HealthDay (9/13, Preidt) reports, “Three common mental health disorders – depression, panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder – pose no serious threat to pregnant women or the health of their” infants, researchers found after following some “2,600 pregnant women at 137 clinical practices in Connecticut and Massachusetts.” The findings were published online Sept. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Does Mother’s Mental Health Affect Pregnancy?,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 13, 2017.

Reuters (9/13, Seaman) reports, “Young adults with low levels of education and people with mental health disorders bore the greatest burden of a recent increase in suicide attempts in the US,” researchers concluded.

HealthDay (9/13, Dotinga) reports that after examining “surveys of over 69,000 US adults taken from 2004-2005 and 2012-2013,” then adjusting the data for confounding factors, investigators found that “the risk of suicide attempts was ‘significantly higher’ among certain groups, including: those aged 21 to 34 (compared to those 65 and up); those with only a high school education (compared to college grads); and those with antisocial, anxiety and depressive disorders (compared to others).” The findings were published online Sept. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Healio (9/13, Oldt) reports the author of an accompanying editorial “reflected on the public health impact” of the study’s findings, writing, “Given the cumulative frequency of family, legal and financial problems, it behooves us to look beyond the walls of our clinics and offices to engage vulnerable individuals and families in diverse settings such as courts and jails, social service agencies, and perhaps the streets long before they have become ‘suicidal.’” Also covering the story are Medscape (9/13, Brooks) and Psychiatric News (9/13).

Related Links:

— “U.S. suicide attempts up most among younger adults, less educated,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, September 13, 2017.

In continuing coverage, CNN (9/12, Scutti) reports, “Screening mothers for depression during early well-child visits led to significantly fewer reports of depression at nine months postpartum,” researchers found after studying some 3,000 women in the Netherlands. The study revealed that only “3% of the screened mothers experienced minor or major depression at nine months postpartum, compared with 8.4% of the mothers who weren’t screened during the visits.” The findings were published online Sept. 12 in Pediatrics. Psychiatric News (9/11) also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “An easy opportunity to screen moms for postpartum depression,” Susan Scutti, CNN, September 12, 2017.

Healio (9/12, Leitenberger) reports, “More than a third of transgender high school students in California reported having suicidal thoughts in the past year, almost twice that of their cisgender peers,” researchers found after evaluating “data on more than 910,000 high school students who participated in the 2013 to 2015 California Healthy Kids Survey, and a weighted subsample of almost 36,000 students representative of the state’s student population.” The findings were published in the September issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Transgender youth nearly twice as likely to report suicidal thoughts,” Perez-Brumer A, et al., Healio, September 12, 2017.

HealthDay (9/8, Preidt) reported, “By taking folic acid around the time of conception, mothers-to-be may reduce their child’s risk of pesticide-related autism,” researchers found after examining data on “300 children aged 2 to 5 with autism and 220 without the developmental disorder.” The findings were published online Sept. 8 in Environmental Health Perspectives.

Related Links:

— “Could Folic Acid Fight a Cause of Autism?,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 8, 2017.

Reuters (9/8, Rapaport) reported, “Protecting young undocumented immigrants known as ‘dreamers’ from deportation may also help lower the risk of mental health problems for their US-born children,” researchers concluded after examining data on “5,653 mothers in Oregon born just before and after the cutoff for DACA eligibility.” The findings were published online Sept. 8 in the journal Science.

Related Links:

— “DACA tied to better mental health for children of immigrants,” Lisa Rapaprt, Reuters, September 8, 2017.

Healio (9/7, Oldt) reports, “Screening for postpartum depression in well-child care was associated with lower rates of depression and improvements in parenting, anxiety and mental health functioning when compared with usual care,” researchers concluded in a study involving some 3,089 mothers. The findings were published online Sept. 5 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Postpartum depression screening in well-child care lowers maternal depression rates,” van der Zee-van den Berg AI, et al., Healio, September 7, 2017.

Young Women With Anorexia Nervosa Who Resume Menstruation By End Of Treatment May Experience Greater Improvement In Psychological, Physiological Well-Being Than Those Who Do Not, Small Study Suggests.
Medscape (9/7, Davenport) reports, “Young women with anorexia nervosa (AN) who resume menstruation by the end of treatment experience greater improvement in both psychological and physiologic well-being than those who do not,” researchers found after studying 39 women with AN and 40 women with bulimia nervosa. The findings were presented at the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology Congress.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Medscape (9/6, Jenkins) reports that researchers found “no increased risk for Alzheimer’s disease following treatment with androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) in a group of men age 67 years and older with advanced prostate cancer.” The research was published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology. This “finding contrasts with recent reports suggesting that there is an increased risk for cognitive impairment in patients who receive ADT.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

Reuters (9/6, Kelland) reports, “Treating young people who suffer from insomnia by using online cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) could reduce debilitating mental health problems such as anxiety and depression,” researchers concluded in a study involving some 3,755 UK university students. The findings were published online Sept. 6 in The Lancet Psychiatry.

According to MedPage Today (9/6, Bachert), the authors of an accompanying comment“noted that internet therapies are an easily available and low-cost option for insomnia which ‘might help reduce the burden of mental ill health and prevent onset of symptoms such as hallucinations and paranoia.’”

Related Links:

— “Treating insomnia can ease depression and paranoia, study finds,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, September 6, 2017.