USA Today (12/29, Brook) reports newly released statistics from the Pentagon show that suicide is “the leading killer of US troops deployed to the Middle East to fight Islamic State militants.” As of Dec. 27, 31 troops have died in Operation Inherent Resolve. Of those, 11 took their own lives, eight died in combat, seven died in accidents, and four died as a result of illness or injury. One other death is under investigation. Experts on military suicide say the reasons it is the leading cause of troop deaths “are complex and poorly understood,” but they “likely include mental illnesses that enlistees brought with them to boot camp, post-traumatic stress, multiple combat deployments and heightened anxiety in a military at war for 16 years.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide kills more U.S. troops than ISIL in Middle East,”Tom Vanden Brook, USA Today, December 29, 2016.

The New York Times Magazine (12/28, Chivers) has a 17,000-word profile of Marine Corps veteran Sam Siatta, who served in Afghanistan and, according to the VA, “suffered from depression, alcohol dependency and PTSD.” In 2014, he committed a home invasion in Normal, Illinois and was sentenced to prison. Writer C.J. Chivers talks with Siatta about his wartime experiences and how they led to his actions at home.

Related Links:

— “The Fighter,”C. J. Chivers, The New York Times Magazine, December 28, 2016.

The New York Times (12/28, A17, Carey, Subscription Publication) (12/29, A17, Carey) reports “the actress and author Carrie Fisher brought the subject of bipolar disorder [BD] into the popular culture with such humor and hard-boiled detail that her death on Tuesday triggered a wave of affection on social media and elsewhere, from both fans and fellow bipolar travelers.” Diagnosed with BD at age 24, Fisher often spoke “about her lifelong struggles with both addiction and bipolar disorder and her desire to erase the stigma of mental illness.” Partly due to Fisher’s “example, the language of bipolar and mental disorders has swept into the shared popular culture.” During Fisher’s lifetime, “the definition” of BD expanded, and “by the 2000s, doctors were diagnosing the condition in groups of people who had never been identified before, mostly young children.” In the article, the Times points out, “The American Psychiatric Association’s latest diagnostic manual discourages applying the label” of BD “to young children.”

Related Links:

— “Carrie Fisher Put Pen and Voice in Service of ‘Bipolar Pride’,”Benedict Carey, The New York Times, December 28, 2016.

Modern Healthcare (12/28, Johnson, Subscription Publication) reports the Department of Health and Human Services has selected eight states to participate in a two-year initiative aimed at integrating “behavioral health services within the primary-care setting.” The initiative’s goal “is to provide greater and faster access to care for those suffering from mental illness or substance use disorders.”

Healthcare IT News (12/28, Monegain) reports the eight states selected for the Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic are: Minnesota, Missouri, New York, New Jersey, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon and Pennsylvania.

Related Links:

— “Eight states to boost behavioral healthcare through federal demonstration,” Steven Ross Johnson, Modern Healthcare, December 28, 2016.

In the Scientific American (12/28) “MIND Guest Blog,” Heather M. Snyder writes that “women make up nearly two-thirds of the more than five million Americans living with Alzheimer’s today.” New research indicates “there may be distinct biological and genetic factors shaping how the disease develops and progresses in women.” According to Snyder, “Understanding these differences will be of key importance in devising new, more effective strategies for treating, preventing and diagnosing Alzheimer’s.”

Related Links:

— “Alzheimer’s Falls More Heavily on Women Than on Men,”Heather M. Snyder, Scientific American, December 28, 2016.

Healio (12/28, Oldt) reports, “Lower IQ was associated with past-year fear and distress disorders and was not associated with” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), “anxiety or eating disorders,” researchers found after analyzing “a national sample of adolescents from the 2001 to 2004 National comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (n = 10,073; mean age, 15.2 years).” After adjusting for confounding factors, investigators found that “mean IQ was lower among adolescents with past-year bipolar disorder (P = .004), AD/HD (P = .002), oppositional defiant disorder (P = .007), conduct disorder (P = .02), alcohol abuse (P < .001), drug abuse (P = .02) and specific phobia (P = .001).” The findingswere published online Dec. 28 in JAMA Psychiatry. Related Links:

— “Lower IQ found in some adolescent psychiatric disorders ,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 28, 2016.

The New York Daily News (12/27, Dziemianowicz) reports that healthcare spending on children increased 56 percent between 1996 and 2013, researchpublished online Dec. 27 in JAMA Pediatrics. The “three conditions with the most health care spending were inpatient well-newborn care ($27.9 billion), attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder…($20.6 billion) and well-dental care ($18.2 billion).”

HealthDay (12/27, Reinberg) reports the author of an editorial accompanying the study wrote that healthcare spending on youngsters, albeit “relatively low,” has “led to better access to care and even some better long-term outcomes for children.”

Related Links:

— “Kids’ health care costs on the rise,”Joe Dziemianowicz, The New York Daily News , December 27, 2016.

Healio (12/27, Oldt) reports post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “was common among women receiving mindfulness therapy for depression at an urban federally qualified health center, suggesting an association between trauma and residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood,” researchers found after assessing “72 women receiving a mindfulness-based intervention for depression at an urban federally qualified health center.” The findings were published online Dec. 6 in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Related Links:

— “Study Suggests link between violence, depression, PSTD,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 27, 2016.

The Boston Globe (12/27, Fernandes) reports that “the US job exodus parallels an increase in suicides,” research suggests. In fact “a one percentage point increase in unemployment correlated with an 11 percent increase in suicides, according to Peter Schott, a Yale University economist who coauthored the report with Justin Pierce, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Board.” The study authors theorize that “workers who lost their jobs may have been pushed over the edge and turned to suicide or drug addiction, lacking financial resources or community connections to get help.”

Related Links:

— “As jobs left the US, suicides rose,” Deirdre Fernandes, The Boston Globe, December 27, 2016.

Healio (12/22, Oldt) reported that two or more of certain behaviors may predict “suicide attempts in public transit stations, suggesting that observing” closed-circuit television (CCTV) “monitors may identify individuals at risk for attempting suicide.” Behaviors that may predict suicide attempts include “leaving objects on the platform, frequently looking down the tunnel, standing for long periods of time on the yellow line or continually walking on the yellow line, looking physically agitated, staring at the tracks or the tunnel for long periods of time and seeming depressed.” The findings, which pooled the results of two small studies, were published online Dec. 15 in BMC Public Health.

Related Links:

— “CCTV may identify individuals at risk suicide,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 22, 2016.