Health & Medicine
Health Watch: State of Our Minds
What is the state of our mental health? That's the question that University of Michigan and Harvard researchers, supported by the National Institute of Mental Health, attempted to answer in a $20 million survey of 9,282 Americans ages 18 and over. The results, published last week in the Archives of General Psychiatry, reveal that in their lifetimes, 46 percent of Americans will suffer from some sort of mental disorder like depression, anxiety, or substance abuse.
While most of these disorders are not sufficiently impairing to need treatment, fewer than half of those who require treatment actually get it. Mental illness is also a disorder of children and young people. Half of all lifetime cases of mental illness begin by the age of 14 and are often left undiagnosed and untreated for decades.
About 17 percent of those who do need help don't go to trained mental-health professionals, the study found, preferring Internet support groups and spiritual advisers instead. "The key point to remember," says Thomas Insel, director of the NIMH, "is that mental disorders are highly prevalent and chronic."
Health Watch: My Ear Hurts! Make It Stop!
Ear infections are the most common bacterial illness in children, and parents faced with a miserable child are quick to demand antibiotics. But antibiotics aid growth of drug-resistant superbugs, and most ear infections get better untreated. The American Academy of Pediatrics has endorsed "watchful waiting" --just pain relief when the case is mild and without fever.
A study published in the June Pediatrics may help convince skeptical physicians and parents. It found that 66 percent of children treated with watchful waiting got better, compared with 77 percent who were given amoxicillin immediately.
Health Watch: I'm So Fat, I Just Want to Die
Obesity rates in adolescents are going up, but when it comes to weight and suicide, the number on the scale may not matter as much as the teen's self-image. Researchers reported in last week's Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine that teens who see themselves as too fat or too thin could be at higher risk for suicide, regardless of how much they actually weigh. Of the 13,601 high school students asked to describe their weight, the teens who responded "very overweight" or "very underweight" were more likely to have thoughts of or to have attempted suicide than those who actually weighed in very high or low. Nearly 40 percent of teens who saw themselves as very overweight said they had considered suicide within the past year.
Health Watch: Buy Generic and Save a Bundle
Americans spent more than $235 billion on prescription drugs in 2004, billions more than they had to, by buying brand-name drugs instead of the generic equivalents, according to a study out last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine . Trading brand names for generics could reduce drug spending by $5.9 billion per year, the study says, saving the average consumer under 65 about $46 a year. People over 65, who take a greater number of prescriptions, would save about $78. "You're buying the advertising," says lead author Jennifer Haas, a physician at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. Not all drugs have a generic equivalent. People on prescription drugs should talk to their doctor or pharmacist to see if there is a lower-cost option for them.
This story appears in the June 20, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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