Soldiers’ Suicide Risk Greatest in Year After Leaving Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

November 13th, 2014/

U.S. soldiers who have undergone inpatient psychiatric treatment have a greatly increased risk of suicide in the year after they are discharged from the hospital, suggests a new study.

The suicide rate in the U.S. Army is higher than the civilian rate, HealthDay reports.

The study included more than 40,000 active-duty soldiers who received inpatient psychiatric treatment between 2004 and 2009. Within a year of being discharged, 68 of the soldiers committed suicide—12 percent of all U.S. Army suicides during this period.

The researchers identified the 5 percent of soldiers with the highest predicted risk of suicide in the year after hospital discharge. This group of soldiers accounted for 52.9 percent of suicides after hospitalization. Among the soldiers with the highest risk of suicide, risk factors included being male, enlisting at a later age, criminal offenses, weapons possession, previous suicide attempts, and a greater number of antidepressant prescriptions filled in the past year.

The findings can be used to predict soldiers’ suicide risk after hospitalization for psychiatric disorders, and to help target preventive interventions, the researchers wrote in JAMA Psychiatry.

“The high concentration of risk of suicides and other adverse outcomes might justify targeting expanded post-hospitalization interventions to soldiers classified as having highest post-hospitalization suicide risk, although final determination requires careful consideration of intervention costs, comparative effectiveness and possible adverse effects,” the authors wrote.

A Single Drink Doubles the Odds of Ending Up in the Emergency Room: Study

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

November 13th, 2014/

Having even one drink doubles a person’s risk of ending up in the emergency room, according to an international study. A person who consumes three drinks in six hours is about 4.6 times as likely to end up in the ER compared with someone who hasn’t had any drinks.

A person who had 10 drinks in six hours was 10 times as likely to go to the ER, compared with someone who didn’t drink. The study included 13,000 people from 18 countries who were inebriated and went to the emergency room for an injury, according to The Washington Post.

Drinking increased the risk of injury in women more than in men, the study found. Increased drinking was more likely to lead to violence than to either traffic accidents or falls. The researchers found just one drink almost quadruples a person’s odds of getting into a fight and ending up in the hospital. The risk of injury from violence increases more quickly as the volume of alcohol consumed rises.

The findings appear in the journal Addiction.

Texas Sees Rise in Liquid Meth: DEA Agent

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

November 13th, 2014/

Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents are seeing a dramatic increase in liquid meth in Texas, according to an official with the agency.

“It can be put in drinking bottles. It can be placed in 55 gallon drums or even gas tanks,” said DEA Special Agent Wendell Campbell. “No longer is meth being moved only in crystal or powder form. Liquid meth is on the rise. It’s very concealable, it’s easy to get across that way and we’re seeing a dramatic increase in Texas and the Houston area.”

Liquid meth is dissolved in a solution, and is later converted to crystal or powder, ABC30reports. Last month liquid meth was found in candles in a bust near the Texas/Louisiana border, the article notes. The increased supply of liquid meth has led to lower prices for the drug.

The DEA is trying to track down the liquid before it can be converted to crystal or powder. “Our investigations have led us to discover them in shops and warehouses and neighborhoods,” Campbell said.

“Meth is now in the Houston region considered the number one drug threat in our region,” said Houston Police Captain Dale Brown.

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Share Tweet Forward   Tune in Thursday, November 13 Lighthouse Network's Dr. Karl Benzio on "Hearing Hearts" (WEHA) at 9:30 a.m. ET   Karl Benzio, M.D. Shares Insights on WEHA's "Hearing Hearts" about "Psychosis, Hypochondria, and Panic Attacks — Are They for Real?"   STATION: WEHA "Hearing Hearts" (Pleasantville, NJ) DATE: Thursday, November 13 TIME: 9:30 a.m. ET TOPIC: Psychosis, Hypochondria, and Panic Attacks--Are They for Real? STREAM LIVE ONLINE: http://www.wehagospel887.com/   Check out other media interviews including TV appearances, radio programs, print features and articles here.

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Some Pain Specialists Ordering Costly, Unneeded Drug Tests for Elderly

/BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

November 11th, 2014/

Some pain specialists are ordering costly, unneeded drug tests for their elderly patients, in order to receive payment from Medicare, The Wall Street Journal reports. These doctors are testing for drugs rarely used by elderly patients, such as heroin, cocaine and PCP.

Doctors who treat pain are encouraged to test their patients to make sure they are not abusing their painkillers. Drug tests can also indicate if a patient is not taking their medication, and selling it instead. After Medicare cracked down on abuse billing for simple urine tests, some doctors switched to high-tech testing methods such as mass spectrometry. The billing for these tests are not limited, the article notes. The doctors bill Medicare separately for each substance tested.

Many experts say high-tech drug tests should only be used to confirm results from less expensive, low-tech drug tests.

Medicare spent $445 million for 22 high-tech drug tests in 2012, up 1,423 percent in five years, according to the newspaper. Spending included $14 million for PCP tests. Dozens of pain doctors receive more Medicare payments for drug testing than for treating patients.

Government data suggests use of illegal drugs among the elderly is rare. Even when marijuana is counted, only about one in 1,000 seniors abuse or are addicted to illicit drugs. In contrast, prescription drug abuse among the elderly is a real and growing concern, experts note.

Dozens of Websites Selling Illegal Drugs Shut Down

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BY JOIN TOGETHER STAFF

November 11th, 2014

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Dozens of websites selling illegal drugs and guns were shut down by law enforcement authorities across the United States and Europe last week, The Wall Street Journal reports. One California man was arrested and charged with owning and operating Silk Road 2.0, one of the largest illegal online marketplaces.

Officials said they were able to pierce the anonymous shield offered by Tor, a network that uses encryption tools and thousands of servers to conceal online activity.

“As illegal activity online becomes more prevalent, criminals can no longer expect that they can hide in the shadows of the ‘dark web,’” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York said in a Department of Justice news release. “We shut down the original Silk Road website and now we have shut down its replacement, as well as multiple other ‘dark market’ sites allegedly offering all manner of illicit goods and services, from firearms to computer hacking. In coordination with domestic and international law enforcement agencies, we will continue to seize websites that promote illegal and harmful activities, and prosecute those who create and operate them.”

Silk Road 2.0 and other similar sites advertised goods and services including illegal narcotics, firearms, stolen credit card data and personal identification information, counterfeit currency, fake passports and other identification documents, and computer-hacking tools and services, according to the Justice Department. The sites accepted payments in the virtual currency known as bitcoin, which is designed to be anonymous.

Last year, the FBI shut down the website Silk Road, which sold illegal drugs. Six months later, a report found the site had reopened and sales had bounced back. The report, by the group Digital Citizens Alliance, found the new version of the site, Silk Road 2.0, had 13,648 listings as of April 2, just slightly more than the 13,000 listings before the arrest of Silk Road’s founder in the fall of 2013.