Clinical Psychiatry News

Using a cell phone for at least one call per week is linked to a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially among smokers and patients with diabetes, according to a new UK Biobank analysis.

“We found that a poor sleep pattern, psychological distress, and neuroticism significantly mediated the positive association between weekly mobile phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD, with a mediating proportion of 5.11%, 11.50%, and 2.25%, respectively,” said principal investigator Xianhui Qin, MD, professor of nephrology at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Poor sleep patterns and poor mental health could disrupt circadian rhythms and endocrine and metabolic functions, as well as increase inflammation, he explained.

In addition, chronic exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted from cell phones could lead to oxidative stress and an inflammatory response. Combined with smoking and diabetes, this exposure “may have a synergistic effect in increasing CVD risk,” Dr. Qin suggested.

The study was published online in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
 

Risk Underestimated?

The researchers aimed to examine the association of regular cell phone use with incident CVD and explore the mediating effects of sleep and mental health using linked hospital and mortality records.

Their analysis included 444,027 participants (mean age, 56 years; 44% men) without a history of CVD from the UK Biobank. A total of 378,161 participants were regular cell phone users.

Regular cell phone use was defined as at least one call per week. Weekly use was self-reported as the average time of calls per week during the previous 3 months.

The primary outcome was incident CVD. Secondary outcomes were each component of CVD (ie, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure) and increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT).

Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users were younger, had higher proportions of current smokers and urban residents, and had lower proportions of history of hypertension and diabetes. They also had higher income, Townsend deprivation index, and body mass index, and lower education levels.

During a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 56,181 participants developed incident CVD. Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users had a significantly higher risk for incident CVD (hazard ratio, 1.04) and increased CIMT (odds ratio, 1.11).

Among regular cell phone users, the duration of cell phone use and hands-free device/speakerphone use during calls was not significantly associated with incident CVD. Yet a significant and positive dose-response relationship was seen between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for CVD. The positive association was stronger in current vs noncurrent smokers and people with vs without diabetes.

To different extents, sleep patterns (5.11%), psychologic distress (11.5%), and neuroticism (2.25%) mediated the relationship between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD.

“Our study suggests that despite the advantages of mobile phone use, we should also pay attention to the potential harm of mobile phone use to cardiovascular health,” Dr. Qin said. “Future studies to assess the risk-benefit balance will help promote mobile phone use patterns that are conducive to cardiovascular health.”

Meanwhile, he added, “We encourage measures to reduce time spent on mobile phones to promote the primary prevention of CVD. On the other hand, improving sleep and mental health status may help reduce the higher risk of CVD associated with mobile phone use.”

There are several limitations to the study in addition to its observational nature, which cannot show cause and effect. The questionnaires on cell phone use were restricted to phone calls; other use patterns of cell phones (eg, messaging, watching videos, and browsing the web) were not considered. Although the researchers adjusted for many potential confounders, unmeasured confounding bias (eg, the type of cell phone used and other sources of RF-EMF) cannot be eliminated.
 

Weak Link?

In a comment, Nicholas Grubic, MSc, a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and coauthor of a related editorial, said, “I found it interesting that there was a connection observed between mobile phone use and CVD. However, it is crucial to understand that this link appeared to be much weaker compared with other well-known cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. For now, mobile phone use should not be a major concern for most people.”

Nevertheless, clinicians should encourage patients to practice healthy habits around their screen time, he advised. “This could include limiting mobile phone use before bedtime and taking regular breaks to engage in activities that promote heart health, such as exercising or spending time outdoors.

“For the time being, we probably won’t see mobile phone use included in standard assessments for cardiovascular risk or as a focal point of cardiovascular health promotion initiatives,” he added. Instead, clinicians should “focus on established risk factors that have a stronger impact on patients’ cardiovascular health.”

Nieca Goldberg, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City and American Heart Association volunteer expert, had a similar message. “You don’t have to go back to using a landline,” she said. “Instead, patients should be more mindful of how much phone use is taking away from their physical activity, keeping them from sleeping, and causing them stress.” Clinicians should also remember to counsel smokers on smoking cessation.

“It would be important for future studies to look at time spent on the phone and the type of activities patients are doing on their phones, such as social media, calls, texts, movies, or streaming TV shows,” she said. “It would be important to see how phone use is leading to a sedentary lifestyle” and what that means for a larger, more diverse population.

The study was supported by the National Key R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Outstanding Youth Development Scheme of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University. Dr. Qin, Dr. Grubic, and Dr. Goldberg reported having no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Using a cell phone for at least one call per week is linked to a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially among smokers and patients with diabetes, according to a new UK Biobank analysis.

“We found that a poor sleep pattern, psychological distress, and neuroticism significantly mediated the positive association between weekly mobile phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD, with a mediating proportion of 5.11%, 11.50%, and 2.25%, respectively,” said principal investigator Xianhui Qin, MD, professor of nephrology at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Poor sleep patterns and poor mental health could disrupt circadian rhythms and endocrine and metabolic functions, as well as increase inflammation, he explained.

In addition, chronic exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted from cell phones could lead to oxidative stress and an inflammatory response. Combined with smoking and diabetes, this exposure “may have a synergistic effect in increasing CVD risk,” Dr. Qin suggested.

The study was published online in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
 

Risk Underestimated?

The researchers aimed to examine the association of regular cell phone use with incident CVD and explore the mediating effects of sleep and mental health using linked hospital and mortality records.

Their analysis included 444,027 participants (mean age, 56 years; 44% men) without a history of CVD from the UK Biobank. A total of 378,161 participants were regular cell phone users.

Regular cell phone use was defined as at least one call per week. Weekly use was self-reported as the average time of calls per week during the previous 3 months.

The primary outcome was incident CVD. Secondary outcomes were each component of CVD (ie, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure) and increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT).

Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users were younger, had higher proportions of current smokers and urban residents, and had lower proportions of history of hypertension and diabetes. They also had higher income, Townsend deprivation index, and body mass index, and lower education levels.

During a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 56,181 participants developed incident CVD. Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users had a significantly higher risk for incident CVD (hazard ratio, 1.04) and increased CIMT (odds ratio, 1.11).

Among regular cell phone users, the duration of cell phone use and hands-free device/speakerphone use during calls was not significantly associated with incident CVD. Yet a significant and positive dose-response relationship was seen between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for CVD. The positive association was stronger in current vs noncurrent smokers and people with vs without diabetes.

To different extents, sleep patterns (5.11%), psychologic distress (11.5%), and neuroticism (2.25%) mediated the relationship between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD.

“Our study suggests that despite the advantages of mobile phone use, we should also pay attention to the potential harm of mobile phone use to cardiovascular health,” Dr. Qin said. “Future studies to assess the risk-benefit balance will help promote mobile phone use patterns that are conducive to cardiovascular health.”

Meanwhile, he added, “We encourage measures to reduce time spent on mobile phones to promote the primary prevention of CVD. On the other hand, improving sleep and mental health status may help reduce the higher risk of CVD associated with mobile phone use.”

There are several limitations to the study in addition to its observational nature, which cannot show cause and effect. The questionnaires on cell phone use were restricted to phone calls; other use patterns of cell phones (eg, messaging, watching videos, and browsing the web) were not considered. Although the researchers adjusted for many potential confounders, unmeasured confounding bias (eg, the type of cell phone used and other sources of RF-EMF) cannot be eliminated.
 

Weak Link?

In a comment, Nicholas Grubic, MSc, a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and coauthor of a related editorial, said, “I found it interesting that there was a connection observed between mobile phone use and CVD. However, it is crucial to understand that this link appeared to be much weaker compared with other well-known cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. For now, mobile phone use should not be a major concern for most people.”

Nevertheless, clinicians should encourage patients to practice healthy habits around their screen time, he advised. “This could include limiting mobile phone use before bedtime and taking regular breaks to engage in activities that promote heart health, such as exercising or spending time outdoors.

“For the time being, we probably won’t see mobile phone use included in standard assessments for cardiovascular risk or as a focal point of cardiovascular health promotion initiatives,” he added. Instead, clinicians should “focus on established risk factors that have a stronger impact on patients’ cardiovascular health.”

Nieca Goldberg, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City and American Heart Association volunteer expert, had a similar message. “You don’t have to go back to using a landline,” she said. “Instead, patients should be more mindful of how much phone use is taking away from their physical activity, keeping them from sleeping, and causing them stress.” Clinicians should also remember to counsel smokers on smoking cessation.

“It would be important for future studies to look at time spent on the phone and the type of activities patients are doing on their phones, such as social media, calls, texts, movies, or streaming TV shows,” she said. “It would be important to see how phone use is leading to a sedentary lifestyle” and what that means for a larger, more diverse population.

The study was supported by the National Key R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Outstanding Youth Development Scheme of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University. Dr. Qin, Dr. Grubic, and Dr. Goldberg reported having no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Using a cell phone for at least one call per week is linked to a higher risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD), especially among smokers and patients with diabetes, according to a new UK Biobank analysis.

“We found that a poor sleep pattern, psychological distress, and neuroticism significantly mediated the positive association between weekly mobile phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD, with a mediating proportion of 5.11%, 11.50%, and 2.25%, respectively,” said principal investigator Xianhui Qin, MD, professor of nephrology at Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, China.

Poor sleep patterns and poor mental health could disrupt circadian rhythms and endocrine and metabolic functions, as well as increase inflammation, he explained.

In addition, chronic exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMF) emitted from cell phones could lead to oxidative stress and an inflammatory response. Combined with smoking and diabetes, this exposure “may have a synergistic effect in increasing CVD risk,” Dr. Qin suggested.

The study was published online in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.
 

Risk Underestimated?

The researchers aimed to examine the association of regular cell phone use with incident CVD and explore the mediating effects of sleep and mental health using linked hospital and mortality records.

Their analysis included 444,027 participants (mean age, 56 years; 44% men) without a history of CVD from the UK Biobank. A total of 378,161 participants were regular cell phone users.

Regular cell phone use was defined as at least one call per week. Weekly use was self-reported as the average time of calls per week during the previous 3 months.

The primary outcome was incident CVD. Secondary outcomes were each component of CVD (ie, coronary heart disease, stroke, atrial fibrillation, and heart failure) and increased carotid intima media thickness (CIMT).

Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users were younger, had higher proportions of current smokers and urban residents, and had lower proportions of history of hypertension and diabetes. They also had higher income, Townsend deprivation index, and body mass index, and lower education levels.

During a median follow-up of 12.3 years, 56,181 participants developed incident CVD. Compared with nonregular cell phone users, regular users had a significantly higher risk for incident CVD (hazard ratio, 1.04) and increased CIMT (odds ratio, 1.11).

Among regular cell phone users, the duration of cell phone use and hands-free device/speakerphone use during calls was not significantly associated with incident CVD. Yet a significant and positive dose-response relationship was seen between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for CVD. The positive association was stronger in current vs noncurrent smokers and people with vs without diabetes.

To different extents, sleep patterns (5.11%), psychologic distress (11.5%), and neuroticism (2.25%) mediated the relationship between weekly cell phone usage time and the risk for incident CVD.

“Our study suggests that despite the advantages of mobile phone use, we should also pay attention to the potential harm of mobile phone use to cardiovascular health,” Dr. Qin said. “Future studies to assess the risk-benefit balance will help promote mobile phone use patterns that are conducive to cardiovascular health.”

Meanwhile, he added, “We encourage measures to reduce time spent on mobile phones to promote the primary prevention of CVD. On the other hand, improving sleep and mental health status may help reduce the higher risk of CVD associated with mobile phone use.”

There are several limitations to the study in addition to its observational nature, which cannot show cause and effect. The questionnaires on cell phone use were restricted to phone calls; other use patterns of cell phones (eg, messaging, watching videos, and browsing the web) were not considered. Although the researchers adjusted for many potential confounders, unmeasured confounding bias (eg, the type of cell phone used and other sources of RF-EMF) cannot be eliminated.
 

Weak Link?

In a comment, Nicholas Grubic, MSc, a PhD student in epidemiology at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and coauthor of a related editorial, said, “I found it interesting that there was a connection observed between mobile phone use and CVD. However, it is crucial to understand that this link appeared to be much weaker compared with other well-known cardiovascular risk factors, such as smoking, diabetes, and high blood pressure. For now, mobile phone use should not be a major concern for most people.”

Nevertheless, clinicians should encourage patients to practice healthy habits around their screen time, he advised. “This could include limiting mobile phone use before bedtime and taking regular breaks to engage in activities that promote heart health, such as exercising or spending time outdoors.

“For the time being, we probably won’t see mobile phone use included in standard assessments for cardiovascular risk or as a focal point of cardiovascular health promotion initiatives,” he added. Instead, clinicians should “focus on established risk factors that have a stronger impact on patients’ cardiovascular health.”

Nieca Goldberg, MD, a clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City and American Heart Association volunteer expert, had a similar message. “You don’t have to go back to using a landline,” she said. “Instead, patients should be more mindful of how much phone use is taking away from their physical activity, keeping them from sleeping, and causing them stress.” Clinicians should also remember to counsel smokers on smoking cessation.

