Silent Strokes May Be Linked To Memory Loss In Older Patients Without Dementia.

ABC World News (12/29, story 7, 1:45, Muir) reported that "silent strokes" may "explain that increasing memory loss over the years," according to a new study.

        On its website, ABC News (12/30) reports that investigators "looked at 658 participants with an average age of 79 who had no history of dementia." Participants "were administered a test that gauged their memory, language skills and thinking abilities." The "researchers also measured the size of the participants' hippocampus, crucial to the regulation of memory and emotion, and they also administered an MRI brain scan."

        HealthDay (12/30, Mozes) reports, "The brain scans revealed that 174 of the participants had experienced silent strokes, and the investigators found that these seniors did not perform as well on the memory exams." The "finding held regardless of whether the part of the patient's brain responsible for memory (the hippocampus) was found to be relatively small or not." The research was published online in the journal Neurology. WebMD (12/30, Doheny) also covers the story.

Injection Methamphetamine Use May Be Associated With Increased Risk Of Suicide.

Medscape (12/30, Brauser) reports, "Injection methamphetamine (meth) use may be associated with an increased risk for suicidal behavior," according to a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence. "In a cohort study of more than 1800 injection drug users, investigators found that those who injected meth were significantly more likely to attempt suicide than those who injected other illegal substances, including heroin or cocaine." Study lead author Brandon Marshall, PhD, said, "The primary result was that people who were injecting methamphetamine had an 80% increased risk of attempting suicide over the 7-year period; and those who injected frequently were at the greatest risk."

Kansas Plans Medicaid Program Overhaul.

The AP (12/30, Hanna) reports, "Prompted by rising costs that squeeze the state budget, Kansas plans to overhaul its Medicaid program - something making advocates for the needy and health care providers nervous as Gov. Sam Brownback's administration looks for savings." The piece notes that the "administration promises that its changes will achieve the savings without reducing coverage for the disabled, elderly or poor families or cutting payments to the doctors, hospitals, clinics and nursing homes." While "legislators and advocacy groups agree with the goals and see some promise in the initiative," several "remain skeptical that the changes will deliver the pledged savings in one of state government's biggest annual expenditures."

Wyoming State Senator May Introduce Bill To Expand Healthcare Pilot Program.

The AP (12/30) reports, "Wyoming lawmakers must decide early next year whether to continue funding a health care pilot program," called "Healthy Frontiers," "that supporters say could offer the state a cheaper alternative to Medicaid." State Sen. Charles Scott "said he intends to introduce a bill in the legislative budget session that starts in mid-February seeking $24.3 million to expand the program up to 2,000 participants," up from the current group of roughly 85 participants. However, the program's funding is scheduled to stop at the end of next year, and "the budget proposal" Gov. Matt Mead "submitted to legislators in early December doesn't call for any funding for the program for the two-year fiscal period that starts next July."

Ohio Submits Draft Proposal To CMS To Create Medicaid "Health Homes."

The Columbus (OH) Dispatch (12/30, Vardon) reports that Ohio "Gov. John Kasich reached out to the feds last week with one draft proposal for significant Medicaid reform, and his administration soon will release more ideas to implement the changes OK'd in the state's two-year, $55.8 billion budget in June." Kasich's "administration submitted a draft proposal to the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services last week to create Medicaid 'health homes,' designed to better coordinate physical and behavioral health care for people with severe and persistent mental illness." The plan, "if approved...would allow the federal government to cover 90 percent of the cost of care coordination (with a 10 percent state match) for those individuals."

New York Bill Would Require Nurses To Get Bachelor's Degrees.

The Wall Street Journal /AP (12/30, A18, Subscription Publication) reports that in order for newly registered nurses to continue practicing in New York, a new bill would require them to get a bachelor's degree in 10 years. The article notes that because a majority of nurses have two-year associate's degrees, the move is part of a nationwide effort to raise educational standards. The New York State Nurses Association supports the bill, citing statistics that showed that increasing education lowers surgical deaths.

No Agreement On When Colleges Should Call Parents When Their Kids May Be Suicidal.

