The NBC News (9/25, Miller) website reports that researchpublished Sept. 25 in PLOS One “looked at the physical and emotional toll of paying attention to and participating in the political discourse.” The study revealed that “‘large numbers of American adults see politics as exacting a significant set of costs on their social, emotional, psychological and even physical health,’ said lead study author Kevin Smith, a political scientist at the University of Nebraska.” For the study, investigators examined “survey data collected by YouGov in March 2017 on 800 Americans – a time at which the costs of politics were ‘unusually acute,’ the researchers wrote.”

Newsweek (9/25, McCall) reports that “4.1 percent of respondents admitted to having suicidal thoughts triggered by events in politics⁠ – a number that would roughly translates to 13 million people if scaled up to current population figures,” the study found. The study also revealed that politics is “causing problems in…relationships – one in five said opposing political views have damaged a friendship, while 14.6 percent said that differences in political views have created problems for them in their immediate family.”

Also covering the story are the NPR (9/25, Chatterjee) “Shots” blog and HealthDay (9/25, Thompson).

Related Links:

— “Feeling sick or losing sleep over politics? You aren’t alone, “Sara G. Miller, NBC News, September 25, 2019

MedPage Today (9/25, Susman) reports, “A review of 15 years of suicides that were autopsied indicated that, most frequently, the person involved was a man, using a gun, in his home – and most of the time the individual left no explanation,” research indicated. The review of 657 suicide death records was presented at the annual meeting of the College of American Pathologists.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Newsweek (9/25, Gander) reports that in a large study, investigators “looked at admissions to the Cincinnati Children’s emergency psychiatric department between 2011 and 2015 to see if there was an association with levels of air pollution.” The study revealed that “in the three days following a” pollution “spike of 10 micrograms per meter squared, the hospital saw more children attend the psychiatric emergency department,” with “PM 2.5” appearing “to exacerbate adjustment disorder and suicidality in particular.” The findings were published online in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

Related Links:

— “Air Pollution Has Been Linked With Psychiatric Disorders In Children, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, September 25, 2019

Reuters (9/25, Carroll) reports, “After weight-loss surgery, patients may be more likely to need mental health services, including psychiatric hospitalizations,” research indicated.

Healio (9/25, Demko) reports, “Over an average follow-up of five years, one in 10 patients who underwent bariatric surgery used mental health service afterwards,” researchers concluded in a 24,766-patient study, the findings of which were published online Sept. 25 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Patients more likely to seek psychiatric help after weight-loss surgery, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, September 25, 2019

HealthDay (9/24, Reinberg) reports, “Veterans who suffer from depression, anxiety, psychosis or bipolar disorder are more likely to suffer a heart attack, stroke or die from heart disease,” with “those who have most severe mental health problems, such as schizophrenia…at greatest risk,” researchers concluded after examining “data on more than 1.6 million” veterans. The findings were published online Sept. 24 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.

Related Links:

— “Mental Ills May Put Veterans at Higher Odds for Heart Trouble, “Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, September 24, 2019

Kaiser Health News (9/23, O’Hagan) reports that epidemiologist Kimberly Repp found some new insights about suicide after she accompanied one of Washington County, Oregon’s medical examiner’s death investigators for a year. Data revealed “a surprising number of suicides at hotels and motels” and “also showed a number of those who killed themselves had experienced eviction or foreclosure or had a medical visit within weeks or days of their death.” Furthermore, the data “revealed that people in crisis regularly turn their pets over to the animal shelter.” Using Repp’s findings, Washington County suicide prevention coordinator Debra Darmata “began offering…training to motel clerks and housekeepers, animal shelter workers, pain clinic staffers and more.” Preliminary data show that the county’s suicide rate fell by 40% between 2012 and 2018.

Related Links:

— “Want To Reduce Suicides? Follow The Data — To Medical Offices, Motels And Even Animal Shelters, “Maureen O’Hagan, Kaiser Health News, September 23, 2019

HealthDay (9/23) reports that “the youngest kids in class are being diagnosed with” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), “intellectual disability and even depression around 30% more often than their oldest classmates,” research indicates. After examining “electronic health care records from more than one million school children in the” UK, researchers “found that children born in the last quarter of a school year were 36% more likely than kids born in the first quarter of a school year to be diagnosed with AD/HD.” In addition, “the youngest kids were 30% more likely to have an intellectual disability and 31% more likely to have depression than their older classmates.” The findings were published online Sept. 23 in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Youngest in Classroom Diagnosed More Often With ADHD, Other Problems, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, September 23, 2019

Healio (9/23, Demko) reports, “Current risk prediction algorithms for cardiovascular disease that do not include severe mental illness as a predictor could be underestimating” cardiovascular disease (CVD) “risk by as much as 60%,” research indicated. The findings of the “prospective cohort study of 495,388 primary care patients aged 30 to 74 years without prior CVD (the PREDICT study)” were published online Sept. 18 in PLOS ONE.

Related Links:

— “Cardiovascular disease risk may be underestimated among mentally ill, “Savannah Demko, Healio, September 23, 2019

NBC News (9/22, Stenson) reports on its website that autism research is moving away from finding a cure and toward helping people with autism “lead healthier, happier lives.” The article says, “When autism research started to really accelerate a couple decades ago, many scientists thought finding a cure might be easier,” but autism researcher Len Abbeduto, the director of UC Davis’ MIND Institute in Sacramento, said, “I think that given the complexity and the variability of the causes and the manifestations of autism, trying to come up with a cure is probably not the right approach.”

Related Links:

— “Why the focus of autism research is shifting away from searching for a ‘cure’, “Jacqueline Stenson, NBC News, September 22, 2019

MD Magazine (9/20, Walter) reported that “sertraline (Zoloft), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI),” appears to lead “to an early reduction in anxiety symptoms commonly found in depression, long before any of the depressive symptoms are reduced,” research indicated. Included in the study were 653 patients. The findings of the “double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized trial” were published online Sept. 19 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Common Antidepressant More Effective for Treating Anxiety, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, September 20, 2019