According to The Hill (9/26, Bonn), on Sept. 26, Dr. Anne Schuchat, “the principal deputy director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), warned…that suicide is on the rise in the U.S. among almost every age group.” Speaking with “Rising” Hill. TV co-hosts Krystal Ball and Buck Sexton, Dr. Schuchat said, “Suicide – in all ages except for young children and the elderly – is one of the few conditions that’s getting worse instead of better around the country.” Currently, “suicide is a leading cause of death in the” United States, “and suicide rates have spiked more than 30 percent in half of states across the country since 1999, according to the CDC.”

Related Links:

— “Suicides in the US are up, says CDC official, “Tess Bonn, The Hill, September 26, 2018.

Reuters (9/25, Rapaport) reports a study published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology suggests that patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) may feel relief from antidepressants or psychotherapy. Researchers looked at data from 53 trials which “compared the effects of antidepressants or psychotherapy, either alone or in combination, versus placebo treatments or ‘usual management’ in people with IBS” and concluded that “rates of ‘no relief’ were highest with placebo treatments.” Patients were 34 percent “less likely to have no relief from antidepressants and 31 percent less likely to get no relief from psychotherapy.”

Related Links:

— “Antidepressants, psychotherapy may help ease irritable bowel syndrome, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, September 25, 2018.

Healio (9/25, Demko) reports there appear to be “significant disparities in treatment across race/ethnicity among college students with” mental illnesses. After examining “the prevalence of [mental illness] and treatment utilization among more than 13,000 college students of color using data from 43,375 undergraduate and graduate students at 60 institutions that participated in the survey-based Healthy Minds Study from 2012 to 2015,” investigators found that “college students of color had greater levels of unmet mental health needs relative to white students.” The findings were published in the September issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Related Links:

— “College Students color more likely to have unmet mental health needs, “Savannah Demko, Healio, September 25, 2018.

Reuters (9/25, Weinstock) reports a 21-study review reveals that “talk therapy for anxiety disorders can be effective even when done via video-conference.” The findings were published online Sept. 4 in the journal Family Practice. According to Reuters, “nearly one in three U.S. adults suffer from an anxiety disorder at some time in their lives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health,” but, the US Department of Health and Human Services has found that “55 percent of U.S. counties have no psychiatrists.”

Related Links:

— “Video-conferencing brings therapists to patients with anxiety, “Cheryl Platzman Weinstock, Reuters, September 25, 2018.

The Chicago Tribune (9/24, Pattani) reports that more than ever before, students “are entering college with pre-existing mental health conditions, and medication can be an important component of their care.” Many students, however, “stop taking medications when they arrive on campus – the exact moment their stress” increase. As a result, there “can be a resurgence of mental illness symptoms, side effects students don’t realize can occur from the sudden stop, and in the worst cases, self-harm and even suicide.” As to why the students stop taking medications, reasons range from stigma, lack of daily parental supervision to ensure the medication is taken, and “facing a new environment with new schedules and priorities.”

Related Links:

— “Some students quit mental health medication when they get to college. Here’s why that’s so dangerous, “Aneri Pattani, The Chicago Tribune, September 24, 2018.

Healio (9/24, Demko) reports, “Patients with panic disorder who responded to treatment with either panic-focused psychodynamic psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy or applied relaxation training maintained improvement one year after end of therapy,” research indicated. The findings of the 91-patient study were published online Sept. 11 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Patients with panic disorder maintain long-term improvement after treatment, “Savannah Demko, Healio, September 24, 2018.

Reuters (9/24, Rapaport) reports, “Compared to teens whose gender expression matches societal expectations, gender nonconforming adolescents may be more likely to experience mental health problems,” research indicated.

MedPage Today (9/24, Hlavinka) reports that in the 6,082-student study, “among female students, moderate gender non-conformity was associated with feeling sad and hopeless…compared to students with low gender non-conformity – with similar risks seen among male students,” Richard Lowry, MD, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and colleagues found. Additionally, “moderate gender non-conformity was…significantly associated with seriously attempting suicide,” and among female students, “making a suicide plan,” the study revealed. The findings were published online Sept. 24 in JAMA Pediatrics.

HealthDay (9/24, Mozes) reports the author of an accompanying editorial “observed that the study adds some insight into an under-researched concern.” The editorialist called for more research “to better appreciate the hurdles faced by nonconforming youth.”

Related Links:

— “Gender nonconforming teens face higher risk of mental distress, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, September 24, 2018.

The AP (9/22) reported, “Drinking too much alcohol killed more than three million people in 2016, mostly men, the World Health Organization said” in a report released Sept. 22 in which the WHO “also warned that current policy responses are not sufficient to reverse trends predicting an increase in consumption over the next 10 years.”

Reuters (9/21, Kelland) reported the report “said that globally, an estimated 237 million men and 46 million women are problem drinkers or alcohol abusers,” with “the highest prevalence” being found “in Europe and the Americas.” Currently, “Europe has the highest per person alcohol consumption in the world, even though it has dropped by around 10 percent since 2010.”

According to CNN (9/21, Avramova), the consumption of alcohol “was also found to cause more than 5% of the global disease burden and reported to be a causal factor in over 200 disease and injury conditions.” Alcohol is now “consumed by an estimated 2.3 billion people globally, according to WHO, and school surveys point out that most children start consuming alcohol before the age of 15.”

Related Links:

— “UN: Excessive drinking killed over 3 million people in 2016, AP, September 22, 2018.

The New York Times (9/21, Gold) reported that the opioid crisis is “increasingly manifesting itself at construction sites, factories, warehouses, offices and other workplaces,” with “a stunning 70 percent of employers reported that their businesses had been affected by prescription drug abuse, including absenteeism, positive drug tests, injuries, accidents and overdoses, according to a 2017 survey by the National Safety Council.” The Times described the stories of many workers’ on-the-job opioid overdoses and mentioned that “about 1.3 percent of construction workers are thought to be addicted to opioids, or nearly twice the addiction rate for all working adults, according to data from the 2012-14 National Survey on Drug Use and Health.”

Related Links:

— “Workers Increasingly Overdosing On The Job, ” Jenny Gold, The New York Times, September 21, 2018.

Newsweek (9/21, Gander) reported a new study published in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology found that smoking is linked to dementia. The researchers studied data from 46,140 men over the age of 50 and “concluded that smoking was associated with an increased risk of dementia.”

Related Links:

— “Does smoking cause dementia? Study finds higher link risk, “Kashmira Gander, Newsweek, September 21, 2018.