Lifestyle « Weekly Gravy

Urgent care clinics are handing out fistfuls of antibiotics, steroids and opioids for conditions these drugs won’t help, a new study says. “Previous studies had shown that patients continue to receive antibiotics for diagnoses where they may not be indicated, such as for a viral respiratory infection, especially in urgent care settings,” said co-lead researcher Dr. Shirley Cohen-Mekelburg, an assistant professor of internal medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School. “Our findings reveal that this trend of inappropriate prescribing includes other classes of drugs — including glucocorticoids — and a variety of conditions,” Cohen-Mekelburg added in a news release. For the study, published July 22 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers analyzed health care data for more than 22.4 million urgent care visits that occurred between 2018 and 2022. More than 12% of those visits resulted in a prescription for antibiotics, 9% in a steroid prescription and 1% in a scrip for opioids. The research team then looked to see how many prescriptions were handed out for health conditions the drugs aren’t meant to treat. Among the inappropriate prescriptions, researchers found: Antibiotics prescribed for more than 30% of patients with ear infections, nearly 46% of patients with urinary symptoms and 15% of patients with bronchitis. Steroids prescribed for nearly 24% of patients with a sinus infection, 41% of patients with bronchitis and 12%… read on > read on >

Fewer than one-third of American public schools are screening students for psychological problems, years after the U.S. Surgeon General declared a mental health crisis among the nation’s youth. In 2021, then-U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that social media, the COVID-19 pandemic, bullying, lack of safety and a number of other factors were driving an increase in depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts among the nation’s youth. But by late 2024, just under 31% of principals surveyed said their school conducts screening for mental health issues, researchers report in JAMA Network Open. Further, about 40% said it was difficult to ensure that students receive appropriate care if kids do speak up about feelings of anxiety or depression, results show. “Our results suggest that there are multiple barriers to mental health screening in schools, including a lack of resources and knowledge of screening mechanics, as well as concerns about increased workload of identifying students,” lead researcher Jonathan Cantor said in a news release. Cantor is a policy researcher at RAND, a nonprofit research organization. For the study, researchers surveyed 1,019 principals who participate in the RAND American School Leader panel, a nationally representative sample of K-12 public school principals. The survey took place in October 2024. Of the schools that require mental health screenings, nearly 80% said parents are typically notified if their child is positive for… read on > read on >

Care about your kid’s well being? Then best not give them a smartphone until they’re a full-fledged teenager, a major new study says. Kids given a smartphone when they were younger than 13 tend to have poorer mental health and well-being, researchers report in the Journal of Human Development and Capabilities. Specifically, people between 18 and 24 who got their first smartphone at 12 or younger had higher odds of suicidal thoughts, aggression, detachment from reality, poorer emotional regulation and low self-worth, researchers report. Early exposure to toxic social media explains much of the link between young smartphone access and poorer mental health, researchers said. Other contributing factors may include cyberbullying, disrupted sleep and poor family relationships. “Our data indicate that early smartphone ownership— and the social media access it often brings — is linked with a profound shift in mind health and wellbeing in early adulthood,” says lead researcher Tara Thiagarajan, chief scientist of Sapien Labs, said in a news release. “I was initially surprised by how strong the results are,” she said. “However, when you give it due consideration, it does begin to make sense that the younger developing mind is more compromised by the online environment given their vulnerability and lack of worldly experience.” For the study, researchers analyzed data from more than 100,000 young adults around the world as part of… read on > read on >

Some women have a greater risk of depression as they go through premature menopause, according to a new study. Premature menopause occurs when the ovaries stop functioning normally before age 40, researchers said in background notes. The condition has been linked with a more than tripled risk for depression and nearly quintupled risk for anxiety, researchers said. But these new findings — published July 15 in the journal Menopause — show that some women with the condition have a higher risk of depression than others. Women were at greater risk for depression if they entered premature menopause earlier; their condition had a genetic cause; or they experienced worse menopause symptoms, researchers found. Women grieving the loss of their fertility or without sufficient emotional support also had a higher risk, results showed. Interestingly, the use of hormone therapy had no bearing on a woman’s depression risk, even if it eased some symptoms of menopause, researchers found. “This suggests that psychosocial factors are crucial,” wrote the research team led by senior investigator Geranne Jiskoot, a post-doctoral researcher with Erasmus MC in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. “Psychological interventions should focus on these factors to address the unique needs of this population.” And even though overall severe menopause symptoms increased depression risk, one of the most maddening symptoms — hot flashes — was not associated with depression, results show. About… read on > read on >

Insomniacs have a much higher risk for depression if they have chronic inflammation, a new sleep lab experiment says. Seniors with insomnia were three times as likely to report symptoms of depression if they’d been dosed with a substance that promotes inflammation, according to results published July 16 in JAMA Psychiatry. “Insomnia not only robs older adults of rest but also primes their immune system to make them uniquely vulnerable to depression when faced with inflammation,” said lead researcher Dr. Michael Irwin, director of UCLA Health’s Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology. “Treatments targeted at this inflammation-related depression may prevent depression and benefit these patients to improve their overall quality of life,” he said in a news release. For the study, researchers recruited 160 adults 60 and older in Los Angeles, of whom 53 had insomnia. Roughly half of the participants were exposed to an endotoxin intended to create short-term inflammation, including 26 people with insomnia and 53 healthy sleepers. Results showed that insomniacs with inflammation were three times more likely to have depressive mood and symptoms than healthy sleepers with inflammation. People with insomnia also were depressed far longer after their inflammation was induced, showing a bummed mood for six hours or longer. By comparison, any increases in depression among healthy sleepers were short-lived, researchers said. Chronic inflammation has already been tied to illnesses like heart… read on > read on >

Kids coping with chronic health problems like asthma also are struggling with the emotional burden of stress, fear and sadness, a new study says. Almost 94% of comments posted online by chronically ill kids and their caregivers expressed negative feelings like disgust, sadness and fear, according to results published recently in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Fewer than 6% of the comments were positive, researchers said. “I was particularly struck by how clearly children’s emotional responses aligned with specific comorbidity patterns – for example, fear and sadness were especially dominant among those discussing multiple hospital visits or long-term medication,” lead researcher Israel Oluwalade, a master’s graduate at the University of Plymouth in the U.K., said in a news release. For the study, researchers used AI to analyze posts placed by 389 children or their caregivers between 2008 and 2023 on Care Opinion, a U.K. social media platform that allows people to share their experiences with health care services. Sentiments expressed by the posts were first categorized as positive, negative or neutral, and then further sorted into specific emotions like sad, fear, disgust, neutral, satisfied or amazed, the study says. Sadness was the most often expressed emotion, reflected in 3 of 5 posts (61%), researchers found. Fear and disgust were next most frequent, each showing up in 1 of every 6 posts (15%). “Sadness is frequently… read on > read on >