HealthDay (4/30, Thompson ) reports a study found that suicide risk is tripled later in life “among men and women who experienced sexual trauma while serving” in the military. Researchers analyzed “Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical records for more than 5 million veterans, looking for links between sexual trauma and suicide.” They found that “nearly 16% of female veterans and just over 1% of male veterans had experienced sexual trauma while serving. Nearly 9% of women who’d experienced military sexual trauma later attempted suicide, compared with about 3% of women who hadn’t been assaulted, results show.” Nearly 19% of male sexual trauma victims attempted suicide compared to about 6% of men who had not been abused, researchers noted. The study was published in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Sexual Assault Triples Suicide Risk Among Veterans,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, April 30, 2025

The New York Times (4/30, Caron ) reports that survey data, collected by Gallup primarily in 2023, show that “young adults between the ages of 18 and 29 were struggling – not only with happiness, but also with their physical and mental health, their perceptions of their own character, finding meaning in life, the quality of their relationships and their financial security.” Study participants across the globe “had relatively low measures of flourishing on average until age 50,” but the “the difference between the younger and older adults was largest in the United States, the researchers said.” The study was “one of a collection of papers published on Wednesday in the journal Nature Mental Health.”

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— The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (4/28, George ) reports, “Alzheimer’s disease pathology was common in people diagnosed with other dementias, a large cross-sectional study in Sweden showed.” Investigators found that “while most patients clinically diagnosed with Alzheimer’s had evidence of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid and tau pathology, those biomarkers also emerged in people with other dementias.”

Among “nearly 14,000 adults, a clear, Alzheimer’s-like profile based on three CSF biomarkers – amyloid-beta 1-42, total tau (t-tau), and phosphorylated tau 181 (p-tau181) measurements – was seen in 68% of people with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, 65% of late-onset Alzheimer’s, and 52% of people with mixed Alzheimer’s and vascular dementia.” Meanwhile, “among people without an Alzheimer’s diagnosis, the Alzheimer’s profile emerged in 25% of people with unspecified dementia, 9% of people with Parkinson’s disease dementia, and 8% of people with frontotemporal dementia.”

The findings were published in JAMA Neurology.

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— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (4/28) reports, “Antidepressants effectively treat depression in patients who have a history of heart attacks without adversely impacting their long-term prognosis, according to a study issued in BMC Psychiatry.” Additionally, antidepressents “were linked to a decreased risk of heart attack recurrence.” Further, while baseline depression scores did not differ between control and treatment groups, “antidepressant treatment significantly reduced depression scores at long-term follow-up.”

Antidepressants “did not increase the risk of adverse cardiac events, all-cause mortality, or rehospitalization for heart disease.” Researcher Hongquan Wan and colleague wrote, “Meta-analyses indicate that post–[heart attack] depression is associated with a 1.6- to 2.7-fold increased risk of mortality and cardiovascular events during long-term follow-up, highlighting the critical need for effective interventions.”

Related Links:

— “Antidepressants Effective, Safe for Patients After Heart Attacks,” Psychiatric News, April 28, 2025

Healio (4/25) reported that approximately 33% of adults with past-year medical debt “had forgone mental health care.” According to a research letter published in JAMA Health Forum, adults with previous medical debt “were more likely to forgo mental health care due to cost.” Kyle J. Moon, BS, PhD student trainee in the Center for Mental Health and Addiction Policy at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told Healio that “given the high prevalence of medical debt (roughly one in seven people), this should raise concern about how medical debt may contribute to, or even exacerbate, the mental health treatment gap.” Further, “with less than half of adults receiving care for any mental disorder, prior research suggests that medical debt may exacerbate this gap by eroding patient trust in the system or raising the threshold for care, Moon and colleagues wrote.”

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— “US adults with medical debt more likely to forgo mental health care,” Moira Mahoney, Healio, April 25, 2025

The New York Times (4/25, Hoffman ) reported that the Trump Administration’s budget proposal “plans to terminate a $56 million annual grant program that distributes” Narcan doses “and trains emergency responders in communities across the country to administer them.” The Times explains, “Narcan saves hundreds of thousands of lives a year and is routinely praised by public health experts for contributing to the continuing drop in opioid-related deaths.” However, documents show the proposal will include the grant “among many addiction prevention and treatment programs to be zeroed out.”

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— “The New York Times (requires login and subscription)

Psychiatric News (4/25) reported a new study in Alzheimer’s & Dementia finds that too much sleep per night may effect cognitive function – particularly for adults with depression. Overall, “compared with participants with average sleep, those with long sleep had poorer performance in global cognition, executive function, visuospatial memory, and verbal learning/memory tasks.” Researchers wrote, “These findings suggest that sleeping ≥ 9 hours per night is associated with cognitive differences equivalent to 6.5 years of brain aging.” Further, “the strongest negative associations between long sleep and cognition were among individuals with depressive symptoms, regardless of antidepressant usage.

Related Links:

— “Long Sleep Duration Linked to Poorer Cognitive Performance,” Psychiatric News, April 25, 2025

CNN (4/23, Gannon, Perez ) reports, “Attorney General Pam Bondi on Tuesday issued a memo of directives to Justice Department employees to enforce the Trump administration’s policies targeting gender-affirmingcare for minors.” The memo, CNN says, “specifically targets the medical community, saying that it has given families ‘misleading advice,’ when seeking the help of medical professionals for this type of care.” CNN adds that “major mainstream medical associations” – including the American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, among others – “have affirmed the practice of gender-affirming care.”

Related Links:

— “Attorney general directs Justice Department employees to enforce policies targeting care for transgender minors,” Casey Gannon and Evan Perez, CNN, April 23, 2025

CNN (4/24, Howard ) reports that 14 of 35 Alzheimer’s Disease Research Centers had their funding halted by the NIH last month as the Trump Administration stopped $65 million in funding for research. About a dozen Alzheimer’s disease research centers “are still waiting for their federal funding to be renewed, said Dr. Michael Greicius, professor of neurology and neurological sciences at the Stanford University School of Medicine, whose Alzheimer’s center is among those awaiting a decision.”

Greicius and his colleagues “had to hold off on starting research projects because they didn’t know whether there will be funding coming in.” HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon explained in an email Thursday that the NIH is “committed to advancing groundbreaking research in Alzheimer’s disease. However, we also have a responsibility to ensure that all grant proposals align with the established policies.”

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— “Uncertainty around NIH funding leaves Alzheimer’s studies in limbo,” Jacqueline Howard, CNN, April 24, 2025

HealthDay (4/23, Thompson ) reports a study found that “women who entered menopause before 40 had a greater cognitive decline than women who entered menopause after 50.” Researchers observed that “women who entered menopause early tended to experience a more dramatic decline in their thinking and memory skills than those whose menopause occurred in middle-age.” They noted the link “remained even after researchers accounted for the potential effect of depression on the women’s brain health.” Furthermore, “women who entered menopause at the more usual time of life wound up with better cognitive function than men of the same age, researchers found.” The study was published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.

Related Links:

— “Early Menopause Might Mean Greater Age-Related Brain Decline,” Dennis Thompson, HealthDay, April 23, 2025