Reuters (7/30, Seaman) reports that women in their middle years who are the most connected socially with family, friends, and social groups may have a lower likelihood of suicide, according to a study published online July 29 in JAMA Psychiatry.

HealthDay (7/30, Mozes) reports that the study of “nearly 73,000 female nurses aged 46 to 71” who were tracked “between 1992 and 2010” also revealed that “friendships and outside activities were found to offer protection against suicide even for women who struggled with mental health issues, such as depression.”

Medscape (7/30, Anderson) reports that an accompanying editorial observed that the study’s results “invite further research to explore whether factors or behaviors that reflect longstanding measures of individual social integration predict a person’s mindset when he or she is suicidal.”

Related Links:

— “Suicide risk tied to women’s social connectedness,” Andrew M. Seaman, Reuters, July 29, 2015.

On its front page, the New York Times (7/31, A1, Risen, Subscription Publication) reports that the American Psychological Association’s board “plans to recommend tough ethics rules that would prohibit psychologists from involvement in all national security interrogations.” The board is expected to “recommend” that the association’s members approve the change at next week’s annual meeting. Association officials “said they believed the proposed ban would be so strict that any psychologist involved” in the interrogations “could be subject to an ethics complaint.”

Related Links:

— “U.S. Psychologists Urged to Curb Questioning Terror Suspects,” James Risen, New York Times, July 30, 2015.

Medscape (7/31, Lowes) reports that physician recruiting firm Merritt Hawkins’ “latest report on recruiting trends shows a weak pulse for one specialty: psychiatry.” Medscape adds, “The number of searches for psychiatrists from April 2014 through March 2015 hit an all-time high in the company’s 27-year history.” Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, a past president of the American Psychiatric Association, “attributes the crisis to systemic problems in healthcare that hit his profession especially hard,” including low reimbursement rates, not enough psychiatry residency slots, and less than full implementation and enforcement of mental health parity rules. APA president Renee Binder, MD, said, “There are no instant fixes to meeting the demand for psychiatrists.”

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

HealthDay (7/31) reports, “High levels of job stress may increase the risk of sick leave due to mental health disorders,” according to research published in the August issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine. After analyzing “data from nearly 12,000 workers in Sweden” over the course of five years, researchers found that “workers with demanding jobs, high job strain and little social support at work were at greater risk for mental health sick leave, as were those with unhealthy lifestyles,” such as people who smoke.

Related Links:

— “Job Stress Might Make You Sick, Study Says,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 31, 2015.

The Baltimore Sun (7/29, Cohn) reports that Maryland health officials are seeking a waiver from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to “use federal dollars to pay for Medicaid patients to get substance-abuse and mental-health treatment outside the state’s general hospitals.” Lifting the ban on such spending “would expand the options for people seeking care, allowing them to use community treatment facilities that specialize in those services and tend to be less costly than hospitals, said officials from the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.”

Related Links:

— “Maryland seeks to expand access to drug, mental health treatment in the community,” Meredith Cohn, Baltimore Sun, July 28, 2015.

The AP (7/28, Crary) reports that mental illness is often “cited as a possible factor in…high-profile mass” killings. But, Renee Binder, MD, president of the American Psychiatric Association, explained, “Most people who suffer from mental illness are not violent, and most violent acts are committed by people who are not mentally ill.” According to 2102 estimates from the NIMH, “there were an estimated 9.6 million adults in the U.S. – 4.1 percent of the total adult population – experiencing serious mental illness over the previous year.” Dr. Binder pointed out, “If you look at that large pool of people, only a tiny proportion of them will eventually commit violence.” She added, “How are you going to identify them? It’s like a needle in a haystack.”

Related Links:

— “MENTAL HEALTH EXPERTS RESPOND CAREFULLY TO MASS KILLINGS,” David Crary, Associated Press, July 27, 2015.

The Washington Post (7/28, Berger) reports that although “a purified version of ecstasy, or MDMA, Molly is commonly thought to be a safe drug,” the version “sold on the street often is laced with other substances — such as acetaminophen, amphetamines and ketamine, a compound used in anesthesia — that can be deadly in large enough doses.”

Related Links:

— “Molly, a form of MDMA or ecstasy, can cause fatal reactions,” Susan Berger, Washington Post, July 27, 2015.

HealthDay (7/28, Preidt) reports that research offers “insight into how Facebook use by young women can lead to poor body image and risky dieting.” The research, which is published in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, “included 128 college-aged women who completed an online survey about their eating habits and their emotional connection to Facebook…and whether they compared their bodies to friends’ bodies in online photos.” Investigators found that “women who had a greater emotional connection to Facebook were more likely to compare their bodies to their friends’ bodies and to engage in more risky dieting.”

Related Links:

— “Does Facebook Lead Young Women to Dangerous Diets?,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, July 27, 2015.

In a nearly 3,200-word piece to appear in its Aug. 2 Education Life section, the New York Times (7/28, Scelfo, Subscription Publication) reports that across the US, “the suicide rate among 15- to 24-year-olds has increased modestly but steadily since 2007: from 9.6 deaths per 100,000 to 11.1, in 2013 (the latest year available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention),” a trend also seen on US college campuses.

Now, “a survey of college counseling centers has found that more than half their clients have severe psychological problems, an increase of 13 percent in just two years.” The Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Penn State University has found that “anxiety and depression, in that order, are now the most common mental health diagnoses among college students.” Students with mental health problems may run into difficulty getting a leave of absence to work through their problems, which may deter them from seeking help.

Meanwhile, on the front of its Personal Journal section, the Wall Street Journal (7/28, D1, Linden, Subscription Publication) reports on an increase in self-harm behaviors, primarily cutting, among adolescents of both genders, as a coping mechanism for those who cannot deal with strong emotions. In some cases, dialectical behavior therapy may be helpful for teens who self harm.

Related Links:

— “Campus Suicide and the Pressure of Perfection,” Julie Scelfo, New York Times, July 27, 2015.

The Washington Times (7/25, Blake) reported that on July 24, the CDC released a report warning of “the risks of consuming marijuana-infused edibles like weed brownies and other snacks.” The CDC report “said…there’s ‘a potential danger’ that comes with consuming marijuana-infused edibles, evidenced by an incident last March in which a 19-year-old man jumped to his death from the fourth-floor balcony of a Denver, Colorado, hotel while high.” The Denver Post (7/25, Paul) also covered the story.

Meanwhile, HealthDay (7/25, Preidt) reported that adolescents “who have legal permission to use medical marijuana are 10 times more likely to say they’re addicted than those who get the drug illegally,” according to a study published in the August issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. After looking “at nearly 4,400 high school seniors, including 48 who had medical marijuana cards, 266 who used others’ medical marijuana and those who bought the drug from street dealers,” researchers found that teenagers “who used medical marijuana were far more likely to report problems with addiction.”

Related Links:

— “Marijuana in edibles not risk-free, holds ‘potential danger,’ CDC says,” Andrew Blake, Washington Times, July 24, 2015.