“It would be important for future studies to look at time spent on the phone and the type of activities patients are doing on their phones, such as social media, calls, texts, movies, or streaming TV shows,” she said. “It would be important to see how phone use is leading to a sedentary lifestyle” and what that means for a larger, more diverse population.

The study was supported by the National Key R&D Program, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Outstanding Youth Development Scheme of Nanfang Hospital, Southern Medical University. Dr. Qin, Dr. Grubic, and Dr. Goldberg reported having no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have discovered that a brain network involved in reward processing and attention to stimuli is markedly bigger in people with depression, remains stable over time, is unaffected by mood changes, and can be detected in children before onset of depression symptoms.

Using a novel brain-mapping technique, researchers found that the frontostriatal salience network was expanded nearly twofold in the brains of most individuals studied with depression compared with controls.

“This expansion in cortex was trait-like, meaning it was stable over time and did not change as symptoms changed over time,” said lead author Charles Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

It could also be detected in children who later developed depression, suggesting it may serve as a biomarker of depression risk. Investigators said the findings could aid in prevention and early detection of depression, as well as the development of more personalized treatment.

The study was published online in Nature.
 

Prewired for Depression?

Precision functional mapping is a relatively new approach to brain mapping in individuals that uses large amounts of fMRI data from hours of scans per person. The technique has been used to show differences in brain networks between and in healthy individuals but had not been used to study brain networks in people with depression.

“We leveraged our large longitudinal datasets — with many hours of functional MRI scanning per subject — to construct individual-specific maps of functional brain networks in each patient using precision functional mapping, instead of relying on group average,” Dr. Lynch said.

In the primary analysis of 141 adults with major depression and 37 healthy controls, the frontostriatal salience network — which is involved in reward processing and attention to internal and external stimuli — was markedly larger in these individuals with depression.

“This is one of the first times these kinds of personalized maps have been created in individuals with depression, and this is how we first observed of the salience network being larger in individuals with depression,” Dr. Lynch said.

In four of the six individuals, the salience network was expanded more than twofold, outside the range observed in all 37 healthy controls. On average, the salience network occupied 73% more of the cortical surface relative to the average in healthy controls.

The findings were replicated using independent samples of repeatedly sampled individuals with depression and in large-scale group average data.

The expansion of the salience network did not change over time and was unaffected by changes in mood state.

“These observations led us to propose that instead of driving changes in depressive symptoms over time, salience network expansion may be a stable marker of risk for developing depression,” the study team wrote.

An analysis of brain scans from 57 children who went on to develop depressive symptoms during adolescence and an equal number of children who did not develop depressive symptoms supports this theory.

On average, the salience network occupied roughly 36% more of cortex in the children with no current or previous symptoms of depression at the time of their fMRI scans but who subsequently developed clinically significant symptoms of depression, relative to children with no depressive symptoms at any study time point, the researchers found.
 

Immediate Clinical Impact?

Reached for comment, Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, neurologist and researcher based in Miami, said this research “exemplifies the promising intersection of neurology and digital health, where advanced neuroimaging and data-driven approaches can transform mental health care into a more precise and individualized practice,” Dr. Lakhan said. “By identifying this brain network expansion, we’re unlocking new possibilities for precision medicine in mental health.”

Dr. Lakhan, who wasn’t involved in this research, said identifying the expansion of the frontostriatal salience network in individuals with depression opens new avenues for developing novel therapeutics.

“By targeting this network through neuromodulation techniques like deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and prescription digital therapeutics, treatments can be more precisely tailored to individual neurobiological profiles,” Dr. Lakhan said. “Additionally, this network expansion could serve as a biomarker for early detection, allowing for preventive strategies or personalized treatment plans, particularly for those at risk of developing depression.”

In addition, a greater understanding of the mechanisms driving salience network expansion offers potential for discovering new pharmacological targets, Dr. Lakhan noted.

“Drugs that modulate synaptic plasticity or network connectivity might be developed to reverse or mitigate these neural changes. The findings also support the use of longitudinal monitoring to predict and preempt symptom emergence, improving outcomes through timely intervention. This research paves the way for more personalized, precise, and proactive approaches in treating depression,” Dr. Lakhan concluded.

Also weighing in, Teddy Akiki, MD, with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Medicine in California, noted that the effect size of the frontostriatal salience network difference in depression is “remarkably larger than typically seen in neuroimaging studies of depression, which often describe subtle differences. The consistency across multiple datasets and across time at the individual level adds significant weight to these findings, suggesting that it is a trait marker rather than a state-dependent marker.”

“The observation that this expansion is present even before the onset of depressive symptoms in adolescence suggests its potential as a biomarker for depression risk,” Dr. Akiki said. “This approach could lead to earlier identification of at-risk individuals and potentially inform the development of targeted preventive interventions.”

He cautioned that it remains to be seen whether interventions targeting the salience network can effectively prevent or treat depression.

This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Addiction, the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, and the Foundation for OCD Research. Dr. Lynch and a coauthor are listed as inventors for Cornell University patent applications on neuroimaging biomarkers for depression which are pending or in preparation. Dr. Liston has served as a scientific advisor or consultant to Compass Pathways PLC, Delix Therapeutics, and Brainify.AI. Dr. Lakhan and Dr. Akiki had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have discovered that a brain network involved in reward processing and attention to stimuli is markedly bigger in people with depression, remains stable over time, is unaffected by mood changes, and can be detected in children before onset of depression symptoms.

Using a novel brain-mapping technique, researchers found that the frontostriatal salience network was expanded nearly twofold in the brains of most individuals studied with depression compared with controls.

“This expansion in cortex was trait-like, meaning it was stable over time and did not change as symptoms changed over time,” said lead author Charles Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

It could also be detected in children who later developed depression, suggesting it may serve as a biomarker of depression risk. Investigators said the findings could aid in prevention and early detection of depression, as well as the development of more personalized treatment.

The study was published online in Nature.
 

Prewired for Depression?

Precision functional mapping is a relatively new approach to brain mapping in individuals that uses large amounts of fMRI data from hours of scans per person. The technique has been used to show differences in brain networks between and in healthy individuals but had not been used to study brain networks in people with depression.

“We leveraged our large longitudinal datasets — with many hours of functional MRI scanning per subject — to construct individual-specific maps of functional brain networks in each patient using precision functional mapping, instead of relying on group average,” Dr. Lynch said.

In the primary analysis of 141 adults with major depression and 37 healthy controls, the frontostriatal salience network — which is involved in reward processing and attention to internal and external stimuli — was markedly larger in these individuals with depression.

“This is one of the first times these kinds of personalized maps have been created in individuals with depression, and this is how we first observed of the salience network being larger in individuals with depression,” Dr. Lynch said.

In four of the six individuals, the salience network was expanded more than twofold, outside the range observed in all 37 healthy controls. On average, the salience network occupied 73% more of the cortical surface relative to the average in healthy controls.

The findings were replicated using independent samples of repeatedly sampled individuals with depression and in large-scale group average data.

The expansion of the salience network did not change over time and was unaffected by changes in mood state.

“These observations led us to propose that instead of driving changes in depressive symptoms over time, salience network expansion may be a stable marker of risk for developing depression,” the study team wrote.

An analysis of brain scans from 57 children who went on to develop depressive symptoms during adolescence and an equal number of children who did not develop depressive symptoms supports this theory.

On average, the salience network occupied roughly 36% more of cortex in the children with no current or previous symptoms of depression at the time of their fMRI scans but who subsequently developed clinically significant symptoms of depression, relative to children with no depressive symptoms at any study time point, the researchers found.
 

Immediate Clinical Impact?

Reached for comment, Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, neurologist and researcher based in Miami, said this research “exemplifies the promising intersection of neurology and digital health, where advanced neuroimaging and data-driven approaches can transform mental health care into a more precise and individualized practice,” Dr. Lakhan said. “By identifying this brain network expansion, we’re unlocking new possibilities for precision medicine in mental health.”

Dr. Lakhan, who wasn’t involved in this research, said identifying the expansion of the frontostriatal salience network in individuals with depression opens new avenues for developing novel therapeutics.

“By targeting this network through neuromodulation techniques like deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and prescription digital therapeutics, treatments can be more precisely tailored to individual neurobiological profiles,” Dr. Lakhan said. “Additionally, this network expansion could serve as a biomarker for early detection, allowing for preventive strategies or personalized treatment plans, particularly for those at risk of developing depression.”

In addition, a greater understanding of the mechanisms driving salience network expansion offers potential for discovering new pharmacological targets, Dr. Lakhan noted.

“Drugs that modulate synaptic plasticity or network connectivity might be developed to reverse or mitigate these neural changes. The findings also support the use of longitudinal monitoring to predict and preempt symptom emergence, improving outcomes through timely intervention. This research paves the way for more personalized, precise, and proactive approaches in treating depression,” Dr. Lakhan concluded.

Also weighing in, Teddy Akiki, MD, with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Medicine in California, noted that the effect size of the frontostriatal salience network difference in depression is “remarkably larger than typically seen in neuroimaging studies of depression, which often describe subtle differences. The consistency across multiple datasets and across time at the individual level adds significant weight to these findings, suggesting that it is a trait marker rather than a state-dependent marker.”

“The observation that this expansion is present even before the onset of depressive symptoms in adolescence suggests its potential as a biomarker for depression risk,” Dr. Akiki said. “This approach could lead to earlier identification of at-risk individuals and potentially inform the development of targeted preventive interventions.”

He cautioned that it remains to be seen whether interventions targeting the salience network can effectively prevent or treat depression.

This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Addiction, the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, and the Foundation for OCD Research. Dr. Lynch and a coauthor are listed as inventors for Cornell University patent applications on neuroimaging biomarkers for depression which are pending or in preparation. Dr. Liston has served as a scientific advisor or consultant to Compass Pathways PLC, Delix Therapeutics, and Brainify.AI. Dr. Lakhan and Dr. Akiki had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Researchers have discovered that a brain network involved in reward processing and attention to stimuli is markedly bigger in people with depression, remains stable over time, is unaffected by mood changes, and can be detected in children before onset of depression symptoms.

Using a novel brain-mapping technique, researchers found that the frontostriatal salience network was expanded nearly twofold in the brains of most individuals studied with depression compared with controls.

“This expansion in cortex was trait-like, meaning it was stable over time and did not change as symptoms changed over time,” said lead author Charles Lynch, PhD, assistant professor of neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine in New York.

It could also be detected in children who later developed depression, suggesting it may serve as a biomarker of depression risk. Investigators said the findings could aid in prevention and early detection of depression, as well as the development of more personalized treatment.

The study was published online in Nature.
 

Prewired for Depression?

Precision functional mapping is a relatively new approach to brain mapping in individuals that uses large amounts of fMRI data from hours of scans per person. The technique has been used to show differences in brain networks between and in healthy individuals but had not been used to study brain networks in people with depression.

“We leveraged our large longitudinal datasets — with many hours of functional MRI scanning per subject — to construct individual-specific maps of functional brain networks in each patient using precision functional mapping, instead of relying on group average,” Dr. Lynch said.

In the primary analysis of 141 adults with major depression and 37 healthy controls, the frontostriatal salience network — which is involved in reward processing and attention to internal and external stimuli — was markedly larger in these individuals with depression.

“This is one of the first times these kinds of personalized maps have been created in individuals with depression, and this is how we first observed of the salience network being larger in individuals with depression,” Dr. Lynch said.

In four of the six individuals, the salience network was expanded more than twofold, outside the range observed in all 37 healthy controls. On average, the salience network occupied 73% more of the cortical surface relative to the average in healthy controls.

The findings were replicated using independent samples of repeatedly sampled individuals with depression and in large-scale group average data.

The expansion of the salience network did not change over time and was unaffected by changes in mood state.

“These observations led us to propose that instead of driving changes in depressive symptoms over time, salience network expansion may be a stable marker of risk for developing depression,” the study team wrote.

An analysis of brain scans from 57 children who went on to develop depressive symptoms during adolescence and an equal number of children who did not develop depressive symptoms supports this theory.

On average, the salience network occupied roughly 36% more of cortex in the children with no current or previous symptoms of depression at the time of their fMRI scans but who subsequently developed clinically significant symptoms of depression, relative to children with no depressive symptoms at any study time point, the researchers found.
 

Immediate Clinical Impact?

Reached for comment, Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, neurologist and researcher based in Miami, said this research “exemplifies the promising intersection of neurology and digital health, where advanced neuroimaging and data-driven approaches can transform mental health care into a more precise and individualized practice,” Dr. Lakhan said. “By identifying this brain network expansion, we’re unlocking new possibilities for precision medicine in mental health.”

Dr. Lakhan, who wasn’t involved in this research, said identifying the expansion of the frontostriatal salience network in individuals with depression opens new avenues for developing novel therapeutics.

