HealthDay (8/10, Norton) reports, “In a study of over seven million people,” investigators “found that those who’d been hospitalized for infections were 42 percent more likely to die of suicide compared to people with no history of serious infection.” Notably, individuals “hospitalized for HIV/AIDS or the liver infection hepatitis showed the highest risk – more than twice that of people without those diseases, the study found.”

Related Links:

— “Serious Infections Tied to Suicide Risk,” Amy Norton, HealthDay, August 10, 2016.

In a piece focused on how people cope when suffering from anxiety and high-functioning, low-grade depression, Medical Daily (8/9, Olson) points out that “because of the high risk of major depressive episodes, those who have low-grade depression should seek immediate treatment at the first sign of an issue, though it can be difficult to unmask the disorder; it often presents itself as a string of bad days or feeling low throughout a season or semester.”

Sadly, even though “anxiety disorders are highly treatable…roughly one-third receive treatment,” statistics from the Anxiety Depression Association of America indicate.

Related Links:

— “What Is High-Functioning Depression, Anxiety? Low-Grade Mood Disorder Can Be Dangerous,” Samantha Olson, Medical Daily, August , 2016.

Reuters reports, “Volunteer work may be good for…mental wellbeing, but only after age 40,” researchers found after analyzing “survey responses from adults in 5,000 British households, including more than 66,000 responses for 1996, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 and 2008.” The findings were published online Aug. 8 in BMJ Open.

TIME (8/9, Sifferlin) points out, “Other research has suggested that people over age 50 who volunteer regularly are less likely to develop high blood pressure than non-volunteers.”

Related Links:

— “After age 40, volunteering linked to enhanced mental health,” Reuters, August 9, 2016.

The Washington Post (8/8, Hicks) reports, “Mental-health advocates on Monday demanded that Maryland hire more state hospital staff and reopen facilities that once housed patients, arguing that the moves could relieve pressure on jails as a backlog of people await court-ordered psychological evaluations.” Officials with AFSCME Maryland Council 3, “the largest union representing Maryland public employees, released figures from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene showing that the agency has more than 500 staff vacancies.” They “said the department should fill many of those openings with mental-health workers to help trim the backlog.”

Related Links:

— “Mental-health advocates say Maryland desperately needs more hospital staff,” Josh Hicks, Washington Post, August 8, 2016.

HCP Live (8/8, Smith) reports that “patients who take warfarin for atrial fibrillation (AF) are more likely to develop dementia than people who take the drug for the long-term treatment of other conditions,” research suggests. The findings of the 10,537-patient study were published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Related Links:

— “Long-Term Dementia Risk and Warfarin Treatment in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation – See more at: http://www.hcplive.com/medical-news/long-term-dementia-risk-and-warfarin-treatment-in-patients-with-atrial-fibrillation#sthash.vkzoiByi.dpuf,” Andrew Smith, HCP Live, August 8, 2016.

Medscape (8/8, Brooks) reports that a study published in the August issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association, “supports a link between inflammation and depression and the antidepressant potential of combining a statin with a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI).”

The 872,216-patient study revealed that patients “with depression who took both an SSRI and a statin were far less likely to contact a psychiatric hospital, both in general and for treatment of depression, than their peers who took an SSRI alone.” An accompanying editorial observes the findings warrant “further investigation of the antidepressant potential of the combined treatment in larger randomized trials.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (8/5, Preidt) reported that adolescents “struggling with mental health disorders are more likely to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol and use marijuana,” researchers found. The findings of the 4,000-student study were published online in the American Journal on Addictions.

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness May Make Teens Vulnerable to Drugs, Alcohol,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, August 5, 2016.

Medical Daily (8/5, Dovey) reported that “a recent study” published in the Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics “has found evidence that the risk of a child developing an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is 14 times higher if an older sibling has ASD.” The study’s “findings are based on the results of the medical records of 53,336 children born from 2001 to 2010.”

Related Links:

— “Children With Autism May Increase Siblings’ Risk Of Developing The Disorder,” Dana Dovey , Medical Daily, August 5, 2016.

TIME (8/4) reports, “Psychiatrists and mental health advocates say America today needs more than 30,000 child and adolescent psychiatrists, and has only 8,300,” a need that continues to increase, particularly in rural or underserved areas. Telepsychiatry has now “emerged as a practical approach to reaching more young people.” And, “despite any potential downsides…the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics all acknowledge its prominence and offer resources for patients and” healthcare professionals “on how to practice it.”

Related Links:

— “For Some Rural Teens, Psychiatric Help Is Now Just a TV Screen Away,” Emma Ockerman, Time, August 4, 2016.

The Washington Post (8/3, Guo) reports in “Wonkblog” that a study published in the Journal of Family Psychology found that “getting married causes both men and women to drink less often compared to being single” and “also causes both men and women to cut down on the number of drinks they have in a single sitting — men in particular.” In addition, “getting a divorce doesn’t seem to make people drink more often, but both men and women have more drinks in each sitting.” Researchers evaluated “nearly 2,500 pairs of male and female twins from the state of Washington, who answered questions how often and how much they usually drink.”

Related Links:

— “Marriage changes how men drink in weird ways,” Jeff Guo, Washington Post, August 3, 2016.