U.S. News & World Report (1/17, Galvin) reports a study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine suggests “the share of households that have guns is the single strongest predictor of how many young people commit suicide in a state.” CDC data show that nearly 45,000 used guns to commit suicide in 2015 and 2016, and “more than 2,000 of those deaths were among people ages 10 to 19, with 42 percent of youth suicides involving guns.” According to the report, “an average of 52.5 percent of households owned guns in the 10 states with the highest youth suicide rates, while just 20 percent of households owned guns, on average, in the 10 states with the lowest youth suicide rates.” The study found that “overall, the youth suicide rate rose about 27 percent with each 10 percentage-point increase in household gun ownership.”

Editorial Warns Of Risks Associated With Dementia, Gun Ownership. A Bloomberg Opinion (1/16) editorial discusses the potential risks associated with gun ownership among older adults with age-related dementia. Bloomberg argues, “to prevent tragedy, society must take steps to keep lethal weapons away from those who put themselves or others at risk.” Bloomberg also suggests physicians discuss gun ownership with family members of patients with dementia.

Related Links:

— “Youth Suicide Rates Higher in States With More Guns, “Gaby Galvin, U.S. News & World Report, January 17, 2019

HealthDay (1/16, Preidt) reports that “the risk of suicide is more than four times higher among Americans with cancer than those without the disease,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data on 8.6 million U.S. cancer patients diagnosed with invasive cancer…between 1973 and 2014.” The findings were published online Jan. 14 in Nature Communications.

Related Links:

— “Cancer Diagnosis May Quadruple Suicide Risk, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, January 16, 2019

MedPage Today (1/16, Hlavinka) reports, “Risk of a second mental disorder increased sharply in the year following an individual’s initial diagnosis, and this risk continued beyond a decade,” researchers concluded in a “Danish study of nearly six million people.” The findings were published online Jan. 16 in JAMA Psychiatry.

According to Healio (1/16, Demko), the author of an accompanying editorial wrote that “these findings, along with findings from family, twin and molecular genetic studies, signify ‘an exciting time for psychiatric research, with opportunities to develop new and more successful approaches to classifying mental disorders.’”

Psychiatric News (1/16) reports that “some categories of disorders” appear to have “exceptionally strong odds of occurring together.” For instance, the study found that “compared with an individual not diagnosed with a mental disorder, an individual diagnosed with a mood disorder was 30 times more likely to be diagnosed later with a personality disorder or a developmental disorder, and 20 times more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia or a substance use disorder.”

Related Links:

— “Individuals With a Mental Disorder at Increased Risk for Subsequent Diagnoses, Psychiatric News, January 16, 2019

Healio (1/15, Demko) reports, “People with and without a schizophrenia spectrum disorder showed differing patterns of neural activity during a socio-emotional task, independent of DSM diagnosis,” researchers concluded in a “multisite brain imaging study” involving “109 participants with a schizophrenia spectrum disorder and 70 healthy” controls. The findings were published online Jan. 4 in the American Journal of Psychiatry, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “People with, without severe mental illness may have similar social brain function, “Savannah Demko, Healio, January 15, 2019

The Christian Science Monitor (1/14, Weissmann) reports, “The global suicide rate hit its lowest point in two decades,” falling “by 38 percent since its peak in 1994, according to data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington in Seattle.” But, the US “has seen its suicide rate jump 28 percent during the past two decades,” partly due to the fact that “firearms are widely accessible to Americans, and experts say the 2008 recession and the opioid epidemic have increased the number of those considering suicide.”

Related Links:

— “The global suicide rate has seen a net decline. What caused it?, “Elena Weissmann, The Christian Science Monitor, January 14, 2019

The NBC News (1/14, Charles) website reports, “Low levels of marijuana use – as few as one or two times – may change the” brains of adolescents, research suggests.

The Burlington (VT) Free Press (1/14, DeSmet) reports investigators “found an increase in gray matter, ‘in the amygdala, which is involved in fear and other emotion-related processes, and in the hippocampus, involved in memory development and spatial abilities.’” The findings of the 46-teen study were published online Jan. 14 in the Journal of Neuroscience.

Related Links:

— “Even a little marijuana may change teen brain, study finds, “Shamard Charles, NBC News, January 14, 2019

Reuters (1/14, Carroll) reports researchers found that the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s addiction helpline is not well known and gets relatively little publicity compared to the suicide helpline. The findings were published online Jan. 14 in a research letter in JAMA Internal Medicine. Reuters adds that “the Treatment Referral Routing Service, 800-662-HELP provides 24-hour free and confidential treatment referral and information in English and Spanish.”

HealthDay (1/14, Reinberg) reports the researchers compared media mentions of the addiction helpline following the “suspected heroin overdose” of Demi Lovato in July to media mentions of the suicide helpline following the death of Anthony Bourdain the month before.

Related Links:

— “U.S. substance abuse helpline largely unknown, “Linda Carroll, Reuters, January 14, 2019

Healio (1/14, Tedesco) reports, “Patients with young-onset type 2 diabetes have excess hospitalizations and a substantial mental illness burden before age 40 years,” researchers concluded after calculating “the all-cause and cause-specific hospitalization rates of a population-based cohort and registry-based cohort, including a total of 443,794 patients aged 20 to 75 years from Hong Kong, using the Hong Kong Diabetes Registry.”

MedPage Today (1/14, Monaco) reports that “after age 60, cardiovascular disease overtook mental health as the largest driver of hospitalizations, regardless of the onset age of diabetes.” Prior to age 40, “mental illness accounted for nearly 37% of all bed-days for those with young-onset diabetes.” The findings were published online Jan. 15 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Medscape (1/14, Tucker, Subscription Publication) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— “Young-onset diabetes linked to increased risk for hospitalization, mental illness, “Alaina Tedesco, Healio, January 14, 2019

Medscape (1/14, Brooks, Subscription Publication) reports that after “analyzing data on 4,322 adults,” investigators “have identified five novel subtypes of insomnia, which may lead to more personalized treatments for insomnia.” According to Medscape, these “subtypes are largely unrelated to sleep complaints but rather are differentiated by biologically based traits and life history.” What’s more, the subtypes “are stable over time and are associated with comorbid depression, treatment responses, and findings in encephalographic event–related potentials, the investigators” found. The findings were published online Jan. 7 in The Lancet Psychiatry. The author of an accompanying commentary observed the study “suggests that ‘robust subtyping is possible among a population with insomnia.’”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

MD Magazine (1/11, Lutz) reported, “Psychiatric disorders and substance use disorders might reduce the efficacy of antiepileptic” medicines “among patients with epilepsy,” researches concluded after analyzing “data searching for treatment success and comorbid psychiatric diseases, including anxiety, schizophrenia, depression, and bipolar disorder, or substance use disorder including the use of substances, opioids, or cannabis.” The findings of the “more than 175,000”-patient study were presented American Epilepsy Society’s recent annual meeting.

Related Links:

— “Substance Use Disorder Reduces Antiepileptic Medication Success, “Rachel Lutz, MD Magazine, January 11, 2019