“By targeting this network through neuromodulation techniques like deep brain stimulation, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and prescription digital therapeutics, treatments can be more precisely tailored to individual neurobiological profiles,” Dr. Lakhan said. “Additionally, this network expansion could serve as a biomarker for early detection, allowing for preventive strategies or personalized treatment plans, particularly for those at risk of developing depression.”

In addition, a greater understanding of the mechanisms driving salience network expansion offers potential for discovering new pharmacological targets, Dr. Lakhan noted.

“Drugs that modulate synaptic plasticity or network connectivity might be developed to reverse or mitigate these neural changes. The findings also support the use of longitudinal monitoring to predict and preempt symptom emergence, improving outcomes through timely intervention. This research paves the way for more personalized, precise, and proactive approaches in treating depression,” Dr. Lakhan concluded.

Also weighing in, Teddy Akiki, MD, with the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Stanford Medicine in California, noted that the effect size of the frontostriatal salience network difference in depression is “remarkably larger than typically seen in neuroimaging studies of depression, which often describe subtle differences. The consistency across multiple datasets and across time at the individual level adds significant weight to these findings, suggesting that it is a trait marker rather than a state-dependent marker.”

“The observation that this expansion is present even before the onset of depressive symptoms in adolescence suggests its potential as a biomarker for depression risk,” Dr. Akiki said. “This approach could lead to earlier identification of at-risk individuals and potentially inform the development of targeted preventive interventions.”

He cautioned that it remains to be seen whether interventions targeting the salience network can effectively prevent or treat depression.

This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institute on Drug Addiction, the Hope for Depression Research Foundation, and the Foundation for OCD Research. Dr. Lynch and a coauthor are listed as inventors for Cornell University patent applications on neuroimaging biomarkers for depression which are pending or in preparation. Dr. Liston has served as a scientific advisor or consultant to Compass Pathways PLC, Delix Therapeutics, and Brainify.AI. Dr. Lakhan and Dr. Akiki had no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

A self-guided mobile application for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is associated with significant reductions in anxiety in young adults with anxiety disorders after 3 weeks, with continued improvement through week 12, a new randomized clinical trial shows.

METHODOLOGY:

• The study included 59 adults aged 18-25 years (mean age, 23 years; 78% women) with anxiety disorders (56% with generalized anxiety disorder; 41% with social anxiety disorder).
• Participants received a 6-week CBT program with a self-guided mobile application called Maya and were assigned to one of three incentive strategies to encourage engagement: Loss-framed (lose points for incomplete sessions), gain-framed (earn points for completed sessions), or gain-social support (gain points with added social support from a designated person).
• The primary end point was change in anxiety at week 6, measured with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.
• The researchers also evaluated change in anxiety at 3 and 12 weeks, change in anxiety sensitivity, social anxiety symptoms, and engagement and satisfaction with the app.

TAKEAWAY:

• Anxiety decreased significantly from baseline at week 3, 6, and 12 (mean differences, −3.20, −5.64, and −5.67, respectively; all P < .001), with similar reductions in anxiety among the three incentive conditions.
• Use of the CBT app was also associated with significant reductions in anxiety sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms over time, with moderate to large effect sizes.
• A total of 98% of participants completed the 6-week assessment and 93% the 12-week follow-up. On average, the participants completed 10.8 of 12 sessions and 64% completed all sessions.
• The participants reported high satisfaction with the app across all time points, with no significant differences based on time or incentive condition.

IN PRACTICE:

“We hear a lot about the negative impact of technology use on mental health in this age group,” senior study author Faith M. Gunning, PhD, said in a press release. “But the ubiquitous use of cell phones for information may provide a way of addressing anxiety for some people who, even if they have access to mental health providers, may not go. If the app helps reduce symptoms, they may then be able to take the next step of seeing a mental health professional when needed.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Jennifer N. Bress, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

This study lacked a control group, and the unbalanced allocation of participants to the three incentive groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced the results. The study sample, which predominantly consisted of female and college-educated participants, may not have accurately represented the broader population of young adults with anxiety.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the NewYork-Presbyterian Center for Youth Mental Health, the Khoury Foundation, the Paul and Jenna Segal Family Foundation, the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, Mary and Jonathan Rather, Weill Cornell Medicine, the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, and the National Institutes of Health. Some authors reported obtaining grants, receiving personal fees, serving on speaker’s bureaus, and having other ties with multiple pharmaceutical companies and institutions. Full disclosures are available in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

A self-guided mobile application for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is associated with significant reductions in anxiety in young adults with anxiety disorders after 3 weeks, with continued improvement through week 12, a new randomized clinical trial shows.

METHODOLOGY:

• The study included 59 adults aged 18-25 years (mean age, 23 years; 78% women) with anxiety disorders (56% with generalized anxiety disorder; 41% with social anxiety disorder).
• Participants received a 6-week CBT program with a self-guided mobile application called Maya and were assigned to one of three incentive strategies to encourage engagement: Loss-framed (lose points for incomplete sessions), gain-framed (earn points for completed sessions), or gain-social support (gain points with added social support from a designated person).
• The primary end point was change in anxiety at week 6, measured with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.
• The researchers also evaluated change in anxiety at 3 and 12 weeks, change in anxiety sensitivity, social anxiety symptoms, and engagement and satisfaction with the app.

TAKEAWAY:

• Anxiety decreased significantly from baseline at week 3, 6, and 12 (mean differences, −3.20, −5.64, and −5.67, respectively; all P < .001), with similar reductions in anxiety among the three incentive conditions.
• Use of the CBT app was also associated with significant reductions in anxiety sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms over time, with moderate to large effect sizes.
• A total of 98% of participants completed the 6-week assessment and 93% the 12-week follow-up. On average, the participants completed 10.8 of 12 sessions and 64% completed all sessions.
• The participants reported high satisfaction with the app across all time points, with no significant differences based on time or incentive condition.

IN PRACTICE:

“We hear a lot about the negative impact of technology use on mental health in this age group,” senior study author Faith M. Gunning, PhD, said in a press release. “But the ubiquitous use of cell phones for information may provide a way of addressing anxiety for some people who, even if they have access to mental health providers, may not go. If the app helps reduce symptoms, they may then be able to take the next step of seeing a mental health professional when needed.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Jennifer N. Bress, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

This study lacked a control group, and the unbalanced allocation of participants to the three incentive groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced the results. The study sample, which predominantly consisted of female and college-educated participants, may not have accurately represented the broader population of young adults with anxiety.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the NewYork-Presbyterian Center for Youth Mental Health, the Khoury Foundation, the Paul and Jenna Segal Family Foundation, the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, Mary and Jonathan Rather, Weill Cornell Medicine, the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, and the National Institutes of Health. Some authors reported obtaining grants, receiving personal fees, serving on speaker’s bureaus, and having other ties with multiple pharmaceutical companies and institutions. Full disclosures are available in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

A self-guided mobile application for cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is associated with significant reductions in anxiety in young adults with anxiety disorders after 3 weeks, with continued improvement through week 12, a new randomized clinical trial shows.

METHODOLOGY:

• The study included 59 adults aged 18-25 years (mean age, 23 years; 78% women) with anxiety disorders (56% with generalized anxiety disorder; 41% with social anxiety disorder).
• Participants received a 6-week CBT program with a self-guided mobile application called Maya and were assigned to one of three incentive strategies to encourage engagement: Loss-framed (lose points for incomplete sessions), gain-framed (earn points for completed sessions), or gain-social support (gain points with added social support from a designated person).
• The primary end point was change in anxiety at week 6, measured with the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale.
• The researchers also evaluated change in anxiety at 3 and 12 weeks, change in anxiety sensitivity, social anxiety symptoms, and engagement and satisfaction with the app.

TAKEAWAY:

• Anxiety decreased significantly from baseline at week 3, 6, and 12 (mean differences, −3.20, −5.64, and −5.67, respectively; all P < .001), with similar reductions in anxiety among the three incentive conditions.
• Use of the CBT app was also associated with significant reductions in anxiety sensitivity and social anxiety symptoms over time, with moderate to large effect sizes.
• A total of 98% of participants completed the 6-week assessment and 93% the 12-week follow-up. On average, the participants completed 10.8 of 12 sessions and 64% completed all sessions.
• The participants reported high satisfaction with the app across all time points, with no significant differences based on time or incentive condition.

IN PRACTICE:

“We hear a lot about the negative impact of technology use on mental health in this age group,” senior study author Faith M. Gunning, PhD, said in a press release. “But the ubiquitous use of cell phones for information may provide a way of addressing anxiety for some people who, even if they have access to mental health providers, may not go. If the app helps reduce symptoms, they may then be able to take the next step of seeing a mental health professional when needed.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Jennifer N. Bress, PhD, Department of Psychiatry, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York City. It was published online in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

This study lacked a control group, and the unbalanced allocation of participants to the three incentive groups due to the COVID-19 pandemic may have influenced the results. The study sample, which predominantly consisted of female and college-educated participants, may not have accurately represented the broader population of young adults with anxiety.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was funded by the NewYork-Presbyterian Center for Youth Mental Health, the Khoury Foundation, the Paul and Jenna Segal Family Foundation, the Saks Fifth Avenue Foundation, Mary and Jonathan Rather, Weill Cornell Medicine, the Pritzker Neuropsychiatric Disorders Research Consortium, and the National Institutes of Health. Some authors reported obtaining grants, receiving personal fees, serving on speaker’s bureaus, and having other ties with multiple pharmaceutical companies and institutions. Full disclosures are available in the original article.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Living in areas saturated with artificial outdoor light at night is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new national study suggested.

Analyses of state and county light pollution data and Medicare claims showed that areas with higher average nighttime light intensity had a greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Among people aged 65 years or older, Alzheimer’s disease prevalence was more strongly associated with nightly light pollution exposure than with alcohol misuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, or obesity.

In those younger than 65 years, greater nighttime light intensity had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than any other risk factor included in the study.

“The results are pretty striking when you do these comparisons and it’s true for people of all ages,” said Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, lead author and director, Circadian Rhythm Research Laboratory, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois.

The study was published online in Frontiers of Neuroscience.
 

Shining a Light

Exposure to artificial outdoor light at night has been associated with adverse health effects such as sleep disruption, obesity, atherosclerosis, and cancer, but this is the first study to look specifically at Alzheimer’s disease, investigators noted.

Two recent studies reported higher risks for mild cognitive impairment among Chinese veterans and late-onset dementia among Italian residents living in areas with brighter outdoor light at night.

For this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala and colleagues examined the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and average nighttime light intensity in the lower 48 states using data from Medicare Part A and B, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and NASA satellite–acquired radiance data.

The data were averaged for the years 2012-2018 and states divided into five groups based on average nighttime light intensity.

The darkest states were Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada. The brightest states were Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in Alzheimer’s disease prevalence between state groups (P < .0001). Multiple comparisons testing also showed that states with the lowest average nighttime light had significantly different Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than those with higher intensity.

The same positive relationship was observed when each year was assessed individually and at the county level, using data from 45 counties and the District of Columbia.
 

Strong Association

The investigators also found that state average nighttime light intensity is significantly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence (P = .006). This effect was seen across all ages, sexes, and races except Asian Pacific Island, the latter possibly related to statistical power, the authors said.

When known or proposed risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease were added to the model, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and stroke had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease than average nighttime light intensity.

Nighttime light intensity, however, was more strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, heart failure, and obesity.

Moreover, in people younger than 65 years, nighttime light pollution had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than all other risk factors (P = .007).

The mechanism behind this increased vulnerability is unclear, but there may be an interplay between genetic susceptibility of an individual and how they respond to light, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala suggested.

“APOE4 is the genotype most highly associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk, and maybe the people who have that genotype are just more sensitive to the effects of light exposure at night, more sensitive to circadian rhythm disruption,” she said.

The authors noted that additional research is needed but suggested light pollution may also influence Alzheimer’s disease through sleep disruption, which can promote inflammation, activate microglia and astrocytes, and negatively alter the clearance of amyloid beta, and by decreasing the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
 

Are We Measuring the Right Light?

“It’s a good article and it’s got a good message, but I have some caveats to that,” said George C. Brainard, PhD, director, Light Research Program, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a pioneer in the study of how light affects biology including breast cancer in night-shift workers.

The biggest caveat, and one acknowledged by the authors, is that the study didn’t measure indoor light exposure and relied instead on satellite imaging.

“They’re very striking images, but they may not be particularly relevant. And here’s why: People don’t live outdoors all night,” Dr. Brainard said.

Instead, people spend much of their time at night indoors where they’re exposed to lighting in the home and from smartphones, laptops, and television screens.

“It doesn’t invalidate their work. It’s an important advancement, an important observation,” Dr. Brainard said. “But the important thing really is to find out what is the population exposed to that triggers this response, and it’s probably indoor lighting related to the amount and physical characteristics of indoor lighting. It doesn’t mean outdoor lighting can’t play a role. It certainly can.”

