Homepage Round-Up: Psychotic Disorders Linked to Cognitive Decline; The Risk of Opioid Overdose Higher Following Therapy; 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: cognitive decline may be more rapid for people with psychotic disorders; children who watch excessive TV are more likely to be obese; more traveling pediatric patients should be given MMR vaccinations; and opioid addicted individuals have a higher chance of overdosing following buprenorphine therapy.

Cognitive function may decline more rapidly in individuals with psychotic disorders than in the general population, according to the findings of a new study which appeared in JAMA Psychiatry. The research authors wrote that: “Observed declines were clinically significant. Some declines were larger than expected due to normal aging, suggesting that cognitive aging in some domains may be accelerated in this population. If confirmed, these findings would highlight cognition as an important target for research and treatment during later phases of psychotic illness.”

Television watching is the lifestyle habit most associated with childhood obesity, according to the findings of a new study published in the journal Pediatric Obesity. “When children watch television, they see a huge number of advertisements for unhealthy food,” commented ISGlobal’s Dora Romaguera, co-leader of the study in a press release about the study. “This may encourage them to consume these products.”

The findings of a new study published in JAMA Pediatrics suggest that opportunities exist for clinicians to provide pretravel measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccinations pediatric travelers. In this study, researchers examined clinical practice regarding MMR vaccinations to discern reasons for nonvaccination. They did so by assessing 14,602 pretravel consultations for pediatric international travelers from the Global TravEpiNet (GTEN), a CDC-supported collection of sites that provide pretravel consultations. The study authors wrote in their conclusion that: “Although most infant and preschool-aged travelers evaluated at GTEN sites were eligible for pretravel MMR vaccination, only 41.3% were vaccinated during pretravel consultation, mostly because of clinician decision or guardian refusal. Strategies may be needed to improve MMR vaccination among pediatric travelers and to reduce measles importations and outbreaks in the United States.”

Opioid addicted individuals face a high risk of overdosing following treatment with the medication buprenorphine, according to the results of a study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry. “The rate at which individuals relapsed and overdosed after ending treatment was alarmingly high, suggesting that discontinuing buprenorphine is a life-threatening event,” says Arthur Robin Williams, MD, MBE, assistant professor of clinical psychiatry at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons in a press release about the study. “Many clinicians think they should prescribe buprenorphine only for time-limited periods, due to stigma and outdated beliefs that patients using medications for opioid use disorder are not in ‘true recovery,’” continued Dr. Williams. “Our paper is one of the first to look at the effect of long-term durations of buprenorphine treatment on subsequent outcomes.”