The Washington Post (9/11, Bever) reports, “Transgender people exposed to conversion therapy to change their gender identities, particularly as children, are at a greater risk of psychological distress than transgender people who were not treated with conversion therapy,” researchers concluded after analyzing “survey responses from more than 27,000 transgender adults across the United States and U.S. territories and military bases.” The study revealed that individuals “who said they had undergone conversion therapy at any point during their lifetime were twice as likely to have attempted suicide than those who had never undergone such therapies.” People “who were subjected to conversion efforts during childhood were four times as likely to have tried to take their own lives,” the study revealed. The findings were published online Sept. 11 in JAMA Psychiatry.

According to the NBC News (9/11, Fitzsimons) website, “18 states, along with the District of Columbia,” currently “ban the practice of conversion therapy on minors.”

Newsweek (9/11, Gander) reports that the American Psychiatric Association is among the “leading medical organizations” that “have stated that no one should seek out conversion therapy to change their gender or sexual identity.”

MedPage Today (9/11, Hlavinka) reports, “Prior studies have” also demonstrated “conversion therapy for sexual orientation to be associated with increased rates of depression, anxiety, and self destructive behavior.” In a 2013 position statement, the American Psychiatric Association wrote, “No credible evidence exists that any mental health intervention can reliably and safely change sexual orientation; nor, from a mental health perspective does sexual orientation need to be changed.”

Related Links:

— “Conversion therapy associated with severe psychological distress in transgender people, study says, ”
Lindsey Bever, The Washington Post, September 11, 2019

Bloomberg (9/10, Roache) reports Facebook “said it will begin sharing public data about how users talk about suicide as part of ongoing efforts to address concerns about suicide and self-harm on the social media site.” In a blog post on World Suicide Day, Facebook “said it will give academic researchers access to CrowdTangle, a tool often used by news and media organizations to monitor social media, to explore how information shared on Facebook and Instagram can be used to help prevent suicide.”

Reuters (9/10, Sharma) reports that Facebook “will no longer allow graphic images of self-harm on its platform as it tightens its policies on suicide content amid growing criticism of how social media companies moderate violent and potentially dangerous content.” The social network “also said on Tuesday self-injury related content will now become harder to search on Instagram and will ensure that it does not appear as recommended in the Explore section on the photo-sharing app.”

Related Links:

— “Facebook Hires Health Expert to Help Prevent Suicides, ” Kiley Roache, Bloomberg, September 10, 2019

Medscape (9/9, Davenport, Subscription Publication) reports, “Patients who have major depressive disorder (MDD) and who are at imminent risk for suicide may experience rapid benefit from esketamine nasal spray (Spravato, Janssen Pharmaceuticals) used in conjunction with the standard of the care,” research indicated. Specifically, “in the phase 3 Aspire I and Aspire II trials, more than 450 patients who had MDD and were at risk for suicide were randomly assigned to receive esketamine…or placebo,” and “both groups also received comprehensive standard of care that included antidepressants.” The findings were presented at the 32nd European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (9/9, Kelland) reports that around the world, “one person takes their own life every 40 seconds, and more people die by suicide every year than in war, the World Health Organization” announced on Sept. 9. The “most common suicide methods” are “hanging, poisoning and shooting…the WHO said as it urged governments to adopt suicide prevention plans to help people cope with stress and to reduce access to suicide means.”

CNN (9/9, Hunt) reports the “WHO said close to 800,000 people die by suicide every year, more than those lost to malaria, breast cancer, or war and homicide, calling it a ‘serious global public health issue.’” Additionally, “it said only 38 countries had suicide prevention strategies.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide kills one person every 40 seconds, says WHO, “Kate Kelland, Reuters, September 9, 2019

The NBC News (9/6, Carroll) website reported, “Suicide rates are on the rise, especially in rural America,” research indicated. After examining “data from the National Vital Statistics System, a database that includes information on suicide deaths,” as well as data from “the U.S. Census, the American Community Survey, County Business Patterns, Area Health Resource Files, and the North American Industry Classification System,” investigators found that “from 1999 to 2016, the rate of suicide among Americans ages 25 to 64 rose by 41 percent, researchers reported in JAMA Network Open.” What’s more, “rates among people living in rural counties were 25 percent higher than those in major metropolitan areas.” The findings were published online Sept. 6 in JAMA Network Open. Also covering the story were the ABC News (9/8, Kendrick) website, CNN (9/6, Christensen), and HealthDay (9/6, Thompson).