The AP (12/30, Pope) in a story appearing on at least 17 news websites reports, "The issue of when colleges should notify parents their adult children may be suicidal remains fraught with legal, medical and ethical dilemmas. College policies, state laws and professional codes of conduct vary widely - and occasionally conflict." A "2010 survey of counseling directors found that when a client was considered a 'suicidal risk' but didn't meet the state-law criteria for involuntary hospitalization, 41 percent wouldn't notify anyone else without a signed release from the student" and "only 13 percent said they would notify family; 22 percent said they would notify a superior, and 19 percent said it would depend on the situation." However, Carolyn Wolf, a mental health lawyer who advises college officials, said, "I'm in favor of notifying parents" and "advises parents to remember that FERPA, the federal education privacy law, has clear exceptions for risks to health and safety, as do state laws."

AD/HD Medication Abuse Is Increasing On Oregon Campuses.

The Oregonian (12/30, House) reports, "Dextroamphetamine/amphetamine [Adderall] and its counterparts, including methylphenidate [Ritalin] and the over-the-counter caffeine [Vivarin], are growing in popularity among students who don't have ADHD but use the medications as study tools to stay awake and alert during prolonged cram sessions." It's estimated that "as many as a third of college students have used Adderall and its counterparts without a prescription" and "as the rate of ADHD medication abuse increases, higher education institutions are responding with new policies aimed at reducing the drugs' prevalence on campus." A survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration found that "students who used prescription stimulants were eight times more likely than their counterparts to use cocaine and tranquilizers and five times more likely to abuse pain relievers."

 • Small Study Associates Dietary Patterns With Cognitive Function.
 • Eating Disorders May Continue Into Adulthood.
 • Army Changes TBI Treatment.
 • Synthetic Marijuana Makers "Outfox" Lawmakers In Several States.
 • Venlafaxine May Help Ease Hot Flashes.
 • Locum Tenens Physicians' Role In ACOs Remains Unclear.
 • China Discusses First-Ever Mental Health Law

Small Study Associates Dietary Patterns With Cognitive Function.

The Oregonian (12/29, Rojas-Burke) reports, "Human brains tend to shrink and become less nimble in old age, but healthier eating may slow the process." Researchers have "identified mixtures of nutrients that seem to protect the brain, and other food ingredients that may worsen brain shrinkage and cognitive decline."

        MSNBC /MyHealthNewsDaily (12/29, Brownstein) reported that according to a study published online Dec. 28 in the journal Neurology, "older people with high levels of omega-3 fatty acids and vitamins B, C, D, and E in their blood do better on cognitive tests than those with lower levels." The study also revealed that "trans fats...hurt cognition." Notably, "together, the omega-3s, vitamins, and trans fat levels, as measured by a recently developed blood test, accounted for over 70 percent of the variation in the scores of cognitive tests taken by the study subjects," the study found.

        "In the study, researchers measured levels of more than 30 nutrients in the blood of 104 people with an average age of 87," HealthDay (12/29, Goodwin) reports. "Overall, participants were well-educated, healthy nonsmokers who had relatively few chronic diseases and were free of memory and thinking problems. Researchers also did MRI scans of 42 participants to measure their brain volume."

        WebMD (12/29, Doheny) points out, "The team looked at 30 different nutrient biomarkers. Those most consistently linked to brain health were the vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids, and trans fats." Notably, "the declines in mental and thinking ability were attributable more to age and other risk factors, but diet did seem to play a role. For the variation found in the tests of mental and thinking abilities," the study "found risk factors such as age explained about 46% of the variation. Diet explained less, about 17%," they found. Also covering the story are the UK's Press Association (12/29) and the NPR (12/29, Stein) "The Salt" blog.

        Hippocampal Volume, Brain Infarcts May Independently Contribute To Memory Loss. Medscape (12/29, Jeffrey) reports that according to a study published in the Jan. 3 issue of the journal Neurology, "hippocampal volume and brain infarcts independently contribute to memory loss in elderly people without dementia." Researchers arrived at this conclusion after using "data from high-resolution structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of 658 community-dwelling elderly people aged 65 years and older, and free of dementia at baseline, participating in the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project. Brain images were used to calculate hippocampal and relative brain volumes, as well as assessing cortical and subcortical brain infarcts." This study was supported by the National Institutes of Health, among others.

Eating Disorders May Continue Into Adulthood.

