The Los Angeles Times (10/23, Healy) “Booster Shots” blog reports that according to a study published online Oct. 22 in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, “a youth aged 10 to 17 who reports that he or she has been victimized by peers in the past year is nearly 2 1/2 times likelier to have suicidal thoughts than an adolescent who reports no recent victimization.”

HealthDay (10/23, Mann) reports, “Youth who were sexually assaulted had 3.4 times the risk of thinking about suicide and those who were maltreated had 4.4 times the risk of suicidal ideation during the past year,” the study of “study of nearly 1,200 children and adolescents (aged 10 to 17)” revealed.

MedPage Today (10/23, Petrochko) reports, “Teens who had been polyvictimized — those exposed to seven or more types of harassment — in the past year were nearly six times as likely to think about suicide (OR 5.81, 95% CI 3.09 to 10.15),” the study found. Notably, “youth suicide is the third leading cause of death among adolescents in the US, behind auto accidents and homicide, the authors wrote.”

Related Links:

— “Bullying spurs suicidal thoughts – still more if home support lacks, “Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, October 22, 2012.

HealthDay (10/21, Preidt) reported, “Cyberbullying is rarely the only factor behind teen suicides, according to a small study” presented Oct. 20 at the American Academy of Pediatrics’ national conference. “For the study, the investigators analyzed 41 suicide cases in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.”

MedPage Today (10/21, Neale) reported, “Of 41 cyberbullying-related suicides covered in the news since 2003, the victims were subjected to both online and in-person abuse in 78%,” the study found. “Another 17% involved cyberbullying only and 5% involved traditional in-person bullying only,” researchers reported.

Medscape (10/21, Helwick) reported, “Cyberbullying is defined as bullying using electronic means — primarily the Web and text messaging. It is an extension of traditional bullying, but with the additional element of electronic media, which creates some distance between the bully and his or her target,” the study’s lead author explained. “A marked increase was noted in cyberbullying-related suicides in recent years. Only two or fewer cases occurred per year between 2003 and 2007; this jumped to six in 2008, peaked at 13 in 2011, and was reported at five for the first three months of 2012,” according to the study’s lead author.

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying Rarely Single Factor in Teen Suicides: Study, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 22, 2012.

The Hill (10/19, Cox) “Floor Action” blog reported that Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, chairwoman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee, wants Defense Secretary Panetta “to move to the next step on a timeline for a military-wide review of PTSD and behavioral health diagnoses made since the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.” Panetta “promised to follow up” after some service members were told they didn’t have PTSD by a doctor “trying to keep expenses down” at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, but Murray “said…that the investigation seems to have stalled since being announced on June 13.”

Related Links:

— “Murray seeks answers from Defense on review of PTSD diagnoses, “Ramsey Cox, The Hill, October 19, 2012.

The Time (10/19, Szalavitz) “Healthland” blog reports, “A new study of teenage girls” published online in the journal of Clinical Psychological Science “shows that ‘targeted rejection,’ in which students are singled out for taunting or personally rejected by a friend, can have measurable effects on the immune system.” In their study of 147 young women aged 15 to 19, investigators “found that girls who had recently been targeted for rejection — which can include everything from bullying and ostracizing to being ‘dropped’ by a peer group or friend — had higher levels of substances indicating activation of genes that produce two specific inflammatory proteins, nuclear factor kappa-beta and inhibitor of kappa-beta.” According to the blog, “If sustained, these changes can increase risk for diabetes, heart disease, stroke, mental illness and some cancers later in life, even among those considered to be at the top of the teen social hierarchy.”

Related Links:

— “How Teen Rejection Can Lead to Chronic Disease Later in Life,”Maia Szalavitz, TIME, October 18, 2012.

Reuters (10/19, Norton) reports that according to a study published online Sept. 18 in the International Journal of Obesity, the number of people in the US who are severely obese has risen by 70% over the past decade. However, the study also notes that the rise in the obesity rate has slowed down in recent years. From 2000 to 2010, the percentage of people in the US who were severely obese grew from 4% to nearly 7%. The article notes that more than one-third of American adults are considered obese.

Study: Motivational Counseling Helps Slow Pregnancy Weight Gain In Obese Women. Reuters (10/19, Grens) reports that according to a study published online Oct. 2 in the International Journal of Obesity, motivational counseling can help to curb weight gain in obese pregnant women. By the end of their pregnancies, obese women who received counseling gained approximately 23 pounds, while obese women receiving standard care during their pregnancy gained almost 30 pounds. The study examined 205 obese pregnant women who were randomly assigned to get either motivational counseling on exercise, nutrition, and weight gain, or standard prenatal care.

Related Links:

— “Severe obesity still rising fast in the U.S, “Amy Norton, Reuters, October 18, 2012.

The Los Angeles Times (10/19, Ogilvie) reports that while “head injuries are dangerous to adults…they’re even more concerning when they happen over and over again to children.” The Times points out that “in youth sports, concussions are not uncommon — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 7.2% of football-related visits to the emergency room for kids under the age of 19 were for concussions.” Now, “parents, teachers and coaches are looking for ways to make” sports safer for children, particularly with regard to head injuries.

Related Links:

— “Concussion worries are not just for adult athletes, “Jessica P. Ogilvie, Los Angeles Times, October 20, 2012.

