Homepage Round-Up: Air Pollution Linked to Childhood Behavioral Problems; Mind-Body Therapies Can Combat Opioid Abuse; and More

Here are the top stories covered by DocWire News this week in the Homepage section. In this week’s edition of the round-up: prenatal exposure to air pollution can lead to subsequent behavioral problems in children; mind-body therapies such as meditation may decrease opioid abuse; and the rate of ADHD diagnosis is rising.

Prenatal exposure to air pollution (AP) negatively affects the lateral ventricles (LV) and corpus callosum (CC) volumes in the brain, which may lead subsequent behavioral problems in children, according to a study published in the journal Environmental Research. In this analysis, called the Brain Development and Air Pollution Ultrafine Particles in School Children (BREATHE) study, researchers recruited 186 typically developing children between the ages of 8-12 who underwent structural MRI scans using automated tissue segmentation. “In conclusion, this study suggests that prenatal exposure to PM_2.5 is associated with changes on the CC volume in pre-adolescent children, even for levels not exceeding the limit target values established in the European Union,” the researcher authors wrote.

The findings of a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggest that mind-body therapies (MBTs) such as meditation, relaxation, and hypnosis are associated with moderate reductions in pain and may moderately mitigate opioid cravings and misuse. In this systematic review and meta-analysis study, researchers combed MEDLINE, Embase, Emcare, CINAHL, PsycINFO, and Cochrane Library databases for randomized clinical trials and systematic reviews from date of database inception to March 2018. The results of the study showed that MBTs were correlated with pain reduction, and reduced opioid dosing.

The rate of adults being diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is increasing, especially among white individuals, according to a study published in JAMA Network Open. In this cohort study, researchers assessed trends in ADHD diagnosis among 5,282,877 adult patients. According to the results of the study, the annual prevalence of ADHD among adults increased for every race/ethnicity, with white individuals having the highest prevalence rates.