HealthDay (12/29, Thompson) reports, "Unhealthy eating patterns adopted in adolescence or teen years often continue into adulthood, according to a University of Minnesota study published in the Journal of the American Dietetic Association. The study, which followed 2,287 kids as they grew into young adults, found that more than half of the girls had unhealthy eating patterns that continued into their mid- to late 20s." Now, "more and more middle-aged and older people are coming forward to receive treatment for eating problems that began in their youth and have been reignited by adult stress or personal crises," HealthDay points out.

Army Changes TBI Treatment.

The CBS Evening News (12/28, story 7, 2:30, Ward) reported that the US Army is changing treatment for troops that suffer from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Previously, soldiers that suffered mild concussions during battle continued fighting, which "sometimes" caused "serious long-term health issues." Now, all concussions are treated. Army Capt. Amy Gray, an occupational therapist, said, "What we found is within the first 24 hours, if we can get them down, get them a good night's sleep, the symptoms usually go away." Since Gray arrived in Afghanistan last May, she's treated nearly 200 soldiers for TBI and under her care, most have returned to battle within a week.

VA Says Goal Of Ending Homelessness Among Veterans Is Within Reach.

USA Today (12/29, Vogel) reports, "Halfway into an ambitious five-year campaign to end homelessness among veterans, the Department of Veterans Affairs says it has made enough progress that the goal is within reach, even as a new generation of veterans returns from Iraq and Afghanistan." Over the past two and a half years, the VA has aggressively used a "voucher program" to house "more than 33,000 veterans." The VA "did so by changing its longtime policy of requiring homeless veterans to be successfully treated for substance abuse and mental ailments before being given apartments." To curb homelessness among returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans, the VA has allocated $160 million in grants to non-profit community agencies to prevent low-income from falling into homelessness. VA Secretary Eric Shinseki said, "We've learned we can't end homelessness by street rescues alone."

Medicaid Beneficiaries Said To Be Suffering Under Cuts.

The AP (12/29, McCaffrey) reports, "Just as Medicaid prepares for a vast expansion under the federal health care overhaul, the 47-year-old entitlement program for the poor is under increasing pressure as deficit-burdened states chip away at benefits and cut payments to doctors." And for those "who rely on the program -- approaching nearly one in five Americans -- the cuts translate into longer waits for doctors, restrictions on prescription drugs, a halt to vision and dental care, staff cuts at nursing homes and dwindling access to home health care." But "state officials, who are required to balance their budgets, argue they have no choice." The story notes that "Medicaid reimbursement rates already trail those physicians receive for treating Medicare patients and those with private insurance."

States Awarded Bonuses For High CHIP Enrollments.

The Hill (12/29, Pecquet) reports in its "Healthwatch" blog, "The Obama administration on Wednesday awarded 23 states $296 million in bonus payments for exceeding enrollment targets in the Children's Health Insurance Program." In a statement, HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius remarked, "More children now have the advantages health coverage provides. And parents now have the security of knowing their children can get the health care they need without worrying that an illness could leave them with a lifetime of medical bills." Bloomberg News (12/29, Wayne), Reuters (12/29), and Modern Healthcare (12/29, Subscription Publication) also report this story.

Connecticut To Drop Private Insurance Plans From Medicaid.

USA Today /Kaiser Health News (12/29, Galewitz) reports, "Beginning Sunday, Connecticut will jettison its private health plans from Medicaid, the state-federal health insurance program. Instead of paying the companies a set monthly fee to cover the health costs of more than 400,000 children and parents, the state will assume financial responsibility." Reasons cited include a 2009 "report showing Connecticut was overpaying insurers by nearly $50 million a year -- about 6% of total expenses." Other reports found that "the plans were spending too little on health services and published networks of doctors that were misleading, because many doctors refused to accept Medicaid patients when 'secret shoppers' called for appointments."

Synthetic Marijuana Makers "Outfox" Lawmakers In Several States.

The Washington Post (12/29, A1, Jouvenal) reports on its front page, "Just months after Virginia and dozens of other states banned synthetic marijuana, the chemists who make it have found a way to outfox lawmakers." Virginia, "one of about 40 states that regulate spice, in March made it a crime to have or sell spice that contains any of 10 chemicals often used in the mixture," but "spice manufacturers...have altered their recipes just enough to skirt the bans and are again openly marketing spice in stores and on the Web." What's more, "some users report that the new generation of products could be more potent than the original formulas, which have sickened hundreds nationwide and been linked to deaths."

