Healio (7/29, Demko) reports research indicated “patients with PTSD were at greater risk for death in the year following co-prescription of opioids and benzodiazepines than patients newly prescribed opioids only, benzodiazepines only or neither medication class.” Investigators arrived at this finding after examining one-year “total and cause-specific mortality for 17,476 patients (adjusted for propensity score, age, baseline comorbidity and daily medication dose) using data from the VA Corporate Data Warehouse.” The findings were published online July 9 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Concurrent opioid, benzodiazepine use increases mortality risk in PTSD, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 29, 2019

The Washington Post (7/26, Wan) reports that up until fairly recently, “the suicide prevention movement has been largely driven by family and friends of those who died.” In the past five years, however, “as suicide rates have climbed to historic levels, survivors of suicide attempts have been ‘coming out,’ determined to combat the problem even if it means speaking out about their own, often-hidden pasts.” This “has transformed the suicide prevention world.” For example, “researchers trying to understand suicide, who previously focused on post-mortem data and environmental factors, are starting to embrace the relatively new idea of reaching out to people who experienced it directly.” Meanwhile, mental health “advocates are harnessing those voices to raise awareness of suicide as a public health issue and win sorely needed funding and attention.”

Related Links:

— “Once they hid their stories. But now, survivors of suicide are ‘coming out’ to combat a national crisis., “William Wan, The Washington Post, July 26, 2019

Healio (7/26, Demko) reported, “Although benzodiazepine use during pregnancy did not seem to be linked to congenital or cardiac malformations, its use in combination with antidepressants may increase the risk for congenital malformations,” researchers concluded after analyzing data from eight studies. The review’s findings were published in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Combination benzodiazepine, antidepressant use during pregnancy warrants caution, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 26, 2019

Healio (7/26, Demko) reported, “Protection and restoration of tree canopy in urban green spaces appeared to promote community mental health,” researchers concluded after examining “whether total green space or specific types of green space were linked to better mental health in a sample of 46,786 city-dwelling participants aged 45 years and older from Sydney, Wollongong, and Newcastle, Australia.” Study “data were collected from 2006 through 2009 and follow-up was conducted from 2012 through 2015.” The findings were published online July 26 in JAMA Network Open. The author of an accompanying commentary observed, “Given this potential consequence, the relevance of green space offering peace and quiet for its mental health benefits seems an important topic for further investigation.”

Related Links:

— “Urban green spaces appear to offer mental health benefits, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 26, 2019

On its “Weekend Edition Saturday” program, NPR (7/27, Axelrod, Balaban, Simon) delved into the topic of suicides among the elderly. NPR wrote, “Of the more than 47,000 suicides that took place in 2017, those 65 and up accounted for more than 8,500 of them, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” Men aged “65 and older face the highest risk of suicide, while adults 85 and older, regardless of gender, are the second most likely age group to die from suicide.” Mental health experts interviewed by NPR expressed concern about the trend. Studies have shown that “one out of four senior citizens that attempt suicide dies, compared to one out of 200 attempts for young adults.” Bereavement, loneliness, pain, and age-related diseases may all play a role in elders’ susceptibility to suicide.

Related Links:

— “Isolated And Struggling, Many Seniors Are Turning To Suicide, “Josh Axelrod, Samantha Balaban, Scott Simon, NPR, July 27, 2019

STAT (7/26, Joseph) reported a study of “more than 300,000 women who gave birth between 2008 and 2016” found nearly 2% “showed signs of ‘persistent’ opioid use” after childbirth. However, “both the percentage of women who filled their prescriptions and the rate of persistent opioid use declined” over the study period. HealthDay (7/26, Preidt) reported the study “found 1% to 2% of those women were still filling opioid prescriptions a year later,” and that “those most likely to be doing so were women who were prescribed opioids before giving birth, and those who got the largest initial doses.” MedPage Today (7/26, D’Ambrosio) reported the research showed “during the study period, opioid prescription fills decreased from 26.9% to 23.8% among women who gave birth vaginally and from 75.5% to 72.6% for women that had a C-section.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Study: 2% of women have ‘persistent’ opioid use after childbirth, “Lauren Joseph, STAT, July 26, 2019

Newsweek (7/24, Gander) reports researchers found that older people “with a high BMI and a big waistline…could be more likely to have a sign of brain aging linked to dementia.” The findings were published in Neurology. Medscape (7/24, Anderson, Subscription Publication) reports the researchers found that “greater body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) are associated with cortical thinning in the brain, especially in early old age.”

Related Links:

— “Big waist and high BMI associated with brain thinning linked to dementia, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, July 24, 2019

The Washington Post (7/24, Achenbach, Koh, Bennett, Mara) reports, “Southwest Virginia is among the regions in the United States hardest hit by the opioid epidemic, which has roots in prescription” analgesics. Newly-released “Drug Enforcement Administration data obtained and analyzed by The Washington Post” demonstrate “the swollen pipeline of prescription opioids from factories to pharmacies from 2006 to 2012.” The opioid epidemic “has been particularly brutal…in central Appalachia, which has seen the coal industry contract and now has some of the highest poverty and disability rates in the nation.” As to “how and why Appalachia became the epicenter of the epidemic,” this “is partly due to the real need for painkillers among workers hurt in coal mines and in other types of physically demanding jobs,” and also to the fact that opioid analgesics “were more addictive than people realized.”

Related Links:

— “Flooded with opioids, Appalachia is still trying to recover, “Joel Achenbach, Joyce Koh, Dalton Bennett, The Washington Post, July 24, 2019

Healio (7/24, Demko) reports, “Compensatory strategies – techniques to disguise autism – increased social integration, but were associated with poor mental health and delayed diagnosis among people with autism,” research indicated in a study that included “58 adults with a clinical diagnosis of autism, 19 with self-identified (but not formally diagnosed) autism and 59 without a diagnosis or self-identified autism (but with social difficulties).” The findings were published online July 23 in The Lancet Psychiatry. The author of a related commentary observed that “an important question for future research is whether subjective distress should be listed in the diagnostic criteria for” autism spectrum disorder. She wrote, “For example, DSM-5 could be revised to read: ‘Symptoms cause clinically significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of current functioning [including subjective distress].’” She added, “This change would codify the experience of individuals with autism who function in the typical range, but do so through intense compensation that causes subjective distress.”

Related Links:

— “Compensatory strategies that mask autism may impede diagnosis, “Savannah Demko, Healio, July 24, 2019

HealthDay (7/23, Preidt) reports that extreme eating habits “in young children…could be a sign of autism, researchers say.” The study, which included more than 2,000 youngsters, revealed “atypical eating behaviors – such as hypersensitivity to food textures or pocketing food without swallowing – in 70% of kids with autism,” representing a rate 15 times of that usually “found in children.” The findings were published in the August issue of Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Extreme Eating Habits Could Be an Early Clue to Autism, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 23, 2019