Kids who were infected with respiratory syncytial virus, better known as RSV, in their first year may be at greater risk for asthma, according to researchers. Their new study looked at the effects of RSV infections of different severities on childhood asthma risk. “For 60 years investigators have repeatedly identified the link between severe RSV and asthma; however, we’ve shown that this link is explained in part by shared heredity to both severe RSV and asthma,” said senior author Dr. Tina Hartert, director of the Center for Asthma and Environmental Sciences Research at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “The solution in our study was to understand the link between RSV and asthma by ensuring all RSV infections would be captured using molecular techniques and post-season serology,” she said in a university news release. Nearly all children have been infected with RSV by age 2, the researchers pointed out. RSV is the leading cause of bronchiolitis, a lower respiratory tract infection with coughing and wheezing in infants and young children. Symptoms are mild in most kids and usually last a week. However, RSV infection can lead to serious illness and death, especially in premature or very young infants and those with chronic lung disease or congenital heart disease. RSV is the most common cause of hospitalizations worldwide due to respiratory issues in the first year of…  read on >  read on >

Treating depression with talk therapy may provide protection against heart disease, new research suggests. As depression lifts, people may begin to engage more in healthy eating and exercise, investigators believe. In a study of nearly 637,000 people who took part in talk therapy offered by the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS) between 2012 and 2020, those whose depression symptoms improved were 12% less likely to develop cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease, stroke and death, researchers found. “It is the first time that such a link is established; however, it is important to note that our study does not prove a causal effect, namely that the lower likelihood of developing cardiovascular disease is caused by the psychological therapy,” said lead author Celine El Baou, a research assistant at the Dementia Research Center of University College London. More research is needed to understand these findings better and the mechanisms involved, which could be biological or linked to lifestyle behaviors, she said. Globally, cardiovascular diseases such as stroke and heart disease are the No. 1 cause of death, claiming 18.6 million people worldwide in 2019, according to the study. “The study suggests that talking therapies for depression may also help in reducing the future risk of cardiovascular disease,” El Baou said. “So it is important that therapies are made as effective and accessible as possible.” Talking…  read on >  read on >

The number of kids who attempted suicide using over-the-counter or easily accessible medications is up sharply, a new study shows. This research spotlights a pediatric mental health crisis, said researchers from the University of Virginia Health System, who reviewed data on reported suicide attempts that were reported to the National Poison Data System in 2021. “This significant increase in suicide attempts during the pandemic surprised us,” said Dr. Christopher Holstege, medical director of the Blue Ridge Poison Center at UVA Health. “We are alarmed at the dramatic increase in suicide attempts in such a young population, which continues to escalate according to our data.” Suspected suicide attempts by poisoning in 10- to 19-year-olds that were reported to poison centers increased by 30% in 2021. Among the younger kids in that age group, those ages 10 to 12, suicide attempts were up 73% compared to 2019. In 13- to 15-year-olds, the rate of suspected suicide attempts by poisoning increased 48.8%. “These findings suggest that the mental health of children and adolescents might still be affected by the pandemic, raising concerns about long-term consequences, especially given that previous attempted suicide has been found to be the strongest predictor of subsequent death by suicide,” the researchers wrote in a paper outlining the findings. Researchers also noted an increase in suicide attempts by girls — up 36.8% between 2019…  read on >  read on >

While overall support for childhood vaccines remains strong, a new UNICEF report documents a significant decline in the public’s faith in the importance of these vaccines. Confidence in childhood immunizations dropped by up to 44 percentage points in some countries during the pandemic, according to the report. Meanwhile, 67 million children missed one or more of their vaccines over three years because of pandemic-related strains on health systems, scarce resources, conflict, fragility and decreased confidence. “At the height of the pandemic, scientists rapidly developed vaccines that saved countless lives. But despite this historic achievement, fear and disinformation about all types of vaccines circulated as widely as the virus itself,” said UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell. “This data is a worrying warning signal. We cannot allow confidence in routine immunizations to become another victim of the pandemic,” Russell said in a UNICEF news release. “Otherwise, the next wave of deaths could be of more children with measles, diphtheria or other preventable diseases.” Perception about the importance of vaccines for children declined by more than one-third in the Republic of Korea, Papua New Guinea, Ghana, Senegal and Japan, according to the “State of the World’s Children 2023: For Every Child, Vaccination.” Only in China, India and Mexico did the perception about the importance of vaccines continue at the same level or increase. People under 35 and women…  read on >  read on >

