By Rob Ollikainen
A state Department of Health study found Clallam County to have the highest per capita rate of opiate-related deaths from 2008 to 2010, while neighboring Jefferson County ranked No. 8.

According to the study, Clallam County had 25 deaths attributed to opiate-based painkillers — methadone, Hydrocodone, Vicodin, Percocet and others — or street heroin from 2008 to 2010.

Jefferson County had seven opiate-related deaths during that span, according to the study.

The Clallam County death rate was 11.7 per 100,000 people, and the Jefferson County death rate was 7.9 per 100,000.

King County had the most deaths in the state with 324 deaths but a per capita death rate of 5.6 per 100,000, placing it 16th in the state.  » More

A heartwarming story from Arizona Public Media. By Gisela Telis
In a dusty arena near the southern fringe of the Pascua Yaqui Reservation, children lead horses through temptation.

The tempters are hay, hula hoops and traffic cones, but they represent other things: unhealthful habits, peer pressure, drugs, violence.

For the 12-to-18-year-old regulars in the Sewa Uusim equine program Wednesday afternoon session, these temptations are a fact of life.  » More

By JoAnne Young / Lincoln Journal Star
A 2010 study of 1,159 foster children in Nebraska showed 22.5 percent were taking psychiatric drugs.

The drugs prescribed were stimulants for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorders, antidepressants and antianxiety medications, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers -- all powerful drugs with potentially serious side effects.

In this session, Omaha Sen. Gwen Howard has renewed her efforts with a bill (LB837) to examine policies and procedures for prescribing and administering those mental health and behavior modification drugs for state wards.  » More

By Kristina Fiore, Staff Writer, MedPage Today
About 20% of American adults reported having had a mental illness during the preceding year, a government survey found. The figure rose to almost 30% of those in the 18 to 25 age group, compared with 14.3% of patients 50 and older, according to researchers from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

And of the nearly 46 million U.S. adults who reported having had a mental, behavioral, or emotional disorder when surveyed in 2010, some 60% didn't receive any treatment for the condition.  » More

Bonnie J. Nagel, Ph.D., nagelb@ohsu.edu; Megan Herting, B.S., hertingm@ohsu.edu
Researchers know that adolescents with a family history of alcoholism (FHP) are at risk for developing alcohol use disorders. Some studies have shown that, compared to their peers, FHP adolescents have deficits in behavioral inhibition. A study of the neural substrates of risk-taking in both FHP adolescents and their peers with a negative family history of alcoholism (FHN) has shown that FHP youth demonstrated atypical brain activity while completing the same task as the FHN youth.

Results will be published in the April 2012 issue of Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research and are currently available at Early View.  » More

By Dr. Arnold M. Washton
Prescription drug abuse is the fastest growing drug problem in the United States. The dramatic increase in accidental drug overdose deaths in recent years is largely attributed to increased use of prescription painkillers (narcotics), known medically as opioid analgesics. It is estimated that about 9 million people in the U.S. use opioids long term for medical purposes whereas about 5 million use them for "nonmedical" purposes, meaning without a prescription or for medical need.  » More