HealthDay (2/25, Preidt) reports that research published in BMC Public Health suggests that homeless individuals who have a mental illness may face a high risk of heart disease. Investigators “found that they have a 24.5 percent risk of heart attack, fatal or nonfatal stroke, or sudden cardiac death over 30 years.” The study indicated that “the risk of cardiovascular disease in homeless people with mental illness was highest among men and those with substance abuse disorders.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness, Homelessness Linked to Heart Disease in Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 25, 2015.

The Washington Post (2/25, Paquette) “Wonkblog” reports that the “mental health impacts of unemployment can be devastating.” For example, “a CDC study found suicide rates rise and fall with the economy.” What’s more, depression appears to be “higher among long-unemployed Americans, according to a recent Gallup poll: About one in five reported having depression.”

Related Links:

— “How unemployment warps your personality over time,” Danielle Paquette, Washington Post, February 24, 2015.

USA Today (2/25, Leger) reports that a study from the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics indicates that “deaths from prescription narcotic painkillers have soared as the opioid drugs became more popular and powerful.” The data indicated that “four out of five people who used a prescription narcotic painkiller in 2011 to 2012 took pills equal to or stronger than morphine.” The investigators also found that “the percentage of people who took painkillers stronger than morphine, which include such drugs as fentanyl, hydromorphone, methadone and oxycodone, grew from 17% in 1999 to 37% in 2012.”

Related Links:

— “CDC: Deaths soared as narcotic painkillers grew popular,” Donna Leinwand Leger, USA Today, February 25, 2015.

Reuters (2/25, Kelland) reports that a study published in The Lancet Psychiatry suggests that people who have received the diagnosis of major depression may have up to triple the likelihood of committing certain violent crimes, such as assault, sexual offenses and robbery, or of committing an act of self-harm, compared to people who have not been diagnosed with major depression. Researchers arrived at that conclusion after studying data on some 47,158 people in Sweden and then examining data on some 898,454 matched, mentally healthy controls. The study also found, however, that the vast majority of people with depression committed no violent crimes or criminal acts at all.

Related Links:

— “Clinically depressed three times more likely to commit violent crime,” Kate Kelland, Reuters, February 24, 2015.

The Los Angeles Times (2/24, Healy) “Science Now” blog reports that in an editorial published Feb. 23 in the Annals of Internal Medicine, the American Bar Association, the American Public Health Association and “seven medical specialty societies…joined forces to declare gun-related injuries, which annually kill an average of 32,000 Americans and harm nearly twice that number, ‘a public health crisis’ that should be studied and solved ‘free of political influence or restriction.’”

Together, the societies “issued a ‘call to action,’ and declared their collective backing for universal background checks, a ban on military-style assault weapons and large capacity magazines, more federal support for gun-injury research, and an end to laws that would punish physicians who discuss the safety of gun ownership with their patients.”

Related Links:

— “Gun injuries are a public health emergency, nine organizations say,” Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, February 23, 2015.

ABC World News (2/23, story 7, 0:18, Muir) reported, “Ten students and two visitors at Wesleyan University” in Middletown, CT, were “treated for an overdose of the drug called ‘molly.’” Eight people remain in the hospital, with “two in critical condition.”

The New York Times (2/24, A20, Hussey, Schlossberg, Subscription Publication) reports that molly is “a club drug also known, sometimes in different forms, as MDMA or Ecstasy, and which has been linked to a number of overdoses and deaths in recent years.” And, “according to the National Institutes of Health, 12.8 percent of 18- to 25-year-olds have used MDMA, Ecstasy or Molly at some point in their lives.”

Related Links:

— “12 at Wesleyan University Are Hospitalized for Drug Overdoses,” Kristen Hussey and Tatiana Schlossberg, New York Times, February 23, 2015.

The Hampton Roads (VA) Virginian-Pilot (2/23, Simpson) reports that “a widening mix of frail elderly people and those with behavior problems” are landing “in nursing homes, assisted-living facilities, group homes and supportive-housing situations.” About 10 percent of the more than 17,000 people discharged from Virginia psychiatric hospitals between 2010 and last year “went to assisted-living facilities, adult care homes or nursing homes, according to the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services.” Robert Palmer, MD, MPH, who directs the Glennan Center for Geriatrics and Gerontology at Eastern Virginia Medical School, said, “They are invisible populations, but they are there, and they are increasing in numbers.”

Related Links:

— “Senior care facilities mix the frail and the disturbed,” Elizabeth Simpson, Hampton Roads Virginian-Pilot, February 22, 2015.

HealthDay (2/21, Preidt) reported that a study published in the February issue of the journal Pain suggests that “high doses of” opioids may be associated with an increased risk for depression. The study, which “involved 355 patients in Texas who reported low back pain at an initial medical visit and still had the pain one and two years later,” revealed that patients “who used higher doses of narcotic painkillers to manage their pain were more likely to have an increase in depression.”

Related Links:

— “Narcotic Painkiller Use Tied to Higher Risk for Depression,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, February 20, 2015.

MedPage Today (2/21, Firth) reported that a report on children published in the January/February issue of the journal American Pediatrics reveals that “inpatient visits for suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-injury rose by 104% from 29,000 in 2006 to just below 59,000 in 2011, while ‘all-cause’ children’s hospitalizations have not increased.” The report was “based on the 2006 and 2011 AHRQ’s Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) which sources data from two national databases that estimate hospital visits and analyzes patterns of emergency department use.”

Related Links:

— “Hospitals See Alarming Increase in Suicidal Children,” Shannon Firth, MedPage Today, February 20, 2015.

NPR (2/19, Hamilton) reports in its “Shots” blog and on its “All Things Considered” program reports that a study in the current issue of the Journal of Neuroscience suggests that “positive emotions — like feeling calm and safe and connected to others — can minimize pain,” whereas “negative emotions tend to have the opposite effect.” Researchers arrived at these conclusions after monitoring “the brain waves of a dozen people” who were asked to take part in a series of experiments.

Related Links:

— “Pain Really Is All In Your Head And Emotion Controls Intensity,” Jon Hamilton, National Public Radio, February 18, 2015.