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THURSDAY, Sept. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- For a needed mood boost, skip social media and strike up an in-person conversation with someone instead.Face-to-face socializing boosts mood more than screen time, a new study finds. People often expect that will be the case, but they don’t always follow that instinct, according to the researchers."These findings suggest that people may use their smartphones because they enable them to escape the unpleasant experience of being alone, or because they do not recognize or prioritize the mood benefits of social interaction," the study authors wrote in the report published online recently in the Journal of Social Psychology.“We were interested in getting a sense of how people compare their options, both in terms of how they expect to feel and...

THURSDAY, Sept. 14, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Many Medicare patients can’t get help close to home for brain and nervous system issues.Nearly 1 in 5 Medicare recipients in the United States live at least 50 miles from their neurologist.“Our study found a substantial travel burden exists for some people with neurologic conditions, including people living in areas with fewer neurologists and rural areas,” said study author Dr. Brian Callaghan, head of the American Academy of Neurology’s Health Services Research Subcommittee. “We also found that people who traveled long distances were less likely to return for a follow‐up visit with a neurologist," Callaghan said in an academy news release.Data came from more than 563,000 people on Medicare (average age: 70) who saw a...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Using both tobacco and marijuana is tied to significantly higher odds for depression and anxiety, a new study suggests.Among nearly 54,000 U.S. adults, those who used both substances experienced anxiety or depression at nearly twice the rate of nonusers, researchers found. "Smoking weed and tobacco does not help to deal with anxiety and depression, and may exacerbate mental health issues in the long run," said lead researcher Nhung Nguyen, an assistant professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco.More research addressing the use of tobacco and cannabis is needed to understand effective prevention and treatment efforts for this "emerging public health issue," Nguyen added. Co-use of marijuana and tobacco is increasing...

WEDNESDAY, Sept. 13, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- When some U.S. states made abortion illegal after the Supreme Court overturned the longstanding Roe v Wade in June 2022, women in those areas increased their searches for self-managed abortions.To come to that conclusion, researchers from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) analyzed Google search results regarding self-abortion.“We found an increased number of searches in states where abortion had recently become illegal, suggesting that a lot of people in these states are trying to learn how to give themselves abortions instead of going to the doctor,” said lead investigator Sean Young. He is a professor in the departments of emergency medicine and informatics. “This has implications for increased emergency department visits...