Suspected suicide attempts linked to marijuana overdoses have been steadily increasing over the past decade, a new study reports. National Poison Data System records show a 17% yearly increase in reports of suicidal people who have been poisoned by using too much cannabis, said co-researcher Tracy Klein, an associate professor of nursing at Washington State University College of Nursing, in Vancouver. Nearly 18,700 cases of suicidal behavior associated with cannabis poisoning were reported to U.S. poison centers between 2009 and 2021, according to the report published online April 19 in JAMA Network Open. Nearly all cases (96%) involved the use of cannabis along with another substance like alcohol, benzodiazepines or other drugs, the study revealed. About 10% of these cases resulted in death, major disability, disfigurement or some other tragic outcome, the results showed. “People could just be misusing multiple substances at the same time and maybe have a preexisting condition like depression or anxiety, where the misuse of those substances really pushes them over the edge,” Klein said. “We are concerned about that because we know that the mental health status of the United States was really compromised during COVID.” These poisonings hit the young and the old particularly hard. Suicides linked to cannabis poisonings doubled among kids aged 5 to 13 in recent years, rising from 1.3% in 2019 to 3.1% in 2021,…  read on >  read on >

For people with epilepsy, living in lower-income neighborhoods is associated with worse mental functioning, new research suggests. For the study, the researchers looked at the memory, thinking ability and mental health of people with epilepsy, and found differences based on where they lived. Brain-health issues were more common among those from disadvantaged areas with fewer educational and employment opportunities, according to a report published online April 19 in the journal Neurology. “Epilepsy research has arguably ignored the potential impact of the social determinants of health in neighborhoods on cognition — factors that have been hiding in plain sight for many years,” said study co-author Robyn Busch, of the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. “Our study shows that these neighborhood social factors are linked to epilepsy outcomes,” Busch said in a journal news release. Epilepsy, a brain disorder, causes recurring seizures. The researchers used a registry of people with temporal lobe epilepsy, the most common adult form of epilepsy. This is associated with a high risk for thinking problems and depressed mood. The study team identified 800 people, average age 38, whose epilepsy was resistant to treatment and who had been evaluated for potential epilepsy surgery. The investigators compared their scores on intelligence, attention, memory, other thinking skills, anxiety and depression. Using participants’ home addresses and the Area Deprivation Index, the researchers determined if each person lived…  read on >  read on >

One in five people who die by suicide experienced intimate partner problems that included divorce, separation, arguments and violence, new research shows. “I think people hear the term intimate partner problems and go straight to intimate partner violence. That is a component of intimate partner problems, but it’s not just about violence,” said study author Lt. Cmdr. Ayana Stanley, who began researching the issue while at the University of Georgia (UGA) College of Public Health. “Romantic partners experience other kinds of relationship stressors, such as general hostility, arguments and jealousy,” said Stanley, who is now a program coordinator in the division of violence prevention at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “By sharing resources for seeking help, we send a strong message that every life has value, there is hope and that seeking help is a sign of strength.” Suicide is a leading cause of death among Americans, with more than 48,000 people dying by suicide in 2021, according to the CDC. For those who had intimate partner problems, it was more common to have other contributing issues, such as mental health problems, recent legal issues, and life stressors including unemployment and family problems, according to the researchers, who culled data from 2003 to 2020. In suicides that did not involve intimate partner problems, the person who died was more likely to be…  read on >  read on >

Patients with a common vascular disease that causes blockages in their leg vessels had both worse symptoms and outcomes if they were Black or poor, new research finds. The study from Michigan Medicine looked at more than 7,000 patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD) who had a lower extremity bypass operation to improve circulation. PAD involves plaque blocking the vessels that carry blood from the heart to the legs. The condition was particularly disabling for Black and poor patients, who had a higher prevalence of chronic limb-threatening ischemia (inadequate blood supply), the most severe form of PAD. In these cases, amputation is often required. In fact, the researchers discovered that these patients were more likely to need an amputation between 30 days and up to one year after bypass surgery than white patients and those who were not socioeconomically disadvantaged. “While we have known that racial and socioeconomic disparities exist for patients with PAD, our study may be the first to show that the severe presentation of these patient populations serves as a mediator to poor outcomes after lower extremity bypass, particularly amputation rates,” said lead study author Dr. Chloé Powell, a vascular surgery resident at the University of Michigan Health Frankel Cardiovascular Center in Ann Arbor. “Health care providers need to recognize the vulnerability of certain subgroups to adverse outcomes and be on alert…  read on >  read on >

Young teens who vape and smoke cigarettes may be setting themselves up to be heavy smokers by the time they are older teens, a new study suggests. The researchers chalked it up to what they called the “entrenchment hypothesis.” “There has been a lot of attention on restricting e-cigarettes, so that they do not serve as a pathway into tobacco initiation,” said senior study author Jeremy Staff, a professor of sociology and criminology at Pennsylvania State University. “Our findings highlight that considering their impacts on youth who initiate smoking at an early age remains important as well.” Staff said, “Among early-smoking teens in both the U.K. and U.S., those who had vaped before age 15 were more likely to be smokers, as well as frequent tobacco smokers, by the time they reached late adolescence.” This study can’t prove that cigarette smoking and vaping cause heavier tobacco smoking in the late teens, only that there appears to be a connection, the researchers noted. E-cigarette use among teens who already smoke early in adolescence generates more harmful patterns of tobacco use later on in adolescence, said lead researcher Brian Kelly, from the department of sociology at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Ind. “Many studies on youth vaping focus on the important goal of prevention of smoking, but less often consider youth who begin smoking early,” Kelly said.…  read on >  read on >