night’s rest.” NBC News correspondent Hallie Jackson explained, “Experts say it’s no coincidence 95 percent of us look at some kind of screen within an hour of bedtime and 85 percent have trouble falling asleep.” Blue light emitted from “screens send[s] a signal it’s still daylight, triggering a surge of energy and blocking the melatonin that makes us sleepy.” Therefore, it’s “no wonder then that with the device on nearly every nightstand one in three people sleeps less than six hours a day, raising the risk for diabetes, heart disease, obesity and depression.”

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— “,” Hallie Jackson, NBC Nightly News, June 24, 2015.

TIME (6/25, Park) reports that a study published online June 24 in the journal Neurology suggests that Alzheimer’s disease may begin 18 years before diagnosis. For the study, researchers “followed 2,125 elderly people with an average age of 73 and who did not [have] dementia,” testing the participants “every three years” on their “mental skills,” then comparing “these results over time.”

HealthDay (6/25, Dallas) reports that “after the first year, those with lower test scores were about 10 times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those with the best scores.” What’s more, “these odds increased as the scores dropped below average.” Lower scores on memory and thinking tests may “serve as a ‘red flag’ for the progressive brain disease up to 18 years before it can be diagnosed, the study authors” concluded.

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s May Begin 20 Years Before Symptoms Appear,” Alice Park, Time, June , 2015.

The Orange County (CA) Register (6/24, Marcos) reports, “According to the National Institute of Mental Health, about 2.2 million American adults suffer from” obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The American Psychiatric Association’s “2014 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders updated OCD to its own category.”

Related Links:

— “‘Normal’ often serious for those with obsessive compulsive disorder,” Angie Marcos, Orange County Register, June , 2015.23

USA Today (6/24, Hughes) reports in continuing coverage on a study published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence on June 23 where researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse measured how “combined alcohol and marijuana use impairs drivers more than consuming just one or the other.” The study “examined drivers’ ability to stay within their lane after smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol and smoking and drinking in combination.”

The study “found that people with of 13.1 nanograms per liter of THC” had “similar driving impairment to someone with a .08 blood-alcohol level.” The article adds, “this study for the first time measures precisely how impaired users become when they smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, said co-author Marilyn Huestis, chief of chemistry and drug metabolism at the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Study analyzes how much pot impairs drivers,” Trevor Hughes, USA Today, June 23, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (6/24, Kaplan) reports in “Science Now” that researchers reviewed studies testing the effectiveness of medical marijuana on 10 different conditions and concluded that “there’s very little reliable evidence to support the drug’s use,” according to a review published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

While the review found “moderate-quality evidence” for the use of medical marijuana to treat “chronic neuropathic pain or cancer pain,” it also found that “trials testing the pain-relieving effects of medical marijuana in people with fibromyalgia, HIV-associated sensory neuropathy, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other conditions did not show that it worked,” only “low-quality evidence” that medical marijuana could “relieve nausea and vomiting in patients undergoing chemotherapy, that it could stimulate appetite in people with HIV to help them gain weight, that it could help people with insomnia and other sleep disorders get more rest, and that it could reduce the severity of tics in people with Tourette syndrome,” and no reliable evidence that medical marijuana was useful to treat depression, anxiety disorders, psychosis, or to reduce eye pressure for patients with glaucoma.

According to CBS News (6/23, Welch), the JAMA study also found “an increased risk of adverse side effects, including dizziness, dry mouth, nausea, fatigue, somnolence, euphoria, vomiting, disorientation, drowsiness, confusion, loss of balance, and hallucination.”

Related Links:

— “Most uses of medical marijuana wouldn’t pass FDA review, study finds,” Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2015.

Reuters (6/23, Rapaport) reports that adolescents with psychiatric disorders appear to have a decreased likelihood of finishing high school or college, or of establishing lucrative careers, according to a review of 27 studies published online June 22 in Pediatrics.

MedPage Today (6/23) reports that the review defined “mental health disorders…as depressive disorders, AD/HD, anxiety disorders, conduct disorders, and undiagnosed psychiatric conditions.” The review found “the most significant association between adolescent mental health and education” to be the “failure to complete secondary school.” HealthDay (6/23, Haelle) and LiveScience (6/23, Nierenberg) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Mentally ill teens struggle with school and work as adults,” Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, June 22 2015.