Reached for comment, Erik Musiek, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology whose lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, has extensively studied circadian clock disruption and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, said the study provides a 10,000-foot view of the issue.

For example, the study was not designed to detect whether people living in high light pollution areas are actually experiencing more outdoor light at night and if risk factors such as air pollution and low socioeconomic status may correlate with these areas.

“Most of what we worry about is do people have lights on in the house, do they have their TV on, their screens up to their face late at night? This can’t tell us about that,” Dr. Musiek said. “But on the other hand, this kind of light exposure is something that public policy can affect.”

“It’s hard to control people’s personal habits nor should we probably, but we can control what types of bulbs you put into streetlights, how bright they are, and where you put lighting in a public place,” he added. “So I do think there’s value there.”

At least 19 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws in place to reduce light pollution, with the majority doing so to promote energy conservation, public safety, aesthetic interests, or astronomical research, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

To respond to some of the limitations in this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala is writing a grant application for a new project to look at both indoor and outdoor light exposure on an individual level.

“This is what I’ve been wanting to study for a long time, and this study is just sort of the stepping stone, the proof of concept that this is something we need to be investigating,” she said.

Dr. Voigt-Zuwala reported RO1 and R24 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one coauthor reported an NIH R24 grant; another reported having no conflicts of interest. Dr. Brainard reported having no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Musiek reported research funding from Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Living in areas saturated with artificial outdoor light at night is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new national study suggested.

Analyses of state and county light pollution data and Medicare claims showed that areas with higher average nighttime light intensity had a greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Among people aged 65 years or older, Alzheimer’s disease prevalence was more strongly associated with nightly light pollution exposure than with alcohol misuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, or obesity.

In those younger than 65 years, greater nighttime light intensity had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than any other risk factor included in the study.

“The results are pretty striking when you do these comparisons and it’s true for people of all ages,” said Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, lead author and director, Circadian Rhythm Research Laboratory, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois.

The study was published online in Frontiers of Neuroscience.
 

Shining a Light

Exposure to artificial outdoor light at night has been associated with adverse health effects such as sleep disruption, obesity, atherosclerosis, and cancer, but this is the first study to look specifically at Alzheimer’s disease, investigators noted.

Two recent studies reported higher risks for mild cognitive impairment among Chinese veterans and late-onset dementia among Italian residents living in areas with brighter outdoor light at night.

For this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala and colleagues examined the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and average nighttime light intensity in the lower 48 states using data from Medicare Part A and B, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and NASA satellite–acquired radiance data.

The data were averaged for the years 2012-2018 and states divided into five groups based on average nighttime light intensity.

The darkest states were Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada. The brightest states were Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in Alzheimer’s disease prevalence between state groups (P < .0001). Multiple comparisons testing also showed that states with the lowest average nighttime light had significantly different Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than those with higher intensity.

The same positive relationship was observed when each year was assessed individually and at the county level, using data from 45 counties and the District of Columbia.
 

Strong Association

The investigators also found that state average nighttime light intensity is significantly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence (P = .006). This effect was seen across all ages, sexes, and races except Asian Pacific Island, the latter possibly related to statistical power, the authors said.

When known or proposed risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease were added to the model, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and stroke had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease than average nighttime light intensity.

Nighttime light intensity, however, was more strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, heart failure, and obesity.

Moreover, in people younger than 65 years, nighttime light pollution had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than all other risk factors (P = .007).

The mechanism behind this increased vulnerability is unclear, but there may be an interplay between genetic susceptibility of an individual and how they respond to light, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala suggested.

“APOE4 is the genotype most highly associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk, and maybe the people who have that genotype are just more sensitive to the effects of light exposure at night, more sensitive to circadian rhythm disruption,” she said.

The authors noted that additional research is needed but suggested light pollution may also influence Alzheimer’s disease through sleep disruption, which can promote inflammation, activate microglia and astrocytes, and negatively alter the clearance of amyloid beta, and by decreasing the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
 

Are We Measuring the Right Light?

“It’s a good article and it’s got a good message, but I have some caveats to that,” said George C. Brainard, PhD, director, Light Research Program, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a pioneer in the study of how light affects biology including breast cancer in night-shift workers.

The biggest caveat, and one acknowledged by the authors, is that the study didn’t measure indoor light exposure and relied instead on satellite imaging.

“They’re very striking images, but they may not be particularly relevant. And here’s why: People don’t live outdoors all night,” Dr. Brainard said.

Instead, people spend much of their time at night indoors where they’re exposed to lighting in the home and from smartphones, laptops, and television screens.

“It doesn’t invalidate their work. It’s an important advancement, an important observation,” Dr. Brainard said. “But the important thing really is to find out what is the population exposed to that triggers this response, and it’s probably indoor lighting related to the amount and physical characteristics of indoor lighting. It doesn’t mean outdoor lighting can’t play a role. It certainly can.”

Reached for comment, Erik Musiek, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology whose lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, has extensively studied circadian clock disruption and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, said the study provides a 10,000-foot view of the issue.

For example, the study was not designed to detect whether people living in high light pollution areas are actually experiencing more outdoor light at night and if risk factors such as air pollution and low socioeconomic status may correlate with these areas.

“Most of what we worry about is do people have lights on in the house, do they have their TV on, their screens up to their face late at night? This can’t tell us about that,” Dr. Musiek said. “But on the other hand, this kind of light exposure is something that public policy can affect.”

“It’s hard to control people’s personal habits nor should we probably, but we can control what types of bulbs you put into streetlights, how bright they are, and where you put lighting in a public place,” he added. “So I do think there’s value there.”

At least 19 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws in place to reduce light pollution, with the majority doing so to promote energy conservation, public safety, aesthetic interests, or astronomical research, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

To respond to some of the limitations in this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala is writing a grant application for a new project to look at both indoor and outdoor light exposure on an individual level.

“This is what I’ve been wanting to study for a long time, and this study is just sort of the stepping stone, the proof of concept that this is something we need to be investigating,” she said.

Dr. Voigt-Zuwala reported RO1 and R24 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one coauthor reported an NIH R24 grant; another reported having no conflicts of interest. Dr. Brainard reported having no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Musiek reported research funding from Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

Living in areas saturated with artificial outdoor light at night is associated with an increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease, a new national study suggested.

Analyses of state and county light pollution data and Medicare claims showed that areas with higher average nighttime light intensity had a greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s disease.

Among people aged 65 years or older, Alzheimer’s disease prevalence was more strongly associated with nightly light pollution exposure than with alcohol misuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, or obesity.

In those younger than 65 years, greater nighttime light intensity had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than any other risk factor included in the study.

“The results are pretty striking when you do these comparisons and it’s true for people of all ages,” said Robin Voigt-Zuwala, PhD, lead author and director, Circadian Rhythm Research Laboratory, Rush University, Chicago, Illinois.

The study was published online in Frontiers of Neuroscience.
 

Shining a Light

Exposure to artificial outdoor light at night has been associated with adverse health effects such as sleep disruption, obesity, atherosclerosis, and cancer, but this is the first study to look specifically at Alzheimer’s disease, investigators noted.

Two recent studies reported higher risks for mild cognitive impairment among Chinese veterans and late-onset dementia among Italian residents living in areas with brighter outdoor light at night.

For this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala and colleagues examined the relationship between Alzheimer’s disease prevalence and average nighttime light intensity in the lower 48 states using data from Medicare Part A and B, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and NASA satellite–acquired radiance data.

The data were averaged for the years 2012-2018 and states divided into five groups based on average nighttime light intensity.

The darkest states were Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Idaho, Maine, New Mexico, Vermont, Oregon, Utah, and Nevada. The brightest states were Indiana, Illinois, Florida, Ohio, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, Delaware, Rhode Island, and New Jersey.

Analysis of variance revealed a significant difference in Alzheimer’s disease prevalence between state groups (P < .0001). Multiple comparisons testing also showed that states with the lowest average nighttime light had significantly different Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than those with higher intensity.

The same positive relationship was observed when each year was assessed individually and at the county level, using data from 45 counties and the District of Columbia.
 

Strong Association

The investigators also found that state average nighttime light intensity is significantly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence (P = .006). This effect was seen across all ages, sexes, and races except Asian Pacific Island, the latter possibly related to statistical power, the authors said.

When known or proposed risk factors for Alzheimer’s disease were added to the model, atrial fibrillation, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, and stroke had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease than average nighttime light intensity.

Nighttime light intensity, however, was more strongly associated with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than alcohol abuse, chronic kidney disease, depression, heart failure, and obesity.

Moreover, in people younger than 65 years, nighttime light pollution had a stronger association with Alzheimer’s disease prevalence than all other risk factors (P = .007).

The mechanism behind this increased vulnerability is unclear, but there may be an interplay between genetic susceptibility of an individual and how they respond to light, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala suggested.

“APOE4 is the genotype most highly associated with Alzheimer’s disease risk, and maybe the people who have that genotype are just more sensitive to the effects of light exposure at night, more sensitive to circadian rhythm disruption,” she said.

The authors noted that additional research is needed but suggested light pollution may also influence Alzheimer’s disease through sleep disruption, which can promote inflammation, activate microglia and astrocytes, and negatively alter the clearance of amyloid beta, and by decreasing the levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor.
 

Are We Measuring the Right Light?

“It’s a good article and it’s got a good message, but I have some caveats to that,” said George C. Brainard, PhD, director, Light Research Program, Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and a pioneer in the study of how light affects biology including breast cancer in night-shift workers.

The biggest caveat, and one acknowledged by the authors, is that the study didn’t measure indoor light exposure and relied instead on satellite imaging.

“They’re very striking images, but they may not be particularly relevant. And here’s why: People don’t live outdoors all night,” Dr. Brainard said.

Instead, people spend much of their time at night indoors where they’re exposed to lighting in the home and from smartphones, laptops, and television screens.

“It doesn’t invalidate their work. It’s an important advancement, an important observation,” Dr. Brainard said. “But the important thing really is to find out what is the population exposed to that triggers this response, and it’s probably indoor lighting related to the amount and physical characteristics of indoor lighting. It doesn’t mean outdoor lighting can’t play a role. It certainly can.”

Reached for comment, Erik Musiek, MD, PhD, a professor of neurology whose lab at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, has extensively studied circadian clock disruption and Alzheimer’s disease pathology in the brain, said the study provides a 10,000-foot view of the issue.

For example, the study was not designed to detect whether people living in high light pollution areas are actually experiencing more outdoor light at night and if risk factors such as air pollution and low socioeconomic status may correlate with these areas.

“Most of what we worry about is do people have lights on in the house, do they have their TV on, their screens up to their face late at night? This can’t tell us about that,” Dr. Musiek said. “But on the other hand, this kind of light exposure is something that public policy can affect.”

“It’s hard to control people’s personal habits nor should we probably, but we can control what types of bulbs you put into streetlights, how bright they are, and where you put lighting in a public place,” he added. “So I do think there’s value there.”

At least 19 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have laws in place to reduce light pollution, with the majority doing so to promote energy conservation, public safety, aesthetic interests, or astronomical research, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

To respond to some of the limitations in this study, Dr. Voigt-Zuwala is writing a grant application for a new project to look at both indoor and outdoor light exposure on an individual level.

“This is what I’ve been wanting to study for a long time, and this study is just sort of the stepping stone, the proof of concept that this is something we need to be investigating,” she said.

Dr. Voigt-Zuwala reported RO1 and R24 grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), one coauthor reported an NIH R24 grant; another reported having no conflicts of interest. Dr. Brainard reported having no relevant conflicts of interest. Dr. Musiek reported research funding from Eisai Pharmaceuticals.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Hormone-modulating therapy for breast cancer may protect older women from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, although the protective effect varies by age and race, with the greatest benefit seen in younger Black women.

METHODOLOGY:

• Hormone-modulating therapy is widely used to treat hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, but the cognitive effects of the treatment, including a potential link to dementia, remain unclear.
• To investigate, researchers used the SEER-Medicare linked database to identify women aged 65 years or older with breast cancer who did and did not receive hormone-modulating therapy within 3 years following their diagnosis.
• The researchers excluded women with preexisting Alzheimer’s disease/dementia diagnoses or those who had received hormone-modulating therapy before their breast cancer diagnosis.
• Analyses were adjusted for demographic, sociocultural, and clinical variables, and subgroup analyses evaluated the impact of age, race, and type of hormone-modulating therapy on Alzheimer’s disease/dementia risk.

TAKEAWAY:

• Among the 18,808 women included in the analysis, 66% received hormone-modulating therapy and 34% did not. During the mean follow-up of 12 years, 24% of hormone-modulating therapy users and 28% of nonusers developed Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, hormone-modulating therapy use (vs nonuse) was associated with a significant 7% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; P = .005), with notable age and racial differences.
• Hormone-modulating therapy use was associated with a 24% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia in Black women aged 65-74 years (HR, 0.76), but that protective effect decreased to 19% in Black women aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.81). White women aged 65-74 years who received hormone-modulating therapy (vs those who did not) had an 11% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.89), but the association disappeared among those aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.90-1.02). Other races demonstrated no significant association between hormone-modulating therapy use and Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, the use of an aromatase inhibitor or a selective estrogen receptor modulator was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.93 and HR, 0.89, respectively).

