In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (6/29, Healy) reports, “Compared with women who never participated in religious services, women who attended any religious service once a week or more were five times less likely to commit suicide between 1996 and 2010,” research published online June 29 in JAMA Psychiatry suggests. The effect was particularly evident among Catholics. In fact, “among the 6,999 Catholic women who said they attended mass more than once a week, there was not a single suicide.”

HealthDay (6/29, Preidt) reports that researchers arrived at these conclusions after analyzing “data on nearly 90,000 women” who were “enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study from 1996 to 2010.”

Related Links:

— “Church attendance linked with reduced suicide risk, especially for Catholics, study says,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, June 29, 2016.

TIME (6/6, Sifferlin) reports that just “about 4% of interpersonal violence in the United States can be attributed to mental illness…yet close to 40% of news stories about mental illness connect it to violent behavior that harms other people,” research published in Health Affairs suggests. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after examining “400 news articles about mental illness that were published over two decades, from 1994 to 2014, in popular news outlets.” Time also notes, “According to the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), people with severe mental illnesses are more than 10 times more likely to be victims of violent crimes than people in the general population.”

Related Links:

— “Most Violent Crimes Are Wrongly Linked to Mental Illness,” Alexandra Sifferlin, Time, June 6, 2016.

Medical Daily (5/25, Venosa) reports that clinical depression may reduce “a woman’s chance of having a baby,” research suggests. The study authors theorize that dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis “may have an influence on the menstrual cycle and a woman’s ability to conceive.” The findings of the 2,100-patient study were published online April 27 in the American Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology.

Related Links:

— “Women With Severe Symptoms of Depression May Have Difficulty Getting Pregnant; It’s Not The Antidepressants,” Ali Venosa, Medical Daily, May 25, 2016.

Medscape (6/28, Anderson) reports that “drunkorexia” is “a new and troubling trend in which youth deliberately do not eat and then go on to drink alcohol in excess,” research suggests. The trend now “appears to be sweeping US college campuses.” The apparent goal of the practice is “to get drunker or get drunk faster.” The findings of the1,184-patient study were presented at the 39th Annual Research Society on Alcoholism Scientific Meeting in New Orleans.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

The NPR (6/28, Kodjak) “Shots” blog reports, “Bullying and cyberbullying are major risk factors for teen suicide,” with both victims and bullies “at risk.” This is the finding of a report from the American Academy of Pediatrics urging family physicians and pediatricians “to routinely screen teenagers for suicide risks.” The report was published online June 27 in Pediatrics. Psychiatric News Alert (6/28) also covered the story.

Related Links:

— “Teen Bullies And Their Victims Both Face A Higher Risk Of Suicide,” ALISON KODJAK, National Public Radio, June 28, 2016.

Reuters (6/28, Seaman) reports that patients with recurring binge-eating episodes may benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or medication, the findings of a 34-study review published online June 28 in the Annals of Internal Medicine suggest. An accompanying editorial observed that physicians may have a difficult time “recognizing binge-eating disorder” and recommended that “greater than expected weight dissatisfaction, large weight fluctuations, and depressive symptoms in individuals of any size all should raise the practitioner’s index of suspicion.”

Related Links:

— “Binge-eating disorder can be treated with talk therapy or drugs,” ANDREW M. SEAMAN, Reuters, June 28, 2016.

TIME (6/27, Oaklander) reports the increasing use of electronic health records is a contributing factor to physician burnout, according to a study published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings. Mayo Clinic researchers found a strong link between time spent doing “digital work” and burnout.

HealthLeaders Media (6/27, Shanafelt) reports the study’s lead author Dr. Tait Shanafelt of the Mayo Clinic said in a news release, “Although electronic health records, electronic prescribing, and computerized physician order entry have been touted as ways to improve quality of care, these tools also create clerical burden, cognitive burden, frequent interruptions and distraction—all of which can contribute to physician burnout.”

Related Links:

— “Doctors Are Burned Out by Busywork: Study,” Mandy Oaklander, Time, June 27, 2016.

HealthDay (6/27, Preidt) reports that research “finds no evidence that degenerative brain disorders can be transmitted via donated blood.” Investigators looked at data on approximately 40,000 patients, all of whom “had received blood transfusions between 1968 and 2012 from people who were later diagnosed with any form of dementia or Parkinson’s disease.” The researchers also looked at data on more than 1.4 million other patients.

The study indicated that “patients in both groups had exactly the same chance of developing a neurodegenerative disorder, which clearly shows that these diseases cannot be transmitted through blood transfusion, the researchers said.” The findings were published in Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Donated Blood Won’t Transmit Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, June 27, 2016.

USA Today (6/27, Shedrofsky) reports that in a report released Monday, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that family physicians “should screen teens for suicide risks in the wake of new information that shows suicide is the second leading cause of death among teens.” The group uses the report to provide “pediatricians with guidelines on how to identify and assist at-risk teens between the age of 15 to 19.” And, because “firearms in the home are associated with a higher risk of adolescent suicide,” the group “AAP urges parents of at-risk teens to remove guns and ammunition from their homes.”

Related Links:

— “Pediatricians urged to screen for suicide risks among teens,” Karina Shedrofsky, USA Today, June 27, 2016.

Medscape (6/24, Davenport) reported, “For adolescents, living with parents who have chronic migraine has a negative effect on activities of daily life and on school performance and is associated with increased rates of anxiety,” research suggests. The findings of the 1,411 parent-adolescent dyad study were presented at the American Headache Association’s annual meeting.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)