The New York Times (11/20, Rogers, Subscription Publication) provides tips to readers who may feel anxious and fearful in wake of last week’s terrorist attacks in Paris. Mental health professionals interviewed for the article advise readers to “compare…fear with the facts,” limit their “exposure to social media and the media,” create a plan how to contact family members should something happen, maintain daily routines, and follow “basic self-care guidelines that help reduce stress.”

Related Links:

— “How to Cope With Anxiety During Terror Threats,” Katie Rogers, New York Times, November 19, 2015.

A number of news outlets based in different parts of the country cover the release of a new report, which found that from 1999 to 2013, there was a large increase in overdose deaths among teenagers and young adults in the US.

USA Today (11/20, Thadani) reports that 35 US “states saw youth drug overdose deaths increase dramatically” during the time period analyzed in the Trust for America’s Health report. The organization’s report found that in “five states – Kansas, Montana, Ohio, Wisconsin and Wyoming – the overdose death rates more than quadrupled.”

The Philadelphia Inquirer (11/20, Sapatkin) reports, “Pennsylvania leads the nation – and New Jersey is fourth – in drug overdose deaths among young adult men, according” to the Trust for America’s Health report. The report, the Inquirer adds, raises “the level of urgency about an epidemic that over the last decade has killed more than twice as many Americans as homicide.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Youth drug overdose deaths up in 35 states over a decade,” Trisha Thadani, USA Today, November 20, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (11/19, Zarembo) reported, “Stimulant medications used to treat” attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “and keep service members alert during long stretches of combat might increase vulnerability to post-traumatic stress disorder [PTSD],” according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress. Researchers arrived at the study’s conclusions after tracking “25,971 active-duty troops who screened negative for PTSD…from 2001 to 2008.” After controlling for confounding factors, investigators found that service members “with prescriptions for the stimulants were five times more likely to have PTSD.”

Related Links:

— “Pentagon study links prescription stimulants to military PTSD risk,” Alan Zarembo, Los Angeles Times, November 19, 2015.

The CBS News (11/16, Welch) website reported in light of Friday evening’s terrorist attacks in Paris that although “survivors, witnesses and first responders of such violent events often struggle with post traumatic stress disorder… viewing images and videos of these violent events through news coverage and social media can affect people who weren’t there in similar ways.”

Robert Ursano, MD, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Committee on Psychiatric Dimensions of Disasters, told CBS News, “The more similarities you see between you and the victims, the more things that remind you of ‘it could be like me,’ the higher your level of psychological distress.” People who were not at the scene of the attacks “may still experience responses like depression and generalized anxiety disorder, as well as psychological distress, which includes sleep disturbances, desire to stay at home and avoidance of reminders of the trauma, Ursano explained.”

Related Links:

— “Watching news coverage of Paris attacks may take toll on viewers,” Ashley Welch, CBS News, November 16, 2015.

CBS News (11/16, Welch) reports on a study published in Circulation based on data covering “almost 168,000 women and over 40,000 men,” some of them for up to 30 years, finding that those who drank fewer that five cups of coffee daily “had a lower risk of deaths from cardiovascular disease, neurological diseases, type 2 diabetes and suicide.”

NBC News (11/16, Fox) reports that the study found that those “who drink regular, moderate amounts of coffee are less likely to die from a range of diseases, from diabetes to heart disease.” It also found no additional benefit beyond five cups per day and that the benefit appeared whether the coffee was regular or decaffeinated. The study found that people who drank coffee regularly were also more likely to smoke. Coffee drinkers who did not smoke were “between 8 and 15 percent less likely to die,” than non-coffee drinkers. The study did not identify whether coffee drinkers added cream, milk, or sugar to their coffee. The authors suggested that antioxidants may play a role, but said that the chief finding is that coffee drinking is not harmful.

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— “,” Ashley Welch, CBS News, November 16, 2015.

Reuters (11/14, Doyle) reported that people who undergo eviction from their homes may have a four times higher likelihood of committing suicide, according to a study published online Nov. 4 in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. In arriving at this conclusion, researchers examined data on some 22,000 households in Sweden during the years 2009 to 2012, then compared the data with data on a random sample of 10 percent of the general adult population of Sweden.

Related Links:

— “Eviction ups risk of suicide,” Kathryn Doyle, Reuters, November 13, 2015.

TIME (11/12, Luscombe) reports that a study published online Nov. 11 in JAMA Psychiatry reveals that children “whose parents die while they are young are more likely to commit suicide later in life than kids whose parents survive until they are adults.” After examining “government data on 7.3 million kids from Denmark, Sweden and Finland,” researchers found that youngsters “who lost a parent were twice as likely to commit suicide as the control group, especially if they were boys.”

Related Links:

— “Kids Who Lose a Parent More Likely to Commit Suicide,” Belinda Luscombe, Time, November 11, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (11/11, Rivera) reported that some college campuses “are adopting new tools that outline common situations and ways to respond” to students in mental distress, “such as the Red Folder, a quick reference guide developed at the University of California that is being adopted by the 23-campus California State University system and many community colleges.” The point “is to distill information from more detailed training into a set of simple actions – see something, say something, do something.” That initiative receives partial funding from “Proposition 63, the Mental Health Services Act approved by California voters in 2004 to expand such services through a 1% tax on incomes at or above $1 million.”

Related Links:

— “California colleges step up efforts to help students in mental distress,” Carla Rivera, Los Angeles Times, November 10, 2015.

According to the Texas Tribune (11/11, Silver), a report released Nov. 10 by the Death Penalty Information Center and called “Battle Scars: Military Veterans and the Death Penalty” finds that “veterans sentenced to death in Texas murder cases – and nationwide – might have escaped the punishment if juries had been told about their military service and any ensuing mental health problems.” In the report, “several examples” are cited of “veterans who have been executed or sentenced to death in Texas with little or no consideration of their mental state.”

Related Links:

— “Report: Veteran Mental Health Ignored in Capital Cases,” Johnathan Silver, Texas Tribune, November 10, 2015.

In a nearly 2,000-word article, the Chicago Tribune (11/11, Taylor) reports that “a growing body of research is exploring links among sleep deprivation, sleep disturbance and Alzheimer’s disease.” For example, Dr. Erik Musiek, an assistant professor of neurology at Washington University in St. Louis, “said new research suggests that sleep and circadian rhythm problems experienced earlier in life actually may contribute to the risk of Alzheimer’s and accelerate the disease.”

In addition, a PET scan study of 70 seniors conducted at Johns Hopkins and the National Institute on Aging revealed that people who reported “poorer sleep quality and shorter sleep duration had higher amounts of beta-amyloid in their brains than those who reported sleeping longer and better.”

Related Links:

— [Free Registration Required] “Sleep Could be the Missing Link in Dementia,” Mark Taylor, Chicago Tribune, November 10, 2015.