Related Links:

— “Suicide rates are rising, especially in rural America, “Linda Carroll, NBC News, September 6, 2019

Psychiatric News (9/5) reports, “Older adults who use hearing aids may be less likely to develop depression, anxiety, and dementia for at least three years after a hearing loss diagnosis compared with those who do not begin using hearing aids,” researchers concluded after examining “insurance claims data from 114,862 adults aged 66 and older who received a hearing loss diagnosis between 2008 and 2013.” The findings were published online Sept. 4 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Related Links:

— “Hearing Aids May Reduce Risk of Depression, Anxiety, Dementia in Older Adults, Psychiatric News, September 5, 2019

The New York Times (9/5, Gellman) reports, “For many people with body-focused repetitive behaviors, the predominant effects are cosmetic, and the consequences [are] emotional and social.” For example, “skin-picking behavior” is “relatively common,” as “are a family of related habitual behaviors that include hair pulling, nail biting and cheek biting, among others.” The Times adds, “While there’s no easy fix,” such behaviors “can typically be treated in a psychotherapy setting by a clinician trained in habit-reversal therapy and other behavioral-therapy methods.” The Times adds, “The behaviors are classified in the” DSM-5 “chapter covering obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. This edition” of the DSM-5, “published in 2013, was the first in which the American Psychiatric Association included detailed information about skin picking.”

Related Links:

— “Fighting the Shame of Skin Picking, “Lindsay Gellman, The New York Times, September 5, 2019

The AP (9/4, Round, Conner, Rowley) carries an article from the University of Maryland’s Howard Center and Capital News Service’s series “Code Red: Baltimore’s Climate Divide” describing how rising temperatures can lead to increased rates of health emergencies, according to a Howard Center data analysis. The analysis indicates “emergency medical calls for dehydration, respiratory distress, kidney disease, diabetes complications, heart attacks and heart failure spiked in Baltimore when the heat index rose above 103 degrees.” Moreover, “the rate of emergency medical calls for psychiatric disorders and drug and alcohol overdoses also increased sharply the analysis found.” Indeed, “the American Psychiatric Association says ‘exposure to extreme heat has been associated with increased use of alcohol to cope with stress’ and an ‘increase in suicide.’”

Heat May Be Dangerous For Some Adults With Mental Illness, Expert Says. On its website and on its “Morning Edition” program, NPR (9/4, Eckert) reports, “For the nearly” one in five “adults who experience mental illness, heat can be dangerous, according to Ken Duckworth, medical director for the National Alliance on Mental Illness.” NPR adds, “Duckworth says prescribed medications are a major factor.” For example, “if a patient is on anti-psychotics…the medication can interfere with the body’s ability to regulate temperature, leading to dehydration or heat stroke, he says.”

Related Links:

— “As temperatures rise, overdoses and hospital visits increase, “Ian Round, Jazmin Conner, Jermaine Rowley and John Fairhall, AP, September 4, 2019

USA Today (9/4, Gomez) reports a report released by the Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) contents that “migrant children who were separated from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border under the Trump administration’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy suffered a wide range of mental trauma, including symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.” Moreover, “the children, many of whom had already endured extreme mental and physical trauma in their home countries, were hit with a second round of distress when they were separated by U.S. officials, according to the report.”

The Wall Street Journal (9/4, Hackman, Subscription Publication) reports the agency found in its report that the migrant children did not receive proper mental healthcare while in US custody. The Office of Refugee Resettlement reportedly claimed it faced difficulties recruiting mental healthcare professionals.

Related Links:

— “Government watchdog: Separated migrant children suffered PTSD, other mental trauma, “Alan Gomez, USA TODAY, September 4, 2019

Psychiatric News (9/4) reports that children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “who play sports may be more likely to report a greater number of concussion-like symptoms and perform worse on balance tests when administered a common concussion assessment than those who do not have” AD/HD, research indicated. The findings of the 464-middle school athlete study were published online Aug. 30 in the Journal of Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Children With ADHD May Be More Likely to Report Concussion Symptoms, Psychiatric News, September 4, 2019