IN PRACTICE:

Overall, the retrospective study found that “hormone therapy was associated with protection against [Alzheimer’s/dementia] in women aged 65 years or older with newly diagnosed breast cancer,” with the decrease in risk relatively greater for Black women and women younger than 75 years, the authors concluded.

“The results highlight the critical need for personalized breast cancer treatment plans that are tailored to the individual characteristics of each patient, particularly given the significantly higher likelihood (two to three times more) of Black women developing [Alzheimer’s/dementia], compared with their White counterparts,” the researchers added.
 

SOURCE:

The study, with first author Chao Cai, PhD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, was published online on July 16 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only women aged 65 years or older, limiting generalizability to younger women. The dataset lacked genetic information and laboratory data related to dementia. The duration of hormone-modulating therapy use beyond 3 years and specific formulations were not assessed. Potential confounders such as variations in chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery were not fully addressed.

DISCLOSURES:

Support for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health; Carolina Center on Alzheimer’s Disease and Minority Research pilot project; and the Dean’s Faculty Advancement Fund, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The authors reported no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Hormone-modulating therapy for breast cancer may protect older women from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, although the protective effect varies by age and race, with the greatest benefit seen in younger Black women.

METHODOLOGY:

• Hormone-modulating therapy is widely used to treat hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, but the cognitive effects of the treatment, including a potential link to dementia, remain unclear.
• To investigate, researchers used the SEER-Medicare linked database to identify women aged 65 years or older with breast cancer who did and did not receive hormone-modulating therapy within 3 years following their diagnosis.
• The researchers excluded women with preexisting Alzheimer’s disease/dementia diagnoses or those who had received hormone-modulating therapy before their breast cancer diagnosis.
• Analyses were adjusted for demographic, sociocultural, and clinical variables, and subgroup analyses evaluated the impact of age, race, and type of hormone-modulating therapy on Alzheimer’s disease/dementia risk.

TAKEAWAY:

• Among the 18,808 women included in the analysis, 66% received hormone-modulating therapy and 34% did not. During the mean follow-up of 12 years, 24% of hormone-modulating therapy users and 28% of nonusers developed Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, hormone-modulating therapy use (vs nonuse) was associated with a significant 7% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; P = .005), with notable age and racial differences.
• Hormone-modulating therapy use was associated with a 24% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia in Black women aged 65-74 years (HR, 0.76), but that protective effect decreased to 19% in Black women aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.81). White women aged 65-74 years who received hormone-modulating therapy (vs those who did not) had an 11% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.89), but the association disappeared among those aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.90-1.02). Other races demonstrated no significant association between hormone-modulating therapy use and Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, the use of an aromatase inhibitor or a selective estrogen receptor modulator was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.93 and HR, 0.89, respectively).

IN PRACTICE:

Overall, the retrospective study found that “hormone therapy was associated with protection against [Alzheimer’s/dementia] in women aged 65 years or older with newly diagnosed breast cancer,” with the decrease in risk relatively greater for Black women and women younger than 75 years, the authors concluded.

“The results highlight the critical need for personalized breast cancer treatment plans that are tailored to the individual characteristics of each patient, particularly given the significantly higher likelihood (two to three times more) of Black women developing [Alzheimer’s/dementia], compared with their White counterparts,” the researchers added.
 

SOURCE:

The study, with first author Chao Cai, PhD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, was published online on July 16 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only women aged 65 years or older, limiting generalizability to younger women. The dataset lacked genetic information and laboratory data related to dementia. The duration of hormone-modulating therapy use beyond 3 years and specific formulations were not assessed. Potential confounders such as variations in chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery were not fully addressed.

DISCLOSURES:

Support for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health; Carolina Center on Alzheimer’s Disease and Minority Research pilot project; and the Dean’s Faculty Advancement Fund, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The authors reported no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Hormone-modulating therapy for breast cancer may protect older women from Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, although the protective effect varies by age and race, with the greatest benefit seen in younger Black women.

METHODOLOGY:

• Hormone-modulating therapy is widely used to treat hormone receptor–positive breast cancer, but the cognitive effects of the treatment, including a potential link to dementia, remain unclear.
• To investigate, researchers used the SEER-Medicare linked database to identify women aged 65 years or older with breast cancer who did and did not receive hormone-modulating therapy within 3 years following their diagnosis.
• The researchers excluded women with preexisting Alzheimer’s disease/dementia diagnoses or those who had received hormone-modulating therapy before their breast cancer diagnosis.
• Analyses were adjusted for demographic, sociocultural, and clinical variables, and subgroup analyses evaluated the impact of age, race, and type of hormone-modulating therapy on Alzheimer’s disease/dementia risk.

TAKEAWAY:

• Among the 18,808 women included in the analysis, 66% received hormone-modulating therapy and 34% did not. During the mean follow-up of 12 years, 24% of hormone-modulating therapy users and 28% of nonusers developed Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, hormone-modulating therapy use (vs nonuse) was associated with a significant 7% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (hazard ratio [HR], 0.93; P = .005), with notable age and racial differences.
• Hormone-modulating therapy use was associated with a 24% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia in Black women aged 65-74 years (HR, 0.76), but that protective effect decreased to 19% in Black women aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.81). White women aged 65-74 years who received hormone-modulating therapy (vs those who did not) had an 11% lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.89), but the association disappeared among those aged 75 years or older (HR, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.90-1.02). Other races demonstrated no significant association between hormone-modulating therapy use and Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
• Overall, the use of an aromatase inhibitor or a selective estrogen receptor modulator was associated with a significantly lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease/dementia (HR, 0.93 and HR, 0.89, respectively).

IN PRACTICE:

Overall, the retrospective study found that “hormone therapy was associated with protection against [Alzheimer’s/dementia] in women aged 65 years or older with newly diagnosed breast cancer,” with the decrease in risk relatively greater for Black women and women younger than 75 years, the authors concluded.

“The results highlight the critical need for personalized breast cancer treatment plans that are tailored to the individual characteristics of each patient, particularly given the significantly higher likelihood (two to three times more) of Black women developing [Alzheimer’s/dementia], compared with their White counterparts,” the researchers added.
 

SOURCE:

The study, with first author Chao Cai, PhD, Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Outcomes Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, was published online on July 16 in JAMA Network Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only women aged 65 years or older, limiting generalizability to younger women. The dataset lacked genetic information and laboratory data related to dementia. The duration of hormone-modulating therapy use beyond 3 years and specific formulations were not assessed. Potential confounders such as variations in chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery were not fully addressed.

DISCLOSURES:

Support for the study was provided by the National Institutes of Health; Carolina Center on Alzheimer’s Disease and Minority Research pilot project; and the Dean’s Faculty Advancement Fund, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The authors reported no relevant disclosures.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi. I’m Art Caplan. I’m at the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. 

We have many debates and arguments that are swirling around about the out-of-control costs of Medicare. Many people are arguing we’ve got to trim it and cut back, and many people note that we can’t just go on and on with that kind of expenditure.

People look around for savings. Rightly, we can’t go on with the prices that we’re paying. No system could. We’ll bankrupt ourselves if we don’t drive prices down. 

There’s another area that is driving up cost where, despite the fact that Medicare doesn’t pay for it, we could capture resources and hopefully shift them back to things like Medicare coverage or the insurance of other efficacious procedures. That area is the wellness industry. 

I looked up a number recently, and I was shocked to see that worldwide, $1.8 trillion is being spent on wellness, including billions in the US. Again, Medicare doesn’t pay for that. That’s money coming out of people’s pockets that we could hopefully aim at the payment of things that we know work, not seeing the money drain out to cover bunk, nonsense, and charlatanism.

Does any or most of this stuff work? Do anything? Help anybody? No. We are spending money on charlatans and quacks. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which you might think is the agency that could step in and start to get rid of some of this nonsense, is just too overwhelmed trying to track drugs, devices, and vaccines to give much attention to the wellness industry.

What am I talking about specifically? I’m talking about everything from gut probiotics that are sold in sodas to probiotic facial creams and the Goop industry of Gwyneth Paltrow, where you have people buying things like wellness mats or vaginal eggs that are supposed to maintain gynecologic health.

We’re talking about things like PEMF, or pulse electronic magnetic fields, where you buy a machine and expose yourself to mild magnetic pulses. I went online to look them up, and the machines cost $5000-$50,000. There’s no evidence that it works. By the way, the machines are not only out there as being sold for pain relief and many other things to humans, but also they’re being sold for your pets.

That industry is completely out of control. Wellness interventions, whether it’s transcranial magnetism or all manner of supplements that are sold in health food stores, over and over again, we see a world in which wellness is promoted but no data are introduced to show that any of it helps, works, or does anybody any good.

It may not be all that harmful, but it’s certainly financially toxic to many people who end up spending good amounts of money using these things. I think doctors need to ask patients if they are using any of these things, particularly if they have chronic conditions. They’re likely, many of them, to be seduced by online advertisement to get involved with this stuff because it’s preventive or it’ll help treat some condition that they have. 

The industry is out of control. We’re trying to figure out how to spend money on things we know work in medicine, and yet we continue to tolerate bunk, nonsense, quackery, and charlatanism, just letting it grow and grow and grow in terms of cost.

That’s money that could go elsewhere. That is money that is being taken out of the pockets of patients. They’re doing things that may even delay medical treatment, which won’t really help them, and they are doing things that perhaps might even interfere with medical care that really is known to be beneficial.

I think it’s time to push for more money for the FDA to regulate the wellness side. I think it’s time for the Federal Trade Commission to go after ads that promise health benefits. I think it’s time to have some honest conversations with patients: What are you using? What are you doing? Tell me about it, and here’s why I think you could probably spend your money in a better way. 
 

Dr. Caplan, director, Division of Medical Ethics, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, disclosed ties with Johnson & Johnson’s Panel for Compassionate Drug Use (unpaid position). He serves as a contributing author and adviser for Medscape.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi. I’m Art Caplan. I’m at the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. 

We have many debates and arguments that are swirling around about the out-of-control costs of Medicare. Many people are arguing we’ve got to trim it and cut back, and many people note that we can’t just go on and on with that kind of expenditure.

People look around for savings. Rightly, we can’t go on with the prices that we’re paying. No system could. We’ll bankrupt ourselves if we don’t drive prices down. 

There’s another area that is driving up cost where, despite the fact that Medicare doesn’t pay for it, we could capture resources and hopefully shift them back to things like Medicare coverage or the insurance of other efficacious procedures. That area is the wellness industry. 

I looked up a number recently, and I was shocked to see that worldwide, $1.8 trillion is being spent on wellness, including billions in the US. Again, Medicare doesn’t pay for that. That’s money coming out of people’s pockets that we could hopefully aim at the payment of things that we know work, not seeing the money drain out to cover bunk, nonsense, and charlatanism.

Does any or most of this stuff work? Do anything? Help anybody? No. We are spending money on charlatans and quacks. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which you might think is the agency that could step in and start to get rid of some of this nonsense, is just too overwhelmed trying to track drugs, devices, and vaccines to give much attention to the wellness industry.

What am I talking about specifically? I’m talking about everything from gut probiotics that are sold in sodas to probiotic facial creams and the Goop industry of Gwyneth Paltrow, where you have people buying things like wellness mats or vaginal eggs that are supposed to maintain gynecologic health.

We’re talking about things like PEMF, or pulse electronic magnetic fields, where you buy a machine and expose yourself to mild magnetic pulses. I went online to look them up, and the machines cost $5000-$50,000. There’s no evidence that it works. By the way, the machines are not only out there as being sold for pain relief and many other things to humans, but also they’re being sold for your pets.

That industry is completely out of control. Wellness interventions, whether it’s transcranial magnetism or all manner of supplements that are sold in health food stores, over and over again, we see a world in which wellness is promoted but no data are introduced to show that any of it helps, works, or does anybody any good.

It may not be all that harmful, but it’s certainly financially toxic to many people who end up spending good amounts of money using these things. I think doctors need to ask patients if they are using any of these things, particularly if they have chronic conditions. They’re likely, many of them, to be seduced by online advertisement to get involved with this stuff because it’s preventive or it’ll help treat some condition that they have. 

The industry is out of control. We’re trying to figure out how to spend money on things we know work in medicine, and yet we continue to tolerate bunk, nonsense, quackery, and charlatanism, just letting it grow and grow and grow in terms of cost.

That’s money that could go elsewhere. That is money that is being taken out of the pockets of patients. They’re doing things that may even delay medical treatment, which won’t really help them, and they are doing things that perhaps might even interfere with medical care that really is known to be beneficial.

I think it’s time to push for more money for the FDA to regulate the wellness side. I think it’s time for the Federal Trade Commission to go after ads that promise health benefits. I think it’s time to have some honest conversations with patients: What are you using? What are you doing? Tell me about it, and here’s why I think you could probably spend your money in a better way. 
 

