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.

NPR (12/21, Hamilton) reports that a study published in Neurology suggests that “sleep quality and brain function improved in tandem” for patients “hospitalized for moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries.” According to NPR, “the results raise the possibility that patients with brain injuries might recover more quickly if hospitals took steps to restore normal sleep patterns.”

Related Links:

— “As Sleep Improves, So Does An Injured Brain,”Jon Hamilton, NPR, December 21, 2016.

The Boston Globe (12/21, Freyer) reports the “brain abnormalities that cause dyslexia may be deeper and more pervasive than previously thought,” according to a new study published in the journal Neuron. Researchers found that “neural adaptation was reduced” in people with dyslexia “even in tasks unrelated to reading, suggesting that dyslexia affects many brain regions, not just those involved with language.”

HealthDay (12/21, Norton) reports the researchers used brain imaging technology and found that adults and children with dyslexia demonstrated “less ability to ‘adapt’ to sensory information,” not just written words, compared to people without dyslexia.

Related Links:

— “Study suggests dyslexics suffer from less brain plasticity,”Felice J. Freyer, The Boston Globe, December 21, 2016.

Medical Daily (12/21, Drain) reports research suggests that “around two-thirds of women with anorexia nervosa or bulimia will eventually recover.” Investigators arrived at this conclusion after analyzing data on “246 participants for more than 20 years.” The findingswere published online Dec. 20 in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry.

Psychiatric News (12/21) reports that even though “‘for most patients with anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa, recovery is durable, we found that 10.5% of those with anorexia nervosa and 20.5% of those with bulimia nervosa who achieved recovery in the first decade had relapsed at long-term follow-up,’ the authors wrote.”

Related Links:

— “Will I Have Anorexia Or Bulimia My Whole Life? Eating Disorders Study Says Most Women Recover,”Kelsey Drain, Medical Daily, December 21, 2016.

The AP (12/20, Tanner) reports that a study published in JAMA indicates that physical activity may help children recover from concussions. Researchers “surveyed about 2,400 kids aged 5 to 18 treated for concussions in nine emergency departments in Canada.” They found that “a month after their concussions, ongoing or worse symptoms were more common in children and teens who were inactive during the week following injury, compared with those who engaged in physical activity during that first week.” Their findings “were similar even among those who early on had three or more concussion symptoms.”
Additional coverage is provided by HealthDay (12/20, Doheny) and MedPage Today (12/20, Basen).

Related Links:

— “Association Between Early Participation in Physical Activity Following Acute Concussion and Persistent Postconcussive Symptoms in Children and Adolescents,The JAMA Network, December 20, 2016.

HealthDay (12/20, Preidt) reports researchers at Ohio State University found that “student were far more likely to engage in a violent act if a friend has also done so.” Researchers collected data in “the mid-1990s from more than 5,900 seventh- through 12th-graders at 142 U.S. schools” and found that “youths were 48 percent more likely to be in a serious fight and 140 percent more likely to pull a weapon on someone if a friend had done the same.” Youths were also “up to 183 percent more likely to injure someone badly, the researchers said.” The findings were published online Dec. 20 in the American Journal of Public Health.

Related Links:

— “Teen Violence Can Be Contagious, Study Contends,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 20, 2016.

Healio (12/20, Oldt) reports that “a recent literature review identified several mental health screening tools validated for Spanish and use in individuals with limited English proficiency.” In order to evaluate “Spanish-language validity and implementation of Bright Futures pre-visit mental health screening tools and models of care for Latino children, researchers reviewed studies published between 2005 and 2015 that reported screening results for Latino or Spanish-speaking population.” After their assessment, the study authors recommended use of the Pediatric Symptom Checklist, including pictorial versions (PSC-35), and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) “as they are validated in Spanish and freely accessible.” The review’s findings were published online Nov. 23 in Clinical Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Review indicates reliable mental health screening tools for Latino children,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 20, 2016.

Healio (12/19) reports in a piece exploring the bidirectional relationship of infectious disease and mental health, Marshall Forstein, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and vice chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s council on medical education and lifelong learning, said, “We don’t pay enough attention to mental function in any part of medicine, frankly.” And, “according to [Dr.] Forstein, patients with a serious mental illness often have difficulties with impulse control and judgment and rarely have stable living conditions because of homelessness or inconsistent relationships with their families, leading to situations that may put them at risk for acquiring an infectious disease.”

Related Links:

— “ID, mental health share complicated relationship, Healio, December 19, 2016.