A study of more than 1,400 Italian seniors finds links between patterns of coffee consumption and their risk for “mild cognitive impairment” — declines in memory and thinking that are often a precursor to dementia. The study could only point to associations, not cause-and-effect, the investigators said. But prior research has suggested that caffeine might impact neurological health. In the study, a team led by Dr. Vincenzo Solfrizzi of the University of Bari Aldo Moro, looked at the coffee consumption of 1,445 Italians aged 65 to 84. The participants’ mental health was also tracked for a median of three-and-a-half years. Reporting earlier this week in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, the research team found that people who consistently drank about one or two cups of coffee per day had a lower rate of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) than those who never or rarely drank the brew. The beneficial association was not found among people whose habitual coffee intake exceeded two cups per day, Solfrizzi’s group added.

For the article from HealthDay, click here.

Seven years after Congress passed a landmark law banning discrimination in the treatment of mentally ill people, many families and their advocates complain it stubbornly persists, largely because insurers are subverting the law in subtle ways and the government is not aggressively enforcing it. The so-called parity law, which was intended to equalize coverage of mental and other medical conditions, has gone a long way toward eliminating obvious discrepancies in insurance coverage. Research shows, for instance, that most insurers have dropped annual limits on the therapy visits that they will cover. Higher copayments and separate mental health deductibles have become less of a problem. But many insurers have continued to limit treatment through other strategies that are harder to track, according to researchers, attorneys and other critics. Among the more murky areas is “medical necessity” review — in which insurers decide whether a patient requires a certain treatment and at what frequency.

For the article from Kaiser Health News, click here.