Dr. Caplan, director, Division of Medical Ethics, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, disclosed ties with Johnson & Johnson’s Panel for Compassionate Drug Use (unpaid position). He serves as a contributing author and adviser for Medscape.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Hi. I’m Art Caplan. I’m at the Division of Medical Ethics at the NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. 

We have many debates and arguments that are swirling around about the out-of-control costs of Medicare. Many people are arguing we’ve got to trim it and cut back, and many people note that we can’t just go on and on with that kind of expenditure.

People look around for savings. Rightly, we can’t go on with the prices that we’re paying. No system could. We’ll bankrupt ourselves if we don’t drive prices down. 

There’s another area that is driving up cost where, despite the fact that Medicare doesn’t pay for it, we could capture resources and hopefully shift them back to things like Medicare coverage or the insurance of other efficacious procedures. That area is the wellness industry. 

I looked up a number recently, and I was shocked to see that worldwide, $1.8 trillion is being spent on wellness, including billions in the US. Again, Medicare doesn’t pay for that. That’s money coming out of people’s pockets that we could hopefully aim at the payment of things that we know work, not seeing the money drain out to cover bunk, nonsense, and charlatanism.

Does any or most of this stuff work? Do anything? Help anybody? No. We are spending money on charlatans and quacks. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which you might think is the agency that could step in and start to get rid of some of this nonsense, is just too overwhelmed trying to track drugs, devices, and vaccines to give much attention to the wellness industry.

What am I talking about specifically? I’m talking about everything from gut probiotics that are sold in sodas to probiotic facial creams and the Goop industry of Gwyneth Paltrow, where you have people buying things like wellness mats or vaginal eggs that are supposed to maintain gynecologic health.

We’re talking about things like PEMF, or pulse electronic magnetic fields, where you buy a machine and expose yourself to mild magnetic pulses. I went online to look them up, and the machines cost $5000-$50,000. There’s no evidence that it works. By the way, the machines are not only out there as being sold for pain relief and many other things to humans, but also they’re being sold for your pets.

That industry is completely out of control. Wellness interventions, whether it’s transcranial magnetism or all manner of supplements that are sold in health food stores, over and over again, we see a world in which wellness is promoted but no data are introduced to show that any of it helps, works, or does anybody any good.

It may not be all that harmful, but it’s certainly financially toxic to many people who end up spending good amounts of money using these things. I think doctors need to ask patients if they are using any of these things, particularly if they have chronic conditions. They’re likely, many of them, to be seduced by online advertisement to get involved with this stuff because it’s preventive or it’ll help treat some condition that they have. 

The industry is out of control. We’re trying to figure out how to spend money on things we know work in medicine, and yet we continue to tolerate bunk, nonsense, quackery, and charlatanism, just letting it grow and grow and grow in terms of cost.

That’s money that could go elsewhere. That is money that is being taken out of the pockets of patients. They’re doing things that may even delay medical treatment, which won’t really help them, and they are doing things that perhaps might even interfere with medical care that really is known to be beneficial.

I think it’s time to push for more money for the FDA to regulate the wellness side. I think it’s time for the Federal Trade Commission to go after ads that promise health benefits. I think it’s time to have some honest conversations with patients: What are you using? What are you doing? Tell me about it, and here’s why I think you could probably spend your money in a better way. 
 

Dr. Caplan, director, Division of Medical Ethics, New York University Langone Medical Center, New York, disclosed ties with Johnson & Johnson’s Panel for Compassionate Drug Use (unpaid position). He serves as a contributing author and adviser for Medscape.

A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Black children with vitiligo are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, including depression, suicidal ideation, and disruptive behavior disorders, than matched controls who did not have vitiligo, according to a case-control study.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a retrospective, single-center, case-control study at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston on 327 Black children with vitiligo and 981 matched controls without vitiligo.
• The average age of participants was 11.7 years, and 62% were girls.
• The study outcome was the prevalence of psychiatric conditions and rates of treatment (pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy) initiation for those conditions.

TAKEAWAY:

• Black children with vitiligo were more likely to be diagnosed with depression (odds ratio [OR], 3.63; P < .001), suicidal ideation (OR, 2.88; P = .005), disruptive behavior disorders (OR, 7.68; P < .001), eating disorders (OR, 15.22; P = .013), generalized anxiety disorder (OR, 2.61; P < .001), and substance abuse (OR, 2.67; P = .011).
• The likelihood of having a psychiatric comorbidity was not significantly different between children with segmental vitiligo and those with generalized vitiligo or between girls and boys.
• Among the patients with vitiligo and psychiatric comorbidities, treatment initiation rates were higher for depression (76.5%), disruptive behavior disorders (82.1%), and eating disorders (100%).
• Treatment initiation rates were lower in patients with vitiligo diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (55.3%) and substance abuse (61.5%). Treatment was not initiated in 14% patients with suicidal ideation.

IN PRACTICE:

“Pediatric dermatologists have an important role in screening for psychiatric comorbidities, and implementation of appropriate screening tools while treating vitiligo is likely to have a bidirectional positive impact,” the authors wrote, adding: “By better understanding psychiatric comorbidities of African American children with vitiligo, dermatologists can be more aware of pediatric mental health needs and provide appropriate referrals.”

SOURCE:

This study was led by Emily Strouphauer, BSA, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and was published online in JAAD International.

LIMITATIONS:

The study limitations were the retrospective design, small sample size, and heterogeneity in the control group.

DISCLOSURES:

The study did not receive any funding. The authors declared no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Black children with vitiligo are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, including depression, suicidal ideation, and disruptive behavior disorders, than matched controls who did not have vitiligo, according to a case-control study.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a retrospective, single-center, case-control study at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston on 327 Black children with vitiligo and 981 matched controls without vitiligo.
• The average age of participants was 11.7 years, and 62% were girls.
• The study outcome was the prevalence of psychiatric conditions and rates of treatment (pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy) initiation for those conditions.

TAKEAWAY:

• Black children with vitiligo were more likely to be diagnosed with depression (odds ratio [OR], 3.63; P < .001), suicidal ideation (OR, 2.88; P = .005), disruptive behavior disorders (OR, 7.68; P < .001), eating disorders (OR, 15.22; P = .013), generalized anxiety disorder (OR, 2.61; P < .001), and substance abuse (OR, 2.67; P = .011).
• The likelihood of having a psychiatric comorbidity was not significantly different between children with segmental vitiligo and those with generalized vitiligo or between girls and boys.
• Among the patients with vitiligo and psychiatric comorbidities, treatment initiation rates were higher for depression (76.5%), disruptive behavior disorders (82.1%), and eating disorders (100%).
• Treatment initiation rates were lower in patients with vitiligo diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (55.3%) and substance abuse (61.5%). Treatment was not initiated in 14% patients with suicidal ideation.

IN PRACTICE:

“Pediatric dermatologists have an important role in screening for psychiatric comorbidities, and implementation of appropriate screening tools while treating vitiligo is likely to have a bidirectional positive impact,” the authors wrote, adding: “By better understanding psychiatric comorbidities of African American children with vitiligo, dermatologists can be more aware of pediatric mental health needs and provide appropriate referrals.”

SOURCE:

This study was led by Emily Strouphauer, BSA, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and was published online in JAAD International.

LIMITATIONS:

The study limitations were the retrospective design, small sample size, and heterogeneity in the control group.

DISCLOSURES:

The study did not receive any funding. The authors declared no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Black children with vitiligo are significantly more likely to be diagnosed with psychiatric disorders, including depression, suicidal ideation, and disruptive behavior disorders, than matched controls who did not have vitiligo, according to a case-control study.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a retrospective, single-center, case-control study at Texas Children’s Hospital in Houston on 327 Black children with vitiligo and 981 matched controls without vitiligo.
• The average age of participants was 11.7 years, and 62% were girls.
• The study outcome was the prevalence of psychiatric conditions and rates of treatment (pharmacotherapy and/or psychotherapy) initiation for those conditions.

TAKEAWAY:

• Black children with vitiligo were more likely to be diagnosed with depression (odds ratio [OR], 3.63; P < .001), suicidal ideation (OR, 2.88; P = .005), disruptive behavior disorders (OR, 7.68; P < .001), eating disorders (OR, 15.22; P = .013), generalized anxiety disorder (OR, 2.61; P < .001), and substance abuse (OR, 2.67; P = .011).
• The likelihood of having a psychiatric comorbidity was not significantly different between children with segmental vitiligo and those with generalized vitiligo or between girls and boys.
• Among the patients with vitiligo and psychiatric comorbidities, treatment initiation rates were higher for depression (76.5%), disruptive behavior disorders (82.1%), and eating disorders (100%).
• Treatment initiation rates were lower in patients with vitiligo diagnosed with generalized anxiety disorder (55.3%) and substance abuse (61.5%). Treatment was not initiated in 14% patients with suicidal ideation.

IN PRACTICE:

“Pediatric dermatologists have an important role in screening for psychiatric comorbidities, and implementation of appropriate screening tools while treating vitiligo is likely to have a bidirectional positive impact,” the authors wrote, adding: “By better understanding psychiatric comorbidities of African American children with vitiligo, dermatologists can be more aware of pediatric mental health needs and provide appropriate referrals.”

SOURCE:

This study was led by Emily Strouphauer, BSA, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, and was published online in JAAD International.

LIMITATIONS:

The study limitations were the retrospective design, small sample size, and heterogeneity in the control group.

DISCLOSURES:

The study did not receive any funding. The authors declared no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Mobile images may be reliable for assessing cutaneous neurofibroma (cNF) features in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), according to a crowd-sourced registry study that also suggests correlations between cNF burden and quality of life (QoL), particularly the impact of facial severity on emotional well-being.

METHODOLOGY:

• To learn more about the association of cNFs with QoL, pain, and itch in patients with this rare disease, researchers enrolled 1016 individuals aged 40 years and older with NF1 who had at least one cNF, from May 2021 to December 2023, after reaching out to patient-led or NF1 advocacy organizations in 13 countries, including the United States.
• Participants provided demographic data, detailed photographs, and saliva samples for genetic sequencing, with 583 participants (mean age, 51.7 years; 65.9% women) submitting high-quality photographs from seven body regions at the time of the study analysis.
• A subset of 50 participants also underwent whole-body imaging.
• Four researchers independently rated the photographs for various cNF features, including general severity, number, size, facial severity, and subtypes.

TAKEAWAY:

• Based on evaluations by NF1 specialists, the agreement between mobile and whole-body images was “substantial” (74%-88% agreement) for the number of cNFs, general severity, and facial severity. Agreement between self-reported numbers of cNFs and investigator-rated numbers based on photographs was “minimal to fair.”
• Female sex, the number of cNFs, severity of cNFs on the face, and globular cNFs were associated with worse QoL (based on Skindex scores); severity of cNFs on the face had the strongest impact on overall QoL (P < .001).
• An increasing number of cNFs and worsening facial severity were strongly correlated with higher emotion subdomain scores.
• A higher number of cNFs, more severe cNFs on the face, and larger cNFs were all slightly associated with increased itch and pain (P < .01).

IN PRACTICE:

“To develop effective therapeutics, meaningful clinical outcomes that are tied with improvement in QoL for persons with NF1 must be clearly defined,” the authors wrote. The results of this study, they added, “suggested the benefit of this crowd-sourced resource by identifying the features of cNFs with the greatest association with QoL and symptoms of pain and itch in persons with NF1, highlighting new intervention strategies and features to target to most improve QoL in NF1.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Michelle Jade Lin, BS, Stanford University School of Medicine, Redwood City, California, and was published online in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only a small number of individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups and did not capture ethnicity information, which could have provided further insights into disease impact across different demographics.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. Ms. Lin reported support from the Stanford Medical Scholars Research Program. Three authors reported personal fees or grants outside this work. Other authors reported no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Mobile images may be reliable for assessing cutaneous neurofibroma (cNF) features in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), according to a crowd-sourced registry study that also suggests correlations between cNF burden and quality of life (QoL), particularly the impact of facial severity on emotional well-being.

METHODOLOGY:

• To learn more about the association of cNFs with QoL, pain, and itch in patients with this rare disease, researchers enrolled 1016 individuals aged 40 years and older with NF1 who had at least one cNF, from May 2021 to December 2023, after reaching out to patient-led or NF1 advocacy organizations in 13 countries, including the United States.
• Participants provided demographic data, detailed photographs, and saliva samples for genetic sequencing, with 583 participants (mean age, 51.7 years; 65.9% women) submitting high-quality photographs from seven body regions at the time of the study analysis.
• A subset of 50 participants also underwent whole-body imaging.
• Four researchers independently rated the photographs for various cNF features, including general severity, number, size, facial severity, and subtypes.

