HealthDay (12/13, Reinberg) reported, “People who wind up in emergency” departments (EDs) “because they tried to kill themselves or contemplated it had a much higher risk of suicide within the year of the visit,” researchers concluded in a study that included “more than 85,000 people who had attempted suicide; over 67,000 who had thoughts of suicide; and a control group of nearly 500,000 people who went to an” ED “but had no suicide-related thoughts or problems.” The study revealed that “those who attempted suicide were 57 times more likely to kill themselves in the following year compared to the general public,” while “people with suicidal thoughts seen in the” ED “were 31 times more likely to try suicide in the ensuing year.” The findings were published online Dec. 13 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “ER Visits for Attempted Suicide Greatly Raise Odds for Future Tragedy, ” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, December 13, 2019

Healio (12/12, Gramigna) reports, “Individuals with depression were more than twice as likely to use cannabis than those without depression,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from the annual cross-sectional National Survey on Drug Use and Health to assess linear time trends of the prevalence of any, daily and nondaily past 30-day use and perceived great risk associated with regular cannabis use,” focusing on data “for 728,691 individuals aged 12 years or older.” The findings were published online Dec. 4 in the journal Addiction.

Related Links:

— “People with depression twice as likely to use cannabis, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 12, 2019

Healio (12/12, Gramigna) reports investigators “have identified eight psychiatric disorders that share a common genetic structure.” For the study, researchers “used genome-wide association analyses of 232,964 individuals diagnosed with one of eight psychiatric disorders – anorexia nervosa,” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), “autism spectrum disorder [ASD], bipolar disorder, major depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia and Tourette syndrome,” and then “also analyzed genetic data of 494,162 healthy controls.” The study revealed “shared variants” that “allowed the researchers to classify conditions into three groups by their related genetics – those characterized by compulsive behaviors, including anorexia nervosa, OCD and, to a lesser extent, Tourette syndrome; mood and psychotic disorders including bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia; and early-onset neurodevelopmental disorders including ASD,” AD/HD “and Tourette syndrome.” The findings were published online Dec. 12 in the journal Cell.

Related Links:

— “ADHD, autism and 6 psychiatric disorders share common genetic structure, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 12, 2019

The Wall Street Journal (12/12, Tracy, Subscription Publication) reports that the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday okayed a proposal to create a 988 hotline for suicide prevention and mental health crises. The three-digit number is designed to replace the existing number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

The AP (12/12, Anderson) reports the action “comes as suicide rates have increased across the U.S. over the past two decades, and dramatically so – by more than 30% – in half of U.S. states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The shorter number “would likely lead to more calls, which in turn would mean more expenses for crisis centers already struggling to keep up.” If the “number of calls to the hotline doubled, centers would need an extra $50 million a year to handle the increase, the FCC said, citing the federal agency that funds the hotline, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.”

Axios (12/12, McGill) reports that the bipartisan legislation, introduced by Cory Gardner (R-CO), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Jerry Moran (R-KS), and Jack Reed (D-RI), “would also require the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration to come up with a strategy to connect young LGBTQ hotline callers to specialized services.”

Related Links:

— “FCC Approves Making ‘988’ a National Suicide-Prevention Hotline Number
, “Ryan Tracy, The Wall Street Journal, December 12, 2019

Psychiatric News (12/11) reports, “Youth who are taking antidepressants in the class of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for anxiety or obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) are more likely to experience side effects that cause them to discontinue the medication than those taking serotonin-norepinephrine inhibitors (SNRIs),” researchers concluded after analyzing “data on adverse reactions to SSRIs and SNRIs in 18 studies involving more than 2,600 children and teenagers under the age of 18 treated for anxiety or OCD.” The study also revealed that SSRIs “appear to be more commonly associated with ‘activation syndrome’ – a cluster of symptoms including restlessness, anxiety, and agitation.” The findings of the Bayesian hierarchical modeling meta-analysis were published online Nov. 1 in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “SNRIs May Be More Tolerable Than SSRIs for Some Youth With Anxiety, OCD, Psychiatric News, December 11, 2019