In a blog entry for the Huffington Post (10/18), psychiatrists Herbert Pardes, MD, vice chairman of the board of trustees of New York-Presbyterian Hospital, and Jeffrey A. Lieberman, MD, Chair of Psychiatry, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and President-Elect, American Psychiatric Association, write, “As more Americans with mental illnesses face fewer available mental health services, we risk rising rates of suicide, homelessness and mental health-related incarcerations.” They contend, “In this current environment of a struggling economy, rising debt and political gridlock, it is not realistic to expect significant increases in funding necessary to shore up our mental health system.” However, “the process of reform currently underway provides opportunities that should lead to improvements in the quality and efficiency of mental health care delivery,” such as patient-centered medical homes and accountable care organizations.

Related Links:

— “New Hope for Mental Health, the Huffington Post Blog, October 17, 2012.

HealthDay (10/18, Preidt) reports that “the rate of prescription painkiller abuse among American youth is 40 percent higher than in previous generations, and it is now the second most common type of illegal drug use after marijuana,” according to a new study published Oct. 16 in the Journal of Adolescent Health. According to the article, study author Richard Miech said in a news release that the “current generation’s abuse of prescription pain medications…is ‘higher than any generation ever measured.'” Examining data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health from 1985 to 2009, researchers found that prescription painkiller abuse led to “a 129 percent increase in emergency department visits between 2004 and 2009,” and “a more than 500 percent increase in the number of people seeking treatment for addiction to prescription opioids between 1997 and 2007.”

Study: Illicit Drug Use Down, Prescription Medication Use On The Rise. MedPage Today (10/18, Fiore) reports that researchers reported at a poster session at the American Society of Anesthesiologists meeting that “as abuse of prescription painkillers continues to rise, patients are using fewer illicit drugs.” The article says that Asokumar Buvanendran, MD, of Rush University Medical Center, and colleagues reported that “while the incidence of abuse of oxycodone (OxyContin) and other prescription painkillers rose about 1 percentage point each year between 2007 and 2009, rates of illicit drug use — that includes marijuana, cocaine, and heroin — fell 4 percentage points each year during that time.” MedPage Today details that “to assess trends in abuse of prescription and illicit drugs, the researchers looked at data from the Drug Abuse Warning Network (DAWN) for 11 major metropolitan areas between 2007 and 2009.”

Related Links:

— “Painkiller Abuse by Kids Way Up, Study Finds,”Robert Preidt, HealthDay, October 17,2012.

Reuters (10/18, Norton) reports that use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants appears to be associated with somewhat increased chances of a hemorrhagic stroke, according to a meta-analysis published online Oct. 17 in the journal Neurology. For the study, investigators analyzed the results of 16 studies encompassing some 500,000 individuals.

HealthDay (10/18, Gordon) reports, “The increased risk for drugs such as Prozac (fluoxetine) and Paxil (paroxetine), however, still translates only to about a one in 10,000 rate of a hemorrhagic stroke for anyone taking an SSRI for a year.” In addition, “the raised risk tends to be strongest during the first few weeks and months after starting an SSRI,” the meta-analysis found.

WebMD (10/18, Doheny) reports, “For most people, though, the risk of stroke linked with these drugs is low, says researcher Daniel G. Hackam, MD, PhD, associate professor of medicine at Western University in London, Ontario, Canada.” In general, “he says, ‘the additional bleeding risk is one per 10,000 people treated with SSRIs for one year.'” But, “for those who already have risk factors for bleeding stroke…the risk is higher, he says.”

Meanwhile, according to MedPage Today (10/18, Bankhead), “a separate analysisshowed that concomitant use of an SSRI and an anticoagulant significantly increased the risk of brain hemorrhage compared with anticoagulant use alone.” Even though “the analysis yielded statistically significant results, investigators offered a cautious assessment of the implications in an article reported in the Oct. 30 issue of Neurology.” Medscape (10/18, Brooks) also covers the story.

Related Links:

— “Antidepressants linked to risk of brain bleeds ,”Amy Norton, Reuters, October 17, 2012.

The NBC News (10/17, Stokes) “Vitals” blog reports, “Alcoholism may be twice as fatal for women as for men, according to a” study published online Oct. 16 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. After examining data on 4,070 individuals in Germany, all of whom were asked about their alcohol use, then following the group for 14 years, researchers found that “nearly a fifth of the alcoholics had died.”

HealthDay (10/17, Reinberg) quotes the study’s lead author, who explained in a statement, “First, we found that annualized death rates were 4.6-fold higher for females and 1.9-fold higher for males compared to the age- and gender-specific general population.” Next, “we found that the mean age at death was 60 for females and 58 for males, both of which are about 20 years lower than the mean age at death among the general population.” Notably, “drinking appears to contribute more to early death than other risk factors, such as smoking, he noted.” The Daily Mail (UK) (10/17, Preece) also covers the story.

Small Study: Two Weeks Of Abstinence May Reverse Brain Damage From Alcohol Abuse. HealthDay (10/17, Dallas) reports, “Two weeks of abstinence from drinking can reverse damage to the brain caused by chronic alcohol abuse,” according to a study published online Oct. 16 in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research. Researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining “49 alcoholics from an inpatient alcohol-withdrawal treatment program,” then comparing them to 55 controls who did not abuse alcohol. Brain scans were conducted on all participants within 24 hours of detoxification and repeated “after two weeks of supervised abstinence.”

Related Links:

— “Alcoholism Shortens Life More Than Smoking: Study, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, October 16, 2012.