TAKEAWAY:

• Based on evaluations by NF1 specialists, the agreement between mobile and whole-body images was “substantial” (74%-88% agreement) for the number of cNFs, general severity, and facial severity. Agreement between self-reported numbers of cNFs and investigator-rated numbers based on photographs was “minimal to fair.”
• Female sex, the number of cNFs, severity of cNFs on the face, and globular cNFs were associated with worse QoL (based on Skindex scores); severity of cNFs on the face had the strongest impact on overall QoL (P < .001).
• An increasing number of cNFs and worsening facial severity were strongly correlated with higher emotion subdomain scores.
• A higher number of cNFs, more severe cNFs on the face, and larger cNFs were all slightly associated with increased itch and pain (P < .01).

IN PRACTICE:

“To develop effective therapeutics, meaningful clinical outcomes that are tied with improvement in QoL for persons with NF1 must be clearly defined,” the authors wrote. The results of this study, they added, “suggested the benefit of this crowd-sourced resource by identifying the features of cNFs with the greatest association with QoL and symptoms of pain and itch in persons with NF1, highlighting new intervention strategies and features to target to most improve QoL in NF1.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Michelle Jade Lin, BS, Stanford University School of Medicine, Redwood City, California, and was published online in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only a small number of individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups and did not capture ethnicity information, which could have provided further insights into disease impact across different demographics.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. Ms. Lin reported support from the Stanford Medical Scholars Research Program. Three authors reported personal fees or grants outside this work. Other authors reported no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

TOPLINE:

Mobile images may be reliable for assessing cutaneous neurofibroma (cNF) features in patients with neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1), according to a crowd-sourced registry study that also suggests correlations between cNF burden and quality of life (QoL), particularly the impact of facial severity on emotional well-being.

METHODOLOGY:

• To learn more about the association of cNFs with QoL, pain, and itch in patients with this rare disease, researchers enrolled 1016 individuals aged 40 years and older with NF1 who had at least one cNF, from May 2021 to December 2023, after reaching out to patient-led or NF1 advocacy organizations in 13 countries, including the United States.
• Participants provided demographic data, detailed photographs, and saliva samples for genetic sequencing, with 583 participants (mean age, 51.7 years; 65.9% women) submitting high-quality photographs from seven body regions at the time of the study analysis.
• A subset of 50 participants also underwent whole-body imaging.
• Four researchers independently rated the photographs for various cNF features, including general severity, number, size, facial severity, and subtypes.

TAKEAWAY:

• Based on evaluations by NF1 specialists, the agreement between mobile and whole-body images was “substantial” (74%-88% agreement) for the number of cNFs, general severity, and facial severity. Agreement between self-reported numbers of cNFs and investigator-rated numbers based on photographs was “minimal to fair.”
• Female sex, the number of cNFs, severity of cNFs on the face, and globular cNFs were associated with worse QoL (based on Skindex scores); severity of cNFs on the face had the strongest impact on overall QoL (P < .001).
• An increasing number of cNFs and worsening facial severity were strongly correlated with higher emotion subdomain scores.
• A higher number of cNFs, more severe cNFs on the face, and larger cNFs were all slightly associated with increased itch and pain (P < .01).

IN PRACTICE:

“To develop effective therapeutics, meaningful clinical outcomes that are tied with improvement in QoL for persons with NF1 must be clearly defined,” the authors wrote. The results of this study, they added, “suggested the benefit of this crowd-sourced resource by identifying the features of cNFs with the greatest association with QoL and symptoms of pain and itch in persons with NF1, highlighting new intervention strategies and features to target to most improve QoL in NF1.”

SOURCE:

The study was led by Michelle Jade Lin, BS, Stanford University School of Medicine, Redwood City, California, and was published online in JAMA Dermatology.

LIMITATIONS:

The study included only a small number of individuals from racial and ethnic minority groups and did not capture ethnicity information, which could have provided further insights into disease impact across different demographics.

DISCLOSURES:

This study was supported by Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, and the Bloomberg Family Foundation. Ms. Lin reported support from the Stanford Medical Scholars Research Program. Three authors reported personal fees or grants outside this work. Other authors reported no competing interests.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

When parents are perceived as distracted by their phones or other technology during social or family interactions, it can affect the mental health of children between ages 9 and 11 years, according to a new study based in Canada.

In fact, this parental “technoference” is associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms later in the child’s development, the researchers found.

“We hear a lot about children’s and adolescents’ screen time in the media, but we forget that parents are also on their screens a lot. In fact, past research shows that when parents are with their children, they spend 1 in 3 minutes on a screen,” said lead author Audrey-Ann Deneault, PhD, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“We’ve all experienced moments when we’re on the phone and not hearing someone call us or don’t notice something happening right before our eyes,” she said. “We think that’s why it’s important to look at technoference. When parents use screens, they are more likely to miss when their child needs them.”

The study was published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

Analyzing Parental Technoference

As part of the All Our Families study, Dr. Deneault and colleagues analyzed a cohort of mothers and 1303 emerging adolescents between ages 9 and 11 years in Calgary, with the aim of understanding long-term associations between perceived parental interruptions (or technoference) and their children’s mental health.

Women were recruited during pregnancy between May 2008 and December 2010. For this study, the adolescents were assessed three times — at ages 9 years (in 2020), 10 years (in 2021), and 11 years (in 2021 and 2022). The mothers gave consent for their children to participate, and the children gave assent as well.

During the assessments, the adolescents completed questionnaires about their perceptions of parental technoference and their mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, inattention, and hyperactivity. The study focused on the magnitude of effect sizes rather than statistical significance.

Overall, higher levels of anxiety symptoms at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 10 and 11 years. The effect size was small.

In addition, higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of hyperactivity at ages 10 and 11 years and higher levels of inattention at age 11 years. There were no significant differences by gender.

“Technoference and youth mental health interact in complex ways. We found that when emerging adolescents have higher rates of anxiety, this can prompt parents to engage in more technoference,” Dr. Deneault said. “This latter bit highlights that parents may be struggling when their youths have mental health difficulties.”
 

Considering Healthy Changes

The findings call for a multitiered approach, Dr. Deneault said, in which adolescents and parents receive support related to mental health concerns, technology use, and healthy parent-child interactions.

“The key takeaway is that parents’ screen time matters and should begin to be a part of the conversation when we think about child and adolescent mental health,” she said.

Future research should look at the direction of associations between adolescent mental health and parental technoference, as well as underlying mechanisms, specific activities linked to technoference, and different age groups and stages of development, the study authors wrote.

“As a society, we need to understand how parents’ use of technology can interfere or not with youths’ mental health,” said Nicole Letourneau, PhD, a research professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and community health sciences focused on parent and child health at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Letourneau, who wasn’t involved in this study, has researched the effects of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and child health and developmental outcomes. She and her colleagues found that parents recognized changes in their child’s behavior.

“Parental support is important for healthy development, and if parents are distracted by their devices, they can miss important but subtle cues that youth are using to signal their needs,” she said. “Given the troubling rise in youth mental health problems, we need to understand potential contributors so we can offer ways to reduce risks and promote youth mental health.”

Communication with parents should be considered as well. For instance, healthcare providers can address the positive and negative aspects of technology use.

“There is enough research out now that we should be more concerned than we currently are about how parents’ own technology habits might influence child and teen well-being. Yet, taking an overall negative lens to parent technology and smartphone habits may not prove very fruitful,” said Brandon McDaniel, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Parkview Mirro Center for Research & Innovation in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. McDaniel, who also wasn’t involved with this study, has researched technoference and associations with child behavior problems, as well as parents’ desires to change phone use. He noted that parents may use their devices for positive reasons, such as finding support from others, regulating their own emotions, and escaping from stress, so they can be more emotionally available for their children soon after using their phone.

“Many parents already feel an immense amount of guilt surrounding smartphone use in the presence of their child,” he said. “I suggest that practitioners address parent technology use in ways that validate parents in their positive uses of technology while helping them identify areas of their tech habits that may be counterproductive for their own or their child’s health and mental health.”

The All Our Families study was supported by an Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions Interdisciplinary Team Grant and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. The current analysis received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development COVID-19 grant, an Alberta Innovates grant, and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Deneault, Dr. Letourneau, and Dr. McDaniel reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

When parents are perceived as distracted by their phones or other technology during social or family interactions, it can affect the mental health of children between ages 9 and 11 years, according to a new study based in Canada.

In fact, this parental “technoference” is associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms later in the child’s development, the researchers found.

“We hear a lot about children’s and adolescents’ screen time in the media, but we forget that parents are also on their screens a lot. In fact, past research shows that when parents are with their children, they spend 1 in 3 minutes on a screen,” said lead author Audrey-Ann Deneault, PhD, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“We’ve all experienced moments when we’re on the phone and not hearing someone call us or don’t notice something happening right before our eyes,” she said. “We think that’s why it’s important to look at technoference. When parents use screens, they are more likely to miss when their child needs them.”

The study was published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

Analyzing Parental Technoference

As part of the All Our Families study, Dr. Deneault and colleagues analyzed a cohort of mothers and 1303 emerging adolescents between ages 9 and 11 years in Calgary, with the aim of understanding long-term associations between perceived parental interruptions (or technoference) and their children’s mental health.

Women were recruited during pregnancy between May 2008 and December 2010. For this study, the adolescents were assessed three times — at ages 9 years (in 2020), 10 years (in 2021), and 11 years (in 2021 and 2022). The mothers gave consent for their children to participate, and the children gave assent as well.

During the assessments, the adolescents completed questionnaires about their perceptions of parental technoference and their mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, inattention, and hyperactivity. The study focused on the magnitude of effect sizes rather than statistical significance.

Overall, higher levels of anxiety symptoms at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 10 and 11 years. The effect size was small.

In addition, higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of hyperactivity at ages 10 and 11 years and higher levels of inattention at age 11 years. There were no significant differences by gender.

“Technoference and youth mental health interact in complex ways. We found that when emerging adolescents have higher rates of anxiety, this can prompt parents to engage in more technoference,” Dr. Deneault said. “This latter bit highlights that parents may be struggling when their youths have mental health difficulties.”
 

Considering Healthy Changes

The findings call for a multitiered approach, Dr. Deneault said, in which adolescents and parents receive support related to mental health concerns, technology use, and healthy parent-child interactions.

“The key takeaway is that parents’ screen time matters and should begin to be a part of the conversation when we think about child and adolescent mental health,” she said.

Future research should look at the direction of associations between adolescent mental health and parental technoference, as well as underlying mechanisms, specific activities linked to technoference, and different age groups and stages of development, the study authors wrote.

“As a society, we need to understand how parents’ use of technology can interfere or not with youths’ mental health,” said Nicole Letourneau, PhD, a research professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and community health sciences focused on parent and child health at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Letourneau, who wasn’t involved in this study, has researched the effects of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and child health and developmental outcomes. She and her colleagues found that parents recognized changes in their child’s behavior.

“Parental support is important for healthy development, and if parents are distracted by their devices, they can miss important but subtle cues that youth are using to signal their needs,” she said. “Given the troubling rise in youth mental health problems, we need to understand potential contributors so we can offer ways to reduce risks and promote youth mental health.”

Communication with parents should be considered as well. For instance, healthcare providers can address the positive and negative aspects of technology use.

“There is enough research out now that we should be more concerned than we currently are about how parents’ own technology habits might influence child and teen well-being. Yet, taking an overall negative lens to parent technology and smartphone habits may not prove very fruitful,” said Brandon McDaniel, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Parkview Mirro Center for Research & Innovation in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. McDaniel, who also wasn’t involved with this study, has researched technoference and associations with child behavior problems, as well as parents’ desires to change phone use. He noted that parents may use their devices for positive reasons, such as finding support from others, regulating their own emotions, and escaping from stress, so they can be more emotionally available for their children soon after using their phone.

“Many parents already feel an immense amount of guilt surrounding smartphone use in the presence of their child,” he said. “I suggest that practitioners address parent technology use in ways that validate parents in their positive uses of technology while helping them identify areas of their tech habits that may be counterproductive for their own or their child’s health and mental health.”

The All Our Families study was supported by an Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions Interdisciplinary Team Grant and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. The current analysis received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development COVID-19 grant, an Alberta Innovates grant, and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Deneault, Dr. Letourneau, and Dr. McDaniel reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

When parents are perceived as distracted by their phones or other technology during social or family interactions, it can affect the mental health of children between ages 9 and 11 years, according to a new study based in Canada.

In fact, this parental “technoference” is associated with higher levels of inattention and hyperactivity symptoms later in the child’s development, the researchers found.

“We hear a lot about children’s and adolescents’ screen time in the media, but we forget that parents are also on their screens a lot. In fact, past research shows that when parents are with their children, they spend 1 in 3 minutes on a screen,” said lead author Audrey-Ann Deneault, PhD, assistant professor of social psychology at the University of Montreal, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

“We’ve all experienced moments when we’re on the phone and not hearing someone call us or don’t notice something happening right before our eyes,” she said. “We think that’s why it’s important to look at technoference. When parents use screens, they are more likely to miss when their child needs them.”

The study was published online in JAMA Network Open.
 

