On its front page, the Wall Street Journal (11/29, A1, McKay, Subscription Publication) reports data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that life expectancy for Americans declined again last year by one-tenth of a year, to 78.6 years. An increase in suicides, as well as the continued effects of the opioid crisis, influenza, pneumonia, and diabetes factored into the statistics, the Journal explains.

Related Links:

— “U.S. Life Expectancy Falls Further, “Betsy McKay, The Wall Street Journal, November 29, 2018.

USA Today (11/28, Godlasky, Dastagir) reports, “Americans are more than twice as likely to die by their own hands, of their own will, than by someone else’s.” USA Today adds that suicide rates are up “nearly 30 percent” since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Meanwhile, says USA Today, “money to research and combat suicide continues to lag behind other leading killers and even non-fatal conditions.” The National Institutes of Health “spent $68 million on suicide last year” while spending “nearly five times” as much on “studying sleep and 10 times more on breast cancer.” In response, “NIH officials say they do not expressly budget by disease,” and that it “spent $2.7 billion on mental health.” Michael Lauer, NIH deputy director for extramural research, said, “A large portion of the research is not disease-oriented but based on human biology. For instance, if we’re studying brain function, it might be pertinent to suicide, but we might not necessarily categorize it as suicide.”

Safety Plan May Help Prevent Suicide. USA Today (11/28, Dastagir) reports, “In 2016, 9.8 million American adults seriously thought about suicide,” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. USA Today adds that experts said those who have “suicidal thoughts should create a personalized suicide safety plan.” Jill Harkavy-Friedman, a clinical psychologist and vice president of research for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, said, “What a safety plan does is it helps you figure out beforehand a strategy for handling distress.”

Those Left Behind After Suicide Face Greater Risks Themselves. USA Today (11/28, Dastagir) reports on those “left behind after a suicide” which, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, amounted to 1.44 million people in 2016. They also “face an increased risk of suicide themselves.” USA offers advice for survivors from the American Psychological Association. USA Today adds, “the bereaved can heal, suicide prevention experts said, but their pain is often underestimated.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide Becoming More Frequent, CDC Says, “Anne Godlasky and Alia E. Dastagir, USA TODAY, November 28, 2018.

Psychiatric News (11/28) reports on a study published in JAMA Psychiatry finding that “people who have hallucinatory experiences and delusional beliefs may be more likely to think about, attempt, and die by suicide than those without psychotic experiences.” The study, a meta-analysis, included “10 longitudinal population studies” that “included 84,285 people from 23 countries.”

Related Links:

— “Psychotic Experiences May Increase Risk of Suicidal Behaviors, Meta-Analysis Finds, Psychiatric News , November 28, 2018.

USA Today (11/27, O’Donnell) reports physicians “say alcohol is often the most dangerous substance for the body to withdraw from – and still more so, when attempted without medical supervision.” Currently, some “16 million people in the United States have alcohol use disorder, which the” National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism defines “as ‘compulsive alcohol use, loss of control over alcohol intake, and a negative emotional state when not using.’” In 2016, “the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention counted 831 deaths…that could be characterized as related to alcohol withdrawal.” Currently, the NIAAA does “not have an estimate of deaths from alcohol detox.”

Related Links:

— “Quitting alcohol can be deadly: Hundreds in the US die each year, “Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY, November 27, 2018.

Multiple Sclerosis News Today (11/27, Gisler) reports a study published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry found that “changeable lifestyle factors influence the risk and severity of depression associated with multiple sclerosis (MS).” The researchers studied 2,224 patients with MS for the study. The research found an association between alcohol consumption and depression, while a “healthy diet and vitamin D and omega-3 supplementation had a somewhat positive influence on changes in depression score.”

Related Links:

— “Lifestyle Factors Tied to MS-related Depression, Large Study Finds, “Santiago Gisler, Multiple Sclerosis News Today, November 27, 2018.

Healio (11/27, Demko) reports that in “the first published” research that examined “viewing patterns and reactions to the show ‘13 Reasons Why,’” investigators “found that about half of youth viewers presenting to a psychiatric” emergency department “with suicide-related concerns reported the series increased their suicide risk.” Included in the study were “87 parent-youth dyads – 71% of the youth were female – who completed a battery of questionnaires to examine their interaction with the show during their ED visit between July 2017 and March 2018.” The findings were published online Nov. 20 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “‘13 Reasons Why’ may influence suicide risk among vulnerable youths, “Savannah Demko, Healio, November 27, 2018.

MedPage Today (11/26, Monaco) reports, “Among young children, the prevalence of eating disorders was similar between girls and boys,” researchers concluded. In fact, “in a large, nationally representative sample of American children, ages nine to ten years, about 1.4% (95% CI 1.0%-1.8%) had a diagnosed eating disorder according to” the American Psychiatric Association’s “DSM-5 criteria,” the study found. Included in the study were “data on over 4,500 children (majority were boys and white) who participated in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study,” which was “supported by the” National Institutes of Health “and other federal partners.” The findings were published online Nov. 26 in a research letter in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “MedPage Today, (requires login and subscription), November 26, 2018.

The Economist (11/24) reported that around the world, the suicidal “rate has fallen by 38% from its peak in 1994.” Consequently, “over 4m lives have been saved – more than four times as many people as were killed in combat over the period.” Interestingly, this “decline has happened at different rates and different times in different parts of the world.” The exception is the US, where the suicide rate “has risen by 17% to 12.8 – well above China’s current rate of seven.”

In a separate but related article, The Economist (11/24) reported the rising US suicide rate “is largely among white, middle-aged, poorly educated men in areas that were left behind by booms and crushed by busts.” The US, “in particular, could spare much pain by learning from the progress elsewhere” to reduce suicide rates, including “better health services, labour-market policies and curbs on booze, guns, pesticide and” medications.

Related Links:

— “Suicide is declining almost everywhere, The Economist, November 24, 2018.

Healio (11/21, Demko) reported, “Exposure to any type of trauma at any time from early childhood through adolescence was linked to subsequent psychotic experiences,” research indicated. The findings of the 4,433-participant study were published online Nov. 21 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “All types of childhood trauma linked to later psychotic experiences, “Savannah Demko, Healio, November 21, 2018.

Reuters (11/23, Carroll) reported, “Patients who are treated in an intensive care unit (ICU) and survive are at increased risk of depression,” researchers concluded after following “4,943 ICU patients who had spent at least 24 hours in one of 26 ICUs in the UK between 2006 and 2013.” The study also revealed that “depression in ICU survivors was linked with a higher risk of death in the next two years.” The findings were published online Nov. 23 in the journal Critical Care.

Related Links:

— “ICU stay can lead to depression, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, November 23, 2018.