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Archive for month: April, 2016

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High-Risk College Sports

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JAMA

More than 200 000 college athletes are injured in competition or practice each year, with men’s football and wrestling posing the highest risks, according to data that schools report to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA).

A recent analysis of the NCAA data showed that during the 5 academic years from 2009 to 2014, an estimated 1 053 370 injuries occurred during 176.7 million athlete exposures, measured as a single athlete’s participation in 1 competition or practice (Kerr ZY et al. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2015;64[48]:1330-1336).

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When Patients Are Close-Lipped About Memory Problems

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JAMA

March 8, 2016

Physicians can’t count on patients to raise concerns about memory loss at routine checkups, even when memory lapses infringe on daily living.


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Screening for Depression

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JAMA

January 26, 2016

WHY ASK ABOUT DEPRESSION?

Depression is a major cause of disability among adults in the United States. It affects not only individuals but also their families, children, and work environments. Screening for depression can lead to earlier diagnosis of the illness, which leads to earlier treatment.

Screening for depression refers to medical professionals routinely asking about symptoms of depression, even if their patients do not mention them. Depression symptoms include feeling sad, hopeless, tired, distracted, or not interested in activities that would normally interest you. Sometimes patients do not feel comfortable bringing up these symptoms with their doctors unless they are directly asked about them. It is also common for depression to present with physical symptoms, such as headaches, back pain, or abdominal pain. These symptoms can make detecting the underlying issue of depression difficult unless a health care professional directly asks about it.

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Light Therapy Improves Nonseasonal Major Depression

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JAMA

January 26, 2016

Bright light treatment either alone or combined with the antidepressant fluoxetine hydrochloride was an effective and well-tolerated treatment for adults with nonseasonal major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a recent clinical trial (Lam RW et al. JAMA Psychiatry. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2015.2235 [published online November 18, 2015]).

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Screening for Autism Spectrum Disorder

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JAMA

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) has published new recommendations on screening for autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

February 16, 2016

WHAT IS AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER?

Autism spectrum disorder is a disorder of brain development in children. It affects a child’s behavior and his or her ability to interact with others. Children with ASD have trouble communicating with and relating to others and may have different interests than children without ASD. Some signs and symptoms of ASD include avoiding eye contact, not playing with other children, repetitive behaviors, language difficulties, and showing an intense focus on certain objects while having no interest in other things. Autism spectrum disorder can range from mild to severe. Symptoms of ASD are usually first seen in the second year of life but can start earlier or later. The February 16, 2016, issue of JAMA contains the new USPSTF recommendations on screening for ASD.

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Opioid Overdoses Continue to Climb

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JAMA

Fatal drug overdoses in the United States reached an all-time high in 2014, driven largely by heroin and prescription opioid pain reliever abuse. The CDC’s recent analysis of mortality data found that of the 47 055 drug overdose deaths in 2014, 61% involved opioids, a 14% increase from the previous year (Rudd RA et al.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2016;64[50-51]:1378-1382).The rise in opioid overdoses has tracked an increase in prescriptions for opioid pain relievers, which have quadrupled since 1999. Since 2000, opioid deaths have surged by 200%, affecting adults of all ages, races, and genders. Overdose deaths from synthetic opioids (not including methadone) increased by 80% from 2013 to 2014. Illicitly produced fentanyl, a short-acting opioid, is suspected in many of those deaths.

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The Proposal for Smoke-Free Public Housing Benefits, Challenges, and Opportunities for 2 Million Residents

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JAMA

March 15, 2016

Tobacco use causes an estimated 480 000 deaths per year in the United States; of these, 41 000 are attributable to secondhand smoke exposure among nonsmokers.1 Secondhand smoke exposure is associated with serious health problems in infants and children, including respiratory tract infections, ear infections, more frequent and severe asthma attacks, and sudden infant death syndrome.1,2 The US Surgeon General has concluded that there is no risk-free level of secondhand smoke exposure and that elimination of smoking indoors is critical to protect nonsmokers.2

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Despite Potential Health Benefits of Maternity Leave, US Lags Behind Other Industrialized Countries

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JAMA

February 16, 2016

The United States and Papua New Guinea usually aren’t mentioned in the same sentence, but they have at least 1 unlikely thing in common. They’re the only 2 countries worldwide that don’t guarantee paid maternity leave, according to the International Labour Organization, a United Nations agency, which recommends at least 18 weeks of maternity leave (http://bit.ly/1TOKuAW; http://bit.ly/1RQTGXh).

In contrast, US working women on average reported being eligible for 9 weeks of maternity leave, with only 3.7 weeks of that fully paid or partially paid, according to the government’s Infant Feeding Practices Study II, conducted in 2005-2007 (http://1.usa.gov/1n3jqUx). Low-wage workers are even less likely to have access to paid family leave through their employers, which includes maternity leave, relative to high-wage workers—5% vs 22% (http://1.usa.gov/1MgaGPw).

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Cancer Rate Dips as PSA Tests Drop

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JAMA

February 9, 2016,

Thirty states have met the Healthy People 2020 goal to reduce colorectal cancer cases to 39.9 per 100 000 population or fewer, and 27 states reached the cervical cancer target of no more than 7.2 cases per 100 000 females, according to a CDC analysis of 2012 cancer registry data.

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African Americans at higher dementia risk than other racial groups

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Reuters

Mar 10, 2016

Reuters Health – Dementia afflicts black people and American Indians more than other racial groups in the U.S., according to a recent study highlighting dramatic disparities in the prevalence of the disease.

Researchers looked at six different racial and ethnic groups – African Americans, American Indians and Alaska natives, Hispanics, Pacific islanders, Asian Americans and whites.

Dementia rates varied widely, with blacks 65 percent more likely to develop the disorder than Asian Americans, the study found.

“The fact that our heterogeneous groups of Asian Americans as a whole had a markedly lower risk is illuminating and speaks to the fact that we need to understand why so we can help lower the risk for everyone,” said senior study author Dr. Rachel Whitmer, an epidemiologist with Kaiser Permanente and the University of California, San Francisco.

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