The New York Daily News (8/28, Scotti) reports, “About 21% of new mothers experiencing postpartum mood disorders like depression and anxiety don’t tell their doctors about their symptoms,” researchers found in a study published online Aug. 1 in the Maternal and Child Health Journal.

Psychiatric News (8/25) reported that “46% said that barriers such as stigma and negative perception of therapy made it difficult or impossible to report such symptoms,” researchers reported in a study involving “211 predominantly white, middle-class women who had given birth within the past three years.”

In an opinion piece in the Los Angeles Times’ (8/28) “Daily Pilot,” registered nurse Pamela Pimentel, RN, CEO of MOMS Orange County, and physician Patricia de Marco Centeno, director of consultation-liaison psychiatry and Women’s Mental Health at Hoag Hospital, write, “If you have the opportunity to influence pregnant women, encourage them to participate in maternal mental health screenings and seek treatment for disorders.” Women who are “are pregnant or are considering becoming pregnant, avail yourself of maternal mental health screenings and services.”

Related Links:

— “One in five women suffering from postpartum disorders keeps her symptoms a secret,” Ariel Scotti, New York Daily News, August 28, 2017.

HealthDay (8/28, Dotinga) reports, “Suicide is a leading cause of death among pregnant and recently pregnant women,” researchers found after tracking “women in Ontario from 1994 to 2008.” The study revealed that “five percent of deaths during pregnancy or the first year after pregnancy were due to suicide.” The findings were published online Aug. 28 in CMAJ.

Medscape (8/28, Frellick) points out the study’s findings indicate that “suicide prevention strategies for perinatal women should be incorporated into primary care settings.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide a Danger for Some Women During Pregnancy: Study,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, August 28, 2017.

In a greater than 1,700-word story, the Los Angeles Times (8/24, St. John) chronicles the story of Andrew Holland, an inmate with schizophrenia at the San Luis Obispo County jail. The man was “shackled to a chair” at the jail for “46 hours” during which he was naked, “left in his own filth,” and “eating and drinking almost nothing.” Within 40 minutes of being freed from the chair, he died. That death, which occurred on Jan. 22, “has provoked outrage in the Central Coast county, a record $5-million legal settlement, and questions about the way California jails handle a sharp increase in the number of” inmates with mental illnesses.

Related Links:

— “Naked, filthy and strapped to a chair for 46 hours: a mentally ill inmate’s last days,” Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times, August 24, 2017.

Healio (8/24, Oldt) reports, “Cigarettes with lower nicotine content may decrease addiction potential among individuals highly vulnerable to tobacco addiction,” researchers found after conducting “a multisite, double-blind, within-participant assessment of acute response to research cigarettes among 169 daily smokers.” The findings were published online Aug. 23 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Lower nicotine cigarettes may hinder addiction in at-risk groups,” Higgins ST, et al., Healio, August 24, 2017.

The Washington Times (8/24, Kelly) reports that on Aug. 24, tech giant “Google entered the realm of public health awareness to help people determine if they are clinically depressed, launching a questionnaire…in response to the query: Am I depressed?” Individuals typing “in a search term related to depression will now be given the option to take the PHQ-9 questionnaire, a clinically validated assessment, in addition to the most relevant information pertaining to depression.”

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (8/24, Pirani), the PHQ-9 “test aims to help determine a person’s depression and his or her need for an in-person medical evaluation.”

Newsweek (8/24, Firger) points out, “Roughly 6.7 percent of the US population reported having at least one symptom of depression in 2015, according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).”

Related Links:

— “Are you depressed? Google it,” Laura Kelly, Washington Times, August 24, 2017.

HealthDay (8/23, Dotinga) reports researchers found children and young adults targeted by cyberbullies appear to be twice as likely to hurt themselves or attempt suicide than their non-bullied peers. Investigators said cyberbullies also are more likely to have suicidal thoughts and take suicidal actions. Included in the study were some “150,000 kids and young adults from 30 countries” who were followed “for over 21 years.” The findings were announced in a news release from the UK’s University of Birmingham.

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying Weighs Heavily on Young People,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, August 23, 2017.

In its “Shots” blog, NPR (8/22, Hsu) reports that in cases of non-fatal overdoses, not enough is being done “during hospital encounters” to intervene in patients’ opioid addictions, according to a study published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study found that “among people who had overdosed on heroin, the filling of opioid prescriptions fell by 3.5 percent, while medication-assisted treatment increased by only 3.6 percent,” following their hospitalizations.

HealthDay (8/22, Reinberg) reports that the study covered “more than 6,000 people who survived an overdose from an opioid.” The study’s lead author, Julie Donahue, said, “Forty percent of those with a heroin overdose and 60 percent of those with a prescription opioid overdose filled a prescription in the six months after overdose for the very kind of medication that contributed to the overdose in the first place.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals Could Do More For Survivors Of Opioid Overdoses, Study Suggests,” Andrea Hsu, NPR, August 22, 2017.

HealthDay (8/22, Reinberg) reports new research found playing contact sports like football or ice hockey can change the structure and function of the brain. After scanning the brains of 65 varsity athletes prior to the start of their sport’s season, researchers found that the 23 people who played collision and contact sports “had differences in brain structure and function compared to people who took part in non-contact sports.” Differences include “changes in the structure of the brain’s white matter, the fibers that connect different parts of the brain, allowing them to communicate with each another.” The findings were published online in Frontiers of Neurology.

Related Links:

— “More Evidence Contact Sports Can Affect the Brain,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, August 22, 2017.

HealthDay (8/22, Mozes) reports, “Caring for a family member with a neurological disorder such as dementia is vastly more expensive than caring for a senior who is dementia-free,” researchers found after examining data “from a computer analysis that modeled expenses incurred caring for about 16,000 hypothetical seniors.”

The study revealed that “the average yearly cost of caring for a dementia-free senior is roughly $137,000,” compared to “$321,000 for care of those struggling with dementia.” The findings were published online Aug. 17 in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

Related Links:

— “Dementia Care: A Huge Financial Burden for U.S. Families,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, August 22, 2017.

In a 4,700-word piece, Reuters (8/22, Eisler, Szep, Reid, Smith) reports on the number of cases in which a police officer using a Taser results in an unintended death and the litigation that follows.

A Reuters examination of 1,005 fatal police Taser incidents found that a quarter of the victims “were suffering from a mental health breakdown or neurological disorder.” In 90 percent of the incidents, the deceased was unarmed. Over 100 of the fatal encounters began with a 911 call for help during a medical emergency.

Denise Juliano-Bult, who helps coordinate research on services for people with mental illness at the US National Institute of Mental Health, explained people in a mental crisis are often confused and frightened when confronted by police, which may cause tensions to escalate rapidly. She said, “That can lead to unfortunate incidents where the people with mental illness can get injured and the police can get injured.”

Related Links:

— “Special Report: A 911 plea for help, a Taser shot and the toll of stun guns,” Peter Eisler, Jason Szep, Tim Reid and Grant Smith, Reuters via St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 22, 2017.