Perceived addiction to internet pornography appears to be related strongly to moral scruples around pornography use, both concurrently and over time, rather than with the amount of daily pornography use itself, a recent study found. Participants were adults who had used pornography within the past 6 months recruited in 2 samples. Sample 1 (n=1,507) involved undergraduate students from 3 US universities and sample 2 (n=782) involved web-using adults. Subsets of each sample (sample 1, n=146; sample 2, n=211) were surveyed again 1 year later. At baseline, researchers assessed average daily pornography use, addiction to internet pornography (PA) and relevant predictors (eg, trait neuroticism, trait self-control, trait entitlement, religiousness, moral disapproval of pornography use).

They found:

• Cross-sectionally, PA was correlated strongly with moral disapproval of pornography use.
• Baseline moral disapproval (sample 1, r=0.46; sample 2, r=0.61) and perceived addiction demonstrated relationships with perceived addiction 1 year later.
• There was inconclusive evidence of a substantial or significant association between pornography use and perceived addiction over time (sample 1, r=0.13; sample 2, r=0.11).

Younger Adults Affected by US Suicide Attempts

A recent overall increase in suicide attempts among adults in the US has disproportionately affected younger adults with less formal education and those with antisocial personality disorder, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, and a history of violence, according to a recent study. Data came from the 2004-2005 wave 2 National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions (NESARC) and the 2012-2013 NESARC-III. These nationally representative surveys asked identical questions to 69,341 adults (42.8% men and 57.2% women, aged ≥21 years), concerning the occurrence and timing of suicide attempts.

Researchers found:

• Out of total participants, the weighted percentage of those making a recent suicide attempt increased from 0.62% in 2004-2005 (221 of 34,629) to 0.79% in 2012-2013 (305 of 34,712; age, sex, and race/ethnicity [ARD], 0.17%).
• In both surveys, most adults with recent suicide attempts were female (2004-2005, 60.17%; 2012-2013, 60.94%) and aged <50 years (2004-2005, 84.75%; 2012-2013, 80.38%).
• The ARD for suicide attempts was significantly larger among adults aged 21 to 34 years than among adults aged ≥65 years.

Bipolar disorder (BD) in nursing home residents is often first diagnosed after dementia using non-specific diagnoses, a recent study found. Researchers evaluated 21,955 long-stay nursing home residents in the first quarter of 2014. They identified antipsychotic use and BD using Minimum Data Set (MDS) data, comparing MDS BD diagnoses with Chronic Conditions Warehouse (CCW) “ever” BD indicators, and prior year claims. They also compared CCW condition onset dates to identify BD diagnosed after dementia.

They found:

• The mean (SD) proportion receiving antipsychotics was 19.6% (11.1%) with BD and 18.3% (10.8%) without.
• The positive predictive value (PPV) of MDS BD diagnoses was 80.2% vs CCW lifetime indicators, and 74.6% vs claims.
• PPV decreased by 27.1% when “BD, unspecified” and “other BDs” diagnoses were excluded.
• Nearly three-quarters of residents with BD had dementia.
• Over half of those with dementia had dementia first per CCW records.
• This proportion was lower among those with more specific BD diagnoses or MDS BD indicators.