CNN (11/12, Thomas) reports new research published in the Annals of Internal Medicine found the U.S. “has more than double the rate of premature overdose deaths of at least 12 other countries,” with more than 63,000 drug overdoses blamed for deaths in 2016. Yingxi Chen, who was on the research team and is a postdoctoral fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute, said the team also found the U.S. experienced the second largest increase in deaths from drug overdose, at 4.3 percent for men and 5.3 percent for women. Another researcher not involved in the study, Caleb Banta-Green, Principal Research Scientist at the University of Washington Alcohol and Drug Abuse Institute, said that France “got rid of the restrictions on prescribers using the medication buprenorphine,” and “their national mortality, opiate overdose mortality rate dropped 79%.”

Related Links:

— “US has highest rate of drug overdoses, study says, “Naomi Thomas, CNN, November 12, 2018.

In a perspective piece in the Washington Post (11/12), columnist Petula Dvorak, writes, “Red flag laws – there are now 13 states that have them – allow a family member, roommate, beau, law enforcement officer or any type of medical professional to file a petition asking that a person’s home be temporarily cleared of firearms.” Now, even though “suicide rates are on the rise in the United States – a 30 percent spike in the past two decades, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention – two of the first states to enact red flag laws have seen suicide rates drop, according to” research that “looked at Connecticut and Indiana.” Those findings were published online June 1 in Psychiatric Services, a publication of the American Psychiatric Association.

Related Links:

— “The connection between suicides and mass shootings — and a way to reduce both, “Petula Dvorak, The Washington Post, November 12, 2018.

HealthDay (11/12, Preidt) reports, “People who’ve suffered major traumatic injuries are at much greater risk for mental health problems and suicide,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from more than 19,000 people in the Canadian province of Ontario who suffered serious injuries.” The study revealed that “the suicide rate among people who’d suffered major injuries was 70 per 100,000 people, compared with 11.5 per 100,000 people in the general population.” In addition, youngsters and adolescents under the age of 18 “who had suffered a major injury had the largest increased risk of mental health-related hospital admission, the findings showed.” The findings were published online Nov. 12 in CMAJ.

Related Links:

— “Major Injuries Take a Toll on Mental Health, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, November 12, 2018.

CBS News (11/9, Smith) reported on its website that “gun-related deaths are on the rise in the U.S., bucking a decade-long decline, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The report concluded that there were 44,955 suicides and 27,394 homicides involving guns in 2015-2016, “the highest levels recorded since 2006-2007.”

Kaiser Health News (11/9, Rodriguez) reported the report also concluded “that the number of suicides involving a firearm grew 21 percent between 2006 and 2016.

Related Links:

— “Gun death statistics: CDC study says gun deaths are on the rise after years of decline, “Kate Smith, CBS NEWS, November 09, 2018.

Reuters (11/10, Carroll) reported, “Seven percent of women and more than 10 percent of men said they were distressed due to difficulty controlling sexual urges, feelings and behaviors,” researchers found after surveying “2,235 people, ages 18 to 50, across all 50 states.” The findings were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Also covering the story were the NBC News (11/9, Fox) website, Newsweek (11/9, Georgiou), the Minneapolis Star Tribune (11/10, Olson), and HealthDay (11/9, Gordon).

Related Links:

— “Many troubled by their sexual feelings, urges, “Linda Carrol, Reuters,November 10, 2018.

Psychiatric News (11/9) reported that on Nov. 8, the American Psychiatric Association “joined” the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and the American College of Physicians “to urge the Trump administration to reverse actions taken this week that will limit women’s access to contraception.” The five medical “organizations spoke out just one day after the Trump administration issued a pair of federal rules that allow some employers to opt out of a requirement under the Affordable Care Act to provide” their employees with contraception. The groups wrote, “By undercutting women’s access to contraception, a key preventive service, at no out-of-pocket cost in private insurance plans, the final rules conflict with our firmly held belief that no woman should lose the coverage she has today.”

Related Links:

— “APA Speaks Out Against Trump Administration’s Efforts to Undercut Women’s Preventive Care, Psychiatric News, November 09, 2018.

The NPR (11/8, Hamilton) “Shots” blog reports that researchers found in a small study that “feeling down was associated with greater communication between brain areas involved in emotion and memory.” The findings were published in Cell. Dr. Joshua Gordon, the director of the National Institute of Mental Health, said the new study confirms earlier research done in animals, “It’s finding a circuit, a piece of the brain that we kind of already knew was involved in mood – that’s the less-than-wow part. The wow part is that it’s in human beings.”

Related Links:

— “Researchers Uncover A Circuit For Sadness In The Human Brain, “Jon Hamilton, NPR, November 08, 2018.

USA Today (11/8, O’Donnell) reports cigarette smoking has reached the “lowest level ever recorded among U.S. adults,” according to a report (11/8) from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration and the National Cancer Institute. Only 14 percent of adults – around 34 million people – smoked within the past 30 days. That is down from 15.5 percent in 2016. The report also showed “about 10 percent of people aged 18 to 24 years smoked cigarettes in 2017, down from 13 percent in 2016.”

ABC News (11/8, Jackson) reports on its website that adult smoking rates have declined by 67 percent since 1965. For those aged 18 to 24, the rates “were even lower, dropping from 13 percent in 2016 to 10 percent in 2017.” CDC Director Robert Redfield said, “This new all-time low in cigarette smoking among U.S. adults is a tremendous public health accomplishment, and it demonstrates the importance of continued proven strategies to reduce smoking.”

Related Links:

— “CDC: Cigarette smoking hits new low among adults, but youth vaping ‘epidemic’ still a concern, “Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY, November 08, 2018.

According to HealthDay (11/8, Preidt), “people with mental health problems are much less likely to kick” the smoking habit, researchers found after analyzing “2008-16 national survey data on tens of thousands of adults.” The study revealed that “smokers with mental health issues are only half as likely to quit as those with good mental health.” The findings were published online Oct. 23 in the journal Nicotine and Tobacco Research.

Related Links:

— “Smoking Persists for Americans With Mental Health Ills, ” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, November 08, 2018.

Medscape (11/7, Stiles, Subscription Publication) reports researchers found that “of more than 100 patients who left a major tertiary care center after experiencing cardiac arrest, about 30% showed early signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The group with PTSD also showed a threefold increased adjusted risk for death or cardiac events over the next year compared with the rest.” The findings are scheduled to be presented “during the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2018.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)