California To Become First State To Try To Curb Abuse Of Over-The-Counter Cold Medicines.

On its front page, the San Francisco Chronicle (12/28, A1, Colliver) reported, "Starting Jan. 1, California will become the first state to try to curb the abuse of over-the-counter cold medicines containing a powerful cough suppressant by requiring consumers to show proof they're over age 18." The "ingredient is called dextromethorphan, or DXM, and it's found in popular medications such as Robitussin-DM, Mucinex-DM, Delsym, Coricidin and NyQuil. Teenagers, and even younger kids, down the drug in excessive quantities to get a euphoric high, an act known as 'robotripping,' 'skittling' or 'dexing.'"

AIDS Deaths In Texas Fall, But More Young Adults Test Positive For HIV.

The Houston Chronicle (12/29, George) reports, "The 2010 annual report on HIV from the Texas Department of State Health Services reveals fewer AIDS deaths statewide but points to trouble ahead with an increasing rate and number of infected young adults 15 to 24." The report found "the number of HIV-positive Texans has increased by 36 percent since 2004 - from 47,986 to 65,077" and also noted "that about one-third of diagnosed Texans do not have HIV-related health care."

Venlafaxine May Help Ease Hot Flashes.

The UK's Telegraph (12/29, Smith) reports, "New research has uncovered that women with hot flushes have differences in the way their blood vessels react to hormones." Investigators "found that antidepressants which affect how the body uses serotonin, the so-called feel-good hormone, also influences how the blood vessels contract and expand in women who suffer with hot flushes." In the study of 134 women, researchers found that hormone replacement therapy "improved hot flushes in three quarters of women, while symptoms improved in 60 per cent of women on Effexor [venlafaxine]."

Locum Tenens Physicians' Role In ACOs Remains Unclear.

American Medical News (12/29, Elliott) reports, "As accountable care organizations sprout up nationwide, locum tenens physicians are likely to find themselves more in demand -- and have more demands placed upon them." Individuals "who work locum and the people who run this part of the health care industry are trying to determine how they might fit into an ACO environment." American Medical News points out that "there is nothing specific in the Medicare shared savings final rule about locum tenens."

China Discusses First-Ever Mental Health Law.

The Detroit Free Press /USA Today (12/29, MacLeod) reports, "The Communist Party does not acknowledge its mental facilities are used to silence critics, but according to numerous human rights groups and Chinese dissidents, China's Communist-led government has for decades incarcerated healthy people in mental wards to suppress dissent." Notably, "the rise in confinements is greatest among petitioners -- the ordinary people who complain about local problems." Now, however, "some Chinese officials are pushing back against the political confinements. Prodded by academics, activists and former patients, China's National People's Congress is discussing what would be the country's first ever mental health law." According to psychiatry professor Wang Yue, of Peking University, "the draft legislation represents both a legal and social milestone for the world's most populous country," despite its shortcomings.

Hospitals May Have Challenges In Using Tablet Systems.

Healthcare IT News /Kaiser Health News (12/29) reports, "iPads have been available since April 2010, but less than one percent of hospitals have fully functional tablet systems, according to Jonathan Mack, director of clinical research and development at the West Wireless Health Institute." Mack attributes this to the fact that "the most popular systems don't yet make apps that allow doctors to use electronic medical records on a tablet the way they would on a desktop or laptop," and that "a complete redesign of the way information is presented" would be expensive. At the University of California-San Diego Health System, doctors "have been using the iPad since it first came out, but a year and a half later, only 50 to 70 – less than 10 percent of physicians -- are using them," citing problems with entering electronic record system information, the distraction of having an iPad, and the fact that it doesn't fit in a lab coat pocket.

 • Study Examines Racial Disparities In Depression Diagnosis In Elderly Americans.
 • US ED Physicians Encounter More Patients In Severe Mental Crisis.
 • States Making Medicaid Cuts To Control Costs.
 • Some US Companies Taking Steps To Help Older Workers Stay Fit.
 • Varenicline Is Being Tested Despite Adverse Events.
 • Physicians, Medicare Officials Say Doc Fix Decision "Less Predictable."
 • New Research Sheds Light On Prosopagnosia