Daily Rounds: Happy Birthday Mr. President; Antidepressant Use Up; Mass. Hospitals Windfall; Tainted Turkey

In honor of Obama's 50th birthday, an investigation into why people get happier after middle age. - By Libby Copeland - Slate Magazine "This has been a tough week for Barack Obama. There was the tension of a down-to-the-wire debt deal, and on top of that, he turns 50 on Thursday. But while Obama may not see his birthday Thursday as cause for celebration, social scientists suggest there may be something magical in that landmark. The growing body of research on happiness shows that as we pass middle age, our sense of well-being improves. Take the 2010 study that looked at more than 340,000 Americans and found that self-reported levels of anger, stress, and worry plummet at 50 and that a few years later, happiness rises. This pattern held true for men and women, married and unmarried, the working and the jobless—and, presumably, for presidents, too." (Slate)

Antidepressant Use Rises Among the Undiagnosed - WSJ.com "More people without any documented psychiatric condition are taking antidepressants, according to a study being published Thursday, and some of them are likely receiving little benefit. Nearly three-quarters of antidepressants in the U.S. were prescribed by non-psychiatrists in 2007, up from 60% a decade earlier, according to the analysis of a national sample of 233,144 doctor office visits, the latest data available." (Wall Street Journal)

Health Law Windfall For Massachusetts Hospitals | WBUR "Hospitals in Massachusetts will reap an annual windfall of $275 million due to a loophole enshrined in the new health care law. Hospitals in most other states will get less money as a result. The disclosure was buried in a regulation that Medicare issued late last week. Hospital association executives in other states are up in arms over the news, which comes at a time when they are girding for more cuts under the newly signed federal debt deal." (WBUR | 90.9 FM)

Cargill Recalls Ground Turkey Meat Linked to Illnesses - NYTimes.com "Cargill, a major United States meat processor, said Wednesday that it was recalling about 36 million pounds of ground turkey produced at an Arkansas plant after it was linked to a nationwide outbreak of salmonella sickness. It appeared to be one of the largest meat recalls ever. The outbreak involved a strain of the bacteria known as Salmonella Heidelberg, which is resistant to many commonly prescribed antibiotics, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (nytimes.com)