Analyzing Parental Technoference

As part of the All Our Families study, Dr. Deneault and colleagues analyzed a cohort of mothers and 1303 emerging adolescents between ages 9 and 11 years in Calgary, with the aim of understanding long-term associations between perceived parental interruptions (or technoference) and their children’s mental health.

Women were recruited during pregnancy between May 2008 and December 2010. For this study, the adolescents were assessed three times — at ages 9 years (in 2020), 10 years (in 2021), and 11 years (in 2021 and 2022). The mothers gave consent for their children to participate, and the children gave assent as well.

During the assessments, the adolescents completed questionnaires about their perceptions of parental technoference and their mental health symptoms, such as anxiety, depression, inattention, and hyperactivity. The study focused on the magnitude of effect sizes rather than statistical significance.

Overall, higher levels of anxiety symptoms at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 10 and 11 years. The effect size was small.

In addition, higher levels of perceived parental technoference at ages 9 and 10 years were prospectively associated with higher levels of hyperactivity at ages 10 and 11 years and higher levels of inattention at age 11 years. There were no significant differences by gender.

“Technoference and youth mental health interact in complex ways. We found that when emerging adolescents have higher rates of anxiety, this can prompt parents to engage in more technoference,” Dr. Deneault said. “This latter bit highlights that parents may be struggling when their youths have mental health difficulties.”
 

Considering Healthy Changes

The findings call for a multitiered approach, Dr. Deneault said, in which adolescents and parents receive support related to mental health concerns, technology use, and healthy parent-child interactions.

“The key takeaway is that parents’ screen time matters and should begin to be a part of the conversation when we think about child and adolescent mental health,” she said.

Future research should look at the direction of associations between adolescent mental health and parental technoference, as well as underlying mechanisms, specific activities linked to technoference, and different age groups and stages of development, the study authors wrote.

“As a society, we need to understand how parents’ use of technology can interfere or not with youths’ mental health,” said Nicole Letourneau, PhD, a research professor of pediatrics, psychiatry, and community health sciences focused on parent and child health at the University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Dr. Letourneau, who wasn’t involved in this study, has researched the effects of parental technoference on parent-child relationships and child health and developmental outcomes. She and her colleagues found that parents recognized changes in their child’s behavior.

“Parental support is important for healthy development, and if parents are distracted by their devices, they can miss important but subtle cues that youth are using to signal their needs,” she said. “Given the troubling rise in youth mental health problems, we need to understand potential contributors so we can offer ways to reduce risks and promote youth mental health.”

Communication with parents should be considered as well. For instance, healthcare providers can address the positive and negative aspects of technology use.

“There is enough research out now that we should be more concerned than we currently are about how parents’ own technology habits might influence child and teen well-being. Yet, taking an overall negative lens to parent technology and smartphone habits may not prove very fruitful,” said Brandon McDaniel, PhD, a senior research scientist at the Parkview Mirro Center for Research & Innovation in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

Dr. McDaniel, who also wasn’t involved with this study, has researched technoference and associations with child behavior problems, as well as parents’ desires to change phone use. He noted that parents may use their devices for positive reasons, such as finding support from others, regulating their own emotions, and escaping from stress, so they can be more emotionally available for their children soon after using their phone.

“Many parents already feel an immense amount of guilt surrounding smartphone use in the presence of their child,” he said. “I suggest that practitioners address parent technology use in ways that validate parents in their positive uses of technology while helping them identify areas of their tech habits that may be counterproductive for their own or their child’s health and mental health.”

The All Our Families study was supported by an Alberta Innovates–Health Solutions Interdisciplinary Team Grant and the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation. The current analysis received funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, a Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development COVID-19 grant, an Alberta Innovates grant, and a Banting Postdoctoral Fellowship. Dr. Deneault, Dr. Letourneau, and Dr. McDaniel reported no relevant financial relationships.

A version of this article first appeared on Medscape.com.

A growing amount of data is demonstrating that new fathers are likely to develop depression in the perinatal period. Anxiety and stress during fatherhood receive less research attention than do anxiety and stress during motherhood. 

Longitudinal data tracking the evolution of men’s mental health following the birth of the first child are even rarer, especially in the French population. Only two studies of the subject have been conducted. They were dedicated solely to paternal depression and limited to the first 4 months post partum. Better understanding of the risk in the population can not only help identify public health issues, but also aid in defining targeted preventive approaches.

French researchers in epidemiology and public health sought to expand our knowledge of the mental health trajectories of new fathers using 9 years of data from the CONSTANCES cohort. Within this cohort, participants filled out self-administered questionnaires annually. They declared their parental status and the presence of mental illnesses. They also completed questionnaires to assess mental health, such as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for depression and the General Health Questionnaire for depressive, anxious, and somatic disorders. Thresholds for each score were established to characterize the severity of symptoms. In addition, the researchers analyzed all factors (eg, sociodemographic, psychosocial, lifestyle, professional, family, or cultural) that potentially are associated with poor mental health and were available within the questionnaires. 

The study included 6299 men who had their first child and for whom at least one mental health measure was collected during the follow-up period. These men had an average age of 38 years at inclusion, 88% lived with a partner, and 85% were employed. Overall, 7.9% of this male cohort self-reported a mental illness during the study, with 5.6% of illnesses occurring before the child’s birth and 9.7% after. Anxiety affected 6.5% of the cohort, and it was more pronounced after the birth than before (7.8% after vs 4.9% before). 

The rate of clinically significant symptoms averaged 23.2% during the study period, increasing from 18.3% to 25.2% after the birth. The discrepancy between the self-declared diagnosis by new fathers and the symptom-related score highlights underreporting or insufficient awareness among men. 

After conducting a latent class analysis, the researchers identified three homogeneous subgroups of men who had comparable mental health trajectories over time. The first group (90.3% of the cohort) maintained a constant and low risk for mental illnesses. The second (4.1%) presented a high and generally constant risk over time. Finally, 5.6% of the cohort had a temporarily high risk in the 2-4 years surrounding the birth.

The risk factors associated with being at a transiently high risk for mental illness were, in order of descending significance, not having a job, having had at least one negative experience during childhood, forgoing healthcare for financial reasons, and being aged 35-39 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] between 3.01 and 1.61). The risk factors associated with a high and constant mental illness risk were, in order of descending significance, being aged 60 years or older, not having a job, not living with a partner, being aged 40-44 years, and having other children in the following years (AOR between 3.79 and 1.85). 

The authors noted that the risk factors for mental health challenges associated with fatherhood do not imply causality, the meaning of which would also need further study. They contended that French fathers, who on average are entitled to 2 weeks of paid paternity leave, may struggle to manage their time, professional responsibilities, and parenting duties. Consequently, they may experience dissatisfaction and difficulty seeking support, assistance, or a mental health diagnosis, especially in the face of a mental health risk to which they are less attuned than women.

This story was translated from Univadis France, which is part of the Medscape Professional Network, using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A growing amount of data is demonstrating that new fathers are likely to develop depression in the perinatal period. Anxiety and stress during fatherhood receive less research attention than do anxiety and stress during motherhood. 

Longitudinal data tracking the evolution of men’s mental health following the birth of the first child are even rarer, especially in the French population. Only two studies of the subject have been conducted. They were dedicated solely to paternal depression and limited to the first 4 months post partum. Better understanding of the risk in the population can not only help identify public health issues, but also aid in defining targeted preventive approaches.

French researchers in epidemiology and public health sought to expand our knowledge of the mental health trajectories of new fathers using 9 years of data from the CONSTANCES cohort. Within this cohort, participants filled out self-administered questionnaires annually. They declared their parental status and the presence of mental illnesses. They also completed questionnaires to assess mental health, such as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for depression and the General Health Questionnaire for depressive, anxious, and somatic disorders. Thresholds for each score were established to characterize the severity of symptoms. In addition, the researchers analyzed all factors (eg, sociodemographic, psychosocial, lifestyle, professional, family, or cultural) that potentially are associated with poor mental health and were available within the questionnaires. 

The study included 6299 men who had their first child and for whom at least one mental health measure was collected during the follow-up period. These men had an average age of 38 years at inclusion, 88% lived with a partner, and 85% were employed. Overall, 7.9% of this male cohort self-reported a mental illness during the study, with 5.6% of illnesses occurring before the child’s birth and 9.7% after. Anxiety affected 6.5% of the cohort, and it was more pronounced after the birth than before (7.8% after vs 4.9% before). 

The rate of clinically significant symptoms averaged 23.2% during the study period, increasing from 18.3% to 25.2% after the birth. The discrepancy between the self-declared diagnosis by new fathers and the symptom-related score highlights underreporting or insufficient awareness among men. 

After conducting a latent class analysis, the researchers identified three homogeneous subgroups of men who had comparable mental health trajectories over time. The first group (90.3% of the cohort) maintained a constant and low risk for mental illnesses. The second (4.1%) presented a high and generally constant risk over time. Finally, 5.6% of the cohort had a temporarily high risk in the 2-4 years surrounding the birth.

The risk factors associated with being at a transiently high risk for mental illness were, in order of descending significance, not having a job, having had at least one negative experience during childhood, forgoing healthcare for financial reasons, and being aged 35-39 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] between 3.01 and 1.61). The risk factors associated with a high and constant mental illness risk were, in order of descending significance, being aged 60 years or older, not having a job, not living with a partner, being aged 40-44 years, and having other children in the following years (AOR between 3.79 and 1.85). 

The authors noted that the risk factors for mental health challenges associated with fatherhood do not imply causality, the meaning of which would also need further study. They contended that French fathers, who on average are entitled to 2 weeks of paid paternity leave, may struggle to manage their time, professional responsibilities, and parenting duties. Consequently, they may experience dissatisfaction and difficulty seeking support, assistance, or a mental health diagnosis, especially in the face of a mental health risk to which they are less attuned than women.

This story was translated from Univadis France, which is part of the Medscape Professional Network, using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.

A growing amount of data is demonstrating that new fathers are likely to develop depression in the perinatal period. Anxiety and stress during fatherhood receive less research attention than do anxiety and stress during motherhood. 

Longitudinal data tracking the evolution of men’s mental health following the birth of the first child are even rarer, especially in the French population. Only two studies of the subject have been conducted. They were dedicated solely to paternal depression and limited to the first 4 months post partum. Better understanding of the risk in the population can not only help identify public health issues, but also aid in defining targeted preventive approaches.

French researchers in epidemiology and public health sought to expand our knowledge of the mental health trajectories of new fathers using 9 years of data from the CONSTANCES cohort. Within this cohort, participants filled out self-administered questionnaires annually. They declared their parental status and the presence of mental illnesses. They also completed questionnaires to assess mental health, such as the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale for depression and the General Health Questionnaire for depressive, anxious, and somatic disorders. Thresholds for each score were established to characterize the severity of symptoms. In addition, the researchers analyzed all factors (eg, sociodemographic, psychosocial, lifestyle, professional, family, or cultural) that potentially are associated with poor mental health and were available within the questionnaires. 

The study included 6299 men who had their first child and for whom at least one mental health measure was collected during the follow-up period. These men had an average age of 38 years at inclusion, 88% lived with a partner, and 85% were employed. Overall, 7.9% of this male cohort self-reported a mental illness during the study, with 5.6% of illnesses occurring before the child’s birth and 9.7% after. Anxiety affected 6.5% of the cohort, and it was more pronounced after the birth than before (7.8% after vs 4.9% before). 

The rate of clinically significant symptoms averaged 23.2% during the study period, increasing from 18.3% to 25.2% after the birth. The discrepancy between the self-declared diagnosis by new fathers and the symptom-related score highlights underreporting or insufficient awareness among men. 

After conducting a latent class analysis, the researchers identified three homogeneous subgroups of men who had comparable mental health trajectories over time. The first group (90.3% of the cohort) maintained a constant and low risk for mental illnesses. The second (4.1%) presented a high and generally constant risk over time. Finally, 5.6% of the cohort had a temporarily high risk in the 2-4 years surrounding the birth.

The risk factors associated with being at a transiently high risk for mental illness were, in order of descending significance, not having a job, having had at least one negative experience during childhood, forgoing healthcare for financial reasons, and being aged 35-39 years (adjusted odds ratio [AOR] between 3.01 and 1.61). The risk factors associated with a high and constant mental illness risk were, in order of descending significance, being aged 60 years or older, not having a job, not living with a partner, being aged 40-44 years, and having other children in the following years (AOR between 3.79 and 1.85). 

The authors noted that the risk factors for mental health challenges associated with fatherhood do not imply causality, the meaning of which would also need further study. They contended that French fathers, who on average are entitled to 2 weeks of paid paternity leave, may struggle to manage their time, professional responsibilities, and parenting duties. Consequently, they may experience dissatisfaction and difficulty seeking support, assistance, or a mental health diagnosis, especially in the face of a mental health risk to which they are less attuned than women.

This story was translated from Univadis France, which is part of the Medscape Professional Network, using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. A version of this article appeared on Medscape.com.