TIME (10/24, Oaklander) reports, “Suicide is one of the most urgent health problems facing America today,” now representing “the 10th leading cause of death in the U.S., claiming 47,000 lives per year.” Not only are US “suicide rates…the highest they’ve been since World War II,” they are also “rising in nearly every state and across age groups and ethnicities.” While it remains unclear as to “what’s driving the rise…experts speculate that many factors may be contributing, including high rates of drug abuse, stress and social isolation.” But, “for all the disparate reasons people die by suicide…research suggests that 83% visit some kind of doctor in the year before their death.” For that reason, “health care facilities are logical places to prevent suicide.” The article details various efforts on the part of “hospitals and behavioral-health centers” to “include research-backed interventions that have been studied for years but haven’t, until now, been widely used.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Is Preventable. Hospitals and Doctors Are Finally Catching Up, “MANDY OAKLANDER, TIMES, October 24, 2019

The CBS News (10/23, De Pinto, Backus) website reports CBS News has conducted a poll of 1,292 US adults, the findings of which revealed that “two in three Americans think mental illness is a very serious public health problem, and few say there are adequate services and support in the U.S. for people living with it.” The poll also found that “a majority say they personally know someone who has been diagnosed with a mental health disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Most Americans think there is stigma associated with mental illness — CBS News Poll, “Jennifer De Pinto, Fred Backus, CBS News, October 23, 2019

HealthDay (10/23, Thompson) reports, “Tasty flavors entice young people to try e-cigarettes, getting them hooked on what can become a lifetime habit,” researchers concluded after assessing “data collected in 2013-2014 to see whether people are more likely to first try a flavored e-cigarette or other tobacco product,” then examining “data gathered a year later to see if those who first tried a flavored product were still using tobacco.” The study revealed the “seven out of 10 kids who were new users of tobacco first tried a flavored product, as well as more than half of young adults.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Flavors Draw Young People to Lifetime Habit of Vaping, Study Shows, “Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, October 23, 2019

On its “Morning Edition” program and in its “Shots” blog, NPR (10/23, Daley) reports, “Though there are websites, hotlines, therapists and coaches to help teens manage nicotine cravings, there’s been little research to show what” really works. Now, “some programs have turned to texting to help kids find resources specific to vaping cessation.” For example, this past July, “National Jewish Health in Denver launched a” vaping “cessation program tailored to teens’ needs” called “My Life, My Quit.” That program, which “has a traditional phone helpline…also offers coaching by text and chat.” Meanwhile, “the Truth Initiative, a nonprofit public health group aimed at helping young smokers quit tobacco use, has also expanded its resources to include a program focused on e-cigarettes,” using “a free text messaging program ‘tailored by age group’ to give teens and young adults appropriate recommendations about quitting.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Vapers Who Want To Quit Look For Help Via Text, “John Daley, NPR, October 23, 2019

Healio (10/22, Gramigna) reports, “Patients with autism spectrum disorder [ASD] and co-occurring ADHD can safely and effectively take medication for” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD), research indicated. Investigators arrived at this conclusion after selecting “60 adults with” AD/HD “and comorbid ASD from an outpatient clinic and compared treatment outcomes of similar regimens with 226 adults from the same clinic with only” AD/HD. The findings were published online Oct. 18 in the Journal of Attention Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Patients with comorbid autism and ADHD can safely take ADHD medication, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 22, 2019

HealthDay (10/22, Gordon) reports, “The commonly used antidepressant Prozac [fluoxetine] doesn’t appear to help reduce obsessive-compulsive behavior in children and teens with autism,” researchers concluded in a study that “recruited nearly 150 children and teens with autism,” only 109 of which “completed the study.” The findings were published online Oct. 22 in JAMA.

Medscape (10/22, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports that all “study participants had ‘significant problems’ with obsessive-compulsive behaviors, with a total score of six or more on the Children’s Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale–Modified for pervasive developmental disorders (CYBOCS-PDD).” But, “commenting for Medscape Medical News, Gabrielle L. Shapiro, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City, and chair of the American Psychiatric Association…council on children, adolescents and families, described the study as ‘somewhat flawed.’” Besides “the CYBOCS, the inclusion of other outcome scales ‘more specific’ to” children with autism “in the primary analysis may have produced different results, said Shapiro, who was not involved with the current study.”

Healio (10/22, Gramigna) reports that the author of an accompanying editorial “emphasized the nullification of the overall findings by the prespecified analyses.” He wrote, “Despite the limitations, the outcome…is consistent with similar trials and contributes new evidence that SSRIs do not add any value over placebo for repetitive behaviors in children and adolescents with ASD as captured in the CYBOCS-PDD.” The editorialist called for “additional rigorous studies…both to identify other potential treatments for core symptoms and, for SSRIs, to determine whether clinical indications other than repetitive behaviors might account for their persistent widespread use in ASD.”

Related Links:

— “Antidepressant Doesn’t Ease Obsessive Behaviors of Autism, “Serena Gordon, HealthDay, October 22, 2019

The Washington Post (10/21, Wan) reports, “In the face of rising rates of depression, anxiety and suicide among young people, some states and school systems have” now begun “allowing students to take mental sick days off from school.” For example, in 2018 “Utah changed its definition of valid excuses for absences to include mental health issues,” and this past summer, “Oregon enacted a law – driven by a group of high school student activists – that allows students to take days off for mental health.” Meanwhile, “students in other states, including Colorado, Florida and Washington, are attempting to get similar laws passed.”

Related Links:

— “Schools now letting students stay home sick for mental-health days, “William Wan, The Washington Post, October 21, 2019

The NPR (10/21, Hamilton) “Shots” blog reports neuroscientists “are offering a new reason to control blood sugar levels: It might help lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.” This past Sunday, at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Chicago, investigators presented “new research exploring the links between Alzheimer’s and diabetes.”

Related Links:

— “Keeping Your Blood Sugar In Check Could Lower Your Alzheimer’s Risk, “Jon Hamilton, NPR, October 21, 2019

Patients taking high doses of loperamide in an attempt to self-manage opioid withdrawal or to achieve a euphoric high may be at risk of severe cardiac events. If you suspect that a patient is misusing loperamide, ask your patient: Have you been taking loperamide? How much loperamide do you take and how often? Are you aware of the severe heart risks associated with loperamide misuse? Learn more about loperamide misuse, including the right questions to ask your patients, at LoperamideSafety.org.

Related Links:

— “Understanding Loperamide Abuse

Healio (10/21, Gramigna) reports, “Children whose fathers have poor mental health are more than twice as likely also to have poor mental health,” researchers concluded after using “data for 75,879 children from the 2011 to 2012 National Survey of Children’s Health” to estimate “prevalence and odds of poor mental and physical health among children based on the overall and mental health status of fathers, as well as pertinent sociodemographic covariates.” The findings were published online Oct. 9 in the journal Health Equity.

Related Links:

— “Child mental health status may be closely linked to father’s, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, October 21, 2019